The more I interact with professing Christians, and I interact with a great number of them, either at work or by emails, I become more and more convinced that to most Christianity is simply the religion of their culture. They are Americans because they were born in America, and they are Christians because Christianity happened to be the only religious concept to which they were exposed from their childhood on up. Had they been born in Japan they would be Japanese Shintoists. Had they been born in Iran they would be Iranian Muslims. Had they been born in Nepal they would be Nepalese Buddhists. One might think, well that naturally follows. No great revelation given there. But those who are Christians due to their firm allegiance to Jesus Christ see things a bit differently. Those who fully understand and comprehend what the holy scriptures have to say about God’s “elect” and those Jesus Christ called His “sheep,” realize that regardless of where they had been born and reared they would still have been guided unerringly by God’s Spirit into the Christian faith. They might have been the only Christian in their village or province, but they would still have been exposed to God’s Word in some fashion and would have been drawn to it like iron filings are drawn to a magnet.
Remember, Jesus Christ plainly said, “My sheep hear my voice and they follow me.” And they believe Him, too. They are not staggered by any of His claims or promises. They know that with Him NOTHING is impossible, whether it be giving sight to one born blind or raising from the dead one who has been dead four days and is now corrupting and his stench fills the tomb wherein he has been laid. A diagnosis of cancer is received with the same calmness as a diagnosis of athlete’s foot! An elect believer really and truly believes. They do not require signs of corroboration. Their Master needs no verification or proofs that what He has promised He is able to perform. They are believers who believe even when all evidence available to their five physical senses assault that belief.
Never in this life will I ever remotely grasp why my Creator chose to preserve my life into its now eighth decade, nor will I come to understand why He instilled in me a ravenous hunger and love for His Word, the Bible. I shall ever be mentally staggered by His choice to blot out my thousands of sins and bring me into a continued life of obedience to Him and His Word, and then to anoint me as a teacher of that Word. I would have thought myself to be the most unlikely of candidates.
And if God had not included verses 27 through 29 in the 1st chapter of I Corinthians, I would never have written my first word on the things of the Spirit. Here are what those verses say: “But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence.”
Christ’s Faithful Servant (Galatians 1:10-12),
Donald Wiley