"The Future - Determined and Unknown"

  "Everything has already been decided. It was known long ago what each person would be. So there's no use arguing with God about your destiny. The more words you speak, the less you mean. So what good are they? In the few days of our meaningless lives, who knows how our days can best be spent? Our lives are like a shadow. Who can tell what will happen on this earth after we are gone?" (Ecclesiastes 6:10-12 NLT)

  "Then Mary took a twelve-ounce jar of expensive perfume made from essence of nard, and she anointed Jesus' feet with it, wiping his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance. But Judas Iscariot, the disciple who would soon betray him, said, "That perfume was worth a year's wages. It should have been sold and the money given to the poor." Not that he cared about the poor - for he was a thief, and since he was in charge of the disciples' money, he often stole some for himself. Jesus replied, "Leave her alone. She did this in preparation for my burial. You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me."" (John 12:3-8 NLT)

 Just a little change, as it were; there is always a reason, even though we might not understand what it is that will become of it! We have touched on this topic before, but with very little examination of why or how things happen the way that they do. God's tapestry, as many might refer to it, can really only be seen clearly through His eyes; we on the other hand, see bits and pieces; most of which make very little sense; some of which seem ugly and filled with unhappy endings. 

 But God! God has everything already established and planned out, mostly because He knows all, sees all; He knows the end from the beginning, the beginning to the end; everything He plans will come to pass! (Isaiah 46:9-10) This might be one of those things that make the Calvinist so sure about who is saved will be saved, and those who aren't will not, because it has all been determined. 

 Well, we do not have the privilege to determine who that it is, who will be saved or not. In truth, we can hardly show much proof that we have the guarantee we will make it, without the Lord's help getting us across the line. I have seen too many who were faithful, suddenly fall from grace, only because they did not agree with the way things might have happened in their life, here on this earth. 

 There are somethings that happen on this earth that might not make sense; some of which seem very ugly, and we think that they shouldn't have happened. The whole picture is never seen, nor will it be seen, until we are in Heaven with the Lord, looking straight at God's beautiful handiwork. Then all things will make perfect sense...  

"For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us." (Romans 8:18 KJV)