Revelation 22:17 The Spirit and the bride say, "Come!" And let him who hears say, "Come!" Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.
John 6:44 "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him"
"Christianity got over the difficulty of combining furious opposites by keeping them both and keeping them both furious." G.K Chesterton.
Ezekiel 33:11 'As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, O house of Israel?'
Psalm 37:13 but the Lord laughs at the wicked, for he sees that his day is coming.
Matthew 23:37 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling.
Acts 3:19 Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord;
Ephesians 1: v.4 "even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world," v.5 In love he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of His will" v.11 "In Him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according the the counsel of His will" 2:4-5 "But God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together in Christ" v.8 "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God"
Acts 16:31 Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved
1 Cor. 2:14 the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
"In a memorable phrase that became the virtual cornerstone of his theology, G. K. Chesterton said, 'Christianity got over the difficulty of combining furious opposites by keeping them both and keeping them both furious.' Most heresies come from espousing one opposite at the expense of the other. Uncomfortable with paradox[antinomy], Christians tend to tilt in one direction or the other, usually with disastrous consequences. Read the theologians of the first few centuries as they try to fathom Jesus, the center of our faith, who was somehow fully God and fully man. Read the theologians of the Reformation as they discover the majestic implications of God's sovereignty, then strive to keep their followers from settling into a resigned fatalism. Read the theologians of today as they debate the intricacies of written revelation: a Bible that expresses God's words to us that is nonetheless authored by individuals of widely varying intelligence, personality, and writing style.
"The first shall be last; find your life by losing it; work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you; he who stoops lowest climbs highest; where sin abounds grace abounds more—all these profound principles of life appear in the New Testament and none easily reduces to logical consistency. 'Truth is not in the middle, and not in one extreme, but in both extremes,' 19th-century British pastor Charles Simeon remarked. With some reluctance, I have come to agree.
"Inside every person on earth, we believe, the image of God can be found. Yet inside each person there lives also a beast. Any religious or political system that does not account for both extremes—furious opposites, in Chesterton's phrase—will sorely fail (surprisingly, the utopians' failures bring down more catastrophe than the cynics'). As a rabbi put it, 'A man should carry two stones in his pocket. On one should be inscribed, "I am but dust and ashes." On the other, "For my sake was the world created." And he should use each stone as he needs it.'" ~Philip Yancey, Reaching For The Invisible God
"The old truth that Calvin preached, that Augustine preached, that Paul preached, is the truth that I must preach to-day, or else be false to my conscience and my God. I cannot shape the truth; I know of no such thing as paring off the rough edges of a doctrine. John Knox's gospel is my gospel. That which thundered through Scotland must thunder through England again."—C. H. Spurgeon
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