Do you remember the days, lined up against the school fence with two kids, the team captains, starring at you in the first of a long series of “drafts.”  Your only prayer is simple “Please Lord don’t let me be picked LAST!”  I mean what could be worse then being picked last.  Well….. what about not getting picked at all.  When the second last kid is selected and the other captain call out and says “Why don’t you just take them both.”

The pages of Scripture remind us that we are not left hanging on the fence, we have been chosen!  Jesus in John’s Gospel toward the end of his ministry reminds his disciples for the days to come that they have been chosen!

“You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.” John 15:16

This was not a new idea for them, they had long considered themselves to be God’s chosen people. This is a title given to them by God himself.

“For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.” Deut. 7:6

What a claim to be chosen out of all the people on the face of the earth,… his treasured possession!  But before you get all stuck on yourself or your people, Deuteronomy reminds us why they were chosen.

^” The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your ancestors that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments” Deut. 7:7-9

God’s reason is better then ours – we are chosen – simply and purely because God loves us!

And we are chosen for a purpose John says, “so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last“  So as you dwell and enjoy your chosenness, remember that you were also called out to bear fruit – fruit that will last.  May your life draw others to know Christ, and may the fruit of your life of faith impact the next generation with fruit that will last!

“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” 1 Peter 2:9

<>< Just a beggar on a journey.  Craig

There have been several times in my life when I wish I could go back and make a different choice.  It might very well have seemed like a good idea at the time but in the end.  Like the time I purchased a device from a late night infomercial, hey it was a great idea, and I ordered in time to get not one but two!

Mark tells us the account of a man who also perhaps wishes he could go back and make different choice.

⁴⁰ A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.” ⁴¹ Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” ⁴² Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured. ⁴³ Jesus sent him away at once with a strong warning: ⁴⁴ “See that you don’t tell this to anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.” ⁴⁵ Instead he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news. As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to him from everywhere.
Mark 1:40-45 (NIV)

Coming to Jesus for healing was the single greatest thing this man had ever done.  He had seen, and been part of an amazing miracle.  In Jesus day it was long understood what contact with an unclean person meant, the clean person became unclean in the encounter.  But this day it was God who turned the tables upside down, when contact with an unclean person meant that the clean person remained clean, and the unclean also became clean.  This was a complete reversal of flow, from clean to unclean.

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This is the first in a series of posts “beggars journey” as I simply share what God has shared and challenged me with on this humble journey through the Word.  My journey begins in Mark’s Gospel.

It is in the very first chapter of Mark’s Gospel,  the amazing account of Jesus driving out an evil spirit. In fact it is the first miracle that Mark records in his brief Gospel.

²¹ They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. ²² The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law. ²³ Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an evil spirit cried out, ²⁴ “What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are–the Holy One of God!”

²⁵ “Be quiet!” said Jesus sternly. “Come out of him!” ²⁶ The evil spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek. ²⁷ The people were all so amazed that they asked each other, “What is this? A new teaching–and with authority! He even gives orders to evil spirits and they obey him.” ²⁸ News about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee.
Mark 1:21-28 (NIV)

In this short retelling of the event I am struck by a simple fact. Even the evil spirits recognize Jesus “What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are–the Holy One of God!”  The question that comes to my mind today as I reflect on these words is simple, “Do I recognize Him?”  As I reflect on the times and ways that God moves in my life and speaks through his Word, I must ask if I recognize him.  If I don’t, is it due to the fact I have distorted Jesus into my own self made image of who he is.  Do i recognize him for the Eternal Son of God who rules with all sovereignty over my world.

I pray that on this Journey of Faith I would look not to my own ideas, but to the amazing portrait painted by Scripture of Jesus.  After all if we are to reflect Him to the world I better make sure that image I reflect looks more like Jesus and less like me!

<>< Just a beggar on a journey.  Craig