Ordo Salutis

Here is a chart I developed several; years back.  After developing it I discovered that Robert Redmond had a similar concept.  It is a cross laid on it's side with the left side being what happens before salvation and the right side the Christian Way of Life (CWOL).  The chart is Logical NOT chronological.  It sorts things by what God does fully monergistically without any human interaction or involvement - such as the header labeled "Divine Acts".  Also note that on the far left we have God's acts in eternity, then God's actions based on those declarations - many times referred to as decrees.  The column labeled "Divine Activity Human Response" are not synergistic but done through the work of the Holy Spirit (HS)  Divine repentance consists of metanoeo (a 180 degree turn) not metamelomai (regret).  Our expression of faith is in response to that gift of that divine faith.  All the divine acts are logical so do not think there needs to be time intervals between events.  On the CWOL side we have growth in our sanctification by means of the HS as well as the HS being our assurance for preservation and perseverance.  I ended up putting two boxes on the bottom due to questions when I teach this - one was relating to the universal call so I provided some scriptures and the other was related to those who seem to be believers, but turn out not to be - remain unregenerate in spite of the knowledge they have.  When I teach this I use it two ways - when given several weeks I use all the verses and discuss them.  When only given an hour I use the verses in red.  Click on image below to see larger image.

Test of RefTagger

Lets see if RefTagger woks on this blog:  Acts 16:31; Ephesians 3:1-6; John 3:16

New Destination

Well, it looks like the first planned city dropped the English course for their students so not Seth and Amanda are heading for another city Li Xian (pronounced Lee She-an) and packed up and headed there Sunday their time.  Li Xian is in the Hunan Province but the Northern section.  It is West of Wuhan and North of Changde.  Here is a map of the town area - click on it to enlarge:

Huaihua, Hunan, China

Here is the city where the Two Americans In China are going to teach and they get snow there as well - Huaihua:

The Library

I am currently in the process of moving my library from the master bedroom and into the library.  Several years back my wife suggested we move out of the master bedroom and into the library and move the books to the master bedroom.  That worked fine until the master bedroom filled with books and well, the room was a mess.  So with that I am downsizing the library and we are moving back.  The bed is in and some of the bookcases moved.  Three remain to be moved and rebuilt to handle the load.  All the bookcases get double stacked on the shelves.  So during the move where have all the books gone?  Well they are all in the sun room or living and dining room in boxes stacked five or more high.  Books are now being put on shelves and have broken them down to a few categories I am always using.  That will be the next post.