A Bigger Plan???

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“Why doesn’t God save everyone?” — Ah! That age-old question.

After all, it’s written in scripture by the Apostle Paul that: “…God, our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth….“

And then the Apostle Peter writes: “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not willing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance.“

Furthermore, the God of Heaven says these words to the prophet Ezekiel: “Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked, rather than he would turn from his ways and live?“

And even the Lord Jesus is recorded saying these words: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who have been 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.“

So, we have recorded scripture that tells us that God’s desire is that everyone come to Him and be saved,

. . . but . . . dare I ask it . . .

What if God . . . never intended for everyone to be saved? (Parrish the thought!!)

Not only that. . . but . . . what if God . . . isn’t telling us exactly what He’s doing regarding His overall plans?

After all. . . God is recorded in Isaiah saying: “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways, for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.”

Therefore, wouldn’t God be justified in having an overall plan that is considerably more elaborate and filled with greater detail than what the feeble human mind could ever possibly comprehend?

So . . . what if. . . Now hear me out. . .

What if God . . . being able to do exceedingly more than we humans could ever fathom, actually has a plan that is being orchestrated in such a precise manner, yet it is so elaborate and detailed in scale, that every tiny detail would appear to be a colossal mess to the simple, untrained mind?

And what if . . . that plan . . . was started by God where He began the entire process by putting pen to paper and writing a book before He ever spoke the words “Let there be Light!”?

A book, so selective and secretive in nature that only God would know the contents of it.

And once He was finished writing the book, He would seal it with His signet ring and set it aside for safe keeping until His entire plan was fully complete?

And speaking of “the plan” . . .

God would exclaim: “Let there be light!”, and a vast universe would be created and filled with celestial bodies, among which, would be created a small, little planet. A planet that would be filled with God’s light, void of evil, yet it would hang in the vast darkness of space.

The plan . . . would require a war to be fought in God’s home where He would throw out those who were on the losing side.

But where would these “losers” be thrown so they could lick their proverbial wounds?

To this one, lone planet that was somehow specifically purposed for “the plan” to take place.

The plan . . . where God would create beings in His own image. Beings that would talk with Him, trust Him, enjoy His presence and have a meaningful relationship with Him.

The plan . . . where God would give these created beings one command…all the while knowing that they would disobey it.

The plan . . . where those who lost the war with God and were thrown to this little planet, would entice and lure God’s created beings into a situation where they would be weak and revolt against their maker by disobeying the one command that God gave them.

The plan . . . where God would stand by and watch His created beings “fall” from His goodness into an eternal darkness of disobedience and evil, where every single created thing would be cast into a state of mournful despair because of this one act of disobedience.

The plan . . . where God would have to condemn His created beings to a sentence of death for their disobedience to His single command. A death, that separated them from Him for all eternity.

It’s kind of a crazy plan, is it not?

Well, hold on to your shorts, because it gets even crazier!

This plan . . . includes having God choose a single man whom God would use to start a family where God would literally protect that family and all the descendants of that man so God could create a nation to fulfill His ultimate goal.

The plan . . . consists of God never completely forsaking the nation that He created from that one man, but God would eventually use that nation of people to one day make Himself human. Becoming His own created thing.

Crazy? . . . No?

But it doesn’t end there! It gets even more elaborate and crazy because of the way God becomes His own created thing.

This plan . . . has God create a young woman within the nation He has been protecting, and at the proper age, He sends His angel to speak with her to tell her she’s going to have . . . get this —> God’s Son!

That’s right!

This plan . . . was God . . . taking a portion of His Spirit and placing Himself into this woman to make Himself be conceived as a human and to go through the entire life cycle process that HE designed and created.

Furthermore . . .

The plan . . . required this young woman who, I should mention, had never been with a man, and the man she was engaged to, to literally carry God’s Son and raise this child up as their own. Which they did.

They literally raised God from conception through adulthood.

How crazy is that!?!?!

But wait!! There’s more!!

This plan . . . required the Son of God, as an adult man, to preach a message of hope through God’s eternal love to the people of this nation that God had raised up and protected for so many years.

