The Chosen.. -- NEWS FROM YOUR CHURCH

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Date Posted: 13:25:39 11/13/07 Tue
Author: Anonymous
Subject: The Chosen..

Chosen

Warning: As doctors are fond of saying, this might sting a little.
Since I have to leave the house in exactly thirty minutes, so I can make a meeting I plan on attending, I will make this short and to the point. No, it could not wait, it burns in me and wants to be let out.

It seems to me that modern day Christianity has become a bastion for mediocrity. After men have failed at everything else in life, they seem to gravitate toward ministry, and depending on how much scripture they are willing to twist, how much they are willing to compromise, they even become moderately successful in the eyes of the world, and fellow believers alike.
Although the men of God in scripture varied in age, formal training, educational background, even size and shape, one commonality is that they were all chosen of God.
One does not choose ministry, one is chosen, and called into ministry. Throughout the Word, those whom God called in to the work, into ministry, realized what it was they were being called to.
It was not a life of glamor, of fortune or fame, but a life of rejection, of being misunderstood and hated, of being beaten, imprisoned, hunted and persecuted.
This is why I often wonder about those who sometimes approach me with sunny dispositions, and say they want to be prophets, and watchmen. I wonder if they realize what it all entails.
It is because those who have not been called, or sent have gained prominence in Christendom that there is so much confusion, so many ruined lives, and shattered hopes.
One who is chosen, is not called to enjoy but to endure, he is not commanded to placate but to rebuke. A chosen vessel, one who is accountable to God, already knows the path will not be easy, that few will heed, and many will dismiss the Word, but he has no choice, for to refuse the calling would be to disobey God.
Every man chosen of God realizes and acknowledges his shortcomings. Some such as Moses even attempting to point their limitations out to God, in the hope that He might find a more suitable candidate.
If we truly realized, deep in our hearts what it means to be chosen, there would be allot less people jumping up and down shouting, 'pick me, pick me!'
The sun shone down as Elisha labored, with twelve yoke of oxen, he plowed the fields, and as he lifted his eyes, wiping the sweat from his brow, he looked toward the desert and saw a man approaching. The man walked with hurried purpose, and as he passed by Elisha, the man threw his mantle on him.
In one instant, in the span of a breath, the life he would never lead flashed before Elisha's eyes, the appreciation dinners that would never be given in his honor, the familiarity of his own bed night after night that he would never know, the anonymity that came with simply being a man plowing his fields he would never enjoy. All the simple pleasures of a simple man, gone. All that he had envisioned his life would be, all the dreams and plans, all of them disappeared in the span of a few seconds as he felt he weight of the mantle upon his shoulders.
Apologetically, Elisha spoke to Elijah after running and catching up to him, and explained that the wanted to go and bid farewell to his mother and father, to kiss them one last time, then he would follow.
Then Elijah looked upon the man whom God had chosen as his replacement, the one who would now lead the school of prophets, and shrugging his shoulders he said, 'go back again, for what have I done to you?'
In essence he was saying, 'you don't have to explain yourself to me, I am not the one who chose you.' Elisha turned back from Elijah, took a yoke of oxen, and slaughtered them, cooked the meat, and gave it to the people to eat, then arose and followed Elijah and served him.
When God calls, when one is chosen, he must be prepared for both labor and sacrifice. In order that we may obtain the crown, we must first be faithful in both the yoke, and the cross of Christ.
Too many desire the crown, but refuse the yoke, and since the cross of Christ can often be heavy and cumbersome, they substitute it with a miniature one they can carry in their pockets, or wear around their necks.
One who is chosen learns very quickly that you cannot be sent of God, unless the knowledge that walking with Him presupposes the yoke, the burning, and the cross, is firmly established in the heart.
Many go whom God has not sent, many speak when God has not spoken, and many consider the mantle to be the means by which they will achieve popularity and fortune.
It is the reason for which so many ministers and ministries that seem to have started out on the right track, with godly principles, wander from truth so often, because rather than pray for humility and endurance, they revel in the thought that their ship has finally come in.
When one is truly chosen, and called into the ministry, he does as Elisha, he goes and with one last kiss severs the ties to the life that might have been, arises and follows after Jesus, wholly committed, wholly engaged, wholly obedient.

With love in Christ,

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