Is our future determined or free

Questions of freedom and destiny have been raised in every generation. Do we exercise choice, or has everything already been decided? Is our future determined or free? The resultant mental gymnastics leave many feeling confused and others feeling disappointed. Christians insist that nothing takes God by surprise. On the other hand, Christians throughout the ages reject the kind of fatalism that is seen in some parts of the world.

The problem with the question as it is presented is that it is not nearly difficult enough. In order to truly appreciate the magnitude of what we are discussing, we must first deal with an even greater question. And it is this: Imagine if I were able to stop time right now. What would you be thinking? What would you be feeling? The answer is nothing.

In the absence of time, we cannot think or feel or do. Everything is frozen. People sometimes complain that I speak too quickly—the problem being that there is not sufficient time for them to think about what has been said. I always try to cheer myself by saying that at least something has been said for them to think about! But it is a fair criticism because in the absence of sufficient time we cannot think things through. In the absence of time altogether, however, we cannot even begin to think, as there is literally no time to think in.

The Christian understanding is that we live and have our existence in a space-time continuum. “[We] belong to eternity stranded in time,” observes Michael Card.(1) This also means that before God created there was no time; in other words, time is not co-eternal with God. But Christians also attest that God was a thinking, feeling, doing Being even before God created. Can you imagine a Being who is able to think in the absence of time? Of course not, but the God Christians profess not only exists outside of time, God can think and act in the absence of time.

Just reading this may be enough to make us feel overwhelmed. And so it should. Whenever we think about the person of God, we should rightly feel that we have come across something truly awesome. And maybe this is part of the problem. We are not faced with a logical contradiction here. Rather, we are faced with the reality of what it means for God to exist, for God to be God. You and I are only able to think in time, and thus, God confronts us with choices: “Choose this day whom you will serve,” “choose life” and so on (Joshua 24:15; Deuteronomy 30:19). But God, as Christians believe, who is outside of time, sees all of history stretched out before Him. The problem comes, therefore, when the attempt is made to confine God within time. But this needn’t be the case. For Christians, a proper understanding of the tension drives us back both to God’s divine nature and to our knees, acknowledging how wonderful God is.

This understanding also helps Christians with the issue of eternal life. Many people when confronted with the idea of eternity find the idea frightening, tedious, or absurd. What could one possibly do with all of that time? Once again, the dilemma arises because we are captive both to the passage of time and too small a view of who God actually is. People also then ask: if God truly knows all things, then why did God create knowing that we would experience pain in a fallen world? But here Christians attest that God did not create the world and then think of a plan to rescue it. The book of Revelation depicts that the Lamb was slain before the foundations of the world were laid. This does not mean that the crucifixion took place in our space-time history before creation (there was no space-history for it to take place in). What it does mean is that even before God created, God also knew the cost—the suffering of his own Son—to redeem creation and unite us with the Father. God didn’t count that cost too great—and hence Christians sing of God’s amazing grace.

Let me conclude with the following. The Christian God is big enough to be able to say, “I know the plans I have for you… plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (Jeremiah 29:11). There is no hope without a secure future, and the future is frightening in the absence of hope. Only God is big enough to bring these two things together—hope and a future—and this is what God has done for us.

Author: Michael Ramsden

Way to hope

As we look at the incidents happening around us, it warns us that we are living in a hopeless world, where a child do not have hope that he will return from his school to home safely, a girl is not sure whether she can return to home safely, anything may happen to us within a blink of our eyes without even knowing that a disaster is awaiting ahead of us. So it is hope and security for the future that we are all searching and daunting for. Different people are trying to attain it through different channels, some may be searching for it around themselves in the world, some within themselves. Whatever may the channel, the true and genuine search for that hope will take us to the culmination of jesus on the cross, who can give us not only hope for the future but also the real meaning to our life. Malcolm Muggridge, an English journalist and author, who was an agnostic for most of his life attained so much of fame, pleasures and money in his life and told these verses by the end of his life.
"I may, I suppose, regard myself, or pass for being, as a relatively successful man. People occasionally stare at me in the streets-that's fame. I can fairly easily earn enough to qualify for admission to the higher slopes of the internal revenue-that's success. Furnished with money and a little fame even the elderly, if they care to may partake of trendy diversions- that's pleasure. It might happen once in a while that something I said or wrote was sufficiently heeded for me to persuade myself that it represented a serious impact on our time- that's fulfillment. Yet I say to you and I beg you to believe me- multiply these tiny triumphs by a million, add them all together and they are nothing - less than nothing, a positive impediment - measured against one draught of that living water christ offers to the spiritually thirsty, irrespective of who or what they are."

