Who are God's chosen ones? About the attitude of the Lord God towards many called and small chosen ones, and also about the fact that love is fading from the diminution of communication. Who are the people chosen by God.

Our world is full of secrets and mysteries. For example, walking down the street, you will never be sure that an ordinary person is walking towards you. Perhaps this is a wizard, a werewolf or a vampire who knows how to hide his essence well. Perhaps you also felt that you were not like the others and clearly different from the majority. How do you know that you are not a person, but a supernatural being who has unusual abilities? Let's find out this question, let's see how such creatures differ from ordinary people.

People with unusual abilities, magicians and wizards

There are many such people, and there is evidence for this. So, there are people with telekinesis, mediums, soothsayers, magicians, sorcerers, etc. How to understand that you have hidden abilities of this kind?

• You have a very developed intuition. You have a good premonition of the future - both good and bad, before making an important decision, you can feel the result. You also have a good sense of other people, their characters and moods, you recognize the energy of people, animals, objects, places.
• You predict the future, you can see it in a dream, or suddenly images of events appear before your eyes, which then happen.
• You see things that most people can't. For example, it can be ghosts or the aura of people and objects.
• You can move objects with your eyes.
• You can take off.
• Magical practices are good for you, you manage to conjure, you guess well (everything predicted comes true).
• You can read the minds of people and animals.
• With the help of energy, you know how to influence people - for example, to convince someone of something, to cure a person without drugs, to act on an enemy, worsening his mood and condition.

To find out that you are not just a person, but have some of these abilities, watch yourself, try to learn something unusual from the list above. You may notice some strange things behind you.

Classic and Energy Vampires

To find out that you are not a person, but, say, a vampire, you need to understand how vampires differ from people and check if you have their features.

Features of classic vampires (information taken from legends and opinions of many people):

• Vampires have two sharp fangs.
• Vampires drink blood, blood is their source of nourishment.
• Vampires really don't like werewolves.
• They can move quickly and are very strong.
• Vampires are pale, thin and charmingly beautiful, they have a special external charm.
• Vampires have a magical penetrating gaze.
• The vampire does not like to go outside on a sunny day, the sun destroys him. He much prefers the night.
• Many vampires consciously choose to be alone because they love it.
• Vampires don't get sick. When a person becomes a vampire, he becomes prettier and his diseases disappear.
• They are not reflected in the mirror and do not cast shadows.
• Vampires are smart and intelligent.

It is difficult to judge for sure whether classic vampires exist now, but there are definitely energy vampires, and there are quite a lot of them. How do you know if you are an energy vampire? Watch how you communicate with other people. Here are the signs of an energy vampire:

• Such a person is fueled by the energy of other people during communication. After communicating with an energy vampire, the interlocutor feels a breakdown, deterioration in mood, fatigue, he may get sick. The vampire, on the contrary, becomes more cheerful and cheerful, he is charged with energy, he has a lot of strength.
• During communication, an energy vampire tends to look a person in the eye, get close to him, touch him. The vampire receives the most energy when he manages to awaken strong emotions and feelings in the interlocutor, and negative ones are better - irritation, anger, anger, resentment, jealousy, envy, etc. When a person shows these emotions and feelings, the vampire eats with pleasure the received energy.

Werewolves

How do you know you're not a human but a werewolf? You are a werewolf, if all this is about you:

• A werewolf can turn into a predator (more often a large wolf) during a full moon and at will.
• Werewolves are very strong and fast.
• They do not like vampires and are eager to kill them.
• Werewolves do not age and do not get sick, because the tissues of their organisms are constantly updated.
• They are smart and cunning in the pursuit of victims, werewolves are eternal predators and hunters.
• Werewolves are wary and circumspect, often loners, but may seek to form packs.

It is worth saying that werewolves are imaginary. If the werewolf is imaginary, then he is sick with lycanthropy. Lycanthropy is a magical disease that causes changes in a person's body that turn him into a wolf. Lycanthropy can also be mental: in this case, the human appearance does not change, but the person begins to seriously consider himself a wolf or other animal.

Mermaids

And how do you know that you are not a man, but a mermaid? Here are the signs of a real mermaid:

• The mermaid is beautiful. In most cases, this is a thin young girl with very pale skin and long hair. Mermaid hair can be silver or greenish.
• Mermaids can turn into animals and various objects, if necessary.
• Mermaids, of course, are very fond of water, love to swim and bathe. It is believed that when a mermaid touches the water, her long tail grows instead of legs.
• Mermaids are endowed with magical powers that can be used both for good (to help nature) and for evil (there are, for example, many legends about how mermaids captured men and dragged them to the bottom of a reservoir).
• Mermaids love to be in the fields and forests, get together, dance, sing, weave wreaths, comb their hair.

So we looked at some of the signs of supernatural beings. If you meet certain of them, then know that you are not just a person and have abilities that are unknown to most.

