Bruce Collins, Evangelist

The personal website of Bruce Collins

God’s Choice is (Almost) Never Man’s Choice

Meditation for the week of June 27, 2010

Acts 7:25 "For he supposed that his brethren would have understood that God would deliver them by his hand, but they did not understand.
Acts 7:35 "This Moses whom they rejected, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’ is the one God sent to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the Angel who appeared to him in the bush.

Joseph was chosen by God to protect his family when a famine became severe in the land of Israel.  Of course, he was resented by his brothers and was sold into slavery.  That act was used by God to put Joseph into a prominent position in Egypt so that he could save his family.  But before Joseph became his family’s deliverer, his own brothers tried to destroy him.

Moses was chosen by God to protect the nation of Israel after Joseph died.  However, when Moses tried to use his position and training to save one of his countrymen, they rejected him.  Again, before he became the deliverer God intended him to be, he was rejected by those who should have respected him.

The Lord Jesus was sent by God to be the Messiah and the Deliverer that had been promised to the nation of Israel.  However, he didn’t look like a king.  He wasn’t born into privilege like a king should be born, and He wasn’t raised in Jerusalem where a King should reign. He didn’t carry a gun or have an army like a king should have.  He certainly wasn’t the One the Jews were expecting so they crucified Him. 

Today, men still have trouble recognizing God’s deliverers.  Most are still rejecting the Lord.  Many have more faith in politicians than in the people who preach the Gospel and teach the Word when it comes to solving the problems of this world.  Often the ones with a desire to serve the Lord are discouraged because they aren’t “gifted.”  They may be like Moses and have a speech impediment  (Exodus 4:10) or they may be like Paul in the New Testament who apparently was rude or  “untrained in speech” {2 Corinthians 11:6).  David was not the son in Jesse’s family that Samuel thought God would call to lead the children of Israel.  He wasn’t tall and he wasn’t the oldest in the family.  But he was God’s man because God was interested in his heart and not in his outward appearance.

Today we have the people who know how to do the spiritual work of the Lord and they tell others how to do it, but often they are not willing to do anything themselves.  Then there are those who admit that they don’t have a clue as to how to do the work of the Lord, but they get busy and do what they can.  I would take any person with “heart”  for the work of the Lord over three people with great ability who don’t seem to have any burden to do it. 

I personally have experienced the joy that comes with knowing that I have been in the right place at the right time doing what the Lord asked me to do, even though I was not the popular choice.  I often get called to take conferences and meetings after the speaker that was really wanted either can’t get there or can’t work the meetings into his schedule.  I smile, because I know that men arrange but the Lord rearranges and I suspect that there is a reason why the Lord has arranged to have me be the “deliverer” when men wanted someone else with great ability and charisma.

We need to remember that the Lord was the Servant of Jehovah, but his own people rejected Him.  He didn’t have the kingly splendor that men desire in a King (Isaiah 53:2).  He was born wrong to the wrong parents and was raised in the wrong town.  He wasn’t rich.  But He was the One and the Only One who could be our Savior.  He was God’s choice!

If you are being prodded by the Lord to do something that needs to be done that others are not doing but that you don’t feel qualified to do, don’t tell the Lord “no!.”  You too may be God’s choice! 

Bruce Collins

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