Sermon Illustrations on Calling — page 2

Paul's Office and Salutation

Romans 1:5

“Through Him we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for His name, among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ; To all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called [to be] saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Romans 1:5-7 NKJV)

His office and his salutation

• whom [Him] — Christ in person — Psalm 68:18, Eph 4:8, 11

• grace — Gal 2:2, Eph 3:2, 1 Cor 15:10 — special gifts.

• Apostleship — the office.

• for…name — that through our preaching that obedience may be rendered to Him which results from believing in Him as King and Savior

• among whom — the nations

• ye [you] — believers in Rome

• called…Christ — Rom 8:30, 1 Cor 1:9, 1 Th 2:12, 2 Th 2:13-14, 2 Tim 1:3, Rev 17:14 — by the Gospel (Matt 22:14) heard in men’s hearts(1 Cor 1:23ff, 2 Pet 1:10)

• all…Rome — i.e., all Christians: described as “ beloved,” etc.

• grace — free favor

• peace — John 14:27, Rom 5:1, Gal 5:22, Phil 4:7, 2 Th 3:16 — happy consciousness of grace — “Grace releaseth sin, and peace maketh the conscience quiet.” (Luther)

Peace from God our Father — Peace — Dr. T. Guthrie

I. Between God and man.

II. To the soul. Peace bestowed equally on all believers.

III. To the world. Better days are coming. The vision tarries; but come it shall.

Called to be saints — Spurgeon

We are very apt to regard the Apostolic saints as though they were “saints” in a more especial manner than the other children of God. Their holiness is attainable even by us.

I. They lived with Jesus.

II. They lived for Jesus; and therefore

III. They grew like Jesus. Let us live by the same spirit as they did, “looking unto Jesus,” and our saintship will soon be apparent.

St. Paul, and not St. Peter, the founder of the Church at Rome — Canon Trevor

On the question, “Was St. Peter ever at Rome?” the evidence stands briefly thus :-

1. That Peter was murdered by crucifixion appears to be stated in John 20:18-19. Clement of Rome also attests the martyrdom (Eph. i. 5), but without assigning the place.

2. Irenaeus and the Fathers in general believed that he both founded the Church in Rome, and suffered in that city; but they are not consistent in the details, and they appear to have understood 1 Peter 5:13 as referring to Rome under the name of Babylon (Eus. E. H. ii. 15), an interpretation now generally abandoned.

3. Eusebius first fixed the Apostle’s residence in Rome at twenty years, which Jerome expanded to twenty-five, and the Roman annals more precisely define to twenty-four years, five months, and ten days. 4. Against these “years of St. Peter “ are placed the notices of the Apostle in the N. T. and the Epistles of Paul, which abundantly satisfy all Protestant critics that Peter had never been in Rome up to the writing of the Second Epistle to Timothy (A.D. 67-8).

5. Most of these commentators allow, in deference to the tradition, that Peter arrived in Rome after that date, and there suffered martyrdom about the same time with Paul (Dionysius does not say the same day, as Eusebius and Jerome have it).

6. To this, however, it is objected that, according to the tradition, the martyrdom at Rome is only the closing incident of the foundation and prolonged episcopate of the Roman Church; after disproving these, there is no independent evidence or motive for the other.

7. The first and best evidence of the Apostle’s suffering at Rome is his “ trophy,” or sepulchre, in the Vatican (Eus. E. H. ii. 25). Now, it is certain that at that time this spot was included in Nero’s magnificent circus, surrounded by altars and oracles, where no corpse — much less a malefactor’s — could possibly have been interred. Nardini, in his Roma Antics, piously (or, perhaps, satirically) suggests that Nero was compassionate enough to destroy his circus in order to

provide a sepulchre for the Apostle and the circumjacent saints,

or rather, he continues, since the circle was certainly standing in the time of Pliny, “Fosse si cor contento the all’ uno ed altro fine servisse – cio e per Circo agli Gentili e per Catecombe a Fedeli.” Having myself no faith in Nero’s compassion or toleration, I take this fact to be “conclusive” evidence that Peter was not buried in the Vatican; the conclusion is that he was never in Rome at all.

“This faith is not only the grace of faith, by which we are united to Christ, as the Head of the Invisible Church; but the doctrine of faith, by which we relate to Him, as members of the visible Church, to which unity is required.” — Dr. Littleton

“Grace infuseth a spirit of activity into a person. Grace doth not lie dormant in the soul; it is not a sleepy habit, but it makes a Christian, like a seraphim, swift-winged in his heavenly motions. Grace is like fire: it makes one burn in love to God.” — T. Watson

“Grace pleaseth a believer so well, that he cannot but study to please God in all things ever after; the law of grace constrains him.” — Cole

Predestinating, Calling, Justifying

Romans 8:29

“For whom He foreknew, He also predestined [to be] conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.” (Romans 8:29-30 NKJV)

Predestinating, Calling, Justifying

• foreknow — 1 Pet 1:2, Jer 1:5, Acts 15:14-18, Rom 11:2, Rev 13:8

— foreknew as heirs of eternal life

• predestinate — Eph 1:4-6, 11, 12, 2:10 — did resolve beforehand

concerning these

• conformed — Phil 3:10, 21, 1 Jn 3:2 — made like to

• image — moral nature, fi.lial character, visible glory

• He — His Son

• firstborn — Col 1:15-18, Rev 1:5-6, 7:9 — the eldest, the heir

• many — a great number that no man can number

• brethren — family resemblance, and feeling

• called — 1 Cor 1:9, 30, 6:11, Gal 1:15 — effectually: in His own way,

and time

• justified — which proves the call to be effectual

• glorified — Ps 138:8, 1 Th 2:12, Hohn 17:22, Col 3:4 — and, therefore,

kept by His power unto eternal salvation

Conformity to Christ predestinated — Anon.

I. The nature of this conformity with respect to –

1. His Sonship;

2. His moral character;

3. The offices He sustains;

4. His suffering and humiliation;

5. His glory.

II. The act of God in pursuance of that end — “Predestination.” An act –

1. Agreeable to the nature of God;

2. In accordance with the analogy of nature;

3. Agreeable to the conduct of His providence, as in Christ.

III. Conclusion:-

1. Predestination affords no comfort to those who are not “conformed

to the image of His Son;”

2. It does not destroy the voluntary character of human actions, nor does it involve force or compulsion.

Soldiers of Christ — Believers are soldiers; all soldiers, by their profession, are engaged to fight if called upon; but who shall be called to sustain the hottest service, and be most frequently exposed upon the field of battle, depends upon the will of the general or king. Some of our soldiers are now upon hard service, while others are stationed round the palace, see the king’s face daily, and have no dangers or hardships to encounter. These, however, are as liable to a call as the others; but if not called upon, they may enjoy, with thankfulness, the more easy post assigned them. Thus the “Captain of our salvation” allots to His soldiers such stations as He thinks proper. He has a right to employ whom He will, and where He will. Some are comparatively at ease; they are not exposed to the fiercest onsets, but live near His presence; others are to appearance pressed above measure, beyond strength, so that they despair even of life; yet they are supported, and in the end made “more than conquerors” through Him who hath loved them. — John Newton

“You may as well call him a man whose soul is not in him, as you may call that man a Christian who hath not the Spirit of Christ.” — R. Alleine

