“I am now giving you the choice between life and death, between God’s blessing and God’s curse, and I call heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Choose life.”
Deuteronomy 30:19 (GNT)
People ask all the time, “How could a loving God send people to hell?”
Then someone comes along and says, “Let me help you out. I will take you to my house and help you get cleaned up and give you a new set of clothes and a good meal. And you can live at my house. You can become part of my family. In fact, I’m going to adopt you. You can take my name! I’m going to pay off all your debts. You can even have my credit card and access to the entire resources of my family. You don’t have to earn it or work for it. I’m doing this simply because I love you and want to show you grace.
“However, if you live in my house as a part of my family, there are some house rules that you have to follow. We respect each other and help out with responsibilities around the house.
You may choose to say, “Thank you, but I’m going to choose to live on the street because I don’t want to walk away from the street. I’m not willing to give them up to be part of your family.”
If you turn down the offer, the fault is on you for the effects of your choice, not on the person who extended grace. That person did the loving thing to offer to help you get out of the situation.
God doesn’t send people to hell. People choose to go there.
When you choose to follow Jesus, there is only one house rule: Jesus has already paid for your ticket into heaven. He’s already forgiven you! All you’ve got to do is accept it.
Globalization and the attendant concerns about poverty and inequality have become a focus of discussion in a way that few other topics, except for international terrorism or global warming, have. Most people have a strong opinion on globalization, and all of them express an interest in the well-being of the world's poor. The financial press and influential international officials confidently assert that global free markets expand the horizons for the poor, whereas activist-protesters hold the opposite belief with equal intensity. Yet the strength of people's conviction is often in inverse proportion to the amount of robust factual evidence they have.As is common in contentious public debates, different people mean different things by the same word. Some interpret "globalization" to mean the global reach of communications technology and capital movements, some think of the outsourcing by domestic companies in rich countries, and others see globalization as a byword for...
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