In the matter of God's choosing, it is evident that only those appointed to eternal life believed, as seen in the events at Antioch of Pisidia. This appointment, or ordination, signifies that God has predetermined certain individuals to be summoned to salvation, while others are not called at this time. He, by His Spirit, supernaturally calls and separates some from the rest, revealing Himself and His way to them alone. This act of selection is not based on any inherent quality or merit within those chosen, but solely by His sovereign will. God's choosing is further illustrated through the history of Israel, whom He selected as His covenant people, freeing them from Egypt and guiding them to the Promised Land. Their journey shows that success was entirely due to His intervention, not their own strength or worthiness. Similarly, with us, He predestines the end goal of eternal life, yet leaves the manner and choices along the way to our free moral agency. He wills that none should perish, yet some will, as their choices lead them away from His path, just as many Israelites perished in the wilderness through disobedience despite His desire to bring them into the land. This divine selection does not mean every act of a person's life is predetermined by Him. While He has willed the ultimate outcome for those He calls, the steps taken are influenced by individual decisions. Like a parent calling a child from a group for a specific purpose, He summons us with a goal in mind, but how we respond and the choices we make are ours to determine. He continually guides and corrects us, ensuring we align with His will, yet He does not force every action. Moreover, His choosing is not due to any pre-existing faith or virtue in us. He selects the foolish, the base, and the despised, not the wise or mighty, to demonstrate that it is His action alone that brings us to belief and salvation. Faith itself is a gift from Him, enabling us to believe and empowering us to overcome. Out of the same mass of humanity, He ordains some to eternal life, granting them faith, while others remain uncalled at this time, not because of any difference in them, but because of His sovereign decision. Thus, there is no cause outside of His own will that moves Him to make us the special objects of His love. Human nature may seek reasons within ourselves for His choice, but there is no evidence to support this. His decision to call us is hidden within Himself, humbling us to recognize our unworthiness and to respond with gratitude and obedience to His sovereign grace.

From the very beginning, God establishes that He is the Creator, the central figure in all of life, with all purpose and potential flowing from Him. He reveals the sovereignty issue, where each person must decide who will be loved and obeyed, determining character and the image in which they will be formed. Out of His nature of love and wisdom, He has already determined what is right and beautiful, limiting our free moral agency to choosing whether to submit to His predetermined standards. He urges us to be serious and deliberate in choosing, sharply defining the issues as obedience or disobedience, life or death, good or evil, with no neutrality in matters of morality. God is constantly moving His creation toward the conclusion of the purpose He determined from the beginning, intervening and making adjustments in the course of events, both national and personal. He sets the bounds of nations' habitations and their times, managing and governing His creation. He turns the heart of the king wherever He wills, influencing decisions to direct entire nations according to His purpose. No king is strong enough to turn Him aside, for all governmental control is under His hand. He permits or brings events to pass as part of His overriding purpose, and His will shall be done, regardless of human efforts to oppose it. In the matter of calling into His family and salvation, He chooses some and not others, determining the order of each person's contact with His grace. He makes one to differ spiritually, opening the eyes of those He elects to believe unto salvation, granting the faith that saves as a gift. He chooses on the basis of His own will, not revealing why He selects one over another, whether within a family or a nation. As the potter has the right to shape His clay as He desires, so He shapes His creation according to His purpose. He desires us to glory in humility and thankfulness for the opportunity given to so few, to be humbled before Him and willingly submit to His way, ensuring through His power and grace that we become in His image and sons in His kingdom.

God's choosing is a profound act of divine purpose, evident from before the foundation of the world. He chose us in Him, as stated in Ephesians 1:4-6, to be holy and without blemish before Him in love, predestining us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will. This appointment, determined in eternity, reflects His perfect plan to create us in His image and likeness, calling us as firstfruits of His incredible design. The certainty of God's purpose is unwavering, as He declares the end from the beginning, according to Isaiah 46:9-10. His counsel stands, and He accomplishes all His pleasure, demonstrating His absolute omniscience. Romans 8:28-30 reinforces this, affirming that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those called according to His purpose, for whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son. This divine appointment is not eternal predestination but an ordered plan, as seen in I Corinthians 15:22-26, where each is made alive in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then those who are Christ's at His coming, until the end when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father. Jesus Christ Himself emphasized this in John 6:37, 39-40, and 44, stating that all the Father gives Him will come to Him, and no one can come unless drawn by the Father, to be raised up at the last day. Further, in Matthew 13:11-13, Christ reveals that the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven are given to some, while others do not see or hear, highlighting the selective nature of God's calling. John 15:16 underscores this personal appointment, as Christ declares that we did not choose Him, but He chose and appointed us to bear fruit that remains. God's chosen are described as a royal priesthood and a holy nation in I Peter 2:9-10, called out of darkness into His marvelous light, once not a people but now the people of God, having obtained mercy. This calling extends to a future role, as Revelation 20:4-6 speaks of those in the first resurrection reigning with Christ for a thousand years, blessed and holy, over whom the second death has no power. Ultimately, God's plan encompasses all mankind, each appointed to live according to the truth at their designated time, as seen in Revelation 20:12-15 and 21:1-7, where a new heaven and new earth emerge, and God dwells with His people, wiping away every tear, fulfilling His purpose from before the foundation of the world as the Alpha and the Omega.

