Many called, few chosen

New Guest: Like this one, most posts are devotional; those related to CAR BIZ can be found by searching for that title. You might start with 'Welcome,' the first post in the archives, dated November 12, 2008, where I introduce myself and the blog.

Friday, December 4, 2009
Devotions: Ps 16, 17, 22; Amos 5:1-17; Jude 1-16; Mt 22:1-14

Lord, my Refuge, I have no good apart from You. And I take delight in the community of Your saints. Those who choose other gods multiply their sorrows; YHWH alone is my Portion, and I have a wonderful heritage. I bless YHWH, Who counsels me; I keep Him before me, and I will not be shaken. For these reasons, my heart is glad; my soul rejoices; my body dwells secure. God has delivered me from death and conducted me on the path of eternal life; true joy is in God’s right hand. Lord, bring justice; circumcise and purify my heart; help me conform to Your path, and know Your love, power and joy. Keep me in Your love, hide me from despair and the wicked who seek my ruin. Confront the arrogant, my God, and deliver Your own from their clutches; I am satisfied to know and love my God. And I am devastated when I am separated from God by sin; He is holy, bathed in light; when I am apart from God, I writhe in agony, in darkness, in vanity. Others are content to let me suffer: ‘He claims God; let God deliver him.’ Amen to that, my Lord. You made me; You have kept me alive and prospered me to this time; I am poured out like water, and my strength drains away. Stay near, God, and deliver me. I will tell Your goodness to my brothers and sisters; I will teach my grandchildren about Your grace. Let all the earth turn to our God, and live.

Amos lamented: Israel is fallen, to rise no more, decimated by sin. YHWH entreats Israel: ‘Seek Me and live!’ Seek God, then, lest He break forth like a consuming fire. He Who made the constellations cares for us; YHWH is His name. The world hates the truth and those who speak it, but let us say what God tells us; seek good, not evil, so that we may live. And let us keep peace when no words can have effect. God is gracious, but God is holy. He hates empty religion and human traditions; our world’s misery flows from its sin and rebellion against holy God and His love.

Jude, James’ brother and half-brother of Jesus the Master, to the called and beloved of God the Father, kept for Jesus the Messiah: mercy, peace and love be multiplied to you! Contend for our faith against ungodly people who pervert God’s grace into licentiousness, and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus the Messiah. God saved a people out of Egypt; He purified them by destroying the unbelievers among them. He keeps the rebel angels in nether gloom until His day of judgment. God punishes sin: He destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah and their environs with fire from heaven, after their immorality and unnatural lusts defiled them. All these are examples of God’s punishment of wickedness. In the same way, these current false teachers defile the flesh, reject godly authority, and revile the glories. By contrast, the archangel Michael as he contended with the devil over the body of Moses, did not presume to pronounce a reviling judgment; rather, Michael said, ‘The Lord rebuke you!’ These men revile what they cannot understand; they are in for destruction, since they behave instinctually as irrational animals. Woe be upon them! They walk in the way of Cain; they join in the error of Balaam; they perish in Korah’s rebellion. These men are blemishes on your love feasts, carousing together and caring only for themselves. They are waterless clouds, driven by aimless winds; fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead and uprooted; wandering stars for whom the nether gloom of darkness has been reserved for ever. Enoch, seventh from Adam, prophesied about them: ‘Look! YHWH came with His holy myriads to judge all, and to convict all the ungodly of their godless deeds, committed in an ungodly way and of all the harsh things which the ungodly sinners have spoken against God!’ They are grumblers, malcontents, driven by their own passions, loud-mouthed boasters, flatterers seeking only their own immediate advantage.

Jesus continued His parabolic teaching in Jerusalem: The kingdom of heaven can be compared to this: a certain king gave a marriage feast for his son; he sent his servants to invite many to the feast, but the invited guests would not come. He repeated his invitation, sending other messengers, and making the invitation explicit: ‘Look! I have prepared a feast; my oxen and fatted calves have been slaughtered and everything is ready. Come now to the marriage feast.’ But those invited made light of the invitation and the occasion and the king: one went off to his own farm, another to his business; and the rest seized the king’s messengers, treated them shamefully, and killed them. The king became angry; he sent his army and destroyed those murderers and destroyed their city. Then he sent his servants out again: ‘The wedding is ready, but those first invited were not worthy to attend. Go out into the streets and byways and invite anyone you can find there.’ They gathered everyone, high and low, good and bad, so the hall was filled. But when the king came in and looked over the guests, he say a man there who had no wedding garment; the king addressed him: ‘Friend, how did you get in here without the proper wedding attire?’ But the man had no reply. So the king directed his attendant: ‘Bind this man hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness; there men will weep and gnash their teeth.’ Jesus concluded: For many are called, but few are chosen.