Tuesday, January 25, 2011

"Chosen"

"Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you..." John 15:16a

I watched a movie about the life of Joseph the other evening. I have seen it many times before and read the scriptures about his life on several occasions. But for some reason this time it stood out to me what a notorious bunch they were- especially the sons of Jacob. When you look at their lives, they were full of faults. They murdered, were liars, deceivers, vengeful, proud, haughty, and the list goes on. Yet God made a covenant with them, made them a great nation and it was through their lineage that the Messiah would come.

Watching it gave me a renewed sense of encouragement. If the Lord would use people such as these to bless all the nations of the whole earth, then He can and will use me. The Bible says that He uses the weak and foolish things of this world to accomplish His purposes through.

As you look in the scriptures you discover that most of the people that He chose to fulfill His plan through were murders, prostitutes, weak, uneducated, fearful, and so on. When God uses the weak to display His strength through, when He uses the unlearned to display His wisdom through, when He uses the outcast and reveals His grace and mercy through, then it is evident that what ever was accomplished could not have been the person who accomplished it but God. There can only be one testimony to come out of it-- "That was God"! Therefore, no man can take the glory for himself. "Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus." (Acts 4:13)

Wherever you are, whatever you may have done, whatever faults you may have, you are still a candidate for the Lord's service. It blesses, encourages and causes me to love Him more, knowing that I can be so weak and yet He chose me. That should encourage you as well.

Have a great day. Regardless of who we are and what we have done, God still loves and chooses us as instruments to reveal His glory to the world.

For further reading:
Genesis 18:18; 22:18; 26:4
1 Corinthians 1:26-29
John 15:16
Deuteronomy 7:7

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