Salvation is limited to those specifically called and sanctified by God for salvation, and denied to all others. God clearly reveals, especially in the New Testament, that mankind does not believe Him, and a large portion will not accept this simple truth unless they are specifically called. God dogmatically claims in Romans 3:10-11 that nobody on their own truly seeks Him, as mankind is so confused about God that they do not know which specific characteristics or purposes to seek among the multitude of gods available. Nobody can force themselves upon God, determining who will be in His family and kingdom by their own standards. A person born with a carnal mind cannot have free will to submit to God's law unless God deliberately adjusts the person's mind in His calling, granting understanding and willingness to submit. According to John 1:12-13, it is the clearly named Son who gives those who honestly receive Him the right, authority, power, and privilege to be in God's family and kingdom, and these are not born by the will of the flesh, but of God. In John 17:20, both the Father and the Son, who are of one and the same mind, call and choose those They want. The Father's calling of individuals is personal, drawing them to the Son, while the Son chooses the placement of the called one within the church, as He did when appointing the apostles, clearly stating that they did not choose Him, but He appointed them.

God's choosing is a profound demonstration of His unchanging nature and sovereign will. He is faithful to us individually and to the church as a body, as affirmed in Malachi 3:6, where it is declared that He does not change. This consistency establishes a pattern that provides a solid foundation for our relationship with Him. It was God, and Him only, who elected and called Abraham. It was God, and Him only, who chose Isaac over Ishmael, making Isaac the child of promise. It was God, and Him only, who elected, loved, and chose Jacob while rejecting Esau, even determining this choice in the womb before Jacob had done anything to influence it. This pattern of divine election extends to everyone He calls into His church, with His reasons remaining within His own counsel, not based on any good works we have done. Rather, like the deceptive Jacob, we are chosen despite our flaws, and God intends for this election to become the dominant driving reality of our lives. The elect, as described in I Peter 1:1-2, are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. This foreknowledge is not merely predictive but reflects God's sovereignty in determining and influencing His decisions according to His purpose. His overall purpose is to create a family Kingdom in His Son's and His image, including the decision to save mankind generally and, more specifically at this time, a smaller group known as the children of promise, which is the church. Jesus Christ Himself was foreordained before the foundation of the world to be our Redeemer and Savior, as seen in I Peter 1:20 and Isaiah 42:1-4, where He is called God's Elect One in whom His soul delights. This predetermined purpose is further confirmed in Acts 2:22-23, where Jesus' death as mankind's Savior was part of God's determined purpose and foreknowledge from the beginning. In Ephesians 1:4-7, it is revealed that He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world to be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will. Furthermore, in Ephesians 1:11, we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will. This election underscores the intensified way the church is blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, highlighting our intimate union with Him and the personal involvement of both the Father and the Son in our lives. God's choosing, rooted in His foreknowledge and predestination, shapes our identity and purpose, calling us to live as part of Christ's body and to focus on the heavenly realm from which our election originates.

God's choosing is a profound demonstration of His sovereignty, evident from the very beginning of creation. As the Sovereign Creator, He initiated the universe, earth, and mankind, and works toward a goal where He will be all in all, with every knee bowing to Him and every tongue confessing His authority. Scripture reveals in Hebrews 1:1-3 that the Father made the worlds through the Son, who upholds all things by the word of His power, sustaining and guiding the course of history and creation itself. Isaiah 46:9-11 further emphasizes His ability to declare the end from the beginning, ensuring that His counsel stands and His purposes are fulfilled, even overriding human will when necessary. Ephesians 1:3-5 and 1:11 highlight that He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless, predestining us to adoption as sons according to the good pleasure of His will. This predestination aligns with His purpose, as He works all things according to the counsel of His will. Similarly, II Thessalonians 2:13-14 affirms that God, from the beginning, chose specific individuals for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. Acts 13:48 illustrates this by noting that as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed, showing that appointment precedes faith, entirely outside human control. Revelation 17:8 reinforces this individual selection, stating that specific names are written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world. I Peter 1:2 describes believers as elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, chosen for obedience and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. Romans 8:28-30 adds that those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, calling, justifying, and glorifying them, reflecting an initial honor and light of truth in their lives as they radiate Christ's life. Despite this divine selection, God's choosing does not negate human responsibility. He sets before us life and death, blessing and cursing, as seen in Deuteronomy 30:15-19, counseling us to choose life but leaving the decision to us. His sovereignty provides the opportunity and means, but not the guaranteed outcome, as names can be blotted out of the Book of Life if one fails to remain faithful. Like a perfect Parent, He hedges us in, limiting our options to guide us along the narrow way, yet we must love Him enough to cooperate, making choices that align with His purpose to ultimately hear His commendation and enter into His joy.

