The Chosen

This has been a study on the back-burner for a long time. And finally, I am going to take a crack at it. The concept of God choosing me. The concept of being chosen by God.
Now, I do not know about any of my readers... but I know what it is like to be chosen as the last person for a team. I know what it is like to be constantly picked toward the last, or DEAD last... I know the feeling can be one of those feelings where a person can get sad about being picked late. I normally had the attitude of proving them wrong for picking me late. And I normally did. But what about the feeling about being chosen by God... Do I feel like I have been chosen by God? Do I act like I have been chosen by God? What would that look like, me being chosen by the Lord? Well, that is what I am going to search out in the scriptures. I don't know how long this study will be... if it is one that will be a short burst and fizzle out or one that will hit sixty editions...

Proverbs 1:20-33
Wisdom calls aloud in the street, she raises her voice in the public squares; at the head of the noisy streets she cries out, in the gateways of the city she makes her speech: "How long will you simple ones love your simple ways? How long will mockers delight in mockery and fools hate knowledge? If you had responded to my rebuke, I would have poured out my heart to you and made my thoughts known to you. But since you rejected me when I called and no one gave heed when I stretched out my hand, since you ignored all my advice and would not accept my rebuke, I in turn will laugh at your disaster; I will mock when calamity overtakes you- when calamity overtakes you like a storm, when disaster sweeps over you like a whirlwind, when distress and trouble overwhelm you. "Then they will call to me but I will not answer; they will look for me but will not find me. Since they hated knowledge and did not choose to fear the LORD, since they would not accept my advice and spurned my rebuke, they will eat the fruit of their ways and be filled with the fruit of their schemes. For the waywardness of the simple will kill them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them; but whoever listens to me will live in safety and be at ease, without fear of harm."

Proverbs 3:31-32

Do not envy a violent man or choose any of his ways, for the LORD detests a perverse man but takes the upright into his confidence.

Proverbs 8:10-11

Choose my instruction instead of silver, knowledge rather than choice gold, for wisdom is more precious than rubies, and nothing you desire can compare with her.

Proverbs 16:16-18

How much better to get wisdom than gold, to choose understanding rather than silver! The highway of the upright avoids evil; he who guards his way guards his life. Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.

I thought what better way to start this series than to check out Proverbs... wisdom is best explained in Proverbs. If I choose to not fear the Lord, I will eat the fruit of folly. And, it may not add up to much in this life, I may not feel all that too many consequences for my sin if I choose to act in such a way, but the next life, the afterlife, it always will.

Do not choose to act like a sinful man, a violent man, or lustful man. It is better to get wisdom, instruction and understanding than to pursue money. Try telling that to the US society. It is so difficult to not pursue the ways of the ca$h. Johnny Out.