God Chooses His People

I Thes 1:4 For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you,

The Apostle starts this verse with what they knew. He knew and they knew that they were loved by God. When you recognize the awfulness of our sin and how it is a stench before a Holy God, you become amazed that God loves you. God does not love us because we deserve his loved. But he in his mercy and grace has chosen to love us.

NOBODY DESERVES GOD”S LOVE   
Before I go into the hard part of this verse, I want you to fully recognize that no one has ever merited the kindness and love of God.

Titus 3:4-5
4 But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared,
5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,

What does it mean for God to chose?
How does God Chose?

>Does God Choose some people for eternal life, but not others?

Here  are quotes from different evangelical commentators who comes on different sides of the issue of Election. Election is God’s Choice of People for eternal life.

In Broad, we have God’s choice and People’s Choice.

“If we choose to be in Christ, we have been chosen by God. There is nothing  arbitrary, therefore, about election. Our choice makes us his elect.”
                         David Williams, New International Bible Commentary on I Thessalonians

“He has chosen”.... This is God’s sovereign choice of certain individuals...... prior to Adam’s appearance on earth.”  
                            Robert Thomas, Expositors Bible Commentary on I Thessalonians

Two evangelical commentators with exactly opposite view.
   
The overall issue as we look at How God Chooses is His Sovereignty.

The Sovereignty of God.
My current favorite illustration for the te Sovereignty of God is an umbrella. God is in charge covering it all. That doesn’t rule out genuine choice and genuine accidents under the umbrella.

Chuck Swindoll put it this way...
“God's calling the shots. He's running the show. Either he's in full control or he's off his throne.”  

The Spirit working in lives in conviction. The open invitation of Eternal life to all who will believe.

I am sure many of you would like to perfectly know how God’s Sovereignty and Man’s Free Will related to each other. SO WOULD I.   But do keep that healthy tension.
   
It is the EXTREMES that are unhealthy.

To heavy on God’s choice leads to….  Indifference to people’s spiritual condition
"God will save the pagans in His time."

To heavy on Man’s choice leads to……manipulating people into a “decision  or Christ.”
"We need to get them saved."


My personal convictions (repeated from previous post).

>If Christians witness, more people will hear and respond to the Gospel.
>If Christians obey God, they will pray and witness more fervently.
>If Christians pray more,   more people will be saved
>If Christians pray more, more circumstances will be changed for God’s glory.
>Dee Duke:     “Little pray, little blessing; much prayer, much blessing.”