Lines composed on a sleepless night…

Little girl,
yet unseen by any human eye,
is loved by her maker. And my,
is she ever loved!!!

soo in part, lines about my daugther… wow “My Daugther!” what a gift…

God has a good head on His shoulders

This is my (Amy) first time to post on here…so I hope everyone enjoys. I know John will be so proud of me! ha
Well, we made a short trip (less than 24 hours) to Houston for John’s interview and to look for apartments. We know we are moving back down to Houston for a reason, just not exactly sure for what. John’s interview went well, but he was not offered the position because the church is going through some financial problems and cannot pay him enough to support us. You would think we would have been really upset about this, because we were kind of hoping this job would come through so we could have some type of security. The funny thing is, we weren’t upset at all, we were completely at peace with it. We have a great feeling about that church and us serving there in the future, but obviously now is not God’s timing for that, and we are just fine with that. We got the chance to look at most of the apartments by our parents’ houses, and God once again had the best plan. We didn’t get the one that we had originally wanted, but ended up with an apartment that is over 200 more sq. feet than what we have now, 2 bedrooms, much nicer and newer, on the FIRST floor, at the back of the property facing the woods (nice and quiet), and only $4 more a month than what we are paying now. We turned in the application about an hour after we checked out the property, faxed our check stubs this morning, and were approved this afternoon. God really does have a good head on His shoulders….He has the perfect plan and lets everything fall into place when we just let Him do His thing. Even though John’s potential job didn’t pan out, John talked to a manager for Starbucks down there and we will both have stores to transfer to when we move down there. It may not be exactly what we wanted, but it will definitely help with insurance issues for me with a baby on the way. In the midst of all of this not knowing, John and I have the most amazing peace…we definitely cannot explain it! God has also worked out everything for my graduation next month, which is very exciting. I have been waiting and working for this day for far too long, and the fact that it’s actually going to happen is amazing! Plus, it has to happen anyway…Afton is coming in August! Life is so crazy, but God never ceases to work everything out so perfectly. It may not be our timing or what we wanted, but it is perfectly His will and it is so nice to rest in that.

“And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Phil. 4:7

The busy-ness of the business of life and the sovereignty of God discussed in paper form

So Life right now is hectic at best, we are trying to finish up school, move down to Houston in a month, find a Job/Jobs, Work like crazy, everything is just up in the air right now…very fluid in its consistency. So on top of all that I have many papers due in the next few weeks and they are all large and time consuming but still interesting.
Below for your reading enjoyment is an excerpt from a yet unfinished paper on the Doctrine of Limited atonement. (“Yet unfinished” = poor grammar and not all the quotes and materials are in yet) the paper is for my General Epistles Class and is in Response to 1 John 2:2. ” For He is the propitiation for our sins, not only our sins but those of the whole world as well”

Enjoy,
JM

The death of Christ on the Cross( and his resurrection) is the cornerstone belief for all Christians. It represents the atonement that we previously mentioned. Beyond this generality, what is the nature of the atonement? Why was it given? How was it given?. The reason why is easily found in the bible, Romans say that all have sinned and 2 Corinthians adds that all who believe are made righteous through Him. Humans are sinful and being sinful has caused us to have need for a savior to save us from something that we ourselves cannot escape from. Thus he has made us righteous through his blood on the cross. This atonement was necessary but also, it was done willingly and obediently. Christ Himself said, “No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative..” it was his choice he chose to do it and be obedient to the father in the process, he finishes that verse by saying “…I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again This commandment I received from My Father.” It was the will of God that he be sent to die for the sins of the world. In Fact it pleased God to do it “But the LORD was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief” Even beyond that the Bible says that it was for the glory of the Father that he was to be put to death. When Christ is in the garden praying he says “”Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.” This indicates that it was the will of God to Glorify the son and Himself in the death of Christ. If then Christ’s death was completely necessary but done completely willingly as well as obediently to the will of the father and achieved for the Glory of Both the son and the Father, then Christ atonement must be limited. The limitation is to the elect, those whom were chosen by God before hand, to be adopted as his sons. The reason is this, only God can save a sinner, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him” , not ever a sinner himself can save his own life (Ephesians 2:8-9) it is a gift from God. If then no one can come to the father unless he has called them to himself then and not all men are in God through Christ there is a problem with Christ atoning work applying to everyone. God’s work in Christ must not be able to save all men. Or God didn’t intend that all men would be recipients of the atonement. David Steele says it like this
“ Christ did not die simply to make it possible for God to pardon sinners. Neither does God leave it up to sinners as to whether or not Christ’s work will be effective. On the contrary, all for whom Christ sacrificed Himself will be saved infallibly. Redemption, therefore, was designed to bring to pass God’s purpose [or will] of election.”
Redemption was designed by God to bring about his will in the election. It is Him who saves the sinner not the sinner who saves himself with God’s “invitation.”