Chosen But Free by Norman Geisler

After reading Norman Geisler’s book Chosen but Free. Chapter one is called Ideas do have consequences and this chapter is one that I kept coming back to when I was reading through the book because it stood out in my mind. Once I read the chapter title I knew this was going to be the chapter I would keep coming back to because it is a topic that I am very interested in studying. As the book states, “the thoughts we entertain tend to influence our choices.” “Belief leads to behavior. Ideas lead to actions.” I find these sentences to be powerful statements that are life changing. This is the theme and key to the whole book. If your beliefs in God are not strong and faithful then your actions towards God will be weak and faithless. In Christianity if you do not have strong beliefs and actions towards God then you are more likely to sin and fall further away from God. Your ideas influence everything that you do. If you question God or His ability in your life then your faith is fleeting from God and Satan will cause you to see more wrong with God causing you to lose faith. Our beliefs lead to our behavior because if you have a strong faith in God and your faith then you will want to bring more people closer to God by soul winning. How one thinks about divine sovereignty and human free will and to the extreme they hold them out will affect one’s lifestyle. Either one of these views can lead to a good or bad consequences depending on how one holds each issue. If one holds the theory of divine sovereignty to an extreme view then one could feel helpless that there is nothing that person can do to change their future because God has already planned it out. Everyone wants to have the ability to choose their own path in life and to make their own decisions because no one wants to believe that there life is already planned out for them and that no matter what they do they cannot change it.  One can also take free will for granted by choosing whether to accept or to reject salvation. By not excepting God then one could lose an opportunity that could potentially save their life in some way depending on whether they are living a destructive lifestyle. Faith in God gives one a new outlook on life and a new found confidence and ability to make life decisions easier. Free choice has always been a plan for us from God but free choice leads people sin more because we already have a sin nature that we are born with. Free choice can be the worst or best thing in someone’s life because some people have a bad habit of always choosing the wrong path in life to go down. Divine sovereignty and free will are both topics that I enjoy reading about and I love the fact that Norman Giesler put biblical verses to prove everything that he was saying.

 Word Count: 516

Worship in the Church

There are many ways to worship to God but when Christians think about worship we connect it immediately to music. When we hear the word worship we usually think about singing praises to God. Music is a crucial part of church and can either bring people into a church or send people away because of the draw music has on people and how music is heavily connected to how people worship in the church. Worship is important in the church because Jesus said the most important commandment was to love the Lord with all your heart, mind and soul. As Christians we worship heavily through music because it is one way we express our love and devotion to God. Music in the church is a controversial topic in the church. Most Christians believe we should only have gospel music in the church or only sing hymns. Many Christians object to Christian rock or rap but those types of Christian music bring in younger crowds of people to the church. When you worship in the church it should not matter whether you are singing hymns, rap, or rock as long as you are praising God should be the only thing that matters. The Bible nowhere condemns any particular style of music and Christians should not criticize any type of Christian music because as Christians we should not judge how someone worships God as long as they are worshipping God. When Christians look for music to worship to God it should be based on the content of the song and whether or not it is glorifying God, not on the style of music. Each person as a different style of music that they have a preference to listen to and I believe the church should have a wide range of music so the church can bring in a wider variety of members into its doors. People can relate to each other through music and Christians can evangelize with music to bring people to Christ. Since music is so important to the church there should not be a controversy in the church to which type of music should be in the church because the church as well as Christians should want to be open to any idea that can better glorify God and accept people for who they are and how they want to worship God in their own way through music.