Many Are Chosen, but Few Are Called

I recall hearing Pastor Warren Wiersbe of Moody Church once say, “We shouldn’t worry because our government won’t allow children to have Bibles in school. They’ll make sure that they get free Bibles when they go to prison.”
While he said this tongue in cheek, there is still very eye-opening sober truth attached to it. Currently, our prisons are so crowded that the government doesn’t know what to do.
But if every family that claimed faith would start living what they say they believe at home, and if the men and women of our communities would stop worrying about being so politically correct that they act so wrong they are hardly ever right; perhaps we could stop some of the nation’s crime by nipping it in the bud before it ever got a chance to blossom.
To build a strong foundation for a just and socially healthy society, we must be aggressively intentional about investing quality time in our sons and daughters way before the cement has begun to harden and dry. 
There is too much saying one thing and doing another going on all around us. We are into making big spiritual speeches that lack any specific steps to put substance to those sentences.
God doesn’t want your words. He wants his will to become your way. I am not a big fan of people making speeches before the game ever begins. Prove it on the field. Show up for the daily battle. Be victorious first and then be vocal about it after.
Save your declarations after your sincere dedication has already made a significant statement.
It is about time that believers begin believing and leaders get responsible about their mentoring and modeling. Are we are going to invest what time we have left on this earth by repenting of our sin and admitting how far we have fallen from what God had called us to be and to do?
Or will we choose just to sink back and settle for staying busy by keeping up the facades and doing adequate cosmetic touch-up jobs of outer image repairing?
If we are not hopelessly devoted to the Lord, we will end up haplessly deceived by our self-centered hearts. Someone who does not have the Holy Spirit living inside of them cannot follow their heart with any hope of a positive result.
For without Jesus running the show, a person’s ego will always choose to be “Me First,” over allowing God to be “He First!”
What is truly going on in your home? If your house is a good deal like many other homes today then according to statistics, money is the god the family worships; children are good at stealing from their parents and lying about what they do, and family honor is a lost art, and the true God is unwelcomed and unwanted.
Pursuing pleasure will always be a temptation for all of us, and if it becomes number one, it will eventually preempt us from seeking the prize of knowing Jesus and putting him above everything else!
When “It is Written” becomes “It is Wasted,” life results in “It’s Not Worth it” and it just gets worse from that point forwards.
What is important when we get serious about reaching for goals and accomplishments is that we allow God to lead us and we don’t try to manipulate God by us supposedly leading Him.
One of the enemy’s most subtle devices is to cause Christians to become dissatisfied and disgusted with life’s circumstances and the area of service that God has given them.
“I should be better known.” “I should be in public more.” “I should be paid more.” “I should receive more praise.”
It is very subtle, but far too often Christians will not do a job because they think it is beneath them, or they will leave a church because no one pays enough attention to them, or they will pout because someone else is more important than they are.
If who we are and what we do is not about pleasing God, then it is being done for all the wrong reasons for all the wrong results. 
It must grieve the Lord today to see people worshipping the idols of ministerial “success”: statistics, buildings, and reputation.
In today’s “consumer society,” self-appointed preachers and “prophets” have no problem getting a following and peddling their religious wares to a church that acts more like a Hollywood fan club than a holy people of God.
The purpose of man’s empty religious efforts is to get access to God so that humans can get God to do what they want. The goal of true faith is to give God access to your heart so that he can get you to do what he wants.
Religion’s true purpose is to get God to serve you. The Gospel faith’s purpose is to get your heart to serve him.
Money can’t buy you, God. Sin may be fun for a season, but the party is eventually over, and bills must be paid.
If Jesus has not paid it all, then we die bankrupt. There are many things that can occupy our time and that you can be sure that there always will be. There are good things we can devote our lives to, but the most important things are the God things. 
When you do decide to step out from under your own passing fancy to commit to getting your agenda in line with Heaven’s to-do list, your schedule won’t be automatically clear. It never does.
Instead, expect and look for God to show up. He will give you extra wisdom, energy, resources, and strength.
While all those are cherished additions, the greatest treasure of all is that God will give you unlimited access to himself. Anyone ready to follow Jesus?
ED. NOTE: The author is the senior pastor of The Lighthouse Church, 1248 Route 9 South, Court House.