The issue of predestination and free will has long been discussed in the body of Christ. Many believe that God has already chosen those who will be saved, and that no one will be saved except for these people. According to this view, the essence of salvation no longer lies in the fact that a person by faith accepts the gospel proclaimed to him. Of course, he must hear and believe, but he can do this only because God "predestined" or "chosen" him to be saved. Without such "election" or "predestination" from above - in the sense of preferring one person to another, not chosen - this person could not be saved. Therefore, God alone decides ultimately who will be saved and whom He, according to this teaching, "predestined", i.e. chosen for salvation. Those whom God has chosen will be saved, but those whom He has not chosen (in other words, those whom He has denied salvation) will not be saved. Such an explanation is, of course, very convenient, since it places all responsibility in the process of salvation on God, who, according to this doctrine, "already preselected those who must be saved." And if you're reluctant to preach His Word to others... that's okay! God knows this, and if a person is destined to be saved anyway, He does not have to bring him to you. In the end, all who need to be saved will be saved... by God's will. Personally, I think that, despite all its seeming convenience, it is also a very wrong and dangerous teaching. I also think that the fact that many believers are passive about the gospel is, at least in part, to blame for it. Christians simply lose the sense of responsibility for spreading the gospel, because, according to the doctrine of predestination, in the end, all who are destined to be saved will be saved. I strongly disagree with this view of things. I believe that the Bible teaches us that God gave His Son for ALL people, which means that He decided to give salvation to everyone. Therefore, the view that God preferred some over others in the matter of salvation cannot be correct.

Salvation: God's Plan for Everyone

To understand what God wants when it comes to salvation, let's start with 1 Timothy 2:4. This verse says:

1 Timothy 2:4
“... to our Savior God, who wants, for all people to be saved and have come to know the truth."

Whose salvation does God want? What is His will regarding salvation? What does he want, what does he want? As the passage says, He wants, wants all people to be saved! “All people” means EVERYTHING. He did not prefer some people over others, giving His Son only for the elect. But He gave His Son for all people, for everyone living on Earth, and He wants everyone on Earth to be saved! This is His will, desire and election. In the same epistle, in verses 5 and 6 we read:

1 Timothy 2:5-6
“For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who betrayed himself FOR THE REDemption of ALL. [Such was] the testimony in its time.”

How many people did Jesus Christ give Himself up to redeem? Not for the redemption of some, but for the redemption of ALL, brothers and sisters. Jesus Christ paid for everyone, and that was precisely His purpose - that everyone could taste salvation. And if so, then wouldn't it be a contradiction to say that God chose only some of these all for whom He gave His Son, and did not choose (and therefore rejected) the rest? Imagine that you went to a prison, each prisoner of which is very dear to you personally. Imagine that, out of love for these prisoners, you paid the highest price you could—for God, that price was His Son—for their release. How many of them would you like to see free after that? I think EVERYONE. Now imagine that some of those who were released decided to stay in prison. How would you feel if you heard about it? Perhaps you would be very sad? After all, you paid the highest price! You want their freedom! Personally, I would be very upset to learn that they chose prison over freedom, and I think God feels the same way. He gave His Son, the most precious thing for Him as a ransom for all of us, and, imagine, He really wants everyone to take advantage of this right to freedom. He wants to free everyone "...from the power of darkness" and bring us all "into the kingdom of his beloved Son" (Colossians 1:13).

The oft-quoted famous passage of John 3:16 says:

John 3:16-18
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, so that EVERYONE who believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world, to judge the world, but that the WORLD might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged, but the unbeliever is already condemned, because he did not believe in the name of the Only Begotten Son of God.

God loved the WHOLE WORLD (in our analogy with the prisoners, this would mean: He loved ALL the prisoners, not just some) and for the whole world, for EVERYONE, He gave His Son. For what? "THAT THE WORLD WILL BE SAVE THROUGH HIM." In giving His Son to die, God did not intend to do it just for a few, He did it for all mankind! He wanted to release not a group of individual prisoners, but absolutely ALL. God desires the salvation of all people because His ransom was paid for all. There is not a single person on Earth whom God would have determined to perish in eternity.

What do the verses about the elect mean in the Bible?

To be chosen means to become the object of someone's choice, i.e. when someone chooses you. As we have read in the above passages, God expresses His will that all people be saved, and for this purpose He paid for us with the life of His Son. So, if God wants everyone to be saved, then His choice includes all of us in His saving will. And if this is His choice, His will, then what are we all in relation to His salvation? SELECTED. In other words, when we read in the Bible that we are elected, we should not perceive this as being elected to the detriment of others who are supposedly not elected. ALL are chosen to be saved, as this is God's choice, decision, for each person (although obviously not everyone will accept His offer). When the Bible speaks of us as the elect, it means being elected unto salvation. Salvation is God's choice, His will for everyone, and therefore, in relation to salvation, everyone is chosen by Him. However, not everyone will agree to accept His choice, and those who refuse will eventually perish. The reason for their death is not that God did not choose them for salvation, but that they rejected God's election. Just as the reason for our salvation is not that God chose us over others not chosen by Him for salvation, but in the fact that we agreed to accept God's election offered to us and to the whole world. Salvation is a matter of faith. The question is not whether God chooses people, but whether people choose God. As for God, there is no doubt: He chose ALL people to be saved, and for this he gave His Son. Let's go back to Scripture:

Acts 10:43
"...everyone who believes in Him will receive the remission of sins in His name."

Romans 9:33, 10:11
"... everyone who believes in Him will not be put to shame."

1 John 5:1
"Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God."

John 11:26
"And everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die."

John 3:16
"... so that everyone who believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life."

John 12:46-48
“... so that everyone who believes in Me does not remain in darkness. And if anyone hears My words and does not believe, I do not judge him, for I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. He who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge for himself: the word that I spoke, it will judge him on the last day.

