Tag: chosen

Sleeping lamb cuddled gently in human hands
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The Shepherd’s Pursuing Love

krisshetter 
“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
He restores my soul.” Psalm 23:1-2

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” John 10:11

In the last week of my BSG’s study on the Book of Ruth, Pastor Alistair Begg asked, “When have you, like Ruth, wondered, ‘Why?’ about God’s providence and generosity?” It was interesting that most of our group answered with the negative in mind—“Why did this terrible thing happen?” But Pastor Begg was actually pointing to Ruth’s honest confusion in response to unexpected kindness. In Ruth 2,

“I (Boaz the farmer) have told the men not to lay a hand on you. And whenever you are thirsty, go and get a drink from the water jars the men have filled.”

At this, she (Ruth) bowed down with her face to the ground.  She asked him, “Why have I found such favor in your eyes that you notice me—a foreigner?”

She wasn’t questioning punishment; she was marveling at kindness in light of her position.

Chosen With Love

My own “why” answer to the study question was along the same lines—a question I often thank God for in my life: “Why did You choose me when I didn’t even know You? Why have You blessed me so richly and changed me for the better?”

In past posts, we’ve talked about the importance of remembering. For me, it has been essential to my sanctification. When I look back on my life “before Christ,” I remember the ways I sought comfort apart from God, especially in sexual immorality. To that I added anger, unforgiveness, pride, and selfishness. And I still at times, now that I am “in Christ,” ask: why?

“In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” 1 John 4:10-11

And this is His answer: He loved me while I was still a sinner (Romans 5:8). Just as He loved you, dear friend—not after you cleaned up your act, but before. Before you were even born. It’s hard to grasp that kind of love, isn’t it? Maybe that’s why so much of the world rejects it. It can’t possibly be true—and yet it is.

Our Loving Shepherd

As I considered today’s post, I thought about simply including all of Psalm 23—the familiar “The Lord is my Shepherd” psalm. I’ve always found it interesting that it’s so often associated with death, when it speaks so richly about life and love; the good life held in the arms of our loving Shepherd.

“Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
    all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
    forever." Psalm 23:6

What a comfort to know this love. A God who loved us before we were born and who follows us all the days of our lives!  A Shepherd who protects and provides for His sheep—and His sheep know His voice. This God is Jehovah-Raah: the Lord is my Shepherd.

No matter how long we’ve walked with Christ, we can look back and see moments we’re grateful He loved us—even then. Some are blessed to have known that love early; others, like me, recognized it later. Either way, His timing is perfect. As I’ve slowly grasped what His love means, chains have broken, wounds have healed, and my love for Him has grown year by year.

In a post from a while back, we talked about God the Creator. On the sixth day, He crowned His creation by making humanity in His image and declared it not only good, but very good. And with that began a love story—a love that never leaves us or forsakes us. When we turn our backs, He still calls, “Come back to Me, your Shepherd.”

“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” John 10:26-33

How beautiful is this picture of God’s love for us—to be held secure for all eternity. Today, let us rest in the love of God: the One who defines love, who is Love; the God who loved you then, loves you now, and will love you forevermore.

Dear Heavenly Father,

I come before You with a humble heart, recognizing that Your love is the foundation of all existence. Your love is beyond measure, beyond comprehension, and it surpasses all human understanding. I am in awe of Your boundless love that extends to every corner of creation.

Lord, I pray that Your love may envelop me completely. Fill every fiber of my being with Your unconditional and transformative love. Let it penetrate every thought, every word, and every action. Help me to experience the depth of Your love in every aspect of my life.

I surrender myself to Your love, knowing that it is the greatest force in the universe. Thank You, dear Lord, for the immeasurable gift of Your love. May it be my constant source of strength, joy, and peace. I offer this prayer in the name of Jesus, who embodied Your love fully. Amen.

Author Unknown, Bibleversesnow.com

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Selfishness vs Selflessness

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I recently heard a riff off of Martin Luther’s theology of baptism: “I was drowned in the water of baptism but that sucker can float.”  Picture your selfish flesh coming up like a zombie out of the water each morning.  The battle of being fully sinful and fully cleansed commences.  A battle that will not be won until the day Jesus returns and raises us from the dead.  Sounds a bit disheartening doesn’t it? 

Each day we face the prospect of allowing the world to take control of our thoughts and actions.  Our desire to be vengeful, a worry-wort, greedy, immoral, and selfish sits at the end of the bed beckoning us like a zombie siren song.  

