Tag: good

The Good God Had Prepared For You

“Whatever you do, He will make good of it. But not the good He had prepared for you if you had obeyed Him. That is lost forever.” C.S. Lewis

While the government is not God—a truth they tend to forget from time to time—their burgeoning relationship with the companies developing artificial intelligence serves as a helpful parable for understanding a key component of our relationship with the Lord.

Scripture is clear that when our sin takes us outside of God’s will, there will be consequences (Galatians 6:7). And though that cost may be delayed at times, it doesn’t go away. As such, it is much better to work with God than to wait for him to correct us when we go off the right path. That doesn’t mean the Lord can’t redeem our mistakes, but it’s still far better to have never committed them in the first place.

C. S. Lewis described this principle well when he said of God, “Whatever you do, He will make good of it. But not the good He had prepared for you if you had obeyed Him. That is lost forever.”

As Christians, we must not make the mistake of giving up the good that God has prepared for us simply because it’s not what appeals to us in the moment. The Lord wants to direct our path because he alone knows what is ultimately best for us and for his kingdom. But he also loves us enough to give us the freedom to make that choice for ourselves.

So which path will you choose?

Will you take the road that seems best to you, deciding that it’s worth the risk of God “bringing down the hammer” to correct you in the future? Or will you let the Lord lead and submit to his will as you partner with him in advancing his kingdom?

Put that way, the choice should be simple. And, ultimately, it is. But it’s also one that all of us get wrong from time to time when we lose sight of what is really at stake.

So take some time now to pray and ask God if there are any ways that you have strayed from his will. If the Holy Spirit brings any to mind, repent and commit to whatever steps are required to correct those mistakes.

And don’t wait to do so. Every day spent outside of his will is filled with moments and opportunities you can’t get back.

Let’s make sure we don’t miss them today.

Source: Ryan Denison, PhD, Is “Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy” AI Possible? Biden Issues Executive Order on Artificial Intelligence. November 3, 2023, Denison Forum.

God’s Sovereignty and Man’s Free Will

God sovereignly decreed that man should be free to exercise moral choice, and man from the beginning has fulfilled that decree by making his choice between good and evil. When he chooses to do evil, he does not thereby countervale the sovereign will of God but fulfills it, inasmuch as the eternal decree decided not which choice the man should make but that he should be free to make it….. Man’s will is free because God is sovereign. A God less than sovereign could not bestow moral freedom upon His creatures. He would be afraid to do so…

God moves undisturbed and unhindered toward the fulfillment of those eternal purposes which He proposed in Christ Jesus before the world began… Since He is omniscient, there can be no unforeseen circumstances, no accidents …[but] within the broad field of God’s sovereign, permissive will the deadly conflict of good and evil continues with increasing fury.

There is freedom to choose which side we shall be on but no freedom to negotiate the results of the choice once it is made…Our choice is our own, but the consequences of the choice have already been determined by the sovereign will of God, and from this there is no appeal.

A.W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1961), pp. 117-119, as quoted by Dave Hunt, What Love Is This? (Bend, Oregon: The Berean Call, 2013), pp. 234-235.

Atheists who see Christianity as good for society – The Christian Post

Rhys-Davis is just one of many skeptics, atheists, and secularists of late who reject the rhetoric of Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris and recognize the immense good the Gospel has done for the world.
— Read on www.christianpost.com/voices/atheists-who-see-christianity-as-good-for-society.html