Note the repetition of the word "everyone" in all these passages. EVERYONE - that means anyone, whoever he is - will be saved or not saved, depending on whether he believed or not. He who believes will be saved, because this is God's election, God's will for him. He who does not believe will not be saved, and the reason for this will not be God's election, but his own choice. Everything is very simple.

To summarize, there are two kinds of election. One kind is the preference of one person over another, in other words: "I choose you, not him." In this sense, and according to this doctrine of election, God has chosen us and rejected others. He predestined us Christians to be saved, but not everyone else. According to this understanding, all the rest are not elected. Can such a doctrine be true? No, because, based on the above passages of Scripture, we can argue that God's choice and will for salvation apply to everyone, because it was for this purpose - to save everyone - that He gave His Son. Therefore, under the election and predestination spoken of in Ephesians 1:4-5: “…because he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him in love, predestinating us to be sons to himself through Jesus Christ…” , is understood not by the election of us by God to the detriment of others, the unchosen, but by our election to be saved. This very election—to salvation—God made in relation to everyone, giving His Son for us. As in our prisoner example, the choice was for everyone to go free. Would it be fair to say to the freed prisoners who accepted my ransom: “You were chosen to be free”, “I predetermined your fate”, “My choice fell on you”? Yes, definitely. However, given that my decision to pay a ransom extends to those who chose to remain in prison, by telling a prisoner “you are chosen,” I by no means mean that I preferred him to another who rejected my ransom. The one, the other, is chosen by me for liberation in the same way. God did choose us, but His election is not PREFER one over the other. God does not select the most privileged from the general mass in order to save only them. If it were, He would be partial, but He is NOT:

Acts 10:34
"God is not partial."

On the contrary, God is open to everyone who seeks Him, and even Himself seeks those who strive for Him in order to reveal Himself to them:

Psalm 14:2
“The Lord has looked down from heaven on the sons of men, to see if there is anyone who understands and seeks God.”

And Deuteronomy 4:29
“But when you seek the Lord your God there, you will find [Him] if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul.”

If a person seeks God and sincerely asks Him to reveal himself to him with all his heart, God will surely answer his prayer. He will draw that person to him. In the same way, He will answer the prayer of anyone who calls on Him. God is looking for those who seek Him, and those who seek Him with all their hearts will find Him. This does not happen occasionally to randomly chosen people, it is a PRINCIPLE established by God's Word. If a person cries out to God with his heart, God will surely answer him and draw him to Himself. It is in the light of this principle that we must understand what is written in the Gospel of John:

John 6:44
"No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him."

Many people interpret this passage as follows: “You see, everything is in the hands of God. If God wants, he will draw a person to himself. And if He does not need him, then He will not attract him. But this interpretation of this passage of the Bible makes God partial and misses the fact that Jesus died for EVERYONE so that EVERYONE would be saved. God does not select someone in particular to draw to Himself, but reveals Himself to everyone who seeks Him. This is a spiritual law, established by Himself. In the next section, we will take a closer look at this issue.

Salvation: What Depends on God and What Depends on Us

Undoubtedly, in our salvation the main role is assigned to God, but God provides responsibility and a certain role on our part. 2 Corinthians 5:18-21 clearly states what our responsibility is in the process of reconciliation between man and God:

2 Corinthians 5:18-21
“All this is from God, who through Jesus Christ reconciled us to Himself and who gave us the ministry of reconciliation because God in Christ reconciled the world to Himself, not imputing [people] their transgressions, and gave us the word of reconciliation. So WE are messengers for Christ and as if God Himself admonishes through us; in the name of Christ we ask: be reconciled to God. For he made him who knew no sin for us [offering for] sin, that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

By giving His Son for us, God reconciled mankind to Himself. In other words, from now on the path to God is open. Going back to the prisoner example, we can say that the prison doors are no longer locked! But the prisoners are blind and do not see this. They are blinded by "the god of this world" (2 Corinthians 4:4), the devil, and do not see the way of salvation open to them. They need a messenger who will say: “The way to God is open! Reconcile yourself with God, for He made Him who knew no sin a sin offering for us, so that in Him we might become righteous before God!” In this proclamation of the saving message to people, in calling them to the Lord, lies the ministry of reconciliation. And who is entrusted with this ministry? The answer is simple: US. We are responsible for their hearing, we are the messengers of Christ. If you address a foreign power, you do it through the embassy, ​​through the plenipotentiaries of this power in your country - ambassadors (i.e. envoys). And we are the messengers of God. God opened the prison doors and opened the way for us to Himself. He reconciled the world to Himself by giving His Son. And now we, the once blind prisoners, having been freed, must proclaim to those who are still blind and imprisoned: "Come to God, the way is free!"

1 Corinthians 3:5-6 goes into more detail about our responsibilities:

1 Corinthians 3:5-6
“Who is Pavel? who is Apollos? They are only ministers through whom you believed, and moreover, as the Lord has given to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.”

