Being quiet and not athletically inclined, I was never among the first to be picked for team activities as I was growing up. The swift and strong were chosen and then the hopefuls who shouted, "Me! Me! Choose me!" If only those of us who remained had possessed the power to choose which team we wanted to be on!
Reading the early history of the Israelites again recently, I came across this Scripture. “Look, the highest heavens and the earth and everything in it all belong to the Lord your God. Yet the Lord chose your ancestors as the objects of his love. And he chose you, their descendants, above all other nations, as is evident today." (Deuteronomy 10:14, 15) God has a chosen people; I have known that most of my life. But what surprised me was another verse just a few lines away. "For the Lord your God is the God of gods and Lord of lords. He is the great God, the mighty and awesome God, who shows no partiality and cannot be bribed." (verse 17) How is it, I wondered, that the great and awesome, impartial God has an especially-loved, favorite people?
It is because, unlike the children who wait to be chosen by the team captain, we can choose to become chosen by this Lord of Lords! I am special to God—and so are you. I am a favorite of His—and so are you! The Apostle Peter writes to Christian believers scattered in exile throughout Asia Minor, probably not all of whom were Jewish. He said, "You are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light. Once you had no identity as a people; now you are God’s people. Once you received no mercy; now you have received God’s mercy.” (I Peter 2:9, 10) Paul made it perhaps even clearer, "There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and God’s promise to Abraham belongs to you." (Galatians 3:28, 29)
By faith in Christ, you and I become part of the chosen. "God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son.” (Ephesians 1:5, 6)
MaryMartha
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Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. United States of America. All rights reserved.
Email: mrymrtha@gmail.com
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