FromNowUntilForeverBook8.5x5.5 REV.indd

Grasp two key kingdom principles connected to these verses. First, God does not force Himself upon anyone. Entrance into God’s family is not a matter of coercion, persuasion, or manipulation, but rather an invitation. In the words of Jesus, “Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men . . . Come to Me, all who are heavy-laden, and I will give your rest . . . (Mark 1:17,18, Matthew 11:28). Secondly, the invitation is open to all —the up and outs, the down and outs, and everyone who falls in between. God is totally, and therefore equally yearning for a relationship with the drug-addicted prostitute, the suburban soccer mom, and billionaire business person. As Jesus said, “Whoever believes in Him shall not perish . . . All that the Father gives me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out” (John 3:16, 6:37). Later, Peter preached, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Acts 2:21). Tragically, far too many will miss this monumental meal, due to their rejection of the invitation. As Jesus said in His parable, many “Paid no attention and went their way, one to his own farm, another to his business” (Mathew 22:5). Some who receivedthe invitation went as far as mistreating and killing those delivering the invitation, an obvious reference to the prophets who came before Jesus and the fate that awaited Him. As a college student in the late 1970s, I remember rebuffing a zealous member of a campus Christian organization. Although he was excited, I was disinterested. I had been actively involved in church since birth and still managed to sit through a sermon once a week.Yet, many other things occupied my mind at that stage in life, Jesus not being one of them. Had it not been for a radical turn of events years later, I would have been in the same situation as the banquet guest in the parable that soon faced detection.

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