Pay attention to the distribution of responsibilities. God the most important role is to nurture. However, someone has to plant the seed first and someone has to water. And this “someone” is no longer God, but we! This is the duty of ministers, but not of church clergy, but of us who carry out the ministry of reconciliation. This passage does not say, "God planted, God watered, God gave increase." Part of the ministry was done by people whom God called to do so. People who proclaimed to others: “Here is God, be reconciled to Him!”. And if those who heard the call answered it, God in turn drew near to them and drew them closer to Himself. Some people, like Apollos, watered the seed sown in people's hearts, explaining to them the Word of God and instructing them in biblical truths. Notice also the emphasis I have made on "through whom" ("through whom you believed"). These words speak of the role of Paul and Apollos assigned to them by God in the ministry of reconciliation, of the role of mediators, peacemakers, messengers of Christ, of the role of those who sow and water. It was through them that other people came to faith. But imagine what would happen if we said to a person: “God will reveal himself to you,” and God would not do this. Could this person enter into a union of faith with God? No, as much as he wanted it, it would be impossible. However, God really reveals Himself to the seekers, goes towards them and draws them to Himself. Therefore, the words from the Gospel of John: "... no one can come to the Father unless the Father draws him to Himself" are absolutely true, i.e., without actions on the part of God, without His cultivation, we can plant and water as much as we like - and that's all will be fruitless. But God really reveals Himself to the seeker, He draws him to Himself and nurtures him. The only question is, will we fulfill the ministry of reconciliation entrusted to us, planting and watering, will we be faithful to the commandment to “go into ALL the world and preach the gospel to EVERY creature” (Mark 16:15)? The responsibility for these actions does not lie with God - all this He commanded us to do.

Conclusion

So, dear brothers and sisters, to sum up: the doctrine that God allegedly chooses some to save them, and does not choose others, is very convenient, and yet false. God's election, His will, is that all be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. If this election concerns everyone, then who are these “everyone”? Favorites! Ultimately, whether a person is saved or not depends on whether he believes or not. If he believes, he will be saved; if he rejects God, he will not be saved. Does God have any influence in this situation? Naturally, and most directly: when a person turns to God with his heart and wants to find Him, God will open himself to him and draw Him to Himself. This is what Jesus means when he says that only those who are drawn by the Father can come to Him. Those who have experienced it firsthand know what I am talking about. This revelation about God is not just an accident, it is His regular actions, what He promised in His Word. Whoever seeks Him with all their heart will find Him, so it is written in the Word. To the one who sincerely seeks Him, God will be revealed without any doubt.

As for us, God has entrusted US with the ministry of reconciliation, the ministry of sowing the Word and watering. He, for his part, provides cultivation (draws a person to Himself), but to sow and water, to bring people to the Lord, is the ministry of reconciliation entrusted to us. The doctrine that God chose only some to be saved, and accordingly chose others to perish in hell, is a very false doctrine that puts people to sleep, because they believe that God will still save everyone he wants to save. This is not true. Brothers and sisters, we have a responsibility to preach the Word and look for opportunities to evangelize. Preach the Word, tell the prisoners they can be free. Whether they listen to you or not is their business, our business is to tell them and testify about the Father. The Father, on His part, hopes with all his heart that they will come to Him! He gave the same ransom for them as for us, and he is ready to receive them with open arms, just as he once received us.

Father Oleg Molenko

ABOUT THE RELATIONSHIP OF THE LORD GOD TO THE MANY CALLED AND LITTLE ELECTED, AND ALSO THAT LOVE FADES OUT FROM DECREASING COMMUNICATION

I have always been concerned about the small number of those who are saved. I just can't understand why people choose not just the worst, but eternal death and permanent isolation with endless and unspeakably terrible torment. Of course, this is their choice, with which the Lord God Himself is considered, but I, who have chosen God, light, truth and grace, cannot understand the reason for this choice.

From the Holy Scriptures and observations in my life, I discovered a terrible truth - that the number of people who are saved is much less than the number of those who die, and the number of those who die incomparably exceeds the number of those who are saved. It would seem that upon coming to the Church of Christ, I finally found a place in which 99% of its members should be saved. But, alas, even here the number of saved members of the Church is less than the number of its perishing members. We are talking only about those members who remained in the Church until death, not counting those who fell away from it during their lifetime.

In His earthly sermon, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ spoke terrible truths for us:

• that many are called, but few are chosen;
• that few walk the narrow and narrow path that leads to eternal life;
• that he has a small flock;
• that not everyone who says "Lord, Lord ..." will be saved;
• that He does not pray for the whole world, but only for those whom His Heavenly Father has given Him.

So before us - members of the true Church of Christ - there is a real problem, which we can designate as the problem of many called and a small number of elect. The main thing in this problem is to understand the attitude of the Lord God towards many who are called and towards a small number of the elect. Its main practical aspect for each of us is to find out in which of these categories each of us is.

Let's try to establish who or what categories of people who turned to Christ make up the number of many called. Those called include:

• a small number of the elect;
• people who accidentally came to the Church;
• people who are like grain that has fallen by the side of the road, in whom Satan immediately takes away the word of truth and the taste for truth from their hearts;
• people who are like a seed sown on a rock and have no roots;
• people like a sprout crushed by thorns, i.e. worries about earthly goods and vanity;
• people who could not stand the test of sorrow, deprivation or persecution for their faith.

To this number one could add "tares", but they, as planted in the Church by Satan, cannot even be included in the number of those called. The fact that the “tares” perish through their craftiness can still be understood. This is their original evil choice. But why people who gladly accepted the word of God then reject Christ and their salvation is impossible to understand. This is not about visible reasons, but about their deep choice. This choice remains unclear to us.

However, let us leave the discussion about people and turn to God's attitude towards the called and the chosen ones. The Providence of God for us cannot be fully comprehended, which is why we can only touch what we are allowed to touch by the Lord God Himself.

