2019-08-30
Good Morning Dear Ones,
Being chosen means being set apart for a special task (s) by God, as it is used in the Scriptures. For example, the Jews were chosen to believe in the one and only true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The nations around Israel believed in many gods, particularly in Baal and his wife, Asherah. The latter religion was particularly objectionable to God because of its practices of public sex orgies in their temples and the practice of burning babies at the stake. The Jews were to make that deeply personal decision to obey and serve the true God. Three citations from the Bible are helpful. DT 6: 4-5, “Here O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One. Love Him with all your heart, your soul, and your might.” 1 Peter 2: 9, “But you are a chosen people, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of Him Who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light.” Indeed, the will of God is that the Jews were to be a nation of priests. IS 49: 6, “He [God] says, ‘It is too small a thing for you to be My servant, to restore the tribe of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you [the Jews] a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.’” It must be understood that later, in RO 11: 11-17, this chosen people will also include faithful Gentiles. RO 11: 17, “If some of the branches have been broken off [Jews who reject the Lord], and you [believing Gentiles], through a wild olive shoot have been grafted in amongst the others and now share in nourishing sap [the truth] from the olive root, do not boast over those branches…” This latter citation is from the metaphor Paul uses to convey how God has made room in the olive tree for believing Gentiles. In case you are wondering what this discussion of being chosen has to do with proving supporting Scripture for COL, then consult COL 3: 12 for an answer. “You are the people of God; He loved you and chose you for His own. So then, you must clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.”
We must understand that these traits and all from the gifts of the Holy Spirit [GA 5: 22-23] prevent believers from being welcome to hold themselves as more important than others. Rather, it brings the reality of our responsibility to share our testimony of Christ’s divinity and His Gospel with those who have not walked through the door marked “faithful believers.” This is witnessing to those willing to listen. I don’t believe in forcing oneself and one’s beliefs on those resisting it. We also must recall RO 11: 25, “There is a secret truth, my friends, which I want you to know, for it will keep you from thinking how wise you are. It is that the stubbornness of the people of Israel is not permanent but will last only until the complete number of Gentiles comes to God.” MT 22: 14 tells us, “Many are called, and few are chosen.” That is, we will demonstrate our faith in Him to many people over our earthly lifetime, and a few of them will come to faith. Sometimes, we who witness must wait a long time for things we don’t know about to happen before the one who heard us comes to faith in the Lord Jesus.
As for His chosen, God has reduced the time of the Tribulation. To better understand this fact, look at MK 13: 20, “But the Lord has reduced the number of those days; for if He had not, nobody would survive. For the sake of his chosen people, however, He has reduced those days.”
God’s people will be exposed to false prophets and teachers who will try to deceive them [MT 24: 22, 24]. We are told of the second coming, but not when it will happen in MT 24: 31, “The shofar [trumpet] will sound and God will gather His chosen.” This verse refers to the rapture. We can look forward to this event with eagerness. COL 3: 13-15 reminds us to be tolerant and forgiving with one another. Also, we are to do everything in the Lord’s name with love, for it is love which binds us all together in peace and perfect unity. Teach with wise accuracy and be thankful. Christ’s message in all its richness must live in your hearts. This is the true gift that helps us not to be swept away as dry leaves in the wind, the wind that can cause deception.
PRAYER: O Lord, You bless us with Your mighty and protective arm! How can we not be thankful? Your Biblical truths arm us against the lies and deception of false teachers. When we know what You say to us in the Scriptures, we are ready to recognize what is a lie and what is true. You are mighty enough to stop the judgments of the Tribulation for 30 minutes, while You affix Your seal to our foreheads, Your seal of ownership and protection [REV 7: 3b-4 and 8: 1-4]. You bless us with inner peace and unity. We are Your people, and we admit we are flawed, but faithfully obedient to You. The blessings that we, Your chosen, receive are beyond the power of the earthbound ordinary people. However, we are not better than them, just more blessed. Serially, rejecting You, is a sin we avoid, because we understand of Your wisdom as being superior to ours and Your generosity in sharing it with us. We want to take this time to honor, praise, and thank You. As the Lord Jesus said, in JN 15: 5, You are the Vine and we are the branches. We must remain connected to You, or we can do nothing. Our desire is to serve You with love and thankfulness in our hearts, so that You can do Your work through us. Let us be Your instruments, those chosen who can bring others to faith in You and refreshing salvation, though Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. It is in His name that we utter this prayer. Amen.
NEXT WEEK: I have been commanded by the Holy Spirit to write more on the life of God’s chosen people. There are a number of great verses and passages of Scripture that give us direction in this endeavor. I have a picture of my two sisters sitting on my desk. One, the oldest, is still with me on earth. However, our middle sister has gone home to the Lord. In the picture, both smiling as if having listened just before the picture was snapped to a very funny joke. I wasn’t with them at the time (they lived in MN while and it was after I lived there). It was just as if God had cracked the joke. The smiles they had are still with them, and I know in my heart that our middle sister is reminding us that, with our own faithful obedience, that we are part of God’s chosen, and we have something wonderful to anticipate that will be our afterlife together in heaven. That is how Christ has kept us from fearing physical death, because we won’t have to endure spiritual death. He has overcome it on the cross, not just for Himself, but also for all who believe in Him. We are truly blessed by a loving and generous God! The inner peace I feel and the unity I have with all other believers, helps me to deal with whatever lessons (challenges) that come my way. Christ uses His power for good, and we are forever grateful to Him for His loving intervention in our lives. He helps us to fend off lies and evil, so that we might one day live with Him forever. Thanks and praise to Christ Almighty!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn
JS 24: 15
© Lynn Johnson 2019. All Rights Reserved.
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