Why me, and not others?

You should recall that Catholics are limited to the Other Religions section of the board.

Thank you

[ September 12, 2003, 01:54 PM: Message edited by: Pastor Larry ]

 

How do you know your wife and children aren't saved? If they believe in Jesus as Savior, then they're saved. It doesn't matter if they're members of a Catholic Church, Methodist Church, or the Church of the Blind Chihuahua. Salvation is God's alone to judge.

Shoving Jesus down someone's throat typically does more to separate people from God than it does to draw people closer to Him. The best you can do is live your life to the best of your Christian ability, and let Jesus live in your heart. Conviction comes from the Holy Spirit, not holy rollers.

I know you mean well, but let God worry about their salvation in His time. His timing is always better than ours.

 

that is a good question and i share you concern. never mind what others tell you. pray for salvation for your family, pray the Lord will draw them. only God knows who His elect are.

 

None of us know why we are chosen. What we do know is that it has nothing to do with anything within us and everything to do with God accomplishing His purpose.

And you know, you really don't know that God has not chosen your wife and your daughters. Perhaps part of the reason he chose you was to use you as an instrument through which He brings your wife and daughters to himself.

I always think that when God lays a heavy burden for someone's salvation on my heart, it may be because He is preparing to answer my prayers for their salvation in a positive way--that He has already chosen them from before the foundation of the world and now He is preparing to bring them to Himself, and thus He moves me to pray for them so that He can bring them in according to His will and in answer to my prayer.

I understand how heartbreaking it is to have close family members who are not believers. But no matter how impossible things look from our perspective, it is not impossible with God.

[ September 12, 2003, 02:58 PM: Message edited by: russell55 ]

 

mozier:
To make it simple, why me and not others" BECAUSE of the good pleasure of God. Nothing He forsaw in you, but for his own reasons.
No one is WORTHY to be chosen by God. Why some and not others? Good question, but God has a revealed will, the bible, and a secret will that we have no business trying to find out. Someday we will know.
God is sovereign and why one is chosen and not another, reassured, is all of God and none of us.

 

Why some and not others? Because election is according to the foreknowledge of God, that's why. (1 Peter 1:2)

 

election is because of the foreknowledge of God, but it is not like he looked down the sands of time and saw that someone was going to be good, or "accept" him so he decides that he will save that person.
God chooses who every he wants to for whatever reason he wants to.
In other words, a person is not "saved" based on ANY MERIT within the individual.

 

You, of course, are presuming Calvin is right and that the elect are all that will be saved! You are also presuming that since you believe in Jesus, you are an Elect.

The fact is that you heard the gospel message and chose of your own accord to believe. Presuming, on my part, that you confess that Jesus is the Son of God, the Messiah, you are saved! Because the unbeliever cannot confess that Jesus is the Son, the Messiah. No one held a gun to your head and made you confess that! You did so voluntarily because you believe it to be true! If not then you may not be saved!

You are saved because you Heard the Word of God and believed that God's Salvation is for you through your belief in His only Begotten Son, Jesus! It is your faith that saves you, not your election!

As for your Wife and Daughters, If they confess Jesus to be the Son of God, the Messiah, of their own accord because they believe it to be true, then by all means they too are saved just like you! Everything else is merely dogma!

Take your wife out on a date and simply ask her who does she say that Jesus is? If her answer is anything other than "he is the Son of God, the messiah!" Then you may have cause to worry. Then take each of your daughters out on a Dad and Daughter date, separately, and ask them the same question. Their answer should be the same, that "Jesus is the Son of God, the messiah". If they cannot make that confession of their own free will, then you'd better report it to your pastor and to us so that we can pray intercessory prayers on your behalf. They obviously believe there is a God, and they also believe that Jesus exists, but they may not have arrived at the point of belief where they can with assurance confess who and what Jesus is.

Even so, Jesus tells us that if we believe in Him, EVEN IN HIS NAME, that we shall be saved! Elect or not!

 

Dear brother,

I rejoice with you in your salvation. It pleased Him to reveal Himself to you - what a great privilege to be so chosen! For the Lord is good and His love endures forever.

Paul says in 1 Cor:

12 Now to the rest am I speaking, not the Lord. If any brother has an unbelieving wife, and she approves of making a home with him, let him not leave her.
13 And a wife who has an unbelieving husband, and he approves of making a home with her, let her not leave her husband.
14 For the unbelieving husband is hallowed by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is hallowed by the brother, else, consequently, your children are unclean. Yet now they are holy.
15 Yet if the unbeliever is separating, let him separate. A brother or a sister is not enslaved in such a case. Now God has called us in peace.
16 For of what are you aware, O wife -- will you be saving your husband -- or of what are you aware, O husband -- will you be saving your wife --
17 except as the Lord parts it to each? Each as God has called him, thus let him be walking. And thus am I prescribing in all the ecclesias.

Your family is holy because of your belief. Holy - set apart for God's special work within your family. Rejoice! Please note in verse 17 that the Lord parts it to each. Walk confidently in this. He is in control of your family. In His timing, they will come to see the truth and be saved. Rest in this, brother. You and your family are loved.

May His abundant blessings upon you increase,

GH