Jesus said, “You didn’t choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain; that whatever you will ask of the Father in My name, He may give it to you.”
John 15:12-16 WEBU
Jesus Said I Chose You And Appointed You
In my first message about my Signature Testimony,
I wrote about how I prayed for a clearer understanding of what the Gospel meant because for years it seemed I had but a vague, intellectual grasp of its truth.
Although I prayed, and worshiped the Lord, studied the Bible, attended church, and had a sincere faith in Christ, yet still I suspected my grasp of the Gospel was shallow compared to the average Christian of only a few centuries ago.
I can’t recall where I first learned about an old tradition how long ago Christian families in some parts set a place at their table for the Risen Lord Jesus Christ as a visual reminder that their Savior is always the unseen member of their family who not only lives in their home, but also eats at their table, is also the Head of their Family, guides all their decisions, listens to all their conversations, and watches over and protects them from all evil at all times.
But in my mother’s college textbook, Christ in the Fine Arts, I found a beautiful painting representing this idea.
“Among the Lowly”, (c) by French artist Léon Augustin Lhermitte (1844-1925) seemed to represent this wonderful idea brilliantly. The book included a short essay that told the story about the painting and what it represented.
Note: (My husband found Lhermitte’s painting on a website so please look for the link at the end of this blog so you can view and meditate on its colorful imagery. I only have a black and white illustration of it in Mama’s old textbook but the web image appears far lovelier.) 
Our culture today is very different from the seemingly more stable days of old. And human beings never change, as the book of Job says, “Man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward.” Job 5:7-8
Any study of history reveals our sinful nature. Pride sweeps it under the rug, but it stinks nevertheless and will demand a reckoning ultimately from our Creator who is love, but also a righteous and just God.
People today often associate Christians in bygone days with all that evil.
This is because that which is shocking is sensationalized.
No one seems to find “…*what is good and pure and holy and just and of good report…” very interesting… so they rarely report on it… (*see Philippians 4 about what Christians should meditate on)
But the Church historically has been a positive influence on people for the most part. I once read that the atheist American author Mark Twain and agnostic British author George Eliot agreed that in general society needed the Church for the good effects it had on human behavior.
Most people seem to focus on the negative things the Church throughout history has done.
However, if I am a part of that church, would I want everyone to focus on all my faults rather than the good things I had done in my lifetime? For just as I do unto others, is how it shall be done unto me, God’s word promises and His Word never lies.
I began to study historic fiction and nonfiction. All of western literature, history, and the arts, reflects Christianity up until the millennium. One thing I was amazed to discover was that most of the church members (in middle class societies) regularly engaged in efforts to relieve the suffering they saw around them through good works, visiting the poor, the lonely, the sick, the shut in, the hospitals, and in times of war they were quite active in helping the soldiers and other needy. There would always be hypocrisy, sin, and so forth, for the church is composed of people who are not perfect, but forgiven.
We are saved by grace, through faith, not by good works.
Christ saves us by what He did, His good work of dying on the cross bearing our sins, and He saves to the uttermost all who come to God for salvation through Him.
He was made sin who knew no sin that we might become the righteousness of God who believe for salvation in Him.
That at last makes sense to me.
My focus I found needed to be on Christ, not on people who were imperfect and did not live up to my expectations or on myself who could never live up to any perfect ideal.
It was Christ alone who lived up to God’s will, to make me like Him, and would continue to chisel and sculpt and work on me as I carried His cross, and did the works He assigned me that as I abided in Him and learned His will, walking in His Spirit, coming to know Him, He would make me more and more like Himself.
I was becoming His masterpiece through the good works He had ordained for me to accomplish long ago to glorify Him and His Father on this earth.
It was the Lord Jesus Christ who had chosen me for this work despite my flaws and weaknesses.
I had not chosen Him. It was Jesus Christ who was perfecting this imperfect vessel He had chosen to honor Him through the good works He wanted me to do and then to proclaim it was He who was the One who had helped me accomplish them through me by His power within me, inspired by His Holy Spirit, to glorify our Heavenly Father, to proclaim His praises throughout heaven and earth.
Why?
Because He had invested His spotless blood in me and was now living in and through me, whom He’d made a member of His Body, a part of His chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a member of His holy kingdom in order that I might proclaim His praises throughout the earth…1 Peter 2
Christ had washed my soul in His spotless blood to become one of His precious Kings and priests to bring glory to the Heavenly Father through the good works He’d prepared before the foundation of the world for each one of His redeemed saints to sow as eternal seed on the earth that they might bear eternal fruit for His glory….
in the mighty name of their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
And it was He Himself, my Risen Lord and Savior, who wanted me to make it known that it indeed was the Risen Lord Jesus Christ, Inspired by His Holy Spirit to the glory of God my Heavenly Father, doing this work in and through me, as a witness of His life, that God is alive, a living God, not dead, as Madeline Murray O’hare had declared in the 1960’s.
I was His living witness, His creature, whom He not only created, but also redeemed with His own spotless blood, and who gave Him permission to live in and through me to declare these things.
Peaceangel Song 
You must be logged in to post a comment.