Thursday, June 21 ~ “CALLED By Name”

Thursday, June 21  ~ “CALLED By Name”

John 15:12-17

This is my commandment: love each other just as I have loved you.  No one has greater love than to give up one’s life for one’s friends.  You are my friends if you do what I command you.  I don’t call you servants any longer, because servants don’t know what their master is doing. Instead, I call you friends, because everything I heard from my Father I have made known to you.  You didn’t choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you could go and produce fruit and so that your fruit could last. As a result, whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give you.  I give you these commandments so that you can love each other.

– John 15:12-17

We have been called to leave the building, called to imitate Jesus, and called to make more disciples of Christ.  But now, we are called in a wonderful way that we did not expect.  We are called by name into friendship with God.  Who ever dreamed that the Creator of heaven and earth (and all the rest of the breathtaking universe) would love us as precious children?  That is the very love that was so great that God gave God’s only Son so that we might have abundant life as the loving subjects of God’s heavenly kingdom.  But then, Jesus gives His disciples a new commandment – to love each other as we have been loved by God.  And Jesus says that if we do love one another, even laying down our lives for one another, then we can be friends with Jesus.

Every Christian, or person who follows the Lord Jesus Christ, is a servant.  But God has called us to be more than servants.  We are called to be God’s friends – a deep, mutual, loving relationship with God.  That is what salvation is really all about.  Through Christ’s death and resurrection, God saves or frees us from sin and death so that we can discover greater friendship with God.  Jesus, the Lord of heaven with the Father and Holy Spirit, has made the kingdom of heaven begin breaking into our current world.  The closer our world comes to God’s kingdom, the closer we become to God.  As we help to bring God’s heavenly kingdom into focus through our prayers, presence, gifts, service, and witness, our friendship with God grows.  The world becomes more beautiful.  People begin to be kinder to one another.  And our struggle becomes more bearable because we know that we will never be alone.

God chose us and calls us out by name to be God’s friends.  God has shared every blessing with us.  And if we are truly friends with God, we will naturally love and serve each other more and more.  In Jesus’s words, “You didn’t choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you could go and produce fruit and so that your fruit could last.”  Do you feel that you truly have this friendship with God?  If you want to fan the flame of your friendship with God, or if you want to learn about or seek friendship with God, just pray for God’s guidance, listen for God’s voice, and definitely go tell this desire to leaders in the Church.

Blessings,

Daniel Collins