STUMBLING

at the theological discussion website THEOLOGICA.NING, some respondents to a question i had emphasized their belief that those who God has destined to be His children, a part of His eternal kingdom, He has predestined from the beginning. The way these folks said it was whatever was or were the means by which God drew and called them, it was God Himself who called them.
This discussion with predestination being a given, was new to me. Wesleyan tradition focuses on "means of grace" , things that help us to draw close to God.
But i read a few scripture references and was convinced that some are destined to accept God's free gift (and some never will, I guess.)Also, what informed my thinking on this was seeing that my experience or reasoning agreed with what they were putting forth. I said , " i can imagine two people experiencing the same things, learning the same things, being hurt by the same things and encouraged by the same thing, but having totally different responses to their life experiences.
So now I have a new perspective on salvation: the one whom God destines to be "saved" will be saved; but their life can be filled with a lot of detours-messy detours- or it can be more direct. I can think of three Bible passages about stumbling that shed light for me on this idea. 1)Where Jesus says, "if anyone causes one of these little ones to stumble it would be better if they had never been born." 2)Where Paul says, "don't do anything -including something that you feel free to do because of Christ's freedom- that could cause others to stumble." and 3)Where Daniel dreamed about the rock that would cause some to stumble; but others would be broken by the same stone.
Thinking of others as already having ( or not having) a predisposion to come to God changes the way I will approach others.