Junior Poyser Group

Yet knowing all things God did not predestinate anyone to hell. It is His desire that all are saved (who desires all men to be saved and to come to a full experiential knowledge of the truth - 1 Timothy 2:4). Nor did He preselect those who would be saved, for our election (His choosing us) is when we are called. Wherefore, rather, brethren, you be diligent to do your firm calling even election, for the one doing these things will never at any time stumble - 2 Peter 1:10. It is still our choice to accept God's calling.

Since God does not change, His promises also do not change. Looking at Israel, God has always been faithful, even through Israel has not been. And although Israel has not yet received the promise from God that He gave Abraham, it is not because of God, but Israel’s refusal; however, through God’s actions with Israel we see that He keeps His Word and therefore will fulfill His promise. To us as Christians, we have another promise, built upon better promises and no one can take that from us. What should our response be to what God has promised? Living in a manner that shows we believe Him.

Since God is Spirit, it is with our spirit, our rational part, that we are able to commune with, fellowship with, and learn from God. We need to stop and give time to think about what God has done, what He provides for us in salvation and start to properly use it in our lives, because these things are only understood in the spirit. And through understanding we start to train our senses to know what is proper and what lacks in character so that in all things we express a proper opinion of God and who we are in Christ.  

so then, my beloved, just as always you have obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, with fear and trembling, you, for yourself, work out your salvation. Philippians 2:12 

Since God cannot lie, deny who He is, and is not a man, what He stays He will do, He does. Therefore, in salvation, even when things around us do not appear in the way God states them, we can rely on His word. Why? because He is the One who calls things that are not as though they are and in doing so is true in what He says. He says you are a saint. He says you are no longer condemned, He says abiding in Christ results in living out righteousness and reaping the benefits of eternal life. Man says we have to earn it, God says we just have to use what He has provided for us. Being a Christian is not about doing, it is about being. I am, therefore I do. 

All of you do all things apart from grumbling and disputing, in order that you, yourself, should become blameless and pure, children of God without blame in the midst of a crooked and perverted generation, among whom you shine as luminaries in [the] world, while holding fast a word of life, - Philippians 2:14-16a 

Let us use the salvation God has given us. Know our enemies and how to defeat them. Grow in our understanding of who we are in Christ and how to properly walk in the light, casting off the works of darkness and living out the life that God gave us in Christ.  

For let this frame of mind be in you that also was in Christ Jesus, Philippians 2:5

n this the love is in a state of maturity among us, in order that we should have boldness in the day of the judgment because just as that One is, also we are in this world. 1 John 4:17

We live in a time where our purpose is to show the lost that God is reconciling. A time where we are to show a proper opinion of God through our actions, not words, by living out the salvation He gives us in Christ so that all around us can see we belong to Him. In the future, when sin is completely abolished and righteousness settles down and feels at ease in the world, then our purpose will be different. But for now, it is doing God’s will and being ones who are blameless and innocent, being blameless children of God in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom we shine as luminaries in the world (Philippians 2:15).