Why does it happen in life that there are always more called than chosen ones? We know that by creation, man was endowed with free will, which is manifested by the freedom of his choice. As a being created by God, a person makes his first choice in relation to his appeared being, or rather, in relation to his being that appeared out of nothing. What can a person choose in this respect? One of the two is to agree with one's createdness and one's created being, or disagree with it. A person's disagreement with his created being reveals his pride and makes a person an adversary to God and a self-destructor striving for non-existence. Since, according to God’s conditions, the dissolution of rational beings is not provided for, this choice of a person and this desire of him can be formalized only in the form of an eternal stay in a place specially isolated from God and His creations, in agreement with their existence, a place called hell (i.e. a place devoid of light), with the eternal bearing of that measure of inexpressible torment, which is determined for each god-opponent according to the truth of God. This measure of torment is for each person who has not chosen God and has his own non-existence. This is the inevitable consequence of this person's choice of striving for non-existence. As much as a person strives for non-existence, so much he resists God. As much as he resists God, so much he does not love God and hates Him and His creations. As much as he hated God and His creations, so much did he create for himself his eternal torment. Thus, the eternal torment of man is his constant attempt to accomplish the impossible - to tear apart his inseparable being, contrary to the will of the Almighty God, and to stop his unceasing existence.

Resistance to God (whether conscious or unconscious) is opposition to Life, Truth, Light and Love, and the Source of life, light, love and truth. That is why this resistance is a source of unceasing torment for every God-resister, which can be called his eternal death.

Who chooses whom: God me, or I God? Of course, God chooses first. He first chooses me to be and creates me from nothing! He creates perfect, equipped with everything necessary, capable of communion with God and love, reasonable, verbal and reasonable.

As soon as I realized myself and my being - I am, I exist - as well as my createdness and dependence on God, then I immediately have a choice. I was asked to agree with the choice of God, to humbly accept my being, my existence, my creation and my dependence on my Creator and Lord God. I have also been given the right to disagree with my creation and existence, and even to oppose my Creator, the Lord God.

It is this right and opportunity to choose not God that shows everyone that those who have chosen God have done it freely and voluntarily! This first choice of God is their first service to Him. However, there are people who took advantage of the freedom of choice in such a way that they did not agree with their creation, existence and being. They didn't agree that God chose them to be! They did not accept their creatureliness and dependence on God, but fell into pride and became God-resisting. Such people become not interesting to God, not needed, and He no longer chooses them, but leaves them to their evil choice. They make up the number of beings rejected by God and are forced to unite with their fallen angels who were rejected earlier, who have become spirits of malice and resistance to God. Such people are not among those called. God left them to a bad choice and no longer calls to Himself.

The first good choice of a person - agreement with his being, with his creatureliness and dependence on God - is valuable in the eyes of God. However, it is not sufficient for the further development of a relationship with God. For the further development of relationships, God offers a person a voluntary acceptance of obedience to Him. This obedience is offered to man in the form of God's command or commandments. This is the second call of the God of people to Himself. Man again faces a choice: agree with God and humbly accept obedience to Him, performed by the exact fulfillment of God's commandment or commandments, or disagree with God, reject obedience to Him by violating the commandment. Those who reject obedience to God reject God Himself and join the ranks of the rejected people and spirits. They become strangers to God, not interesting and not needed. He leaves them to his willfulness and their bad choice.

Acceptance of obedience and fulfillment of the commandment(s) of God gives a person the opportunity to love his Lord God and Creator and to show this love actively. From obedience begins the creation of a good union of man with God, based on love. Obedience is also a means of communion with God and a way of knowing God. That is why Christ God told us that those who love Him will fulfill His commandments.

On this segment of the creation of relations between God and the man created by Him (historically it was Adam), the fall of man and all of his nature took place. The fall of Adam and Eve was their bad choice, but it was due to some extenuating circumstances. The first circumstance was the creation by God of a wife for Adam, to whom he became very attached and very fond of. If there had been no wife, then Adam could have passed the test of obedience, the test of God's commandment. The second circumstance was the existence of outcast spirits and their first-born and leader - the fallen dennitsa, called Satan (i.e., the enemy of God) and the devil (i.e., slanderer). Satan is also a lie and the father of lies.

God did not list the sinners of Adam and Eve as outcasts just because they sinned not by their conscious choice, but by the deception of Satan, who used the serpent and lies. Fallen people were expelled from paradise to earth and deprived of the possibility of securing their fallen state in eternity. They fell under the power of Satan and his demons, who deceived them, were cursed by God and were punished by death. Their whole nature was severely damaged and distorted. However, God, due to the use of cunning and deceit against them, left them among those called. He left them hope in the form of a good promise to deliver them from death, fall and the power of demons in the Person of the coming Savior. God has not stopped calling man to Himself. Only now, in order to accept this call, a person needed faith - faith in a good God. The very call of God (the third one) was to repentance, i.e. a radical change of oneself from a fallen, sin-loving, corruptible person into a new person created in the image and likeness of God. Now, in order to restore friendly relations between man and God and develop these relations, God offered people His Covenant, i.e. contract with a whole program of prerequisites. All these conditions and commandments are necessary for the person himself for his healing and restoration. Here again, a person faced a choice: to enter into a Covenant with God and humbly accept all His conditions, or not to enter into a Covenant with God and reject all His conditions and repentance offered by God. Those who have rejected the Covenant with God and repentance before Him unite with rejected people and spirits. They are left to their fall and destruction, but the call of God does not stop to them throughout their entire earthly life. Until his last breath, every person can, through repentance, enter into a Covenant with God and receive hope for mercy and salvation.

