30 January 2022
Two-Minute Features | 06 February 2022

Do We Choose God or Does He Choose Us? Part 1 (TMF:1780)

Friday, February 04, 2022
Peace to Live By: Do We Choose God or Does He Choose Us? Part 1 (TMF:1780) - Daniel Litton
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       We want to imagine that we choose God, and that our relationship with God is by our deciding. But, bring to mind what Jesus has told us. John 15:16: “You did not choose me, but I chose You and appointed You that You should go and bear fruit and that Your fruit should abide” (ESV). Oh, I thought I choose God. Nope, God chooses us first. Jesus didn’t say in John, “You chose me, but I also chose you.” He doesn’t say that. He said, “You did not choose me.” This is hard for us to understand, especially in the United States. Freedom has been so ingrained into our thinking that we believe that we choose everything, and that we have rights to respond and rights not to respond to anything. However, here, in this verse, Paul kind of collapses that idea for us, and he will chip away at it still more in the next chapter.

God Uses Different Ways to Call People, Part 2 (TMF:1779)

Thursday, February 03, 2022
Peace to Live By: God Uses Different Ways to Call People, Part 2 (TMF:1779) - Daniel Litton
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       Yes, there are different ways that God draws people to himself. It’s not always through one-on-one contact, through personal relationships. It wasn’t that way with me, and it wasn’t that way for many of you. Clear evidence God has to prepare our hearts. Therefore, Paul says that God justified those whom he called. For starters, this means that everyone God foreordained, everyone he predestined, he called, and then he justified. That doesn’t leave any room for people not to come into personal relationship with him who are predestined. Paul doesn’t leave room for that kind of understanding here. This becomes hard for us because of the issue of free will. We want to imagine that we choose God, and that our relationship with God is by our deciding. But, bring to mind what Jesus has told us. John 15:16: “You did not choose me, but I chose You and appointed You that You should go and bear fruit and that Your fruit should abide” (ESV).

God Uses Different Ways to Call People, Part 1 (TMF:1778)

Wednesday, February 02, 2022
Peace to Live By: God Uses Different Ways to Call People, Part 1 (TMF:1778) - Daniel Litton
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       And, so, God calls people to himself in different ways. God uses indirect methods for reaching people and he uses direct, one-on-one interactions for reaching people. He calls people as they are listening to preachers and teachers of God’s Word. Sometimes they extend an invitation at the end of the message, and people respond. This is an indirect method from the sharers. The Spirit draws those people to God. At times people respond to God through a one-on-one relationship they have with another. A person, who is a believer, encourages that person to come into relationship with God. This is a direct method. Still yet, sometimes people find themselves reading the Bible or a Christian book, and they decide by their own will that they want to have a relationship with God. That’s another indirect method. Yes, there are different ways that God draws people to himself. It’s not always through one-on-one contact, through personal relationships.

Following the Spirit in Sharing the Gospel (TMF:1777)

Tuesday, February 01, 2022
Peace to Live By: Following the Spirit in Sharing the Gospel (TMF:1777) - Daniel Litton
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       Now, there are some Christians out there who try to place all the responsibility for the Gospel on themselves, on their church members. When we see this happen, we see the Gospel being shared through fleshly efforts, by just rigorously following Gospel commands from Scripture and with no leading from the Spirit of God. These people are easy to identify since generally there is little to no fruit involved in their work, even after they’ve been doing it a long time. Anyhow, this is not how God operates. The Gospel is not supposed to shared in a machine-like fashion, in an assembly-belt type of way. We are not the Ford Motor Company out-puting new cars on an assembly line. We are to follow the leading of the Spirit. He may lead us to share the Gospel with a person, and at another time, guess what? He may not lead us to do that. Ok, some of you need to calm down. Don’t have a heart attack.

How Does God Call People to Himself? (TMF:1776)

Monday, January 31, 2022
Peace to Live By: How Does God Call People to Himself? (TMF:1776) - Daniel Litton
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       And so grasping this, how does God call people into personal relationship with himself? We understand that God has set things up so that people who have already been brought in relationship with him go about and share their faith with others. That’s the way God has decided to do things. There is a sense where the responsibility lies with us to go and share the Good News, but I think it’s also true that a greater responsibility lies on God to in fact bring people into relationship with himself. We are only responsible to share the message, and really that’s a light responsibility compared to what God has to do on his end. God is responsible to be preparing a person’s heart. We cannot do that as message bearers. Only God can work on the inside. We work on the outside. Now, there are some Christians out there who try to place all the responsibility for the Gospel on themselves, on their church members. When we see this happen, we see the Gospel being shared through fleshly efforts.