I chose you

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. This is my command: Love each other.

John15:16-17

 

　My mother was a Christian, so I went to the church from an early age. When I was in elementary school, my friend, the daughter of Pastor, was baptized. Baptism is the manifestation of deceasing an old self and living with new life when he decides to believe in Christ. In the church where I was, the person who was baptized had to read "testimony" to tell how God was involved with him or her at the time. My friend said, "Dad said that Jesus chose you, not you chose Jesus." The words impressed me deeply.

　When I became a university student, my mother went into the hospital because of illness. When the illness was found, the mother read a New Testament verse, John 11:4, "This illness is not for death, but for the glory of God”. I was told that she was given the word. My mother had been away from the church for some reasons, but this led her to eagerly attend the church services again. Despite getting sick, she gained strength from the inside and was better than before. I saw Jesus closer to my mother than my family. The day she had the surgery, I stayed alone with my mother in the hospital room. After the operation, I spent a night in a hospital room where the sound of a machine connected to my sleeping mother echoed and I could not sleep for crying anxiety and fear. After the surgery, my mother recovered steadily and strengthened her feelings for God.

 After that, I met a Catholic priest at university. He was the one who had the gaze of trying to stare at the most beautiful thing of each person he met. When I heard that priest's preach, he said "There is life in the desert." .I thought Jesus was closest to me on my mother's surgery night, just as Jesus was closest to my mother. I understood that. Since then, the world that I saw has changed. Not only my friends, but also homeless people at train stations, people who pass each other on the road, and people who happen to get on the bus are no longer strangers to me. I thought they were Jesus because of the Bible's words, "Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.Matthew25:40"

 

It was a new experience for me to make the visible world shine. When I was a child, I was bullied and I lived with a lid on the memory that was too hard. However, when I remember the night of Jesus was praying "Take this cup away from me." with sweat of blood, and He died on the cross with being mocked, I could think maybe it was better for me to receive being bullied than the other child." When I felt that, my tears flowed naturally and the hateful feelings of mine were healed. The overwhelming light came in my mind, I became aware of my sins. I decided to be baptized and received it on Christmas that year.

 

At the same time as I was baptized, I was given the desire to serve God. The life of serving God seemed to me the most brilliant. I told the pastor about that, and he recommended seeking the Bible's Word.

 

Then, I found the following words.

" You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. This is my command: Love each other.

John15:16-17”

　This word was what I heard when my friend was baptized in my childhood.

“ Jesus chose you.”

I thought that I would hold on to these words. I realized that I would live to convey love in order to convey Jesus' command to "love each other." This is because God is love.

Indeed, the illness given to my mother was the glory of God just as the words of John 11:4 given to her. That‘s because her ill changed my life, and I understood how wonderful the bible story that I had heard since I was a child, and God are.

 

Life without love is darkness. A life full of love is shining. Jesus bears the sins of a person, hangs up on the cross, is resurrected, and gives us a new life. He promised us to be with us forever, closer than anyone else. There is the supreme love that God has shown. God requires us to walk of loving people.

　God held my hand and came to hug me. In the hands of God, suffering has been transformed into something wonderful. Unhappy was transformed into the greatest happiness in God's love. I was changed from dead to living. He has given me what I needed before I asked, and arranged my life so that the fruit of God's love could come to bear. God turned my sorrow into grace and joy.

 

The Westminster Shorter Catechism, a 17th century Christian doctrine, begins with the following words: " Quest. 1. What is the chief end of man?
Ans. 1. Man's chief end is to glorify God,(1) and to enjoy him for ever.(2)"

 We live to show the glory of God and please God forever. It is the process of receiving the overflowing love of God who chose you, and loving others. That is why we are given to this world, we are given life, and we live