Free-Will Top1.

 The 8 on Noah's Ark represents less than 0.00000544% of the population. To think that you, me, or any of us would have believed God's message to Noah and been on the Ark despite 99.99999456% not believing him is foolish. Adam walked with God in the cool of the day and did not have a sin nature and was in a utopia, yet failed to believe God; To think people today without a lick of Hebrew or Greek or 1000 days of witnessing Jesus like Judas are going to make a better choice than Judas or those with the Pharisees who had more than Ph.D's in God's OT Word is also foolish.

To think Lucifier rebelled before he had any subsequent sin in himself and in the presence of God and of angels, but we are going to make a better decision before regeneration is also unfounded. Do you think the Incas, Mayans, Aztecs who died without a single syllable of Scripture are going to make a better choice than Judas.

If so, that makes evangelism entirely pointless because if God has done "all that He can" to give everyone equal opportunity then there is literally nothing we can do as evangelists to "increase" the power of one's free-will. At that rate the Damascus Road effort by God may have failed and Saul said "no", and thus God should offer Pilate, Herod, Putin, Hitler the exact same "Damascus Road" encounter.

If Moses could turn down the burning bush, then why not offer a Literal burning bush to every U.S. Senator, Governor, Mayor, citizen; Jesus could have just told Pilate on trial, "I'll raise up 12 men from the dead until you are convinced. I'm trying my hardest to provide all the evidence I can to get you to believe, I'll even show you the Transfiguration"

If Mary used her free-will to abort Jesus, then God will have to just think of Plan B until His intention aligns with the free-will decisions of everyone involved. Faith always lead to obedience and without obedience Mary would have not spared Jesus' life. At that point salvation all hinges upon the obedience of sinners to the offer of God; and each author of Scripture could have used their free-will to write errant words in the Bible, or decline to even write the Bible; no book of John ever written unless John grants God compliance to pen John. In all of that the Holy Spirit is just a powerless salesman, "This free car is great, want one? No? Ah, shucks, maybe Peter can persuade you better than I can."

I'm not attacking you the advocate of free-will, it's the theology of free-will that I am attacking.  Free-will is fraught with many problems. So, God loved Goliath and gave Goliath the SAME grace that He gave Peter, but then God's love and grace did not make the eternal difference, Peter's response made him to differ from Goliath, thus all the credit has to go to Peter, for Goliath got the exact same treatment of God's love and grace as Peter but still died in unbelief, despite Goliath not spending over 1000 days face to face with Jesus.

Not a Single Drop

 "There is no doubt that everything praiseworthy in our works is the grace of God, and that there is not a single drop of goodness which we can properly attribute to ourselves."— John Calvin

Pilot Providence

 “Seeing that a Pilot steers the ship in which we sail, who will never allow us to perish even in the midst of shipwrecks, there is no reason why our minds should be overwhelmed with fear and overcome with weariness.”

-John Calvin

1000 Times

"A sinner may hear the gospel  a thousand times, but until the Spirit touches his heart, he will remain unmoved.  He cannot lift a finger toward his own salvation, for his heart is stone, his will is chained, and his affections are set on the world.  The gospel is a call, but the call is powerless until God makes it effectual.  Regeneration must come before faith, for faith is the act of a living soul, and the sinner is dead.  Grace does not help the sinner to believe; grace causes him to believe.  

-- Charles Spurgeon.

He Loved Me!

Canst thou with faith, present Christ to thyself, as he was taken down from the cross, drenched in his own blood, and say, These were the wounds that he received for me; this is he that loved me, and gave himself for me: out of these wounds comes that balm that heals my soul; out of these stripes my peace: When he hanged upon the cross, he bore my name upon his breast, like the high priest.

John Flavel.

In The Fountain of Life Opened Up

One Eye on God's Grace

"The humble Christian looks with one eye upon God's grace, to keep his heart cheerful; and

with the other eye upon his sin, to keep it humble."

Thomas Watson.

True Salvation

 True salvation is not to be found through the mere reception of any creed, however true or scriptural. Mere “head notion” is not the road to heaven. “You must be born again,” means a great deal more than that you must believe certain dogmas. The study of the Bible cannot save you! You must press beyond this; you must come to the living, personal Christ, or else your acceptance of the soundest creed cannot avail for the salvation of your soul. Salvation lies in Jesus only!

~Spurgeon

To Love God

 To love God is to rest in His sovereign will, trusting that even the most perplexing circumstances are shaped for our ultimate good. In every situation, whether in joy or sorrow, we are called to trust that God is orchestrating the events of our lives for His glory.     

Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758)