“Sir, in these matters — (referring to the doctrines of election and final perseverance) — I am so fearful, that I dare not speak further, yea, almost none otherwise, than the very text doth as it were, lead me by the hand.” — Bp Ridley

Universality of the Divine Appeal

Acts 2:4

“But I say, have they not heard? Yes indeed: "Their sound has gone out to all the earth, And their words to the ends of the world." But I say, did Israel not know? First Moses says: "I will provoke you to jealousy by [those who are] not a nation, I will move you to anger by a foolish nation." But Isaiah is very bold and says: "I was found by those who did not seek Me; I was made manifest to those who did not ask for Me." But to Israel he says: "All day long I have stretched out My hands To a disobedient and contrary people."” (Ro 10:18-21 NKJV)

Universality Of The Divine Appeal

• have…heard? — all heard, though only some believed

• sound…world[earth] — Ps 19:4, Acts 2:4-6, 8:4, 9:19, 26:30 — “so general has that hearing already been, that to it may be applied the words in which the Psalmist describes the universality of the testimony of the works of nature to the glory of God” (Vaughan). “This speech uttered by creation as properly God’s as the speech uttered by the preachers of the Gospel” (Macknight)

• first…saith — Deut 32:21 — the feelings with which the Jews regarded the Gentiles, also predicted

• jealousy — the Jews were enraged when the Gospel was preached to the Gentiles

• foolish nation — Jer 8:8 — because once idolators

• Esaias — Isaiah as well as Moses foretold the facts of Messiah’s day — Isa 65:1, 55:5

• all day — of prophetic teaching, and Divine long-suffering

• stretched…hands — Isa 55:2 — gesture of earnest, passionate entreaty

Their sound went into all the earth — Anon.

This fact a proof of –

I. The historical truth;

II. The heavenly origin;

III. The blessed purpose of the Gospel

The spread of the Word, a testimony — Lange

I. Of whom;

II. Through whom;

III. For whom.

Christ the great helper of the helpless — Christ, to convince the world of their unableness to emerge and recover out of that deep abyss wherein the load of sin (which in Scripture is called a weight) hath precipitated fallen man, came not into the world until well nigh four thousand years of sickness had made the disease desperate, and the cure almost hopeless: so inveterate an obstinacy at once widening the distance betwixt God and man, and proclaiming the latter’s disability to find, by his own wisdom, expedients of reunion. Thus Christ healed and dispossessed a dumb person, who was able to make entreaties but by the disability of pronouncing them, and might truly say to the secure world, “I am found of them that sought me not.” — R. R. Boyle

Faith is an earnest persuasion of mind, concerning the truth of some matter propounded… From faith doth naturally and duly result a satisfaction or acquiescence in the matter enjoined, as best to be done ; a choice and resolution to comply with God’s appointment; an effectual obedience; a cheerful expectation of a good issue thereupon.” — Dr Barrow

Loving Mondays: Business As A Calling

Growing up in a churchgoing family, John Beckett sometimes wondered whether he ought to go into the ministry. Even though he wanted more than anything to go into business, he had an unsettling feeling that “ministry would somehow be the 'right' thing to do.” But somehow, circumstances always seemed to guide him in other directions.

The question came once again after John became a successful businessman and was supporting a growing family. For a long time, he prayed about it. “After several months, and to my surprise,” John writes in his excellent new book LOVING MONDAY, “I sensed it was I who was being asked a very key question: Would I be willing to completely release my involvement in the company and follow a very different direction in life?”

Framed that way, the question was even more disturbing -- the unknown often is. But John couldn't shake the feeling that God was testing his motives, trying to get him to reveal where his heart and commitment really lay. Finally, he writes, “I responded to the query by making perhaps the most difficult decision I'd ever made -- a decision to release to God my future and all that I owned, including the company.”

Once he did that, John writes, “The wonderful irony is that in return came the unmistakable assurance that I was where I belonged -- in business.”

Many Christians, I suspect, are like John Beckett was, working hard to make money, but not as fulfilled at work as they should be because they feel a vague sense of guilt. They think the only real way to serve Christ is to work for a church, a mission, or a Christian organization. But in the biblical worldview, there is no such dichotomy between the sacred and the secular.

As I have argued in HOW NOW SHALL WE LIVE?, all of life is to be under the Lordship of Christ. Our gifts and our inclinations come from our Creator; He has fitted each of us for the occupation in which we can serve Him best. And that means not only ministry, but it includes business, politics, the arts, science, health care, and hundreds of other areas.

Once we realize this, work can be a joy. We discover that we can use our work for God's glory. In his book, John Beckett lists a number of ways we can use our work for God. As a business owner, he manufactures the best products he can. As the head of his company, he wrote a mission statement that clearly reflects biblical principles. As an employer, he recognizes the worth and dignity of each of his employees, each one of whom is made in the image of God. That led him to craft a generous maternity leave policy, to provide financial help to employees who adopted children, to help employees further their education, and to find other ways to help them grow personally, professionally, and even spiritually.

Not all of us have the opportunity to affect as many people as John Beckett has, but each of us can find ways to serve God through the work He has given us. As John relates in LOVING MONDAY, we can truly dedicate our occupations to God only when we realize that the work belongs to Him and not to us. That ought to be obvious, but is often forgotten in the busyness of our days. Thank you, John Beckett, for this important reminder.

Remember What You Learned

2 Peter 1:10

Purpose-Driven Life series, #7 2 Peter 1:10-15

REMEMBER WHAT YOU LEARNED

=========================

I. Preparation time.

A. You better be getting ready.

B. A necessary recap.

II. The five purposes of the Christian life.

A. We are created to worship.

B. We are formed for fellowship.

C. We are molded to become Christlike.

D. We are shaped for ministry.

E. We are made for a mission.

III. Make your calling and election sure.

A. Calling and election point to God's work in us.

B. Making it sure points to our contribution.

C. If you do these things, you will never fall.

IV. Jesus has a rich welcome for us.

A. It is always reassuring to know you are accepted.

B. Have you accepted him?

The Depth and Width of Your Calling

”God must love you a lot! He doesn’t allow someone to go through the kinds of adversity you have experienced unless He has a special calling on your life.” Those were the words said to me by two different mentors at two different times within a three-year period. Later I would learn another related truth from a respected man of God – a man who lives in another country, a man whom God uses throughout the globe. “The depth and width of your faith experiences are directly proportional to your calling.” What were these men of God saying?

They were describing a process of preparation that God takes each of His leaders through when He plans to use them in significant ways. A “faith experience” is an event or “spiritual marker” in your life about which you can say, “That is where I saw God personally moving in my life.” It is an unmistakable event in which God showed Himself personally to you. It was the burning bush for Moses; the crossing of the Red Sea or the Jordan River for the nation of Israel; Jacob’s encounter with the angel. It was the feeding of the 5,000 for the disciples. It was the time when you saw God face to face in your life.

If God has plans of using you in the lives of many others, you can expect that He is going to allow certain faith experiences to come into your life in order to build a foundation that will be solid. That foundation is what you will be able to look back on to keep you faithful to Him in the times of testing. Each of us must have personal faith experiences in which we experience God personally so that we can move in faith to whatever He may call us. Do you need a personal faith experience right now in your life? Pray that God will reveal Himself to you. He delights in doing that.