In His Dispensation, the Lord God foresaw the way of saving people and human nature through the incarnation and incarnation of the Second Hypostasis - the Son of God. Upon incarnation, the task of the Son of God, who incomprehensibly became a perfect Man, included: to preach to people the truth and righteousness of God; to call them to repentance, and through repentance to Himself and to His eternal Kingdom of Heaven; to redeem them from their fall, sin, the power of Satan and his demons, from hell and death; to create a new union of God and man, impossible before the incarnation of God, in the form of the Church of Christ for the salvation and deification of people. Now people were called to the Church of Christ! There were many such called, but not all of them were chosen by the Lord.

Here we need to understand the difference between the redemption of human nature in general and the salvation of individual human persons redeemed by Christ. Jesus Christ the Son of God redeemed all human nature by His suffering feat. In this sense, through human nature, He redeemed every person He called to be. After all, every person is endowed with human nature, and this nature is manifested only in people and the God-man. In the person of Adam, the nature of people fell, and in the Person of Christ She was redeemed and restored, and elevated to an even better condition than that which Adam and Eve had before their fall. Through participation in the common human nature, each person was redeemed and fell into the number of those called to salvation. However, if human nature could be redeemed by the deed of the Son of God, then it can be saved only in the form of individual persons! All people are redeemed, but only those who agree with the redemption and God's dispensation are saved! That is why, although all people are redeemed, but few are saved, for there are few who responded to the call of Christ, took up their Cross and followed Him along the narrow and narrow path of salvation offered by Him. We, all people, have redemption in fact, but it will mean nothing to me, as an individual, if I myself do not deny myself in my fallen state, do not reject this world lying in evil, and do not follow Christ on His conditions. Salvation I personally need to achieve and assimilate for myself. He who has assimilated the salvation of God thereby testifies to himself that he is God's chosen one! There are the elect among the elect - these are God's saints, called saints. There are chosen from the saints - this is the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Blessed John the Theologian.

So, in addition to the general redemption, I need a personal Savior in the Person of Christ the Son of God, which means the restoration of friendly relations with Him, and through Him with the Holy Spirit and the Heavenly Father.

That is why we, called by Christ to salvation and into His eternal Kingdom through His Church, are justly called Christians, and the saying is true for us: “For a Christian, Christ is everything”!

God has defined love as the foundation of our personal relationship with Him. That is why the two highest and most important commandments for us, to which all the rest are reduced, are the commandments about love for God (primarily in the Person of Christ) and for one's neighbor. According to the fulfillment of these commandments, we have a relationship with our God and with our neighbors.

Why didn't the Lord Jesus Christ say "love every man" or "love all people" but rather "love your neighbor"? Because love involves the union of individuals who know each other and communicate with each other. God can love all people and every person, because He has access to each of us and knows every person He created. We do not have access to all people and to every person, but we have access and the opportunity to communicate only with our neighbors, i.e. those people with whom God's providence brings us together in life. We can only love people we know, with whom we have communion. We cannot love people unknown to us and unknown to us, who are inaccessible to us and with whom we cannot have any communion. Whoever says that he loves all mankind and all people is lying and is a demagogue. In the Church of Christ, we have the opportunity to meet, love and have fellowship with those of the holy people with whom we have never met in life and could not meet. The main means of communication with them is prayer to them. On their part, we have intercession for us to God, help us, visiting us and protecting us. What saint we love, we pray from the heart, and to whom we pray from the heart, we love him.

From this truth, assimilated by us, that love can only be towards known people with whom we have fellowship (that is why the words of Christ to crafty sinners “I don’t know you” sound so terrible), we can move on to another, which is the basis of our love for another person. (God or man) there can only be communication with this person. With regard to the love of husband and wife, Scripture directly says that let a man cleave to his wife and the two become one flesh! This is the pinnacle of carnal communion between wife and husband. Without such communication there can be no marriage union and love between spouses. The Holy Apostle Paul rightly transfers the image of the marriage union and communion to Christ and His Church.

And in the Church of Christ, each of us - chosen by God - is some kind of member and part. But this is not a soulless part, like a brick or a board, but a living god-like personality. That is why the image of the marriage union can be applied not only to the great union of Christ and the Church, but also to the small union of Christ and each member of the Church chosen by Him! On this marvelous personal union of Christ and a given person, and on the commandment that requires you to love the Lord God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your thoughts and with all your strength, the union of the love of Christ God and man is built. On the part of a person, this love for Christ should be manifested in unceasing communion with Him, which can be characterized as a kind of marriage union with clinging to Christ so that two persons become one Spirit!

