For it was you who formed my
inward parts;
you knit me together in my
mother's womb.

But now thus says the LORD,
he who created you...
I have called you by name, you
are mine.

The counsel of the LORD stands
forever,
the thoughts of his heart to all
generations.

Happy is the nation whose God is
the LORD,
the people whom he has chosen
as his heritage.

I will be their God,
and they shall be my people...
they shall all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest.

As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea - for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, 'Follow me and I will make you fish for people'.

This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ.

For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.

So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed a way; see, everything has become new!

Now if you are unwilling to serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve... but as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.

But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God.

Psalm 139:13; Isaiah 43:1; Psalm 33:11,12; Jeremiah 31:33, 34; Mark 1:16,17; John 6:29; 1 Peter 2:9; Ephesians 1:4 -6; Ephesians 2:10; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Joshua 24:15; John 1:12.
.....

AT THE GRAVESIDE of Willie Loman in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, one of the characters standing by says, 'He never really knew who he was.'

Who am I? Does anyone care about me? Where can I find meaning for my life? And after death, what then? Or, to paraphrase the philosopher Kant, Why is there anything at all? Why not nothing? The search for identity, love, meaning and immortality is as relevant and urgent for you and me as it has been for people down the ages.

Christianity begins by teaching that we humans are like God, made in his image. Although that image is marred by evil we have done, and evil done to us, God loves you and has a significant purpose for your life. You were planned, not an accident; God wants you to become a whole person in this life, and share heaven with him in the next.

So, as the Negro spiritual says, 'Get on board!' How? Start being nicer to people? Believe in Christianity? Go to church? Agree with certain dogmas? They're good, but if that's all you do you could be seduced into believing 'I'm just as much a Christian as anybody else!' No, being a true Christian starts somewhere else.

In essence, a Christian is 'called' by Christ and then chooses to follow him.

There are four ideas here: I am chosen, by Jesus Christ, but I also choose to obey him, my Master and Lord.

The early Christians often told the story of Peter, a fiery, quick-tempered fisherman. Jesus, whom he knew, said to him, 'I have chosen you to follow me: with a few others we're going to change the world!' Later he asked Peter and his friends, 'Who do you think I am?' Peter said 'You are the Christ, Son of the living God!' Peter often failed as a Christian, but Jesus kept after him: 'Do you love me, Peter? You've let me - and yourself - down. But come on, you're forgiven, let's start again. I've got a strategic job for you. Trust me, follow me, obey me: I will never leave you or forsake you - even to the end of time!' For 'Peter', substitute your own name...

1. You are chosen! Any friendship, or love affair, involves two people choosing each other. Christianity is a relationship, too, between you and Someone who has always loved you.

2. You are chosen by Jesus. Friendships or love affairs begin with the question: Who is this person? What's he or she like? Can I trust him or her?

So who is Jesus? He was a Jew from Galilee, a frontier province of the Roman Empire, and he claimed to have a very special relationship with God. He was truly human, but also, uniquely, the Son of God. Indeed, Christians assert he was and is God. If you want to know what God is like, look at Jesus; as the 'Jesus freaks' used to say, if God is like Jesus, nothing is too good to be true!

Now if Jesus is God, he created the whole universe (and you), he died for you, he cares for you, and he will be your judge! Problem is, when you've done wrong, you have not only sinned against yourself and others, but, supremely, against him too. So you must face up to that, by repenting. That is, you change your mind, and instead of rebelling against Jesus, you turn your life around and do what he wants you to do.

3. So you have to make a choice. Jesus invites you to 'come, follow me.' Your response can be dramatic (particularly if you've been running from him!) as with one of the early Christians, Saul, on the Damascus Road. Or it can be a gradual awareness that the Christian values you learned from childhood are true for you personally, and you make a quiet but serious decision to give your life over to Jesus.

4. Being a Christian is a sincere commitment to obey Jesus, whatever the cost. And there is a cost. How much? Everything! G.K. Chesterton once said it's not that Christianity has been tried and found wanting but that it has been found hard and not tried.

But let's get one thing straight: it's not Christianity as such you're committed to. Christianity has brought great good to our world (the notion of charity, the concept of inalienable human rights, the limitations of the power of the State, all derive from our Christian heritage). But Christianity as a religious system, said theologian Karl Barth, stands as much under the judgment of the Gospel as other religions. Sometimes, for example, Christians have backed an unjust ideology - like Nazism.

Nor is your primary commitment to a church or denomination, although you should belong to a Christian community.