Knee Deep In Garbage, He Had A Life-changing Exchange With God

Romans 12:1

He is now the president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. But nearly 20 years ago, Danny Akin found himself working in a trash dumpster -- literally.

Having resigned from a church position nearly a year before, he had received no response from the many resumes he had sent out to find another job. He had not even been asked to “say a silent prayer at a dog's funeral,” Akin said in chapel at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Akin took a job for $5.50 an hour to support his wife and three children. Then, on one hot summer's day in Texas, his boss asked him to move garbage from one large dumpster to another. As the day wore on and the sun bore down, Akin said he “got ticked at God.”

“Lord, I know You are the Sovereign of the universe. But I don't think You have a clue about what You're doing today,” Akin recounted. “Don't You know who I am? I have a bachelor's degree from Criswell College. ... I've been to Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and I have a Master of Divinity. I have mastered the divine! I'm working on a Ph.D. in humanities. And you have me up here in the blazing sun moving garbage from one dumpster into another. This doesn't seem the best use of my gifts and talents.”

Akin said he then heard a quiet question from God in his heart: “What if it is My will for you to be in this dumpster?”

He did not answer that question right away, because he was in no mood to answer. But as he pondered the question in his heart, he was able eventually to respond, “Although I don't understand it, if this is Your will for my life, I'd rather be here than anywhere else.”

Akin said God used his surrender to the lordship of Christ to change his life. Ten years after that day, he was standing before 10,000 people in the Georgia Dome to address the Southern Baptist Convention.

Akin said his experience partly illustrates what the Apostle Paul described as living under the lordship of Christ in Romans 12:1-2. He said that Paul wrote that the will of God would always be “good, acceptable and perfect.” Paul did not write that Christians would always understand the will of God, Akin said.

Akin underscored Paul's teaching in Romans that God calls Christians to “consecration and complete commitment” to Himself because of all He has done for believers in Christ.

Cassie Bernal, a teenager killed in the shootings at Columbine High School, was an example of someone with this kind of complete commitment, Akin said. Shortly before she was killed, she wrote, “Now I've given up on everything else. I have found it to be the only way to really know Christ, to know the mighty power that brought him back to life again, and to find out what it really means to suffer and die with him. I will die for my God. I will die for my faith. It is the least I can do for the Christ who died for me.”

Akin emphasized Paul's concern that Christians not be “conformed” to this world. He said the Greek word for “conform” is to be molded or shaped by outside forces. Akin decried what he termed “sick, weak and anemic churches,” churches the world doesn't oppose because they are just like the world.

Instead, Akin said, Christians are to be “transformed,” the Greek word for which is “metamorphosis,” to be changed “from the inside out.”

Paul taught that the method of this transformation, Akin said, was the “'renewal of your minds.’ Your greatest battle as a child of God will not be fought out there in the world. Your greatest battle as a child of God will be fought between your ears: in your mind. You win the battle for the mind, you win the battle for the Christian life. But you lose the battle for the mind, and you'll lose everything.”

Akin said this renewal comes by being “saturated” and “immersed” in the Word of God, and so saturated that Christians “begin to think God's thoughts” and “are not able to think in any other category” than those provided by the Word of God.

This renewal of the mind in Christ leads to “surrender to the lordship of Christ” and to the contentment, satisfaction and peace of being in the will of God, Akin said.

“Even if we find ourselves in the dumpster, knee deep in garbage, there's no place better on earth than being in the will of God and surrendered to the lordship of Jesus Christ,” Akin said.

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The Believer's Prospect

2 Peter 1:10

2 Peter 1:10–11 — The Believer’s Prospect « Leader information shown in this fashion »

A. The Charge (ie., Commission) 2 Peter 1:10a

1. various translations of the this part of the verse …

a. AV – Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: …

b. NAS – Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; …

c. NIV – Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. …

d. J. B. Phillips – Set your minds, then, on endorsing by your conduct the fact that God has called and chosen you. …

e. NLT – So, dear friends, work hard to prove that you really are among those God has called and chosen. …

2. “wherefore the rather”

a. this is the most literal of the translations shown

b. it indicates that what is to follow

(A) is directly derived from what has just been said

(B) is in contrast to what has just been said

c. what is the preceding example to be avoided? (Verse 9)

(A) those who « lack the virtues of Christian growth »

(B) those who « are forgetful of their being cleansed from sin »

3. “give diligence”

a. this reflects back to verse 5, “giving all diligence, add … “

b. in that verse, and those following, what was the believer to give diligence to? « — the 8 virtues of Christian growth as found in verses 5–7 »

c. note that the less literal translations disguise this relationship

4. “calling”

a. who does this? « — God (see, for example, Romans 8:30, 2 Timothy 1:9, Hebrews 3:1) »

b. is there anything that I can do to improve upon it? « — No »

5. “election”

a. which means our « being chosen »

b. who does this? « — God (see, for example, 1 Thessalonians 1:4) »

c. is there anything that I can do to improve upon it? « — No »

6. “sure”

a. this word means F_______ « irm » , S_____________ « teadfast » , E___________ « during; it comes from a verb which means to confirm or to ratify »

b. what are the grounds upon which we have assurance of our salvation

(A) on the completed « work of redemption by Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary »

(B) on all God’s « promises which are certain because God cannot lie »

(C) on the Holy Spirit’s « sanctifying work as evidenced by the Christian growth as described in verses 5–7 »

c. so, is having assurance of salvation presumptuous? « — no because it is the work of God »

d. see verse 9 and also Hebrews 6:9; when is it presumptuous? « — when we do not grow as Christians; are still babes; are negligent about what Christ has done for us »

e. how can these things be true with a Christian?

(A) Ephesians 4:30 « — by grieving the Spirit »

(B) 1 Thessalonians 5:19 « — by quenching the Spirit »

7. This theme — that of proving the reality of our salvation is found elsewhere in the New Testament

a. Philippians 2:12 )NKJV): Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling;

b. 1 Corinthians 9:24 (NKJV): Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it.

B. The Purpose: 2 Peter 1:10b

1. various translations of this part of the verse …

a. AV – … for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:

b. NAS – … for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble;

c. NIV – … For if you do these things, you will never fall,

d. J. B. Phillips – … If you go along these lines there is no reason why you should stumble.

e. NLT – … Doing this, you will never stumble or fall away.

2. “these things”

a. what things (we’ve asked this before!)? « — the diligence in seeking Christian growth as described in verses 5–7 »

3. “never fall”

a. what are the other translations?

(A) the same « — or “stumble” »

(B) the NLT? « — uses both words, you choose between “stumble” or a much stronger “fall away” »

(C) the lexicons gives these meanings: to fall, to stumble, to trip; to err or fail in duty; to offend; to fail or fall short of success and happiness « — so what is being described here is a break in one’s Christian walk; going astray, making a mistake, sin. While there are some examples of its being used for “ruined, lost” in extra-Biblical writings (Arndt & Gingrich), it is contrary to other Scripture to take this to mean tjhe loss of one’s position by grace in Christ Jesus, “loss of one’s salvation”; to do so is quite inconsistent with the context which deals with Christian growth. »

C. The Outcome 2 Peter 1:11

1. various translations of the this part of the verse …

a. AV – For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

b. NAS – for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you.

c. NIV – and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

d. J. B. Phillips – Indeed if you live this sort of life a rich welcome awaits you as you enter the eternal kingdom of our Lord and saviour Jesus Christ.

e. NLT – And God will open wide the gates of heaven for you to enter into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

2. “entrance”

a. literally, “way or road into,” either of the act of entering or of the entranceway itself

3. “shall be ministered”

a. this is the same word as used in verse 5, “add,” but in the passive sense (ie., someone else is doing the adding) rather than the active sense

b. so what are the other translations? … do they add anything?

