-God chose us. Think about that. If you are in Christ, that means that God chose you. Let’s just camp out here for a moment. Let that truth sink in. He wasn’t coerced into choosing you. He wasn’t obligated. He didn’t have to choose you. He wanted to. He wanted to choose you. He deliberately chose you. You. He wanted you. To be with Him. To be a part of His forever family. It wasn’t because of what you’ve done or haven’t done, or who your parents are, or where you went to school, or how you look, or how smart you are, or how big and strong you are. He simply wanted you. He is so for you. No more pity parties. No more looking down on yourself. No more of this negative self-talk. No more talking bad about this one He chose. God wants you, and He always has.
-Because note when it was that He chose you. This will blow your mind. Before you had breathed a breath or cried a tear or filled a diaper or done anything even remotely noteworthy, before you ever made your appearance on planet Earth, before you were conceived even, long before that, before the world was made, He chose you (Psalm 139.16). He has always wanted you, always loved you, always liked you a whole lot, and He always will. It does not depend in the least little bit on what you say or do or don’t do. He has always wanted you.
-He chose us in Christ to be holy and blameless. Chew on that for a minute. Holy. That which is worthy of worship, before which one would stand in awe, which is not to be profaned, containing not one bit of moral spot or stain or imperfection, thus also blameless. Completely without blame. There is nothing that anyone can point out in your life, no wrongdoing or misstep or unwholesome word or impure thought even. Nothing. Thoroughly unblemished. This side of heaven it is aspirational (1Pet 1.15), a state yet-to-be fully realized and yet gradually being manifested in me as I walk in step with God’s Spirit Who lives in me. And one day, when fully revealed in glory, will be something so inconceivably awesome that it would potentially inspire worship. To quote C.S. Lewis: “It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations... There are no 'ordinary' people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilisations -- these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit -- immortal horrors or everlasting splendours.” To be sure, God has chosen us to be an everlasting splendour...
-And this is before Him. In His presence, face-to-face, no pretense or veneer of religiosity, fully and finally naked and unashamed, the way we were and were always meant to be. We will stand before our Master and Maker and He will look at us and He will say, ‘Well done! Rejoice and celebrate with Me, now and forever!’ Yes, what a day that will be, when the pure and perfect thrice-holy God welcomes us into His sacred presence and embraces us with a huge daddy-hug which only our Abba-Father in heaven can give only to those He has washed whiter-than-snow, forever perfect and spotless in His sight. No longer and never again any need for hiding or covering up or pretending or apologizing. No fig leaves, and no fear. Only basking in the warmth and glow of His pure holy light, His amazing grace and everlasting love and acceptance. We will indeed stand before Him and see Him face-to-face as He really is - and we will be like Him, exactly as He always designed us to be. Forever holy and blameless. Everlasting splendour. Mind. Blown.
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