{"id":2298,"date":"2012-05-14T10:34:54","date_gmt":"2012-05-14T14:34:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/shieldsgroup.com\/?p=2298"},"modified":"2012-05-14T10:34:54","modified_gmt":"2012-05-14T14:34:54","slug":"reconciling-gods-sovereignty-and-our-free-will","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shieldsgroup.com\/blog\/2012\/05\/14\/reconciling-gods-sovereignty-and-our-free-will\/","title":{"rendered":"Reconciling God&#8217;s Sovereignty and Our Free Will"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>From time to time, everyone misses the point.<\/strong> This happens in marriage, in the workplace, and even as we approach the Bible.<\/p>\n<p>One place this happens is in the opening verses of the book of Ephesians. I would guess that more theological energy has been poured into this passage extolling or refuting concepts of free-will and predestination than energy poured into understanding what the text is intended to teach.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Unless we lay aside the consternation some have concerning the free-will \/ sovereignty debate<\/strong> we will miss the point regarding the blessings God has given those who&#8217;ve turned from their sins and placed their trust in Christ&#8217;s death to pay for their sins.<\/p>\n<div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_1488\"><audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-2298-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"http:\/\/shieldsgroup.com\/mp3s\/2012\/ephesians\/20120513Ephesians03ThePointIsWeHaveReasonsToBeThankfulA.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/shieldsgroup.com\/mp3s\/2012\/ephesians\/20120513Ephesians03ThePointIsWeHaveReasonsToBeThankfulA.mp3\">http:\/\/shieldsgroup.com\/mp3s\/2012\/ephesians\/20120513Ephesians03ThePointIsWeHaveReasonsToBeThankfulA.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_links_mp3\" style=\"margin-bottom: 1px !important;\">Podcast: <a href=\"http:\/\/shieldsgroup.com\/mp3s\/2012\/ephesians\/20120513Ephesians03ThePointIsWeHaveReasonsToBeThankfulA.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_pinw\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Play in new window\" onclick=\"return powerpress_pinw('https:\/\/www.shieldsgroup.com\/blog\/?powerpress_pinw=2298-podcast');\" rel=\"nofollow\">Play in new window<\/a> | <a href=\"http:\/\/shieldsgroup.com\/mp3s\/2012\/ephesians\/20120513Ephesians03ThePointIsWeHaveReasonsToBeThankfulA.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_d\" title=\"Download\" rel=\"nofollow\" download=\"20120513Ephesians03ThePointIsWeHaveReasonsToBeThankfulA.mp3\">Download<\/a><\/p><!--powerpress_player-->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From time to time, everyone misses the point. This happens in marriage, in the workplace, and even as we approach the Bible. One place this happens is in the opening verses of the book of Ephesians. I would guess that &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shieldsgroup.com\/blog\/2012\/05\/14\/reconciling-gods-sovereignty-and-our-free-will\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,9,1],"tags":[534,533,251],"class_list":["post-2298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-grace","category-sermon-podcasts","category-spiritual-life","tag-blessings","tag-free-will","tag-sovereignty"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9XvmV-B4","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shieldsgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shieldsgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shieldsgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shieldsgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shieldsgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.shieldsgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2298\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shieldsgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shieldsgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shieldsgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}