We know, dear brothers and sisters, that God loves you and has chosen you to be his own people. (1 Thessalonians 1:4)People in churches get to thinking that because they go to church and do all of the religious stuff that they are something special. They are not.
They are something special because they are in Christ and it is God who chose them to be that special person, that special group. It really has nothing to do with them.
Now it is fine to be proud of being in Jesus and in his grace. Nothing wrong with that. In fact, Jeremiah 9:24 says:
But those who wish to boast should boast in this alone: that they truly know me and understand that I am the Lord who demonstrates unfailing love and who brings justice and righteousness to the earth, and that I delight in these things. I, the Lord, have spoken!It is good to be glad you are in Jesus. The problem comes when you get to thinking that Jesus ought to be happy you are in him, that you are somehow doing him a favor by being in his church.
In Luke 18:9-11, there were two men who went to pray. One was a Pharisee and one was a tax collector. These were two completely different kinds of people.
Pharisees were the conservative rulers of the Jewish group. They were usually very proud of their holiness and their heritage. When they prayed in public, they like to do it in a public place where people had to walk around them. Some even had a guy with a trumpet that would blow it when they started to pray so everybody would know. Kind of like the guy who yells out his prayer before his meal in a restaurant so everybody can hear how holy he is.
The tax collector (publican in the old King James Version) worked for the Roman government on a commission basis. The Romans were an occupying army that demanded strong taxes from the Jews. The tax collectors took as much money as they could and kept whatever was left over after giving the rest to the Romans. Most Jews hated tax collectors.
The Pharisee prayed about how great he was and what all he did. It was as if God should be proud of him. The tax collector recognized that he was no good and wouldn’t even lift his eyes to heaven.
When Jesus saw them, he said the tax collector was the one who really prayed to God. The other one, the Pharisee, just bragged out loud about what he had done. There was no prayer there.
When we come to God, we come as broken people who have screwed up our lives beyond any way to fix them. And we give them to God to fix. We can do nothing in and of ourselves. It is all God’s doing, whether you are a rich businessman or a broke guy in jail. We are all the same in God’s sight.
He chose us and gave us the ability to accept that choosing. When we do, we are his children and we are his people. And he loves us.
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