"The Invitation"

 "Again the next day after, John stood, and two of his disciples; and looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God!" (John 1:35-36 KJV) 

  "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else. I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, That unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear. Surely, shall one say, In the LORD have I righteousness and strength: even in him shall men come; and all that are incensed against him shall be ashamed. In the LORD shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall glory." (Isaiah 45:22-25 KJV)

  Again, is another way of saying, Here is another chance to move! I know now that I would not have listened, had not the Holy Spirit prompted me to move; this I know because of what I heard, was not intended for my ears to hear, but for my heart to listen. I have tried to think back to the night before, or even that day before; thinking if there had might have been some sort of prior warning, or maybe some thoughts of my need to find some answers. 

  Regardless of what might have been my motivation, the invitation was impossible to resist! To try and explain it, it was as if I had no choice; my heart said go and my body got up off of my bed and went! If there was any sort of hesitation, then my feet began to move faster; almost as if there was another person within me that caused me to keep going and not to stop. 

  This is what I believe John and Andrew experienced; as we shall see, this was not just a choice; if you really want to get technical, it was a command that came from within their hearts! And yes, John is the other disciple, in case you missed the introduction. I really don't need to get into the discussion about reading things into the Bible; because truth be told, the Bible reads into us! 

  As I listened to several messages yesterday, I was quite surprised how many of them were in line with the message I had yesterday morning; not because they had been given the same message, because many of those messages were prerecorded, and some were from brothers that have already gone home. They all seemed to have the same basic message, that God's word is the Word of God! Some even had technical facts about the percentage of those that believe the Bible is God's word and those that do not.

  Did you know, if you believe that the Bible is God inspired and true, that of those who say they believe in God, you are a very small minority? I mean, I thought it was maybe closer to 50% or maybe at least closer to being a majority; but it sounded to me as though the speaker said less than 20%. Wow, I can see now why those stuck in the cults and so stuck! 

  Back to something I touched upon the other day, before I was thrown of course: John the Baptist might have insisted that he did not know who Jesus was before he baptized Him, but clearly he did know Him! There was a Spirit within John that could not deny who Jesus was! How else do you think the Bible was written! Or don't you believe God was the Author of His WORD...

"Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every other name: that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of the Father." (Philippians 2:9-11 KJV)