In His boundless love, He chose us in Christ, selecting us for Himself as His own before the foundation of the world, so that we would be holy, consecrated, and set apart for Him, purpose-driven and blameless in His sight. For those chosen by Almighty God, He not only knew us in our mother's womb but had implanted a pre-decided plan and purpose for our lives, involving a lifetime of sacrifice or service to our spiritual siblings. This plan and purpose had been established by Him from the very beginning. As a reminder, He selected us for Himself before the foundation of the world, consecrating us to be set apart for His divine intent. To those who have received His calling, He has enabled access to precious truths and mysteries, revealing secret insights as we yield unconditionally to Him and are interwoven with Christ. Though we are all damaged goods at the moment of our calling, He takes satisfaction in repairing, refurbishing, and adding value to our pitiable lot, fashioning and redirecting our natural talents from self-centered to other-centered purposes for the greater good of the Body of Christ.

God's choosing is a profound demonstration of His sovereign will, which operates beyond human initiative or merit. God, under no circumstance, ever lies, and His purposes are serious for each person, as affirmed in Numbers 23:19 and I Kings 8:56-57, where not one word of His promise fails. Contrary to human belief, no one seeks after God on their own, as stated in Romans 3:10-11, because they do not know what to look for. Jesus Himself declares in John 15:16-18 that His followers did not choose Him, but He chose them, appointing them to bear fruit. This truth is echoed in Romans 9:16, where it is clear that God's calling is not a matter of human will or effort, but of His mercy alone. God's sovereignty is absolute, irresistible, and infinite, impacting every aspect of life for those who live by faith. He exercises His right to govern the universe, shaping individuals as a potter shapes clay, with no obligation to account for His actions to anyone. His mercy is directed by His will, not by human deserving, as seen in Romans 9:13-15, where He loved Jacob and hated Esau before either had done good or evil, purely by His sovereign choice. God's love is not equal for all; He loves His converted children above others, as clarified in the context of John 3:16, where the world He loves refers specifically to the converted. Through His sovereignty, God extends mercy even to those under Satan's influence, as described in Ephesians 2:1-5, calling them despite their wretchedness and making them alive with Christ by grace. His decisions vary, as illustrated in John 5:1-9, where Jesus healed only one man among many at the pool of Bethesda, with no apparent qualification or appeal from the man himself. God's will determines the time and manner of His actions, often in ways that are inexplicable to human understanding, yet always righteous and loving in purpose.

Looking back at the many different twists and turns in our lives, it is evident that God has directed our paths in numerous ways. Many times, it must be acknowledged that God indeed placed us right where He desired us to be. God the Father does the choosing of whom He desires to be in His house, as Christ Himself stated that no one can come to Him unless the Father draws them. We do not find God; rather, He finds us and selects us as His precious living stones to be a part of His spiritual house. Peter speaks of believers as a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and God's own special people, called out of darkness into His marvelous light. This selection is exclusive, highlighting the rarity and privilege of being among the chosen, a very small percentage of all who have ever lived. As living stones, rejected by men but chosen by God and precious, we are being built up into a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. In the scriptures, we see that God chose the tribe of Levi to serve as priests, setting them apart for the highest responsibility of caring for the Tabernacle, His dwelling place. They were not numbered among the other tribes for war or other duties because God had specifically chosen them for this sacred task. Similarly, we, as God's chosen, are called to guard His truth and uphold His law, ensuring that sin is removed from our lives to maintain the purity of His dwelling. Our calling is extraordinarily valuable and special, granting us direct access to the Father through our High Priest, Jesus Christ, who has torn away the veil and opened the way to the Holy of Holies at any time. Only those whom God the Father has chosen can come to Him on the authority of Jesus Christ. We must strive every moment to uphold the name of our High Priest, who gives us unlimited access to the Most High, His Father and ours, so that we may indeed become a holy nation, God's own special treasure.

Considering the variation of ourselves that could have happened if we were not pulled out of the world, we are to reflect on how negative our life could have been. Let us remain steadfast in God's commandments with gratitude for Christ's sacrifice. We see from Deuteronomy the depth of His love that He had for His rescued people from the slavery of Egypt, while expecting from them the diligent keeping of his commandments. Of course, Christ has that same intense love for spiritual Israel too. His sacrifice has saved us from our rotten natures. We are to take the same message of how love is expressed both directions in that relationship. While our love cannot equal the depths of God's love, we can return an intense form by keeping those commandments. We see it is considered an act of hate to treat His laws carelessly. God saved us from our life of sin, and we accepted the rescue; it is time to show gratitude and give an offering along with following the other statutes.