We Who Beleive

"The Spririt of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.  I will not leave youu orphans; I will come to you."
John 14: 17-18 NKJV

And despite all evidence, yet they refuse to believe.  There is a sect of Judaism who yet today refuse to believe that Gods promised Messiah has indeed risen.  Of course, this seems foreign to me, as we today have ample evidence to the contrary.  It is the center point of the Christmas season for christianity, the birth of the promised Messiah.  And yet they refuse to believe.  It is my belief, despite all evidence to the contrary, that there will always be those who will not believe in the promise that God has given us.  That is just our human nature, our flesh if you will.  It has been debated more often than not just why God allows His children the freedom to either choose Him or deny Him.  Again, I believe that had God indeed chose a cookie cutter mold for all of His children, that we would have been denied something uniquely special.  For our freedom to choose is a unique ability bestowed on us by a loving God.  Some view it as a curse, I tend to disagree.  In retrospect, if a child had no choice whether to love their parents or not, would heartfelt love even exist?  Such a child would know no other emotions except to love their parents, with no choice allowed.  While some may see this as a perfect situation, I disagree.  Indeed, I would want my child to feel love for me, but of thier own free will and not by compulsion.  Scriptures tell us not to give out of compulsion, so why would God wish to compell His children to believe?

Therefore man y of His disciples, when they heard this, said, "This is a hard saying; who can understand it?"  When Jesus knew in Himself that His disciples complained about this, He said to them, "Does this offend you?"  "What then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where He was before?  "It is the spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing.  The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.  "But there are some of you who do not believe."  For Jesus knew from the begining who they were who did not believe, and who would betray Him.  And He said, "Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My father."  From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.
John 6: 60-66 NKJV

As we're in this discussion of just why God has chosen to not make us all the very same way, we see a interesting conversation between Jesus and His disciples here in the sixth chpater of John.  Apparently some of His disciples were having difficulty understanding something that Jesus was teaching.  yes, even I have trouble interpreting scripture at times.  However, the reaction of our Lord in verse 64 gives us a clue into this discussion of ours today.  See, Jesus knew beforehand just who would believe in Him AND who would betray Him.  More than that, Jesus reiterates here that nobody can come to Him unless the Father allows it.  What?  So, for the sake of our discussion, can we assume that the reason that so many today refuse to accept the gift of Christ Jesus is simply because our Lord has not ordained that they would?  If so, why?  One thought that my friend has broached lately is the fact that we, as Gods children, would not have known our Lords salvation had we not first experienced sin.  For how can one know light if they have not first seen darkness?  Interesting concept indeed.  Whatever our reasons for believing, we can be assured that our Father knew our very thoughts beforehand.

~Scott~