What a day! What a week! What a month so far! Father, my schedule has been full, to say the least, but You have surely been in the midst of it all. I have not been entirely overwhelmed but I am weary. Father, use me in it all despite myself. Amen.
1 Corinthians 1:1-2 (<<click here to read the passage)
I would think that at some point, and probably many points, in our lives we’ve been invited to be a part of something that maybe we’ve never experienced before, and other times it was something not totally new to our experience but in a different setting with different people.
When I was a freshman at Mt. Vernon Nazarene College, I saw an invitation to take part in a play – The Great Physician. It was a story built around the Biblical character of Luke, a physician by trade, who wrote the Gospel that bears his name and the Book of Acts.
The high school I attended from 10th-12th Grades didn’t do those kinds of things at the time, so this was new territory for me. I had a very small supporting role, but I must say it was a lot of fun. I played a slave owner, and my only line was “Stop! Or I’ll have you boiled in oil!” One thing that sticks out in my mind was they colored my brown beard with black mascara!
New friends and new experiences for a very naïve, wet-behind-the-ears young man, but I was welcomed into the “established” family of the theater. (The college at that time didn’t have a performance hall so we used Mt. Vernon’s Memorial Theater – a post-World War I venue.) What an experience! I’ve never done anything like it since, but it was wonderfully fulfilling.
I didn’t stop participating because I was not welcomed, but simply because my life went in different directions after that.
Later, after Karen and I got married and moved back to relatively close proximity to Mt. Vernon, we began searching for a church to attend. We visited a couple, and the initial visits proved unfruitful. They were good, solid, impacting churches with good pastors doing good things. But despite those things, the welcome didn’t stick. We soon visited another church and it fit us perfectly – so much so that we were an active part for 10 years, 5 of which I served on staff as their Pastor to Families with Children. It was a wonderful interaction with wonderful people, many of whom are wonderful friends, now 20-plus years down the road. They extended an open invitation – we accepted and were rewarded!
As the Corinthians were, so are we called by God to be his own holy people. Everyone has an open invitation from God Himself to be his holy people. All are welcome, none are rejected who come wholeheartedly before Him. We are made…holy by means of Christ Jesus. The Amplified Bible states that we are sanctified (set apart, made holy) in Christ Jesus.
I sure pray that you have accepted his invitation! It’s not complicated, just acknowledge your wrongdoings and accept Jesus’ free gift of salvation. Truly the rewards are out of this world fantastic! Eternity is before us but the earthly benefits of being a part of this family are incredible as well! I pray His welcome sticks!
Sept 13th, 2023, Wed, 8:17 pm