No, you commit yourself to Jesus Christ, and follow other people and systems only as they authentically follow him. Study his life in the Gospels; ask 'what does he want me to do?'; do in your world what he did in his.

But you say, 'I don't have much faith.' No problem: most of the best Christians started with little faith. Faith grows as you exercise it. As you get to know Jesus better, and do his will for you, faith will grow.

Jesus said we come into his kingdom - or under his rule - as a child. We come to God as Father. Childlike trust is unafraid: perfect love drives out fear (1 John 4:18). Children are impressionable - they believe anything someone in authority tells them - so we, too, trust God in everything.

Children are willing to accept correction (Hebrews 12:7), so if times get tough, we tell ourselves again that God knows what he's doing: it's all, only, for our good

Children are expressive: they are spontaneous and uninhibited in the way they express their joy and their trust.

You're set for an exciting, hard adventure: hang in there!

Some Bible passages to study: Mark 1:16-18, Luke 5:1-11, 9:18-27, John 3:1-17. Then go back to Mark and read it through.
.....

Pascal once said there is a God-shaped vacuum within every person. How does a person become a Christian? The process is not difficult to understand. It can be explained as easily as ABC:

A represents the truth that all have sinned. It calls me to admit my sins. To be a Christian, I must acknowledge my sins.

B stands for belief in the Lord Jesus Christ. I must call on him, receive him, trust him, and worship him, recognizing who he is and what he has done for me.

C stands for something Paul requires in Romans 10:9 - I must confess that the risen Christ is my Lord and Saviour. That seals the transaction.

When I have admitted my sins, believed in Jesus, and confessed Christ as my Saviour, I am a Christian, ready to 'grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ' (2 Peter 3:18).

J I Packer, 'Becoming a Christian', in LaVonne Neff et al (eds), Practical Christianity, Wheaton, Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers Inc., 1988, pp. 26-27

Hi! You have made or are about to make, the most important decision of your life: to commit your life to Jesus Christ.

You are saved by God's grace (which has come to us in Jesus), through faith. Faith is trust. It's reaching out to receive Christ. So to become a Christian it doesn't matter how much faith you've got. It's the object of you faith that's important. God asks for your faith and then provides it. The faith he gives is not a blind leap into the dark. It rests on the one thing you can be sure of - God's loving faithfulness, his promise to do what he's said he would do.

Becoming a Christian won't solve all your problems: it may increase them! God's not going to give you everything you want (some things may not be good for you). You don't get a package that includes perfect health, success, popularity, prestige or financial blessing.

Faith means hanging on to a good God, knowing he has your best interests always in mind, and he'll see you through. Real faith accepts problems rather than demanding always to be freed from them. God will be with you in your trials: he may deliver you from them, or through them.

Joni Eareckson Tada became paralyzed after a diving accident. She has matured remarkably since then, and having bedsores for nine months wasn't funny. Her problem has remained, but God has used it to open up a remarkable ministry to disabled people through her.

Corrie ten Boom was not rescued from the Nazi police in Holland, but had to endure the privations and tortures of a prison camp. Since then her strong faith has been an inspiration to thousands.

Rowland Croucher (from an unpublished sermon).

A Christian is someone who responds to the call of Christ. First and always Christianity is a relationship to a Person. In that sense it differs from great world religions like... Hinduism, and it differs from Communism and the other rival secular faiths that compete for our allegiance today. All these direct our loyalty to a theological system, a code of ethics, a philosophy or an ideology, but Christianity alone directs our loyalty to a Person. Where Christ is, there is Christianity, and the Christian is a person who tries to be a follower of Jesus Christ.

A. Leonard Griffith, What is a Christian?, London: Lutterworth, 1962, pp. 11-12.

The foundation of the Christian faith is a person - Jesus Christ. In this, Christianity is different from most other major religions. Almost all the others are based on a philosophical proposition - something to believe or adhere to. Christianity is based on the identity of its founder, Jesus Christ...

If you took Buddha out of Buddhism, you'd still basically have Buddhism; if you took Confucius out of Confucianism, you'd still have Confucianism. These are both ethical systems. If you took Muhammad out of Islam, you'd still have Islam, because it all depends upon Allah, not Muhammad. But if you took Christ out of Christianity, you would no longer have Christianity, because Christianity is Jesus Christ...

Josh McDowell, 'Jesus Christ: The Foundation of Faith' in Neff, pp. 180 - 181.

Let's say you see a lake with ice on it. It's only about a quarter of an inch thick, but if you really believe, the ice will hold you, won't it? Of course not. You can have all the faith in the world, but if the object of your faith, the ice, is unreliable, you will fall into the lake.