We know and confess that Jesus Christ ascended into Heaven and sat at the right hand of His Father in His glory. He will return to us only in His second and last coming in glory to judge the living and the dead. How then can we have fellowship with Him personally? For this, He founded His Church for us, in which He established two means given by Him to His chosen ones for communion with Him - the communion of His Most Pure Body and His Most Holy Blood and the invocation of His Divine and Most Holy Name. The holy king and prophet David, moved by the Holy Spirit, noted these means in his psalter: “I will take the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord”. For a Christian who loves Christ, it is so natural and so desirable to unceasingly call on the name of the Beloved and cling to Him as often as possible through partaking of His Most Pure Body and His Most Holy Blood! Thus, here we can note the signs of God's chosen man:

1. He loves Christ God with all his soul and strength, and testifies to this love of his by his obedience to Him, by his humility before Him, and by his wholehearted fulfillment of His commandments, commands, and advice.
2. He loves Christ from all his thought, and therefore strives as often as possible to call on His blessed and longed-for name for him, reaching in this deed to incessantly calling him. He is spiritually united with the name of Christ, and because of the inseparability of His name from Himself, He incomprehensibly unites with Christ God Himself, living with Him and in Him! For this, in due time, Christ God comes to him with His Father, and They move into this person, create an abode in him for themselves and live in him! God-bearing is an exceptional quality of God's chosen one!
3. He loves Christ God with all his heart and therefore seeks to unite with Him in the closest and most mysterious way - through the tasting of His Most Pure Body and Most Holy Blood, becoming one spirit, one soul and one body with Christ! A sign of God's chosen one in striving for the Cup of Life, in union with the Life of Christ by partaking of His Body and Blood, in thirst for this partaking and in worthy communion of the Holy Mysteries!

So, if you easily indulge your passions, you do not love Christ and are not His chosen one. If you do not fulfill at least one of His commandments, or you fulfill it, but formally or feignedly, you do not love Christ and testify of yourself that you are not chosen by Him.

If you do not have a thirst for communion of the Holy Mysteries, if you do not strive to live like this and do everything in your power to partake worthily of the Holy Body and Blood of Beloved Christ as often as possible, then you do not love Him with all your heart, and therefore you are not elected They, but only was called.

If you do not strive as often as possible to call on the name of the Beloved Christ so as to live, be saturated with it and breathe it, then you do not love Christ with all your heart, all your soul and all your thoughts, which means that you are called, but not chosen.

If you do not reject yourself in your fallen form, do not reject this world that lies in evil and transiently, do not diligently take up your cross and do not follow Christ to your Golgotha ​​along the narrow and narrow path in order to be crucified there with Beloved Christ, then you are not you love Him with all your strength and are only called, but not chosen.

If you are chosen by God, then you do not fall under what the holy father said from God - St. Simeon the New Theologian (“Creations”, Volume 2, p. 560): “Whoever does not deign, with all love and strong desire, through humility to achieve unity with the last of the saints (i.e., union in life with the now living accessible bearer of the Holy Spirit), but has acquired a certain little distrust towards him, he will by no means ever will unite and will not stand with him on a par with the former and previous saints, even though he imagines that he has all faith and all love for God and for all the saints. He will be rejected by them, because he failed to take, with the help of humility of wisdom, the place that was determined by God before the ages.

If you are only called, then you directly fall under what the monk wrote and fall into the number of those rejected by God and His saints.

Let's try with God's help, as far as we can, to look at the process of choosing people by God from His side.

We know and confess that God is Omnipotent and Omniscient. He knows any person and everything that will happen to him, his choices in life, his deeds, words and thoughts even before the creation of this person. This knowledge of God does not in the least affect a person's choice, his deeds, words and thoughts. God knows in advance exactly what a person will choose and how he will act, but His knowledge depends on the choice and action of the person himself. Nevertheless, without influencing a person with His knowledge about him in advance, God cannot ignore this knowledge about him. If God, for example, sees that a given person will reject Him, then He will not choose him, but will only call him on a general basis, so that he will be unanswerable at His judgment. But God will show His non-election only after the real historical rejection of God by this person in his earthly life. A person himself can be deceived by the title and falsely believe that he is God's chosen one.

So, the basis of the election of a person by God is the response of this particular person to God by love for His love, known in advance by God. God knew that I would humble myself before Him and love Him; one, the only) unique, intimate and inimitable love union with Him, in which there is no place for anyone else and there will be no place. At the same time, I am in another common union with God through the union of Christ and His Church. In this blessed union I have my place, my function, my task, my obedience, and my reward. This union does not interfere with my personal union with God. God loves me personally, but He loves me in the Church as part of it.

I also love Him Personally, but I also love Him as the Head of the Church, King, High Priest and Perfect Man! I love Him in front of everyone, as God and the Source of all my good! I love Him alone from all creations, as a personality Personality, as a spirit - Spirit, as endlessly striving for Divine perfection - Divine Perfection Itself, as called to be God by grace - God by nature! I am marvelously marveling at my God! I am amazingly amazed at Him! I admire Him to no end! I adore Him endlessly! I praise His Perfection and His qualities! I rejoice that He is with me, and I am with Him! I reverently worship His Omnipotence! I sing of His Wisdom! I rejoice and rejoice in His mercy and goodwill towards people! I rejoice at His amazing creativity! I thank Him for the gift of life, light, truth, salvation, grace, Kingdom, Church, purity, holiness, deification and blessedness! I am blissful from His attention to me, from His touches, from our union in spirit! I bless His Blessed One! I thank Him for everything and everything! I insatiably praise and sing of my Beloved God for His Divine and perfect love! I caress Him like a loving child caresses a beloved mother! I ask to be in His arms, like a small, loving son to the beloved Father, with Whom it is so good, so protective, so reliable and so blissful! I am delighted ... I melt ... and fall silent with my mouth and mind ...

Be with me God! Do what you wish!

I hope that this word of mine will bring you, your souls and hearts great benefit, will be of help and guidance!