(A) NAS: « be supplied … harks back to the idea in verse 5 which included the idea of furnishing »

(B) NIV: « you will receive a rich welcome (NIV) … rephrased »

(C) the others: « very loose translations of the passage which add “devotional thoughts” which are not necessarily contained in the original »

4. “everlasting kingdom”

a. whose is it? « — it is the domain of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ »

b. what is it? « — the O.T. uses this phrase of the kingdom of the Lord (Yahweh) in Psalm 145:13, Daniel 4:3, 34; 7:14, 27; which is in control of everything on the earth. This is the only place the phrase is used in the New Testament. »

Alabama Drug Dealer Trades Crime For Pastorate

Acts 26:13

He's a former drug dealer and gang member, hardly the credentials sought by most churches looking for pastors. But Huey Harris' dramatic conversion from gangster to preacher has opened doors of ministry in the roughest areas of Montgomery.

Harris, 29, was 12 when he began selling cocaine under the direction of his grandmother while his mother was in prison. By 14, Harris -- or “Shockey,” as he was called -- joined the Disciples gang and set up turf at a local junior high school.

At 16 he was charged with capital murder after driving the shooter away from a street killing, but he avoided prosecution. Meanwhile, he ran a crack house behind a Montgomery high school for five years.

In 1997, at 22, he was arrested for selling drugs. He received five years probation. Then, after shooting at someone who owed him $250, Harris, then 23, was himself shot in revenge -- three times in his side.

In 2001 Harris was looking forward to getting off probation and going back to selling drugs. “But God had another plan,” he recalled.

One night Harris went home, drunk and high from marijuana, and fell asleep. He said he dreamed of Christ's second coming in a vivid, intense panorama of an earth destroyed by fire, a land strewn with dead bodies, and then the beauty of a newly created world.

He said God told him in his dream to “get your life together.” Harris woke up a new man. He began taking drug addicts and gang members to church and preaching Christ to them.

Harris wrote more than 200 Montgomery churches in June 2001. Jay Wolf, pastor of First Baptist Church of Montgomery, was the sole respondent. Wolf got Harris involved in Project Hope, a ministry that plants cell groups in the housing projects of Montgomery.

In 2003 Harris started a church at a Montgomery motel frequented by drug dealers and prostitutes. In the 14 months he ministered there, 2,000 people accepted Christ, according to Harris. When the congregation could no longer afford to meet at the motel, it moved into a building at First Baptist and became Fresh Waters Christian Church International, with Harris as pastor.

Harris' efforts among Montgomery's 16 housing projects has drawn praise from Alabama's attorney general, TV mogul Oprah Winfrey and evangelist Billy Graham. His background as a drug dealer commands respect, he said, but so does his decision to leave that life and follow Christ. He started Brothers for Life, a nonprofit organization to encourage students to avoid gangs, and another ministry that distributes food and clothing to the needy.

While drug dealers and gang members are his primary audience, Harris doesn't limit the gospel's appeal. “It's 'whosoever.’ That's my calling. To preach the gospel of Jesus Christ in cities where traditional churches won't go.”

-- Kima Jude is a correspondent with The Alabama Baptist.

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John Chrysostom: An Unavoidable Calling

“A comprehended God is no god,” a great preacher once said. His words are often a comfort as I struggle to live the apologetic life in a cynical world, being ready, as Peter urged, “to give an answer” for the hope that is within me. I am reminded with Paul that the message we proclaim is the mystery of Christ.

But his words were spoken in a world altogether different from my own. In the second half of the fourth century, a man named John emerged as a shining voice in the fog of shifting power and thought in the Roman Empire. One hundred years after his death, he was given the name by which we now know him: John Chrysostom, which means, “the golden-mouthed.”

In the first three hundred years of the Christian movement, Christians were actively persecuted, wholly viewed as enemies of the state. By the middle of the third century, this outlook was beginning to undergo dramatic changes. In A.D. 313, Christianity was legalized under Constantine as one of several viable religions. Within the span of a hundred years, Christianity was declared the official religion of the Roman Empire. Though the influence of pagan culture was yet widespread, Christianity rapidly gained influence. Gaining status as the official religion, the Church itself increasingly became viewed as having certain responsibilities in accommodating the needs of the state.

It was in such an atmosphere that John Chrysostom came into a position of ministry. John was originally trained for a career in law. The renowned orator Libanius foresaw a brilliant future in his pupil and was wholly disheartened when John saw fit to alter it. It is said that Libanius was once asked who he saw as his ideal successor. “John,” he replied, “but the Christians have laid claim on him.”(1) In fact, it was Christ who had laid claim on him.

After six years of monastic withdrawal, John returned to Antioch and took to preaching. The golden-mouthed orator was enthusiastically received, and his distinction was soon celebrated throughout the Greek-speaking church. In fact, his popularity in Antioch had become so widespread that when the prestigious position of bishop opened in the capitol city of Constantinople, he was given an “invitation” to speak in a chapel outside the city. Upon arriving, he was forcefully ordered into a carriage bound for the capitol. The riot feared among the people of Antioch (and perhaps John's refusal of the offer) was successfully avoided.

But John Chrysostom's bold words and influential speaking would leave him not only with the respect of many, but also with many influential enemies (including the Emperor's wife, Eudoxia). Nonetheless, as bishop of Constantinople, John passionately sought to reform both the life of clergy and the lives of those in power, seeing a widespread need for a clear and unwavering hearing of the Gospel of Christ. As one biographer contends, “[F]or John Chrysostom the pulpit was not simply a podium from which to deliver brilliant pieces of oratory. It was rather the verbal expression of his entire life, his battlefield against the powers of evil, an unavoidable calling that eventually led to exile and to death itself.”(2)

Under the front of false accusations, John Chrysostom's enemies eventually had him banished from the city. Many of his supporters were persecuted and his closest friends were tortured. Over a period of time and events, they him moved from city to city, unable to banish him far enough away from influence. From exile he turned to writing and moved the world with his pen. Yet in time, he grew weak from the extensive journeys further into exile. Pleading with his guards to stop at a small church, Chrysostom preached a final, abbreviated sermon in the presence of a few monks: “In all things, glory to God.”

In his lifetime, John Chrysostom was the cause of many riots and the target of much affliction. In life and in death, he remains a pillar of faith, pointing to the truth and mystery of Christ. In churches around the world on Easter Sunday, the words of John Chrysostom's Easter homily still resound powerfully from the pulpit:

“Let no one grieve at his poverty,

for the universal kingdom has been revealed.

Let no one mourn that he has fallen again and again;

for forgiveness has risen from the grave.

Let no one fear death,

for the Death of our Savior has set us free.

