Keepers and Rejects

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[font=Verdana]I ran across an interesting story on YouTube recently. It's about a man who grew up in a Christian home and attended a Christian church. He believed that Jesus Christ died for his sins and rose again. He believed in the Spirit birth about which Jesus spoke in John 3:3-8. He was baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; and he prayed to Jesus, confessing his sins on a regular basis. He had the assurance of his salvation and sincerely believed had eternal life,

Today that same man is an Atheist; and even though he explained why, it still puzzled me that an apparently born-again Christian could lose so much faith in Christ and the Bible.

But I had overlooked the fine print in something Jesus taught; which goes like this:

"All that the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will certainly not cast out." (John 6:37)

The man had come to Jesus; but apparently was not among those whom the Father had given him; therefore Jesus could not promise to take the man on permanently in accordance with his Father's will.

"I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of Him who sent me. And this is the will of Him who sent me; that I shall lose none of all that He has given me" (John 6:38-39)

I attended a Billy Graham crusade in San Diego back in August of 1976 and was frankly surprised at the large number of people coming forward that night to accept Jesus Christ as their personal savior. Well, looking back; I am now very curious to know how many of those that came forward were selected to join the fortunate ones that the Father gives to His son for safekeeping because anybody with a mind to can come to Jesus, but not all who do so are taken on.

"Many are called, but few are chosen." (Matt 22:14)

"Be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you" (2Pet 1:10)
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