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Ephesians 6:12

When I was a child, our cartoons frequently portrayed this great battle.  The everyday man, when faced with even everyday choices found a little devil and little angel sitting upon his shoulder.  So often the devil would seemingly win.  Why? Because he brings the shiny things.  The opportunities for immediate gratification, fame and glory.  What the cartoons also portrayed is the angel’s way always wins in the end.  The gratification of self always led to some sort of personal destruction.

For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice. James 3:16

The problem with the cartoons was it showed “obeying” the angel as less fun and satisfying.  Isn’t that what so many of us really think when we talk about obeying God?  Removing the fun out of life.  Becoming monk-like in our ways.  James describes disorder, lack of peace, lack of love.  Those don’t actually sound like fun while the opposite does.  So I harken back to the previous post’s question, “Who do you love and admire?”

When we honestly answer that question we can then get to the root of our desires.  As a professing Christian our desire for “the good life” should come from a desire to selflessly love and worship God, not ourselves. 

How great is your (God) goodness that you would choose us, and predestinate us to be conformed into the image of your Son, that he might be the first-born among many brethren, and we the happy brethren who should be transformed into his likeness!

Charles Spurgeon

We are God’s chosen.  He brings you out of the water cleansed every morning, ready to put on your full armor of God (Eph 6).  Ready to please and love God, not the water zombie at the foot of the bed.  We stay close to Him by soaking ourselves in His Word.  Watering our roots deeply so our branches grow strong.  We talk to Him throughout the day in prayer so the Holy Spirit can guide us in our fruit production.  We thank Him at every possible turn so our good fruit can bless others.

We humans know, it’s implanted in our hearts and souls, that our selfish ways are destructive.  But the pull is so great.  It can only be counteracted by turning our face toward our Creator.  Relying on Him as the broken, sinful people we know we are.  To become selfless we need to be less of ourselves and instead more as people yearning to grab ahold of God’s saving mercy and grace pulling us up from the waters into His arms.

Coming up: The result of goodness

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Amazed by Ordinary

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Jesus Rejected at Nazareth

“When Jesus had finished these parables, he moved on from there. Coming to his hometown, he began teaching the people in their synagogue,and they were amazed. “Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers?” they asked.“Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t his mother’s name Mary, and aren’t his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas? Aren’t all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?” And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own town and in his own home.” And he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith.” Matthew 13:53-58

At first glance, these verses seem like just another story of Jesus teaching in a synagogue, healing the sick, and amazing those around Him with His wisdom and power. Yet, what amazed the crowds in this story the most about Jesus is just how ordinary he was. 

Jesus is teaching in his hometown of Nazareth. Here, the people watched Him grow up; they knew him as a small boy. They knew of his humble carpenter background, that his family was not from riches, and that his brothers and sisters were also just that – ordinary. They couldn’t believe that someone who looked just like them could speak of such wisdom and perform such miracles.  

Jesus’ humble arrival on earth, first in a manger then as a carpenter and soon on a donkey, was all intentional. As Paul writes to the church in Corinth: 

But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.

1 Corinthians 1:27-29

God uses people just like you and me – ordinary people – as lights in this darkened world. He used His son as the ultimate example of what is looks like to be an ordinary person (though we know he was far from ordinary), who can also bring great glory to God while being rejected, persecuted, and cast out. People like Paul, Timothy, Titus, John– the list goes on — are all examples of God using the foolish to shame the wise. 

“After all, the thing that looks most ordinary might be the thing that leads you to victory.” 

Matt Haig, The Midnight Library

I often struggle with “imposter syndrome.” I tend to think that I just got lucky with jobs, opportunities and such and find it hard to believe I really deserve the things in my life. I often live in fear of being “found out.” What if I’m not the professional they expected me to be? What if I’m not the Christian they thought I was? While there are many complexities to these thoughts, the biggest aspect is that I struggle to believe that God really trusts me with His Word and the responsibility of sharing it and shepherding others. 

The amazing part? We can find freedom from the lies that tell us we aren’t good enough or don’t deserve to be a part God’s chosen people BECAUSE God calls the ordinary. We must always remember this: He qualifies the called, not calls the qualified. 

So today, I encourage you to stand amazed by God’s grace towards ordinary people like you and me. Let us be astonished that our God is near to the lowly, sees the weak, and cares for the ordinary.