Men God Chooses

It is instructive to look at the origen of men God called in the Bible.
In so many of them there was a total lack of things which would seem basic for the fulfillment of their appointed task.

Moses, for example, outstanding among the Old Testament prophets,
    was born in Egypt, raised in the pagan household of Pharoah
        and then found himself cast away in the desert for forty years herding  sheep.

After entering Pharoah's household we read of none of the influences of God's people in his upbringing,
    and yet this was the man God chose to lead all the rest of His people,
        the man trusted to lead them through the wilderness to a land of promise.

Paul, in the New Testament, a leader among the apostles, and yet:
    he was born outside of Israel, in Asia Minor, in the city of Tarsus,
        he was born a Roman citizen, familiar with Roman ways.
            His spiritual birth was not in the church at Jerusalem,
                but was the result of God's sovereign intervention
                    outside of Israel, on  the road to Damascus.
After his conversion and early witness he was forced to flee,
    and then spent three years in the Arabia
        before he even met the saints in Jerusalem.

What does all this mean?
    It means that God is not limited to the ones who men would have chosen.
In a day when there is so much emphasis on "correct" interpretation,
    and correct forms in our worship,
        we need to consider hard the fact that spiritual truth comes
            not through the mind but through the heart.
Like Lydia by the riverside,
    it is those whose heart God opens  (Acts 16.14)
        that form the human foundation of His church.

It is so easy to get it all wrong.
    It is so easy to rely on human qualifications,
        but God is Spirit and only that which is imparted by Him has any value in life.
His church is a Spirit born church,
    and His true ministers minister by the Spirit of God.

How is it for all God's children?
    "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God."  (Rom. 8.14)

    There is a way for man to rise
    To That sublime Abode;
    An Offering and a Sacrifice,
    A Holy Spirit’s energies,
    An Advocate with God:
    
                  Again, for all of us, in all our life:
                  "As many as are led by the Spirit of God,
                  they are the sons of God."