But suppose the ice is two feet thick. You, However, have little faith. You say, 'Boy, I don't know if I should walk out there. But by faith, I guess I'll do it.' Your faith is small, but the object is trustworthy. You go out on the ice, and even though your faith is weak, the ice holds you.

My salvation is not based on my faith; it is based on who Jesus Christ is... The important factor is not the amount of your faith. It is the fact that you put your faith in Jesus Chrtist. And that makes all the differecne in the world.

Josh McDowell, 'A False Concept of Faith' in Neff, p. 183. ....

God, I give you my life, my future, my job, my friendships, my marriage and home, my body and soul. Augustine of Hippo wrote centuries ago that God wants to give us a great gift. He wants to give us the gift of an intimate relationship with him. He wants us to enter the fullness of his life, the love, joy, and peace within the Trinity. But he can't give it to us because our hands are full. What are they full of? They're full of ourselves. We must put ourselves down and stand before God with empty hands before we can receive his gift... It is the faith of a child that enables us to offer empty hands to God.

Kenneth Swanson, Uncommon Prayer, NY: Ballantine, 1987, p. 197

How can ordinary people respond to this extraordinary call? Where do we begin? We begin as Peter and Andrew did. We begin by turning our back on all that captured our time, energy, and resources. We begin by turning and following Jesus. We begin by sitting at his feet and learning from him. We begin by recognizing that God is and that God reaches out in love through Jesus Christ to bring us back to our Creator. Once we decide to turn to God, we must, like the prodigal, also turn away from the past. We must, in repentance, turn away from all that was destroying us, our lives, and relationships, and through the One who died in our stead find new beginnings and forgiveness of our sins.

Tom Sine, Taking Discipleship Seriously: A Radical Biblical Approach, Valley Forge: Judson Press, 1985, p.23.

We cannot partake deeply in the life of God unless we change profoundly. It is therefore essential that we should go to God in order that he should transform and change us, and that is why, to begin with we should ask for conversion. Conversion in Latin means a turn, a change in direction... Conversion begins but it never ends. It is an increasing process in which we gradually become more and more what we should be, until, after the day of judgment, these categories of fall, conversion and righteousness disappear and are replaced by new categories of a new life. As Christ says, 'I make all things new' (Revelation 21:5).

Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh, 'Meditation and Worship', in John Garvie (ed.), Modern Spirituality: An Anthology, London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 1986, pp. 36,37.

According to the text in St John (17:3), eternal life is in knowing God, not in knowing that we know God.

John Garvey (Ed), Modern Spirituality, an Anthology, London, Darton, Longman and Todd, 1985, p.62.

Christians are not atheists; they worship God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The state has nothing to fear from them. Christ's kingdom is not of this world. The empire has no better subjects than the Christians - look at the change in their character and their lives since they left the service of demons. They pay tribute, give to the poor, avoid swearing, and love everybody.

Justin Martyr, First Apology James C Hefley, 'A Defender of the Faith' in Neff. p.96.

He picked up the book, and was amazed by what he read. A calm and moving meditation on the Cross began to make everything plain. Christ himself had paid the price of sin. The new birth was a gift, not a reward; George had only to accept it. But he could not surrender all his efforts. Days passed until a morning came when he threw himself on his bed and uttered his first cry of utter helplessness - all previous prayers had been conscious attempts to win God's favour.

Suddenly George Whitefield realized he was happy - and knew why: he had thrown himself, without reserve, into God's almighty hands, and someone unseen had removed his burden and replaced it with the joy of God's presence. George laughed aloud at the simplicity of it...

John Pollock, 'The Awakening That Spanned Two Continents' in Neff, p.97
.....

Praise to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have been given new birth into a living hope by the raising of Jesus Christ from the dead.

We are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a dedicated nation; we are a people claimed by God to proclaim the triumphs of Christ.

Christ has called us from darkness into his marvellous light. We who were not a people at all, are now God's people. We who were outside God's mercy once, but now we are blessed and forgiven.

Kneel in prayer to the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name; that out of the treasures of glory God may grant us strength and power through the spirit in our inmost being; that Christ, through faith, may dwell in our hearts in love.

A New Zealand Prayer Book, Auckland, Collins, 1989, pp.117, 121.

Thank you, Lord God, for calling me to your service, and adopting me into your family.
Loving Lord, I commit my whole life to you:
Holy Father, help me to become the person you destined me to be;
Victorious Jesus, conquer my fears and resistance;
Holy Spirit, teach me your truth;
Master, I'm yours:
take me as I am and make me what you want me to be.
.....

A Benediction: And now may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you.