He has destroyed it by enduring it.”(3)

________

1. Justo Gonzalez, The Story of Christianity: Vol. 1 (HarperSansFranciso, 1984), 194.

2. Ibid., 194.

3. John Chrysostom's Easter homily can be found at http://www.ocf.org/features/EasterSermon.html

________

*

Choose One Chair

“When I was a boy, my father, a baker, introduced me to the wonders of song,” tenor Luciano Pavarotti relates. “He urged me to work very hard to develop my voice. Arrigo Pola, a professional tenor in my hometown of Modena, Italy, took me as a pupil. I also enrolled in a teachers college. On graduating, I asked my father, 'Shall I be a teacher or a singer?'

“'Luciano,' my father replied, 'if you try to sit on two chairs, you will fall between them. For life, you must choose one chair.'

“I chose one. It took seven years of study and frustration before I made my first professional appearance. It took another seven to reach the Metropolitan Opera. And now I think whether it's laying bricks, writing a book -- whatever we choose -- we should give ourselves to it. Commitment, that's the key. Choose one chair.”

________

Source: Guideposts, Copyright (c) http://www.guideposts.org. Cited on http://www.bible.org. Source: Weekend Encounter, by Dick Innes, Copyright (c) ACTS International, 2004, http://www.actsweb.org/subscribe.htm

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Paul's First Missionary Journey - As Far As Cyprus

Acts 12:25

Acts 12:25–13:12 — “Paul’s First Missionary Journey — as far as Cyprus” — (outline by F. F. Bruce, NICNT) «Leader information shown in this fashion»

{A.} The Birth of the Church (1:1–5:42)

{B.} Persecution and Expansion (6:1–9:31)

{C.} The Acts of Peter and Beginnings of Gentile Christianity, 9:32-12:25

{1.} Peter in West Judaea (9:32-43)

{2.} The Story of Cornelius (10:1–48)

{3.} Peter’s Action Endorsed at Jerusalem (11:1–18}

{4.} Antioch Becomes a Christian Base (11:19–30)

A. Gentile Evangelization in Antioch (11:19–21) « – by whom? »

B. Barnabas’ and Saul’s Ministry in Antioch (11:22–26)

C. Famine Relief (11:27–30) « – from whom to whom? »

{5.} Herod Agrippa I and the Church (12:1–24} —

A. Martyrdom of James and Imprisonment of Peter (12:1-4)

B. Peters Escape from Prison (12:5–11)

C. Peter Reports His Escape (12:12–17)

D. Peter’s Escape Discovered (12:18–19)

E. Death of Herod Agrippa I (12:20–23)

F. Continued Progress of the Gospel (12:24)

{D.} Church Extension from Antioch & Apostolic Decree at Jerusalem

Acts 12:25–15:35 « – resumes narrative from Acts 11:30 »

Antioch on the Orentes becomes the springboard of missions

Antioch: a church planted by missionaries from Cyrene & Cyprus

was the starting point of Paul’s first three missionary journeys

was the first stop in his trip from Jerusalem to Rome

to be distinguished from …? « Antioch in Pisidia »

A brief time-line (best estimates):

Christ’s crucifixion, resurrection and ascension AD 30

Paul’s conversion AD 36

Acts 13:1 « Paul no novice (1 Tim 3:6, 5:22) » AD 46

{1.} Barnabas and Saul Acts 12:25–13:3

A. The Envoys from Antioch Return (12:25, NKJV): And Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they had fulfilled their ministry, and they also took with them John whose surname was Mark.

1. What was the ministry that they had fulfilled? « – carrying the gifts from the Antioch brethren to the Jerusalem church; note the word ministry is diakonia – “what a deacon does” »

2. Both Acts 12:12 and Colossians 4:10 are thought to speak of the same Mark; what were his family relationships? – « son of Mary owner of house of prayer; cousin to Barnabas »

B. Barnabas and Saul Sent out from Antioch (13:1-3, NKJV): 1 Now in the church that was at Antioch there were certain prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. 2 As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, “Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” 3 Then, having fasted and prayed, and laid hands on them, they sent them away.

1. « This is reminiscent of Jeremiah’s call, 1:4–10, which was our devotion at the Deacons’ and Leaders’ Meetings. » There are some principles found here concerning ministry; locate some.

a. « God calls those whom He has been preparing already (these were proven teachers or prophets) »

b. « God calls those actively serving, seeking (fasting) »

c. « God’s callings are clear and compelling »

d. « God’s Holy Spirit is involved in His calling – part of His convicting of righteousness (John 16:9) »

e. « Laying on of the hands of Christian leaders, along with prayer, is the human seal on God’s calling (ordination) »

2. God has through His Holy Spirit laid a compelling conviction upon you to undertake a certain ministry or service; is it legitimate to answer, “I cannot do it” but I will give so that someone else can do it? Why or Why not? « – reference the Jeremiah passage or Moses’ story as examples that God does not want substitutes; Deborah and Barak may also apply »

3. As well as being trained by Gamaliel as a Pharisee, Saul would be schooled starting at age 6 and memorize

a. Deuteronomy 6:4–9, 11:13–21, Numbers 15:37–41 (which also meant learning Exodus 20:1–17); these are learned together can called by the first word the “S___________” « (”Shema” from “Hear, O Israel…”) »

b. Psalms 113 to 118, known as the “H_______” « – Hallel which means “Praise God” »

c. Genesis 1 to 5, the story of C_________ « – Creation »

d. Leviticus 1–8, the C______________ « (ceremonial) » Law

e. His personal text of Scripture « – which began with the first letter of his name, ending with the last – Dr. John M. Moore, “The Challenge of First Century Christianity” »

f. what other preparation did Saul have? « — eg Acts 11:26 year of joint ministry with Barnabas; by Lord Gal. 1:16ff »

4. The others named «

a. that Simeon is the Simon of Cyrene who carried the cross is improbable; Luke (23:26) would call him that; but that he was black is most likely

b. that Lucius of Cyrene is the author, Luke very unlikely, but probably was one of those mentioned in Acts 11:20

c. Manaen is Greek rendering of Menachem »

{2.} Cyprus Acts 13:4–12

A. The Missionaries Arrive at Cyprus (13:4–5, NKJV): 4 So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus. 5 And when they arrived in Salamis, they preached the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. They also had John as their assistant.

1. Who sent these missionaries out? « – in the preceding verse it was the church, here the Holy Spirit; this is an action in concert, the Holy Spirit leading, the church acting »

2. Where did they preach? « – in the synagogues where they would find God-fearing people; accords with Romans 1:16 »

3. John Mark « – if he is, as generally thought, the author of the book of Mark, and the young man escaping leaving his robe behind (Mark 14:51-52) then he could have been the required eye-witness to the events that Paul and Barnabas taught. He is called assistant, attendant or helper, the same word found in Luke 1:2 as “ministers of the word” »

B. Confrontation at Paphos (13:6–12, NKJV): 6 Now when they had gone through the island to Paphos, they found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew whose name was Bar-Jesus, 7 who was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, an intelligent man. This man called for Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God. 8 But Elymas the sorcerer (for so his name is translated) withstood them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith. 9 Then Saul, who also is called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him 10 and said, “O full of all deceit and all fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease perverting the straight ways of the Lord? 11 And now, indeed, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you shall be blind, not seeing the sun for a time.” And immediately a dark mist fell on him, and he went around seeking someone to lead him by the hand. 12 Then the proconsul believed, when he saw what had been done, being astonished at the teaching of the Lord.

