The Banquet

Thought For Today

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 18th of October, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We go to the Gospel of Matthew 22:14:

“For many are called, but few are chosen.”

I looked up The Message translation and it says: “Many get invited; only a few make it.” Many are invited into the banquet but few respond. Many are called but only those who truly repent are actually chosen. Now, that is Jesus responding to the story of the rich man who had a big banquet. He invited all his guests. None of them arrived so he sent his servants to the highways and the byways to bring the whosoever’s in.

If we look at Matthew 7:21, the Bible says very clearly, that not all who cry, “Lord, Lord…” will enter the Kingdom of Heaven but only those who do My Father’s will. You see, you must not be concerned about what is happening in the world. Things are very unfair at the moment, I know that, and justice doesn’t seem to prevail. Don’t make that your excuse for not following after the Lord. When I was a young man, before I accepted Christ, when I saw some of these guys walking around with their hands in the air, shouting, “Hallelujah!”, like I do now, but those guys weren’t putting food on the table, they weren’t taking care of their families, they weren’t walking in truth - I used to say to my wife, Jill, “Well, if those guys are going to go to Heaven, I will get there before them.” I want to tell you something folks - what will happen on the Day of Judgement when you stand in front of the Lord and you say, “Lord, I didn’t serve You, I didn’t go to the banquet because I saw the way some of your people were behaving, and I said, “If that is the way they behave, I will get there before they do?” And the Lord says, “Well, look around. Those people are not here.” We cannot determine our faith in God by the actions and lifestyle of others. Philippians 2:12 says very clearly that we must work out our own salvation with fear and trembling.

Today, let’s go to the banquet. It is open for everyone who truly loves Jesus and believes in Him.

God bless you and have a lovely day,
Goodbye.