Chosen

I Peter 2:9
....But you are a chosen generation......

Last night at Rapha, I had a break in all the action and was sitting in my office just thinking.
It was one of those times where the body had gone about as far as it could go,but the mind was still firing on a few of the cylinders. My thoughts began to drift to all the men who had come through the program, had been exposed to the truth of who Jesus was and what He was capable of doing....and had left the program and gone right back into the old lifestyle of using.
Some were still alive...
A lot of them were not.
So I began to ask "Why? Why is it this way? Why do some readily accept Jesus while others simply seem to play at recovery? Why do some thrive in this new relationship with Christ and others don't? As I was turning in my Bible looking for any answer to my question, I saw this....The truth takes root best in resistant soil. The following is what I wrote in my journal concerning this dilemma.
All of mankind is born with a resistance to God! As the Spirit of God works with each of us, our resistance is slowly chipped away. A verse we read...something someone tells us....an event in our lives...all are part of the chipping process. Sometimes the walls we erect to keep God out stand strong until at last we surrender to His call and His will. I do not understand how some can be totally resistant to the presence of God's Holy Spirit at work in them. They seem to have willed themselves beyond even God's Spirit. They seemed to be have willed themselves even beyond God's ability to save. I know that this isn't true, but it is a perception that creeps into my thoughts. We all know people who have died in their sins, proud and rebellious right up to the very end. They stand stubborn and unrepentant before their creator. We truly know that those who possess such a nature never have a good ending to their lives. They cross over into eternity to receive the wages they have earned by the life they have lived. The wages of sin is death. 

In this case, death is more than then end of life here in this time and space. Death becomes the door  we all pass through in which free will no longer exists. We now are left with the accumulation of decisions and choices that we made on this side of eternity. Decisions and choices that caused us to run counter to God's heart.

Why do some turn to receive Christ, and others don't? I don't know. I don't know if there will answer on this side to this question. I don't even like to mark those who I think may or may not have gained their salvation. I will just love...share the story...pray for and with...and watch God work. For years, I wrestled with my own salvation. I confess that I answered God's call to be saved on multiple occasions, each time getting up from that place of receiving feeling more lost than when I went to the front.  But I owe a debt of gratitude to the men who worked with me. Men who were patient and prayed with me and for me. Rev. Lewis Wood, Don Gentry and D.E. Hendrix all were very patient with this young soul, not turning away from me or turning me away, but rather receiving me each time, leading me into the presence of Jesus.

How can I do any less to someone who comes to be saved for the 18th time, than to show them the same kind of love? To show them patience and cover them with prayer the same as I received years ago. 

At the conclusion of all these deep thoughts and writings I had done, I made my way to the chapel for our 8 p.m. Bible study. God was there. At the end of the teaching eleven men came to answer God's call of being chosen. Pray for these eleven as they start this new journey in their new life.
God is good....all the time...every day.

God on you....
mb