Reconciling God’s Sovereignty and Our Free Will

From time to time, everyone misses the point. This happens in marriage, in the workplace, and even as we approach the Bible.

One place this happens is in the opening verses of the book of Ephesians. I would guess that more theological energy has been poured into this passage extolling or refuting concepts of free-will and predestination than energy poured into understanding what the text is intended to teach.

Unless we lay aside the consternation some have concerning the free-will / sovereignty debate we will miss the point regarding the blessings God has given those who’ve turned from their sins and placed their trust in Christ’s death to pay for their sins.

Sovereignty and Backups…

I very seldom backup my handheld computer, though I keep tons of important information on it.  However, for some reason, this Wednesday, I backed it up in my office.

Being out of the office Thursday, I made no changes to it.

Friday morning I pulled it out of the charger to discover that it performed a hard reset — clearing all of the data from itself.

I went into the office and restored from backup in about 20 minutes.

Lessons learned:

  1. It is wise to make backups. It’s the responsible thing to do.
  2. We have a God who sovereignly takes care of our lives. Even my irresponsible backup schedule.
  3. Because over-riding my undisciplined backup schedule is an act of grace on God’s part… and because he is not obligated to do so… and because he likes it when we live lives that exhibit responsible discipline, Lesson #1 is very important.