We must not look at the response of men and doubt the testimony of God for free will, as much as the tailored testimony, is God’s gift. Respond we must. God may roll up the shades that have been blocking your windows and let light into your bedroom. You and I, though, must respond to the light.
So in this context, I am much more confident of the words recorded in 1 John 5:9. Testimony tailored to my shape is greater than the testimony of John the Apostle. Both are valuable in their own manner. Each is a light unto our path. John’s testimony has excellence, but God’s is insightful. Harkening back to the earlier verses these things are in agreement.
Someone will surely challenge this. The tenacity and sincerity with which others grasp their religious vantage points have at some points infused me with doubt. It is my belief that when all things are revealed we will see that God’s Spirit brought every person to a point of understanding. Many, like Cain, will go their own way. Isaiah the prophet said, “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way.” (Isaiah 53:6–NIV) Bill Pearson, a leader in the Medical Campus Outreach movement during my medical school years, once told me at Pizza Hut on 15th Street in Augusta, Georgia, that some turn to good things. That stuck with me. I can still see my OCD arranging the knife and fork beside each other as those words wrote into my memory banks.
God’s Great Expectations
Charles Dickens’ coming age novel is about Pip learning who he was. He needed a suit tailored to match his body as he launched out toward the great unknown in London. As each person is directed through this life God’s Spirit tailors his testimony to their needs. God has great expectations for each person. He will enable a way, but people have to accept it.
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