1. Bar-Jesus is Aramaic for “son of he will save” or “son of Yah will save,” but he was a follower of the occult; “son of” in a name was to describe character; what does Saul say his real character is? « Elymas; probably Semitic, “strong or wise one” »

a. « devilish »

b. « deceitful, fraudulent »

c. « unrighteousness and perverse »

2. Describe the proconsul

a. « an intelligent man »

b. « an open, enquiring man »

c. yet, also « open to Elymas’ anti-Christian persuasions »

d. but « convinced by the defeat of Elymas »

e. no evidence, such as baptism, that the proconsul had saving faith, but merely assented intellectually to the truth of Paul’s word, not an assent of the will through turning to the Lord (in repentance) and perseverance.

3. From Paul’s (this is the first use by Luke of Saul’s Roman name) perspective, was smiting Elymas with blindness unkind? « — it was an experience that Saul, too, had had at a time when he was an enemy of the gospel and out of it came his spiritual sight with his own salvation »

Is It Possible To Be Busy and Bored?

Is it possible to be busy and bored at the same time? We tend to associate “busyness” with excitement, enthusiasm, adrenaline rushes, productivity. It's certainly true that these busy seasons of our lives often really are fruitful and joyful times. Not the stuff boredom is made of, right?

But the picture isn't always so rosy. More and more people find themselves so busy with life's trivia, so overcommited to activities of little value, that they miss out on doing the things they really want to do. Busyness becomes a grind, in large part because the things we're caught up in seem so insignificant.

Henry Nouwen has great insight into many things that relate to the spiritual life. He's made the observation that even in the busyness of life, we sometimes experience a sense of boredom and emptiness. Listen to what he says:

“While busy and worried about many things, we seldom feel truly

satisfied, at peace, or at home. A gnawing sense of being

unfulfilled underlies our filled lives. Reflecting a little more

on this experience of unfulfillment, I can discern different

sentiments -- the most significant are boredom, resentment and

depression. Boredom is a sense of disconnectedness. While we're

busy with many things, we wonder if what we do makes any real

difference. To be bored does not mean that we have nothing to do

but that we question the value of the things that we're doing.

While running from one event to the next we wonder, in our

innermost selves, if anything is really happening. While we can

hardly keep up with our many tasks and obligations, we're not so

sure it would make any difference if we did nothing at all.”

That may sound extreme, but I suspect that many of us wrestle with this very issue. “I'm very busy, there are a lot of things happening in my life -- but in the ultimate scheme of things, are they really that important? Am I investing myself in the things that God created me to do?”

Irving Berlin, when he heard that his friend George Gershwin had died, is reported to have said: “The tragedy of it all is that most people die with the best music still in them -- still waiting to be released.” That statement has a bitter ring of truth to it for many of us, because we have a sense that there are things we can do, things that we should be doing, even things we want to be doing ... but we're not doing them. We're so busy with the rest of life's trivia that we never can get around to those other things. And so “the music” stays inside us.

This is all too often the case in our spiritual lives. As Christians we know there are things God has “called us” to do. There are ministries we could participate in, people to help, ways of investing our time and energy that would bring significance to our lives and a genuine sense of fulfillment. But the rush of daily life keeps us from devoting the time we need to do those significant things. The years are passing, and the music is still in us ... we haven't let it out yet.

As Fall approaches and many families gear up for a new school year, it's also a season that finds many church programs getting a fresh start. This is a great time for each of us to re-evaluate our commitments and calendars. Are we making time for what matters? Of course we'll be busy, but “busy” doing what? Are we going to let another year go by with the music still inside us?

*

In Calling Distance

Isaiah 6:8

Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? ‘Then said I, Here am I; send me. — Isaiah 6:8.

A story is told of two men, the elder of whom was urging upon the younger the claims of Christian work and encouraging him to follow the call of the Lord. The younger answered with an excuse that had a familiar ring, “But I have never felt any compelling call to give my life in that way.” “Are you sure you are within calling distance?” was the somewhat disquieting reply.

Who’ll go and help this Shepherd kind,

Help Him the wandering lambs to find?

Hark! ‘tis the Master speaks to thee.

“Go find My lambs, where’er they be.” — A. Thomas

Invitation To the Thirsty

Isaiah 55

Isaiah 55: Invititation to the Thirsty

God’s Calling; Drawing Night to God; Drawing Water with Joy

Who is speaking in this chapter?

• throughout most of the chapter, God’s own words are recorded

• verses 6-7: the inspired prophet’s application of God’s words to the people

Who is being addressed … a group of individual? — see Acts 13:26-38

• In one sense it is addressed to the nation of Israel

• verses 3, 6, 7 indicate it is individuals who must respond

• Paul’s sermon, however, applies it in part to Jesus Christ

• this illustrates one way in which His thoughts are higher than our thoughts

What indications are there that the invitation given extends beyond the Jewish people (verses 1, 5)

• all or everyone

• nations

There are promises in Scripture that are conditioned by obedience to some command (eg., 1 Chronicles 28:9, 2 Chronicles 7:14, Matt 11:28-30); in verses 6-7, what are the

Commands Promises

• seek the Lord (spiritual will) • compassion

• call on Him (attitude, need) • mercy

• forsake, turn away (confess, repent) • pardon

• turn to, return to

How do verses 10 to 11 enlarge upon or explain verses 8 and 9?

• his ways and thoughts are immeasurable and without limit

• rain accomplishes its purpose; God’s commanding word does, too

As a result, what does that mean in looking at verses 6 to 7? … at verses 1 and 2?

• truth, effect of these promises is eternal

Sometimes Scripture uses words that echo back to earlier themes; one example is Christ’s words to the woman at the well (John 4) which echo this chapter; what is the echo in verses 12 and 13?

• Isaiah 35:10

So … what kind of well-being is envisaged in this chapter?

Nothing Will Thwart God's Will

Once I went backstage at the Metropolitan Opera to interview Jerome Hines, the internationally famous singer, who is also an active Christian layman. While he applied makeup and got ready for his role in that night’s production of Aida, I asked him questions about his life and faith. One of the most fascinating things he told me was that he wasn’t a good enough singer to make his high school glee club. He auditioned for the choir, but failed to impress the director. Did that detour his career? I wanted to know.

“No, I kept on singing,” Hines said, “because I loved to sing. I never considered it anything more than an avocation.” So he went off to college, studied math and sang as a hobby- which led to some amateur roles, which led to his discovery by people who had a different opinion of his talent from his high school teacher. Later that night, as I stood in the wings and listened to his rich bass voice sweep over that famous hall, I wondered how there could have ever been any question.

I am always uplifted by such stories because they tell me that God has a place in mind for each of us and a plan for our getting there. It may not always be clear and we may get sidetracked, but if we trust Him and obey Him, nothing will thwart His will. He will prevail. Teach us to trust You, Lord, even when the results are discouraging at first.

________

Fred Bauer; Daily Guideposts, 1986, Copyright Guideposts Associates, Inc.

Preachers and Podiatrists: Is Some Work More Sacred?

