Remember your Mom!
Posted on May 5, 2010 by Pastor Tom
Mother’s Day is just about here. Talk about a potentially emotional day. For some people, it’s a day of celebration as they think of all their Mom has done and meant to them. For some, it’s a day of mourning, as they remember a Mom who has passed on. Some mourn because they didn’t really have a positive relationship with their Mom. Or some Mom’s dread the day because their family really strikes out in showing appreciation.
But maybe this week, we can thank God for our Mom’s or the person/people He brought to fill that role in our lives. And then we can thank them.
Troubled about Romans 9
Posted on April 28, 2010 by Pastor Tom
“But who are you O man, to talk back to God? Shall what is form say to him who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’ Does not the potter have right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?” That’s Romans 9:20–21.
It’s generated quite a bit of good discussion.
Here’s one – . “I understand that God is saying that he is the potter and can do what he wants with the clay, that I was not here when he put the foundations in place (Job), BUT there is one important difference: people are not lumps of clay. They are sentient beings with souls that must either end up in heaven with God or be apart from Him forever in a place of torment. The “clay” is, in fact, made up of millions of human beings with eternal souls that will suffer for all time if they have not been chosen by God to be one of the blessed human beings that God will show His mercy to.”
Another shared they don’t like Romans 9. Another asked if those verses are true, why even bother with evangelism. God is going to save whom He will save.
Here’s my response to some of these questions/observations.
“One way I approach this is to ask “Why does God tell us He elects?” I think His primary purpose is to communicate that our salvation is secure. It ultimately doesn’t depend on how we feel about God at a particular moment. It depends on Jesus’ finished work on the cross and God’s work on our behalf through history. Part of the purpose in Roman’s is the explanation about Israel and why they hadn’t accepted the Messiah en masse. The answer to what God was doing is found in chapter 11. But in 9, it’s all about the Google satellite view of things.
This week’s message is all about Israel’s responsibility for her choices. So chapter 9 is God’s Sovereignty. Chapter 10 is man’s responsibility. Scripture teaches both. It’s not God’s Sovereignty OR man’s responsibility. It’s God’s Sovereignty AND Man’s responsibility. God’s Sovereignty is at the Google Earth Satellite level. Man’s responsibility is at the street view level. Somehow these two are not contradictory but complementary.”
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