Predestination and Human Responsibility

SOURCE:  Attributed to J.I. Packer.  Looking for a source.  

KEYWORDS:  free-will, predestination, salvation, grace,  

Although this is not a quote, the illustration has been attributed to J. I. Packer.  The speaker says his pastor did not originate the illustration.  According to John Piper, Packer called this tension between God's sovereignty and human responsibility an "antinomy"—"an appearance of contradiction between conclusions which seem equally logical, reasonable or necessary".  This illustration certainly is of a similar character.  

My pastor once gave me a good illustration of free will and predestination:

You come to an arch inscribed with Christ's words: "Come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest."  You stand staring at it, consider, and walk through. On the other side, you can see that the arch has another inscription on the back: "In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons."

Don't turn from Christ for fear that you're "not predestined." Accept his invitation, knowing that if you do, it was because he loved you first.

 

Christmas Love

SOURCE:  L’Engle, Madeleine. Winter Song. New York: Vanguard Press, 1961.

KEYWORDS:  Sin, Incarnation, Broken, Healing, Survival, Resistance, Christmas, Jesus

Winter Song is a collection of poems by Madeleine L'Engle that meditates on winter as a season of waiting, silence, and hard-won hope. The poems engage themes of faith, doubt, suffering, and incarnation with theological seriousness and emotional restraint.

The Maker’s hand flung stars across the night with angels bursting forth from galaxies, new music singing from the spheres in harmonies that blessed the dancing of the first-born light. 

And then the light was darkened by an earth dimmed by torn dreams, saddened by shrill pride. Stars faded, lost their story, and died. The dance distorted in strange lies and anger. Love’s hand again was lifted. In a manger again the Maker of the stars gave birth.

"Footsteps in the Sand" as a Limerick

Source:  Floating around the Internet

Keywords:  Grace, God, Forgiveness, Love, Footsteps

Just found this floating around the internet.  Taking famous poems and rewriting them as limericks.  As an appetizer, here is "The Raven" by Edgar Allen Poe reimagined as a limerick.  

The Raven

There once was a girl named Lenore

And a bird and a bust and a door

And a guy with depression

And a whole lot of questions

And the bird always says "Nevermore."

Now for the main event, "Footprints in the Sand." 

 

Footprints in the Sand

There was a man who, at low tide

Would walk with the Lord by his side

Jesus said "Now look back;

You'll see one set of tracks.

That's when you got a piggy-back ride."

The Original Poem, "Footprints in the Sand"

• https://www.poetseers.org/the-great-poets/misc-2/footprints-in-the-sand/
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Footprints_(poem)