Hey Mike,

Thanks for the understanding. I’m learning more and more each day. I was taught some of what you said but not broken down like that. It really is true how so many people even me at a point did not look at Christ as something to desire. It’s so amazing how wonderful he is though. Me rejecting him just makes me want to cry because of me loving the world and not my Lord. Thank God he had already separated me from my mother’s womb by his grace to reveal Christ in me. But we now know all the evil he means for good. I used to always be saying to myself “why didn’t he open my heart and eyes at an earlier age; like 10 or 12 and not at 21?” I’m grateful he did open my eyes now because many who think they see and say they see are really blind, so their sin remains. Some will never have such an opportunity in this lifetime to see spiritually, so I can’t complain; just being grateful and with fear and trembling.

Yours in Christ,
J____

Hi J____,

It does appear that what you were taught was often from a spiritual perspective. What seems to be lacking is an adherence to “the sum of God’s Word” approach to scripture, which you are now applying. When we finally do apply that principle, we will also be careful to acknowledge the “will be” future application and not fall into the false, “fullness now” doctrine, which sees no need for our outward life to reflect the fact that there is still an order in the family and in the church, and even in the dispensations of “this world and the world to come.”

Mar 10:30  But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life.
Heb 2:5  For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak.

I used to feel just like you do about learning these things before I was almost 50. But when I finally saw this verse, I realized that God had that all predetermined, and my understanding comes at the exact moment He has already determined.

Psa 139:16  your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

So take heart. You are very young, and take it from me, there are still many trials and tribulations to be endured in preparation for being counted worthy to rule with Christ “in the world to come”.

Act 14:22  Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.

But never become discouraged because the best time for each of us to understand God’s Word is the time that has all already been decided. So for all those who will not “endure to the end”, there is nothing we can do to change what God has predetermined, and for those who are given to endure to the end, there is nothing in this life that can separate us from the love of God.

Rom 8:35  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
Rom 8:36  As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
Rom 8:37  Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
Rom 8:38  For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
Rom 8:39  Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

I know you already know this, but it is good for us to remind each other of these things.
So God bless you as you come to know Him better with each passing day.
Your brother in Christ,
Mike