Being challenged

I grew up in a Christian home. Both of my parents were Godly Christian people who loved the Lord and did their best to raise my brothers & me to do the same. We all went to a Christian school from K5-12th grade and we were in church Sunday morning, Sunday night, & Wednesday night (not to mention any time something else was going on, we were there!). I can't say that I always enjoyed the "bubble" I felt like I was in. I just didn't realize at the time how much my parents sacrificed and how much they loved us and wanted to totally saturate our lives with Jesus. Now, I am SO THANKFUL for the blessings my parents gave us. I'll tell you why!

A great guy in our church, Brad, posted on his blog about one of his pastor friend's and that some folks were really ripping into him about his church celebrating souls won to Christ (check out Brad's blog http://bradchristian.blogspot.com/). I started reading the comments and the back & forth bantering between people about whether God has "predestined" people to be saved. I was so baffled. I believe that the Lord wants all to come to a saving knowledge of Christ, but that there are those who will never accept it. These folks (referred to as Calvanists or Old Truth) believe that the Lord has already determined those who will truly accept Him and that the others' hearts are hardened by the Lord. I believe that sin hardens our hearts to where we can't hear the Holy Spirit calling us. Claude likes to call it "subtle numbing". Think about it: do you remember when cursing in public was an outrage? Do you remember when an unwed mother was hush-hush? Do you remember when living together before marriage was considered "living in sin"? Look at society now! All of these things are readily accepted (and not just by the unsaved). Thus - subtle numbing. I believe that the Holy Spirit calls us, but because of the sin in our hearts, some don't answer. I am no where near being a Bible scholar so I argued my thoughts with 2 Peter 3:9. The rebuttle was that this was to believers, not non-believers. Well, why would Peter need to tell them that God was not wanting any of them to perish, but for all of them to repent? They were already believers! I must say, it confused me more than helped clarify. I just know that the Holy Spirit is the only one who can truly know the hearts of men and their decisions. We, as humans, should see the RESULTS...fruits, good works, etc.

Thanks for letting me go on & on. If you have any good thoughts about this, please let me know! I am a curious one!