You have been chosen
Published 5:04 pm Saturday, June 2, 2018
By John Warren
I just spent three days at a church conference in The Woodlands. It was a conference of the United Methodist Church. As with many churches, many things are relative.
There are some fractions in our church as in most churches, and why wouldn’t there be?
If you look back at Jesus and his 12 disciples they were fractured also.
Jesus words to Judas and the other disciples were “This is my body and this is my blood whenever you break bread and drink from the cup remember me and know you are forgiven.” (My paraphrase).
It was only after this that he said to Judas, “go and do what you have to do.”
It was not “Get out of here I will no longer have anything to do with you.” The same grace he offered to the other 11 he offered to Judas.
What I love about my church is it’s beautiful understanding of God as a God of grace.
Most folks assume that faith is just a matter of choice, in that we can choose to believe in Jesus or not to believe in Jesus. It is something we can decide when we feel like it.
Just believe, but according to the Bible there is more to it.
We come to faith in Jesus only by the gracious invitation of God.
In fact, God’s grace is working in the world and in our lives before we even perceive it is happening. God is seeking the opportunity if only we would notice for us to come to a relationship with him.
Jesus says in John 3:35-37,39 “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. But you haven’t believed in me even though you have seen me. However those the Father has given me will come to me, and I will never reject them . . . And this is the will of God, that I shall not lose even one of all those he has given me, but that I should raise them up at the last day.”
The good news for us is that God is always searching for us waiting for us like the Father waited to see his wayward son walking down the road and he ran out to greet him.
That Father is waiting for you.
John Warren is Senior Pastor at First United Methodist Church, 502 North 6th Street in Orange.
