:waving Lance_Iguana
You inquired:
So man is incapable of doing anything good or evil? It is all God. I didn't write my research papers my latest semester, God did it?
In speaking of perfect goodness, the kind that has not even a hint or stain of bad in it, even in the motive of the heart... the Bible says this is true of humanity, we cannot do perfect things. Perhaps you would agree that none are perfect?
Every one of them has turned aside; They have together become corrupt; There is none who does good, No, not one.
Yet the Bible also speaks of the goodness of human love... looking at the sweetest bond between people the bond of child and parent, and the good done there... and compares it to God's goodness...
"Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!" Matthew 7:9-11
Here Jesus is teaching that many human fathers love to bless their children, and would never answer a simple request for something good with something evil.
Yet if that is the case with humanity... how much MORE will The Father in heaven give good things to those who ask Him? :yes
And we know of human fathers who abuse children ... there are evil deeds in humanity, but none in God.
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. James 1:17
Jesus makes it clear that God doesn’t have to be persuaded or appeased ~ He wants to give us not just bread, but even more than what we ask for... If we will only ask. I am thankful to God also~ that the times I have asked for something (as bad as a serpent) without knowing what I was asking for, that God, who is the most loving parent, has mercifully spared me the just penalty of my ignorance. :nod
Lance~ (
may I call you Lance? :shades
I have worked on many papers in the past years... I am still in school at my age ... and I know the diligence and hard work that can be!
whew!
I will not say this is not your effort, no. Yet I will ask you again to consider that without God, there are no powers of reason nor ability to string words together or simple recall. God is the author of even our powers of intellect... and even sustains us from the evil things that can cause brain damage ~ so you and I can write papers.
(That hopefully please Professors)
Write me back... with your thoughts. :wink3 ...bonnie