So I've started reading Romans. (Also I moved home 4 months ago and am now living in a house in Belfast!!)
Not sure why but I think it was because I want to start getting serious about my upcoming studies in September and Romans is a serious book??!!
Anyway, I've been struck even in the opening passage about how many times Paul talks about being called by God.
'Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle...'
'Through him we received grace and apostleship to call all Gentiles to faith and obedience'
'To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be his holy people'
and that's just in the first 7 verses!!
I'm sure I'll do a word study on it one day (perhaps) soon. But right now, I have some questions...
Paul was called to be an Aposlte. Called. That seems a strange word. Told more likely? His calling couldn't have been more obvious and, in a way, easier,
'As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him...I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting...now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do'
Paul heard a literal out-loud voice. Bastard! I wish that would happen to me.
But what about me?
Does God call me?
To every little small detail?
Or just to the 'big' things?
What about freedom?
And most important personally, HOW do i know?
Because after all, we don't all meet God on the Damascus road (despite what some people like to think)
For Paul it was certain.
Not sure I feel certain about this stuff very often.
What if I'm wrong?
Thinking I'm called to something but I'm not?
Yes, God is big enough to deal with this kind of stuff- these misunderstandings.
I've moved back home to a community of beleivers who have a bottom line. And the bottom line is 'has God called you to this?'
It's a good bottom line to have.
One that I missed in Reno. Because without this question people can feel much more free to come and go when certain things hit certain fans. Without this bottom line, this question of God's calling which underlines an entire way of life, can there truly be community? Truly be accountability? Truly be commitment?
My question is HOW do i know? (People here would use the word discern)
My question to that would be what is discernment?
How do I discern?
How do I come to a place where i can be certain about my discerment?
The bottom line for me right now is how do I know if I'm called?
Or rather,
if we assume God is calling everyone (and everything) to something
HOW do I know what He's calling me to?
3 comments:
So I got a reply through email and thought I would put it in here:
Just read your latest post and was tempted to try and answer.
This came to mind:
‘The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet." -- Frederick Buechner's definition of "vocation"
So I guess we can start by looking around us for what is needed and inside is for the God-given desires that stir out heart.
Beautiful!
Surname, I think that in the absence of a clear, obvious "call", which I'm still not sure I have ever experienced, the answer to your question lie in Scripture (Ironic).
God has called (invited may be a better word) all his people to a story. Not a bunch of rules we must follow, but some themes that we all are called to engage in wherever we find ourselves:
Love God
Love others
exercise grace
seek love and peace
and when all else fails look to the Jesus in Scripture (not the Jesus we have created) because he makes God (and our calling) clear to us.
Miss you bro.
D
I agree with you Darrin. I would love to hear your thoughts on one of the paragraphs i wrote:
I've moved back home to a community of beleivers who have a bottom line. And the bottom line is 'has God called you to this?'
It's a good bottom line to have.
One that I missed in Reno. Because without this question people can feel much more free to come and go when certain things hit certain fans. Without this bottom line, this question of God's calling which underlines an entire way of life, can there truly be community? Truly be accountability? Truly be commitment?
I often wondered (but never articulated) about what would have happened when the shit hit the fan at RCF. What would have happened if the bottom line for people who worked there and who were a part of the Church was 'has God called me to this?'
Now obviously this question can mean different things for different people. But what I experienced there was somewhat of a commercial 'I'm here while it's nice and easy but when things get difficult I'm just gonna move to a different church down the road'.
I understand that there are different types of commitment too. But what might have happened if the bottom line was not being right or being wrong(ed), or even 'i can't believe a fellow follower of God would believe/act/say that/make that decision' but rather, 'I know God has called me to this so what are we going to do about it?'
Perhaps we all would have left anyway. I realise that when people read this they might think that what happened there was just a whole lot of people making a knee-jerk reaction. I know that this was not the case. That things happened and (most) people left over a period of a few years with serious thought and immense pain.
I'm beginning to ramble a bit, so I'll stop. Would love to hear a response.
I guess what I'm trying to say/ask could be put into a scenario. What if, with the pneuma project some shit hit the fan and it went absolutely everywhere? Like EVERYWHERE. There's no doubt in my mind that what has started in Reno with this group was something of God and something that God had called/invited us to. But how much of that idea is in our foundations? The idea and realisation of 'we're in this together not just because we've been friends for life, or because our families are inseparable, but because God has called/invited us together in a real, practical important way'.
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