Scripture: 2nd Thessalonians 2:13
But we always must thank God for you, brothers and sisters who are loved by God. This is because he chose you from the beginning to be the first crop of the harvest. This brought salvation, through your dedication to God by the Spirit and through your belief in the truth.
Thought for the Day: So what if I wasn’t a part of the group who was chosen in the beginning? The whole debate on whether certain people are chosen and predestined started about 20 minutes after Jesus ascended into heaven. It is an interesting debate, but it also brings with it some pretty weird and even troubling theological questions about sin, evil, freewill, etc. My tendency is not to read such words in some sort of literal fashion, but think of such ideas in terms of an encouraging correspondence. It’s like a person writing to his/her beloved, and saying, “I loved you before I even met you.” How could that be? Such words speak to the nature of love and are not meant for people to create great systems to explain how such a thing could be true. When Paul writes about being chosen from the very beginning, I find myself pondering the Word that was in the beginning according to John’s Gospel. This Word of grace, love and mercy was speaking before there were ears to hear it, and by its very nature, this Word was calling out across space and time…calling and inviting every aspect of creation to join God in the work grace, love and mercy. Trying to create flow charts, maps and treatises to explain it is to miss the beauty and the point.
Prayer: Your Word, O God of the Universe, called to us before there was an us. You called to the cells, molecules and atoms to come together in life and form and beauty. This calling, that like you, has no beginning continues to reverberate within us so that every piece of our humanity might more fully align with you. Amen.
YOU STILL HAVE TIME
TO INVITE A FRIEND
TO WORSHIP THIS MORNING
