. . ."Why should I quit as long as I enjoy it?" So a few days later, I woke up, and my morning routine was to sit on edge of the bead, grab my lighter and pack of cigarettes, and sit there smoking until my morning cigarette was finished. So I lit that morning Cigarette, took a deep puff, AND IT TASTED HORRIBLE! THEN I HEARD A VOICE IN MY HEAD: "WHAT'S YOUR EXCUSE NOW DUMMY." That was the last cigarette that I ever had. My favorite Aunt died of lung Cancer at 29 years of ago, SO I BELIEVE HE SAVED MY LIFE.
That happened to me PRIOR to being BORN AGAIN, about 1975, and I was not BORN AGAIN until 1977. I count that believing it was PROOF that I was Predestined, YET, I did not recognized that possibility at that time.
. . .
How do I know there is such a thing as PREDESTINATION ?
I cannot believe how many typos I miss, in this SENIORITUS part of my live. Please understand that after Proof READING 3 times, I find occasionally several MISTAKES I missed. I had have a hard time spelling, because of the Strokes I had,
and miss some. Had spelled Now, KNOW, and just found it, after proof reading it 3 times.
"WHAT'S YOUR EXCUSE NOW DUMMY."
I can look back on my life, and there were a number times, the LORD had to SEND a Guardian Angel, to KEEP ME ALIVE, so that I would be able to START A Prison Ministry in the newest supermax PRISON in California. The earliest example I could think of, happened on the FARM when is was just a little kid about 4 years old. After my Dad was hauling a load of brush and trees, he had cut down, over to northwest part of our the farm were there were some other cut trees, that he intended to BURN. After he unloaded, I did not want to ride on the tractor, I wanted to ride on the Flat Bed Trailer, with a low axle, made out of an old truck frame.. Dad said I had to ride up front, to where he could keep an eye on me.
So I sat on the front right edge of the trailer. As Dad pulled into the driveway, almost to the windmill, and then Dad hit a rut, and it threw me forward, and landed face down on the groung, and my guardian angel had to hold my face down and until the trailer axle got past my head, as it would have hit me in the back of my head and killed me if I lifted my head as little as 1 inch. I got up crying,
"DADDY, you ran over me!"
A number of times I should have been dead, except for the GRACE GOD and the Faithfulness of an Guardian Angel are numerous. I have never even had a broken bone. I had TWO accidents on busy highways, where I walked away from them without a SCRATCH. I have walked down alleys in the AIR FORCE overseas, that they warned us, not to go done without 6 of your buddies, because their were gangs their, that would kill you for the $5 in your pocket, and drunk I and decided to ignore the advise, and by myself, took those short cuts to go back to the Base, and nothing happened. I was a Scuba Diver, and had my hand almost on a STONE FISH, when a buddy got my attention and gave me a DANGER SIGNAL. There was a wader in the water that stepped on STONE FISH, at a public beach. The ambulance made the 2 miles trip to the Hospital as fast as he could, but he was DOA. I had a student diver with me when a Sea Snake attacked him, he grabbed it by the tail, and started to panic, twirling it like a ROPE. I HAD TO GO GRAB IT BEHIND the HEAD and cut it head off. That snake is 10 times as poisonous as a King Cobra. Three Attempts at SUICIDE the last week of 1977, and I REALLY DID NOT WANT TO SEE ANOTHER DAY, and all three failed. There are other times, but that should be enough. I hope you can believe me they were REAL OCCURRENCES, as I can now look back, and THEY ARE VERY REAL INDEED. There is NEVER ON THE FACE OF THIS EARTH, a person that can CONVINCE ME THAT GOD ASSIGNED A GUARDIAN ANGEL TO PROTECT ME, BECAUSE HE HAD PREDESTINED ME TO BECOME A VOLUNTEER CHAPLAIN IN A CALIFORNIA SUPER-MAX PRISON.
Yes, I believe in Guardian Angels, sent to Protect us, even when we do stupid things, and even before we have become BORN AGAIN Christians. He was sent to my DAD in WWII, like one of the stories as his squad was running in a zig, zac trench as a GERMAN TANK was fixing to fire at them. DAD was in the middle of the Squad, and just as he turned the corner, the Tank fired, killing his buddies that were behind him, they were blown to bits. If not for that incident, I would have never been born.
YES, I BELIEVE IN PREDESTINATION.
Psalm 12:7 (NRSV)
7 You,
O LORD, will protect us; you will guard us from this generation forever.
Psalm 91:11-12 (HCSB)
11
For He will give His angels orders concerning you, to protect you in all your ways.
12
They will support you with their hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.
Luke 4:10-12 (HCSB)
10 For it is written:
He will give His angels orders concerning you, to protect you,
11 and they will support you with their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.”
12 And Jesus answered him, “It is said:
Do not test the Lord your God.”
Acts 4:27-28 (HCSB)
27 “For, in fact, in this city both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, assembled together against Your holy Servant Jesus, whom You anointed,
28 to do whatever Your hand and Your plan
had predestined to take place.
Romans 8:28-30 (HCSB)
28 We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God: those who are called according to His purpose.
29 For those He foreknew
He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers.
30
And those He predestined, He also called; and those He called, He also justified; and those He justified, He also glorified.
1 Corinthians 2:7-10 (HCSB)
7 On the contrary, we speak God’s hidden wisdom in a mystery,
a wisdom God predestined before the ages for our glory.
8 None of the rulers of this age knew ⌊this⌋ wisdom, for if they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
9 But as it is written: What eye did not see and ear did not hear, and what never entered the human mind— God prepared this for those who love Him.
10
Now God has revealed ⌊these things⌋ to us by the Spirit, for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.
Ephesians 1:3-9 (HCSB)
3 Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavens.
4
For He chose us in Him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love
5
He predestined us to be adopted through Jesus Christ for Himself, according to His favor and will,
6 to the praise of His glorious grace that He favored us with in the Beloved.
7 We have redemption in Him through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace
8 that He lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.
9 He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure that He planned in Him
Ephesians 1:11-14 (HCSB)
11 We have also
received an inheritance in Him, predestined according to the purpose of the One who works out everything in agreement with the decision of His will,
12 so that we who had already put our hope in the Messiah might bring praise to His glory.
13
When you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and when you believed in Him, you were also sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.
14
He is the down payment of our inheritance, for the redemption of the possession, to the praise of His glory.