Satan's Strategy of subtle influence

Time to think…….. Satan’s strategy of subtle influence……. I am told 40% of what you see and 20% of what you hear goes into your mind, which explains small kids 2-3 yrs old singing songs which they hear often, IPL is something we all love to watch, but in between the cricket you watch you have these girls dancing with skimpy clothes showing their….. (you know what i mean), and comperes who are wearing clothes which they stitched when they were in school (PUN intended), surprisingly the guys are fully covered, which tells you that the girl (not generalizing )for the wonderful creation that she is of GOD, has allowed herself to be used as a commodity a showpiece item used by the media (NOT JUST THE IPL), and then the new fast track add that comes promoting Lesbianism and Live in relationship, where a girl drags the boy into the inflatable house and the house shakes, suggesting ……??????, now most of our older generation doesn’t pick this up. but these adds and condom adds come during a cricket match, i love to watch cricket with my sons sometimes, there is so much of these subtle suggestions and images and obscenity which comes into the mainline media, and idiots arguing on television about INDIA being democratic and people shud choose what they want to see, in the Book of Judges there is a verse that says ” IN THOSE DAYS THERE WAS NO KING AND EVERY MAN DID WHAT WAS RIGHT IN HIS EYES ” man with his sinful nature can’t make righteous choices,(HE NEEDS JESUS) he needs a reference point he needs laws, he needs restriction, when a society crosses that line, because a SMALL part of the educated Urban society who have horrible moral values are debating and deciding what the society should do, this is a trap of the devil, he makes you loose the “SHOCK” value eventually over moral decline where you start getting used to things, and now you have these guys who are married, getting drunk, watching porn on their mobile phones, getting desperate wanting a woman and a small girl becomes a victim of their animal behavior, and immediately candles are held cops are accused, media invites panelists who mostly are dumb and the ones who speak objectively are shunned because they don’t sensationalize the issue but are trying to look at the realistic picture, Priyanka chopra the other day says we will dance and show our assets and a pelvic gyrations, if you don’t want your children to be influenced then don’t allow them to watch, this was in response to a father and mother who questioned her about these dance competitions where kids dance to all filthy lyrics and sensuous songs and as parents they found it difficult to see what was happening as their kids want to see other kids dancing. REMEMBER ONE THING THE DEVIL NEVER THRUSTS SIN INTO OUR LIVES HE STILL USES THE OLD TRICK WITH WHICH HE BROUGHT DOWN EVE, HE BRINGS SOMETHING THAT IS ATTRACTIVE ( GOOD TO THE EYES ) AND SUGGESTS ( AS HOW OUR MEDIA AND SOCIETY HAVE BECOME ESPECIALLY IN THE PAST COUPLE OF YEARS) and man as fragile as he is to temptation allows all these images 40% and audio 20% to destroy him from within, recently i saw a Big Poster a girl sitting on the pelvic region of a man lying down and this was not some adult malayalam or hindi movie poster, this was a poster of a mainline film, now thousands of children pass by these posters…….i know how a curious teenage mind works,( i started smoking at the age of 9, got saved at the age of 12) i am told that kids now loose their innocence by the time they are 12, in this regard, going the WESTERN direction is not healthy, we as Parents if we continue to ignore these things will sacrifice our children to the subtle influences the devil is bringing in all around us, THINKING OF FILING A CASE AGAINST THESE ADS AND OTHER DEVILS SCHEMES WHICH AFFECT THE MINDS OF NOT JUST OUR YOUNG ONES BUT ADULTS AS WELL…..WE CAN’T DO MUCH ABOUT FILMS BUT CAN DO SOMETHING ABOUT THESE THINGS INVADING OUR LIVES IN OUR SPACE…..Author: Freddy Joseph