Not you choose Me, but I choose you, and I appoint you, that you may be going away and be bringing forth much fruit, and your fruit may be remaining, that anything whichsoever you should be requesting the Father in My name, He will be giving it to you.
Johns Account 15: 16, Concordant New Testament
It's been said that there are consequences with the choices that we make in life, and I agree. In fact, there are those in the Christian community who have confused the consequences for the choices which we make for the anger of God. That our lives will be in turmoil because God is somehow angry with us. No, for there are consequences for each and every choice that we make. If we fall into financial difficulty after making a habit of visiting strip clubs, it's not God is somehow teaching us a lesson, we simply made the wrong choice in the first place. It's that simple. But I was thinking this week that our own life in Christ is a direct result of another choice. The choice which Jesus made when He chose each of us unto Himself {Johns Account 15:16}. Too many Christians will toss around the phrase that they somehow "Chose Jesus." No, Jesus CHOSE YOU before the world was formed. It is well known that we are created in the likeness of the Father {Genesis 1:27}. Therefore, He has been a part of us from the beginning. We have been predestined as sons of God through Christ Jesus {Paul to the Ephesians 1:5}. So, if indeed there are consequences to the choices that we make, what are the consequences for God for having chosen us? Well, first and foremost, we are to live in union with Jesus and the Father {Johns Account 14:20}. As a result of the Father choosing us unto Himself, we now live IN HIM {Paul to the Galatians 2:20}. Gods intent for us was never to live in separation from Him, as was the lie spoken by Satan in the garden. From the beginning we have been meant for a relationship with the Father through Christ Jesus. This is the consequence of the choice which Jesus made when He called us unto Himself. We will never choose Jesus, He has already chosen us.
According as He chooses us in Him before the disruption of the world, we to be holy and flawless in His sight.
Paul to the Ephesians 1: 4, Concordant New Testament
Another consequence of our being chosen by the Father is that we no longer live in sin. If you have ever wondered how God sees you, just read the words of the apostle Paul in Ephesians. Paul has proclaimed that God chose us from the beginning that we would be holy and flawless IN HIS SIGHT {Paul to the Ephesians 1:4}. Paul also tells us that through Jesus we are to no longer "Slaving for sin" {Paul to the Romans 6:6}. Therefore, despite the choices which each and every one of us make in life, God is never angry with us. God never allows His anger to run over into our lives. For God has CHOSEN to reveal unto us His one true nature, which is His love {First Epistle of John 4:8}. It is His love in which we now live in union with Him. Growing up in the mainstream church, this would have been a foreign concept to me. For I lived in fear of angering God with the choices I made. Nevertheless, each time I made the wrong choice, I simply blamed the consequences of my choices on the anger of a God who loved me. But this is what I had been taught that God was like. I thank the Father that my eyes have now been opened to His true nature. That He does not look upon me with a disapproving eye, but with a love I am only now beginning to understand. This is His choice for me.
"Religion has actually convinced people that there's an invisible man living in the sky watching everything you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list of ten things He does not want you to do. And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place, full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where He will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry forever and ever until the end of time! But He loves you."
~George Carlin~
~Scott~
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