9 October, 2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
God uses all of His creation for His purposes. Among humans He has some “vessels of\nwrath” and others whom He has redeemed as is saving from the wrath to\ncome. We focus our minds generally upon\nour Savior and occupy ourselves regularly with organized gatherings in which we\nthank Him corporately and with great pomp and singing and expressions of praise\nand thanks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Those hell-bound folks remind us of own in-born stubbornness\nand the proposition that we would also be trapped in such unholy, pompous,\nselfish rebellion were it not for His intervening rescue action by means of the\nvery Spirit of God. Yes, the Father sent\nthe Holy Spirit to awaken our spirits in order that we might respond to His\nsacrificial goodness toward us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The hell-bound are a living reminder of what it could have\nbeen for us, had He not shown mercy upon us and sovereignly opened our hears\nand minds to understand His love and mercy for us poor, rebellious, disgusting\nsinners. Vessels of wrath, they serve\nHis purposes, among which are those which benefit His chosen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Indeed He does much for His elect, even sending His own Son\nto die. It is a small thing, then, to\nmake use of one of his disgusting, rebellious, blasphemous creatures according\nto his will and for His purposes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is the prerogative of the merciful, almighty, and\npurposeful God whose ways are past finding out. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And so, for those who shall go into eternity, those of our\nown human family who will go away from us forever, we bid you thanks and good\nbye. And we are sorry for you and your\nrebellion and humbly grateful that God has mercifully and inexplicably chosen\nus to know Him while allowing you to venture forth after your “natural\ninstincts.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Goodbye. It is hard\nto imagine how we shall forget you and enjoy His undeserved mercy. But somehow, in His powerful, holy, and\nperfect will, it shall be done. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
9 October, 2019 God uses all of His creation for His purposes. Among humans He has some “vessels of wrath” and others whom He has redeemed as is saving from the wrath to come. We focus our minds generally upon our Savior and occupy ourselves regularly with organized gatherings in which we thank Him corporately […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-apologetics","category-good-riddance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3049"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3049\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3050,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3049\/revisions\/3050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}