This plan . . . required God’s Son to tell people that if they believed on Him, they would have eternal life and God would save them from the death sentence that He dropped on them so many years ago.

This plan . . . would require God, himself, while living inside His Son through His own Spirit, to give His Son authority over all created things, including those who warred with God in His own home and were thrown down to this planet.

The plan . . . required God’s Son to be hated by the religious rulers, arrested, persecuted, scorned, brutally beaten, tortured and then given a death sentence and eventually crucified.

The plan . . . where God, out of this nation, would be the sacrificial lamb through His Son. A Son, who was so completely in step with God’s plan, that the Son of God would die so God, Himself, could be the redeemer and propitiation for the disobedience of those whom He created.

Sad, depressing…and pretty crazy ending, huh?

Well, don’t be too overly troubled because that’s not yet the end of this profoundly significant plan!

The plan . . . then required God to raise His Son from the dead and They both overcame death.

Now . . . this is where I need to draw your attention back to that little book I mentioned earlier.

You remember . . . it’s the book God wrote before He ever spoke the words, “Let there be light!”?

You might recall that I mentioned that the contents of that book are only known to God?

Well… this is where the details of the plan might make you take a step back and rethink everything you think you know about God and His overall plan.

You see . . . The book that God wrote wasn’t a story, it wasn’t a journal, it wasn’t just some random notes, and it wasn’t a script.

No . . . no.

That book is something far more important to God. So important, in fact, that God won’t share the contents of that book with anyone.

Well . . . He won’t. . . until His plan has come to full completion, then He will reveal its contents to everyone.

That book is the very proof that God is ALWAYS in control over everything He creates, and that He is THEE sovereign ruler over everything!!

That book proves that God . . . is absolutely . . . without a doubt . . . GOD.

That book . . . that’s sealed with His signet and sits right next to Him . . .

Is filled . . .

with the names . . .

of every single person whom God has chosen to be His.

That’s right.

That Book…contains the names of every single person whom God chose to redeem unto Himself throughout ALL of history, and it started with the creation of Adam and is being carried throughout the course of time until the very last human is born.

And each and every name written in that book, was penned by God before time as humans know it ever began.

It’s mysterious and difficult to believe that God has never told us plainly what His ultimate plan really is. We only know the small portion of the plan that is happening here on Earth.

This plan. . . where God wrote a book of names and kept every name unto Himself, and where He would lead these chosen people who He selected, to be set free from their captivity by His Holy Spirit into salvation from the wickedness and evil they were enslaved to through faith in His Son, Jesus.

The plan. . . where those He chose, would be conformed to the image of His Son and would continue to preach the message of Jesus and God so the others whose names are also written in the book, would hear the message and be led by the Holy Spirit to come and be redeemed by God through His Son, Jesus.

Crazy . . . no?

However. . . there’s a darker side to the plan and it isn’t going to be agreeable with you.

This plan. . . stipulates that a very large portion of those created beings will NOT have their names written in the book.

These are people whom God chose to reject, to cast out, to be spurned; but they all still have a purpose.

These are people whom God has chosen to completely reject God and His Son, to live in utter lawlessness, to be disobedient, cruel by nature. Because of this, these people will die and be separated from God for all eternity.

(I told you it wouldn’t be agreeable.)

It seems harsh that God would do such a thing. Not to mention, a complete waste of time. Afterall, “He wants all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” and yet, He created beings who are made specifically to live separate from Him and ultimately be apart from Him forever.

Nevertheless, we shouldn’t let that be a frustration.

Because . . . what if . . . this plan . . . was always meant to be bigger than you or I could ever fathom?

What if . . . God . . . has something else going on in the spiritual world that we are not privy to?

What if . . . all of this is part of a greater plan so that He can prove that He is truly GOD to someone, or something, in the spiritual realm?

Whatever God’s reasons for His predetermined course of action, He isn’t sharing the bigger picture with us, nor should He. Because we don’t need to know the deeper truth behind His plan that happens to be more intense than we could ever imagine.

So, the age-old question . . .”why doesn’t God save everyone?” remains a mystery that we cannot answer because we don’t have all the facts.

Maybe in the end God will reveal everything behind His plan, but until then, this plan . . . is working out just as He purposed.

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