Friday, June 1, 2007

God's Choice


Today's thought is the last of our reflections from the book, God’s Blessing for You. This one is also by Max Lucado, and is also from his book, The Great House of God.

“Long ago, even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. And this gave him great pleasure. (Eph. 1:3-5 NLT)

“And you thought God adopted you because you were good looking. You thought he needed your money or your wisdom. Sorry. God adopted you simply because he wanted to.

“You were in his good will and pleasure. Knowing full well the trouble you would be and the price he would pay, he signed his name next to yours and changed your name to his and took you home. Your Abba adopted you and became your Father.

“You and I both know that an adoption is not something we earn; it’s something we receive. To be adopted into a family is not a feat one achieves, but rather a gift one accepts.

“The parents are the active ones. Adoption agencies don’t train children to recruit parents; they seek parents to adopt children. The parents make the call and fill out the papers and endure the interviews and pay the fee and wait and wait. Can you imagine prospective parents saying, ‘We’d like to adopt Johnny, but first we want to know a few things. Does he have a house to live in? Does he have money for tuition? Does he have a ride to school every morning and clothes to wear every day? Can he prepare his own meals and mend his own clothes?’

“No agency would stand for such talk. Its representative would lift her hand and say, ‘Wait a minute. You don’t understand. You don’t adopt Johnny because of what he has; you adopt him because of what he needs. He needs a home.’

“The same is true with God. He doesn’t adopt us because of what we have. He doesn’t give us his name because of our wit or wallet or good attitude. Paul states it twice because he is doubly concerned that we understand that adoption is something we receive, not something we earn.

“God is no fair-weather Father. He’s not into this love-‘em and leave-‘em stuff. I can count on him to be in my corner no matter how I perform. You can, too.

“Your Father will never turn you away. It is right to call him Holy; we speak truth when we call him King. But if you want to touch his heart, use the name he loves to hear.

“Call him Father.”

No comments:

What is the Church?

The Apostle Paul would whole-heartedly answer that question as the Body of Christ.   And I think that all of us would agree with him But ...