The story is told about an evangelical college that claimed to affirm the sacredness of all work. But did it really believe this teaching? Every spring the school held a special chapel service to lay hands on, and pray for, students who were going off on mission trips. But then a professor asked if the school could hold a similar service for students planning to start internships at big accounting firms.

The school’s answer? An emphatic no.

My former colleague Jim Tonkowich tells this story in his online article, “Christians on the Job: Doing Well a Thing Well Worth Doing.” “Fine words aside,” Tonkowich writes, “the college believes that some vocations are much more sacred than others.”

Sadly, many professors “enthusiastically [communicate] that fallacy to its unsuspecting students.”

Christians outside the academy sometimes fall for the same fallacy as well. Too many business people “have cut short their careers just before breaking into senior management in order to ‘serve God full time,’” Tonkowich notes. Despite their talk about all work being sacred, their own decisions deny their words.

How do we get back a biblical view of work? We can start with an essay by Dorothy Sayers entitled “Why Work.” As Sayers writes, Christians “must get it firmly into their heads that when a man or woman is called to a particular job of secular work, that is as true a vocation as though he or she were called to a specific religious work.”

One thinks of a good friend of Sayers, C.S. Lewis, whose “secular” work at Oxford included writing a series of children’s books that have for generations pointed children to Christ: The Chronicles of Narnia.

Sayers believed that work “should be looked upon — not as a necessary drudgery...but as a way of life in which the nature of man should find its proper exercise and delight and so fulfill itself to the glory of God.”

This is why it is so important that Christian young people find out what their vocation is — whether it be law, medicine, ministry, or some other field — and do the work that God designed them to do.

How do we figure that out? We should ask ourselves what we are good at, what we have a passion for, what God has gifted us in. In what kind of work do we find great spiritual, mental, and bodily satisfaction?

That, Sayers says, is a good indication of the work we should seek out.

Finding the work that God intends us to do may protect us from one of the great temptations of our times: consumerism. Doing our work well, and finding great satisfaction in it, Tonkowich notes, will “keep us from the need to drown out our unhappiness in...[all] the assorted amusements our paycheck can purchase.”

What a pity today we can’t invite Dorothy Sayers to speak at evangelical colleges about the truth that God calls us to all kinds of work — and that becoming, say, a podiatrist is just as sacred in God’s eyes as becoming a missionary.

Doing the work that God gifted us for — whether it be government work, writing, or a plumber — does not make us second-class Christians, but people who are worshipping God with the abilities He gave them — and expects them to use.

________

She Saw God's Hand In the Murder of Her Husband

Acts 13:2

For retired Southern Baptist worker Marty Koehn, Dec. 30, 2002, was a fairly normal morning in Yemen -- until she heard an “extremely urgent and atrociously loud” knock at the door of her home.

Koehn recalls being frustrated by the interruption.

“But when I opened the door and saw the face of the man standing there, my irritation disappeared,” Koehn said. “He said, ‘There’s been a shooting. Come to the hospital.’ And he took off running.”

When Koehn arrived at the hospital, she found that her husband Bill, a Southern Baptist worker serving at Jibla Baptist Hospital as an administrator, along with three other Southern Baptist workers -- Martha Myers, Kathy Gariety and Don Caswell -- had been shot by a Muslim militant.

Koehn made it to the hospital in time to be with her husband for his last moments on earth -- the memory of which remains etched in her mind. Myers died almost instantly. Hospital workers tried desperately to save Gariety and Bill Koehn. Only Caswell survived.

But as clearly as she can remember the events of the Dec. 30 shooting, Koehn remembers the Lord’s hand of provision, comfort and faithfulness before and after her loss.

She had spent a few extra moments with Bill that morning, having stopped by the hospital to use the copying machine and then visiting with him in his office before chapel.

“It was just neat that God gave me those precious extra moments with him that day,” Koehn said.

The Lord also had orchestrated that Koehn’s house helper was with her in her home when she had to answer the door that morning. She didn’t worry about locking the house or taking her keys. She just left for the hospital immediately.

Koehn said the Lord, in His foreknowledge, even had His hand on the couple regarding their respective calls to the mission field.

As a young girl, Koehn felt the Lord calling her to the mission field during a presentation a Nigerian missionary doctor gave at a Vacation Bible School she attended.

“She spoke to us and God just touched my heart,” Koehn recalled. “I knew then that was what I was supposed to do.”

Years later she met Bill and married him in 1963. A few years later God reaffirmed her childhood calling to missions. Bill, though, did not sense the same call.

Despite her eagerness to pursue work on the mission field, Koehn resisted the urge to convince her husband to share her calling. That, she said, was the Lord’s work.

“I was really grateful after the shootings to look back and say I am so glad that I did not manipulate my husband into going, because I would have felt terrible if he had not been supposed to go and I had made something happen that resulted in him dying,” Koehn said.

“It was a hard thing to do to stop and wait, but I’m really glad I did it that way. I’m sure the Holy Spirit had a lot to do with that, because I really wanted to barge on ahead. But he wasn’t ready, and I wasn’t ready.”

It was nine years after Koehn’s call to missions was reaffirmed that Bill felt the Lord call him to missions as well. The two were approved as Southern Baptist workers in October 1974 and arrived on the field in Yemen in June 1975.

Clear answers

After Bill died, Koehn realized many decisions faced her. Should she stay in Yemen? Should she return to America? If she stayed, what would she do? Her chief responsibility had been as wife and homemaker. That had all changed in an instant.

God did not let these questions consume her, though; she said He gave her clear answers.

“All of the sudden, out of the blue, the Lord brought to mind Elisabeth Elliot’s story,” Koehn recounted. This happened within 30 minutes after Bill died. “I had never read the book, and of course the movie wasn’t out at that point, but I had heard a brief summary of [Elliot’s] story, and the Lord reminded me of it. To me, this was His clear indication that I was supposed to go back to Yemen.”

In fact, she added, “It’s just remarkable because I hadn’t thought of that story for years. In Scripture God tells us that He will bring to our remembrance the things we need, and He did. And it was very powerful because I needed that assurance.”

After returning to the States to grieve and spend time with her two daughters, Koehn returned to Yemen -- to a land that had been home for nearly 30 years and to people who had become close friends. When she returned, the Lord already had provided her a role in which to serve.

Kathy Gariety had worked as the purchasing agent and warehouse manager for the hospital. That position needed to be filled.

“To me, this was another indication God wanted me to go back,” Koehn said. “That was the one job I could do because it required someone who knew both English and Arabic and it was a non-medical position. [The Lord] was preparing everything.”

Koehn said the Lord’s provisions before, during and after the tragedy reaffirmed to her that she had indeed placed her trust in the right place.

“I learned that I could depend on Him,” she said. “He was right there directing decisions and blessing my life.”

In addition to protection and provision, the Lord also dealt her a heaping dose of peace.

“I was never afraid,” Koehn said. “I was surrounded totally by people of the same ethnicity as the man who had just killed my husband. I’m sure part of it was that they were my friends, but it was a blessing to not be afraid. It was peace that didn’t make sense. We should have been afraid.

“There was just a keen sense of His presence and assurance that I was where I was supposed to be and the contentment of knowing that,” she recalled.

