Invited

 Happy Sunday!

"We are confident that God is able to orchestrate everything to work toward something good and beautiful when we love Him and accept His invitation to live according to His plan."(Romans 8:28 Voice).

I love the Word.  It's a pleasure reading well known scriptures in other translations and seeing them even more clearly.  I like how the Voice translation says, "accept His invitation".  God has invited us to live the good life with Him through Jesus Christ.  He doesn't force us to do it, or mandate that we must do it.  He simply invites us.  Jesus said, "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me."(Revelation 3:20 KJV).  What a gentleman!  Standing there knocking and not breaking down the door, or blowing his car horn from the street.  LOL.

Jesus told a parable in Matthew 22 about the Kingdom of Heaven.  He compared it to a king inviting guests to his son's wedding.  The original guests on the guest list ignored the invitation, disregarded the announcements and even roughed up the messengers.  "The king was very angry. He sent his army to kill those who murdered his servants. And the army burned their city."(Matthew 22:7 Easy-to-Read Version).  Then the king said, "The wedding feast is quite ready, but those who were invited were not good enough for it. So go off now to all the street corners and invite everyone you find there to the feast.’ So the servants went out on to the streets and collected together all those whom they found, bad and good alike. And the hall became filled with guests."(verses 8-10 Phillips).  Can't you just hear the deacons in the old church saying, "whosoever will, let him come"?   

But wait, there's more.  “When the king entered and looked over the scene, he spotted a man who wasn’t properly dressed. He said to him, ‘Friend, how dare you come in here looking like that!’ The man was speechless. Then the king told his servants, ‘Get him out of here—fast. Tie him up and ship him to Hell. And make sure he doesn’t get back in."(verses 11-13 Message).  The Voice Translation verbalizes what you might be thinking right now..."The man was speechless. He had been invited in off the street, after all!"  Right, he was invited just as he was, but he was expected to change.  God loves us just as we are, but He loves us too much to leave us as we are.  

Brother Andrew Wommack explained it like this, "God calls everyone to salvation but that doesn’t mean His standards are low. He calls and equips, furnishing all that we need to be in right standing with Him. But those who don’t put on that robe of righteousness by faith will be eternally separated from Him, regardless of whether they were in church among the true believers or not."  Matthew 22:14 says, "For many are invited, but few are chosen."(Voice).

Love and prayers, Cynthia