The book, Chosen But Free by Norman Geisler is one of the books that show a “Balanced view of Divine Election.” This book presents the Biblical foundation for the sovereignty of God by highlighting God’s essential attributes and functions.  The comparison views were over extreme free-will and extreme sovereignty belief view. This book helped me define other views which gave me better understanding.

Extreme free-will view is something that God gives human total free will and He does not know the choice we will make. This is how he showed Calvinism through this book. Geisler states that they are too extreme because they limit the power of God, but focuses on too much free will. They are not able to react to God. They will also make excuses for their behavior. Free will is placed over God’s sovereignty. The other opposing view is extreme sovereignty, which is that God rules everything and planned everything. God chooses who he wants to offer salvation too. The problem with this one is that we subject to sin. God’s sovereignty is placed over our free will. The balanced view is that God has control over the universe by His foreknowledge. You cannot lose your salvation and God predetermined some of us to go to Heaven.

I agree with Norman Geisler in many points he makes in this book.  I agree that God’s will is not something that he can break away from his nature. He says that due to God’s sovereignty, He even controls our free choices. God is in charge of everything, like fallen angels, humans, and even Satan. To support the fact that god is in control of everything, he states Isaiah 46:10 “I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say, ‘My purpose will stand and I will do all that I please.” I like how he put scriptural context in the book, which supported his arguments as well as to compare the opposite side.  However, I don’t think we are like robot that is controlled by god. The point that Geisler made after these view is that God does not tempt us. And God has given us the free will to make our own choices. I think as a human, we choose to sin. Even though we got salvation from God, we do sin, and we must repent before God.

I believe in the balanced view of this book. However, it is really important not to judge anyone if they received salvation or not. People can pretend or they might think they got salvation, but only God knows. When we die, we will see some random people in Heaven and we might not see people who expected to see. In Phil 3: 12 states that “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus hold on me. As Christians, we always need to live with God’s words, follow God and hold on to God.

Worship in the Church

The size of the church building and number of people attending the church are not important factors of the worship. In the Bible, John 4:23 says "Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers and Father seeks." God is looking for people who will worship the Father in spirit and truth. In order to worship with spirit and truth, the individuals must repent before God, and ask forgiveness. As we wash our bodies before we meet very important person, we must clean our hearts. And then we ask Holy Spirit to lead the worship and control our mind.

We always should prepare when we go to Church. If you have appointment with President or very famous person, you would dress nicely and expect lots of things from that meeting. It should more preparation and expectation when we go to church and meeting with God. Falling asleep, talking to other people during the service is not good behavior during the worship service. Meeting people should not be priority reason to go to church, but the very first reason and priority should be God. And also we should me awake physically and spiritually and should be ready to listen to God’s Words. When you walk out from the church after service, you should not be same as you walked in.

I think worship is meeting with God. From what we got out from the service, we can build intimacy relationship with God. The grace from God is much more than what we expect and what we deserve. God is so ready to pour His grace to us, but when we are not ready and don’t get it, it is our fault, not God’s.

My Testimony

I started to go to church when I was seven years old. My parents did not go to church, but they send our siblings to church. The reason I went to church was to meet my friends and have fun time. I did not find the purpose of my life and I did not understand why I have to live when there is sadness and hardships more than happiness and good things. When I came to United States, my whole family started to go to Korean church. We, as a immigrant family missed Korean people and enjoyed time in the church. I got involved in the church activities and trained as a leader. I would go to retreat and worship  services, but there was no God in my life. I pretended to be “christian” when I was only a “Sunday christian.” I was always confused and doubted about church things. I started to go to this group called “Virginia Christian Korean Young Adults Association” when I was a junior in high school. Through the intensive training and worship services, I started to realize the real purpose of my life at that time and felt Holy Spirit touching me. I started to build intimacy relationship with God and still building that relationship.