<< Psalm 139
>>
New Living Translation
For the choir director: A psalm of David.
1O Lord, you have examined my heart
and know everything about me.
2You know when I sit down or stand up.
You know my thoughts even when I’m far away.
3You see me when I travel
and when I rest at home.
You know everything I do.
4You know what I am going to say
even before I say it, Lord.
5You go before me and follow me.
You place your hand of blessing on my head.
6Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too great for me to understand!
7I can never escape from your Spirit!
I can never get away from your presence!
8If I go up to heaven, you are there;
if I go down to the grave,
a you are there.
9If I ride the wings of the morning,
if I dwell by the farthest oceans,
10even there your hand will guide me,
and your strength will support me.
11I could ask the darkness to hide me
and the light around me to become night—
12but even in darkness I cannot hide from you.
To you the night shines as bright as day.
Darkness and light are the same to you.
13You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body
and knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!
Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.
15You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion,
as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.
16You saw me before I was born.
Every day of my life was recorded in your book.
Every moment was laid out
before a single day had passed.
17How precious are your thoughts about me,
b O God.
They cannot be numbered!
18I can’t even count them;
they outnumber the grains of sand!
And when I wake up,
you are still with me!
New International Version (©1984) Ephesians 1:4
For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love
New International Version (©1984) Acts 13:48
When
the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and honored the word of the
Lord; and all who were appointed for eternal life believed.
New International Version (©1984) Matthew 25:34
"Then
the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by
my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the
creation of the world.
New International Version (©1984) Matthew 20:23
Jesus
said to them, "You will indeed drink from my cup, but to sit at my
right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for
whom they have been prepared by my Father."
New Living Translation (©2007) Job 14:5
You have decided the length of our lives. You know how many months we will live, and we are not given a minute longer.
<< Acts 17 >>
New International Version 1984
26From
one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole
earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places
where they should live.
27God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.
28‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.
New Living Translation (©2007) Isaiah 42:9
Everything I prophesied has come true, and now I will prophesy again. I will tell you the future before it happens."
For me personally, it is a great relief to know, no matter what happens, from day to day, God already ordained it to happen. Their is nothing that happens that He does not allow for a reason. There is nothing that is going to happen to any of us that God did not already know about. In these scriptures lie this hope and peace (Genesis 15:20; James 4:13-14)
What this does not mean is that we have no choice to accept Christ or deny Christ. Choice in the bible is very clear. If it were not up to us could we be held accountable? Some asked Paul this same question of course. (Romans 9:18-23)
But that passage also declares one more time the foreknowledge of God. I believe it is biblical to say God created no one for hell but for all to come to a relationship with Himself as they belong in heaven and God hates to see the wicked die. All of Gods work from the beginning was good. Hell was created for the angels that rebelled including Satan, but those of us humans that rebell as well hell is the only other place we can be placed. Between we are for or against the Lord Almighty. No in between.
All that being said, knowing it is up to us to accept Jesus as Christ or not, God foreknew from the foundation of this world who would accept Him and who would not. We can comfort in this very fact. Could we truly put all our faith in a God Who did not know the future or did not know His sheep? How can we tell if someone is right with Jesus? His sheep hear His voice and follow Him.
God bless