Be chosen by God! Love God, for He first loved you! Amen!

Prot. Dimitri Smirnov: And looking in what context. Of some people, we say "God's chosen one." It is clear that the Lord somehow singled him out from among the others.

Prot. Alexander Berezovsky: And gave him some special gifts.

Prot. Dimitri Smirnov: Well, for example, it is known that Sergius of Radonezh did not eat from his mother's breast on Wednesdays and Fridays.

Prot. Alexander Berezovsky: Being a baby.

Prot. Dimitri Smirnov: Yes, it is clear that this sign is some kind of special, thereby the Lord singled him out from among other children. Or, for example, the future father John of Kronstadt, when he was a boy, he was not very good at studying, but usually little boys hang out, and he prayed that the Lord would give him reason. And he began to study well after that, that is, he wanted to. It is also not at all often that a certain boy would like to study and begin to pray to God about it.

Prot. Alexander Berezovsky: But it seems that the Lord initially gives some people some special gifts from childhood and covers their lives, and thereby distinguishes them from everyone else. We strive to imitate them in life. But can a person, not possessing these gifts, approach such holiness as they do?

Prot. Dimitri Smirnov: But there are a huge number of saints who, neither in childhood nor in maturity, were anything so special. And then they achieved extraordinary holiness and gifts. The paths are different.

Prot. Alexander Berezovsky: But here is the election - is it the Lord who chooses some people according to their qualities? Or is it something else?

Prot. Dimitri Smirnov: And everything is the Lord. Well, how can a certain boy or girl be born outside the providence of God Himself about him? No way.

Prot. Alexander Berezovsky: "Few are the chosen" - apparently, this phrase from the Gospel is confusing.

Prot. Dimitri Smirnov: This refers to very specific people. It refers to the chosen people of God. Direct analogy with God's chosen people. This refers to the Church of God - the New Israel. After all, the Lord calls everyone to unite with the New Israel, with the Church, to enter into the people of God, to become a man taken into the inheritance of God. But people don't respond. It means this.

Prot. Alexander Berezovsky: Therefore, little.

Prot. Dimitri Smirnov: Every Christian is a member of God's chosen people, which is called the Church, he has the royal priesthood from God Himself, he is given the charisma to build his home church, whether it be a man or a woman, everyone has their own role in this construction.

Prot. Alexander Berezovsky: This, it would seem, is what the Lord gives to a person, and so few people accept it ...

Prot. Dimitri Smirnov: Well, what to do... Unfortunately, a person, due to the damage of his mind, simply does not distinguish the divine.

Prot. Alexander Berezovsky: That is, there is an inability to appreciate this gift.

Prot. Dimitri Smirnov: Yes, but what makes a child at 10 years old smoke? He is given health, and he destroys it. Here are some simple recommendations: do not run across the street, wait for the traffic light. No, he neglects it, and breaks his bones, some die.
...........................................
Answer: Father Dimitry Smirnov

Now I am sitting in my chair where I pray every morning, writing you a letter and thinking about all those people who support us with prayers and finances. I just prayed for you, and now I'm thinking about a question I was asked recently; It is about this question and the answer to it that I want to talk to you today.

I was recently asked, "How does God choose the people He wants to work through?" This is an important question that you should ask yourself if you want God to choose you. If you look closely at God's chosen ones doing something significant, you will understand that God does not choose people according to their talents and abilities. And if so, there must be another reason for Him to lay His hand on man in order to engage him in a special way.

WHAT IS THE REASON?

FAITHFUL, RELIABLE, WORTHY OF TRUST

GOD WATCHES US CAREFULLY

The Greek word eurisko, to appear, means to find, to discover. It is important to note that the meaning of the word eurisko implies a discovery made through careful observation.
The meaning of the word eurisko tells us that God is watching us closely, our actions and reactions. He watches how we treat people, how we respond to pressure, whether we have enough perseverance to stay on the right track when there are so many distractions around us, the purpose of which is to make us disobey God. Before approvingly patting us on the back and entrusting us with some new important task, He will look at how well we did on His previous assignment. Is it done the way He expected? Did we finish it completely or did some part remain unfinished? And have we fulfilled it in such a way as to glorify the name of Jesus?

CHARACTER AND ACTION - THIS IS IMPORTANT!

BEFORE YOU TRUST MORE...

GOD WATCHES AND... FOR YOU!

GOD IS LOOKING FOR THE FAITHFUL!

VALUABLE FIND

A REAL TREASURE!

Looking at you, what can God say about your faithfulness? I urge you to do everything possible so that He can easily say: “This man is a real treasure. I can entrust him with the execution of an important assignment.” And don't let Him say, "Not yet," because you refused to make the necessary changes.

As God watches over us, we need to take a look at ourselves to understand what He sees when He looks at our actions, how we keep our promises, and how obedient we are to Him and His Word. Will God say that he can trust us, or would it be wise for Him to choose someone else?

THE DOOR TO YOUR VOCATION

DO YOU HAVE A JOB RIGHT NOW?

Today I want to ask you:

GOD IS ALWAYS AVAILABLE!

GOD CALLS US TO RISE HIGHER

THANK YOU!

Thank you for your prayerful and financial support for the ministry of our church. Not a day goes by that Denise and I don't thank God for all of you and pray that He will take you higher and give you the very best. It is a great honor for us to pray for you and watch with you how God's will is carried out in your life.

INTERNET CHURCH