Dear Faith Family,

Even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him, (Ephesians 4:1).

It was 35 years ago!  Really?!  Can’t be!  It was.  There in front of God and His people, she said it!  There in a church sanctuary in a quiet little town in southern Arkansas, she said it!  What did she say?  She said, “I do”!  She said I do take you, by name, to be my lawfully wedded husband.  Wow!  Cyndi called me out.  It wasn’t someone else’s name.  It was mine!  It wasn’t a generic pronoun.  It was me, my name.  She called me out from the rest.  The tears still form in these year-stained eyes as I consider that she would call me out, by name.

Well, it was before that.  What was before that?  Before that, in fact before this world began, God picked you.  He staked His claim on you.  Peter refers to you who are in Christ as “called out one”, (1 Peter 2:9-10 – read it!)  What on earth did Peter know about being called out?  What did a broken, train wreck of a fisherman know about being called out?

Come quietly with me beside the sea of Galilee and listen closely, (John 21).  Jesus already died.  He was alive again!  Now, here He is showing up after a wasted night of fishing.  No fish.  Jesus shows up at daybreak and rocked the boat, literally, with 153 large fish!  Whoa!  Now what?  Keep in mind that Peter was the one, true to His Word, who denied Jesus not once, not twice, but three times!  Watch this!

There in front of God and His people, He said it.  There on the shore of the Sea of Galilee in a quiet little town in northern Israel, He said it!  What did He say?  He said, “I do”!  He said I do take you, by name, to be Mine.  Wow!  Jesus called Him out.  It wasn’t someone else’s name.  It was His!  It wasn’t a generic pronoun.  It was “Simon, son of John” (3 times), by name.  He called Peter out from the rest of this world.  I wonder if the tears still form in those year-stained eyes as Peter remembered the eyes of the One who looked at him right after he denied Jesus, (Luke 22:61), the eyes of the One who verbally embraced Him on the shores of Galilee? 

That Peter knew what it meant to be called out, by name.  No less is true of you called out one!  Jesus has called you out by name!

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, (Ephesians 1:3).

One called out,
Pastor Karl