Jibla Baptist Hospital, established by missionary doctor Jim Young in 1967, was to be transferred from Southern Baptist ownership to the Yemeni government Dec. 31, 2002 -- the day after the shootings. The Yemeni government assumed responsibility of the hospital in February 2003 and continued to employ Southern Baptist workers, including Koehn, alongside their Muslim counterparts.

Jibla Hospital finally closed in May 2007, and Koehn retired to Texas to be near family. She takes pleasure in knowing that one of her granddaughters, who visited her grandparents in Yemen as a child and witnessed their ministry, is eyeing the mission field.

Though some people are amazed at her decision to remain in Yemen following her husband’s death, Koehn eschews the label of heroine.

“That was my life,” she said. “That was all I knew. What else would I do?”

Calling Over Passion

Acts 17:26

No, they can’t be anything they want and the world is not their oyster. Our false promises are hurting Generation Y.

________

Some of the most thought-provoking people in recent times weren’t real. Remember the Obama campaign’s “Julia”?

Now there’s Lucy, a creation of the Huffington Post’s “Wait But Why” blog. Lucy is today’s emerging adult, an encapsulation of what the article calls “Generation Y Protagonists and Special Yuppies,” or GYPSYs for short.

From their earliest years, GYPSYs like Lucy, born between the late 70s and the mid-90s, have been told that they’re special, they can be whatever they want to be, and they should just “follow their passions” when choosing a career. Well, not surprisingly, some have noted that many GYPSYs struggle with a sense of entitlement.

According to the article, “The GYPSY needs a lot more from a career than ... prosperity and security ... Where the Baby Boomers wanted to live The American Dream, GYPSYs want to live Their Own Personal Dream.”

This, as the HuffPo’s blogger points out, is a recipe for unhappiness for Lucy — or anyone else. When reality exceeds our expectations, we’re happy. But when reality falls short, we’re unhappy, even depressed. And reality just can’t match the dreams GYPSYs have learned to expect.

And there’s a lesson in here for the Church, too. We often tell young Christians that God wants them to “follow their passions” — a phrase that’s only been around for a couple of generations — so that we can all discover our special “calling.” In fact, I used to tell people that the key to discovering God’s will is just discovering your passions.

Now, there’s certainly truth to the idea that the Lord has gifted us in unique ways to serve Him, and we can discover these gifts through our passions and use them for His glory. Remember how Olympian Eric Liddell “felt God’s pleasure” when he ran? But there’s more to the biblical picture of calling and vocation than just this.

Jesus also said we must pick up our cross and follow Him. Paul said that anyone who wishes to follow Christ will be persecuted. Remember, Eric Liddell died in a Japanese prison camp.

It’s really only Christians in the West, especially America, who have the luxury of dwelling on the question, “What has God made me to be and what is my calling?” Unfortunately, in the process of this dwelling, we may miss other lessons about calling that our brothers and sisters around the world are forced to learn.

The Protestant Reformers understood calling to be not primarily about passion, but as a commitment to glorify God in whatever station we find ourselves. It may be your calling right now to be a student, or a mom or a dad, or a minimum wage employee simply just having to make a living. Whether directly connected with our passions or not, God calls us first and foremost to do the next thing well, to His glory, with all of our might.

So instead of asking, “What does God want me to do one day?” we should be asking “What does God want me to do next?”

It’s possible that we’ve “Christianized” a sense of entitlement, and therefore a misunderstanding of calling. In Acts 17, the Apostle Paul says that God determines the exact times that people live and the boundaries of their dwelling place.

Thus, whether we inherit a culture of economic downturn in which many people can’t find a job, or if jobs are plentiful and we can really “follow our passions,” we accept either as from God’s hand. Our calling — whatever culture we find ourselves in — is to live fully engaged in this world, regardless of the particular circumstances.

As Bonhoeffer wrote, “Bravely take hold of the real, not dallying now with what might be. Not in the flight of ideas but only in action is freedom. Make up your mind and come out into the tempest of the living.” These are good words for every generation.

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Why I Know I Am Going To Heaven When I Die and You Can Too!

Acts 2:37

For many years I was not interested in this question. I lived selfishly for myself and was not concerned with spiritual things. I was just not interested in whether I went to heaven or not. Although, I was raised in a Christian home and regularly went to church as a boy, when I left home after High School I ignored all I had been taught. I spent the next seven years in the Armed Services, with three years in the Army and four in the Air Force. During the first ten years after I left home I only went to church about three times. One of those was to marry my wife Carolyn. I was too busy with life to be interested in anything as distant as dying and going to heaven or hell.

In 1972, all that changed in one day. That was January 22, the day my wife's grandmother was buried. I was asked to be a pall bearer and although I felt uncomfortable I agreed. At the funeral service the pastor began telling about how this lady had truly loved the Lord and had died trusting in Christ to take her to heaven. Even though she was my wife's grandmother I knew very little about her. She was in her eighties and had been sick for many years. I listened as the pastor told of how she would try to comfort her children as they waited on her. She was totally an invalid and could do nothing to help herself. Amazingly, she was always in good spirits and would sing the old Gospel songs about the love and grace of the Lord Jesus. She would tell the children to not to worry about her; to let her go on to be with her Savior the Lord Jesus. She said she knew she was dying and would never get better and she was looking forward to heaven and being with the Lord.

Over the years I had seen a number of people die. I had spent a year in Vietnam and I was familiar with death. But this was different! This was the first time in my life I had seen a Christian die. As I looked at the coffin, the reality of both life and death became very clear to me. I that moment realized that I too would go the way of all men. I, too would one day die and leave this world. The pastor after telling about Mrs. Narron's trust in God, preached a simple Gospel message. He said the Bible teaches that if a man will believe in his heart in Jesus Christ and receive him as his Savior that man too could be assured that when he died he would go to heaven. He also warned that the Bible says also, that if a man rejects Christ, then God will reject him and that he will spend an eternity in the fires of Hell. He read from the Bible that all men are sinners and the wages or result of sin is death. He said that, yes the wages of sin was death, but the gift of God was eternal life. At first I did not want to admit it, but deep down I knew the Bible was true. I know now that God was speaking to my heart and drawing me to Him. I was a lost sinner and I needed God to save me from sin. That day I believed!

That day God saved me, just as the Bible promises and I received eternal life. How do I know? Well, two ways: First, that is actually what the Word of God, the Bible says. God says in the Bible, “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” (Romans 10:13) Acts 16:31, God says, “...Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” The Bible says, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” (Romans 10:9-10)

These are the promises of God. That day I truly believed with my heart and I asked God to forgive my sins and save me. Based upon God's own word, I can truly say that He promised to forgive me if I would believe. Therefore, because I believe I can claim God's promise of forgiveness of sins and heaven when I die.

The second way I know I am saved is best expressed by another verse in the New Testament. It says, “Therefore IF any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold all things are now become new.” (2 Corinthians 5:17) That day God changed my life and truly the old things were passed away and God gave me a new life. The old things that I had meant so much to me before, lost their appeal. The old life I had lived for so long, with all its sins began to pass away as God worked in my life. It has been now over twenty four years since God saved me at that funeral. It has been a wonderful life. I really now enjoy this new life God has given me. There have been hard times and the way has not been easy, but I have in my heart the peace that God gives to those who trust in Him.

That night after the funeral I went to church. It was the first time in many years. The pastor gave the invitation for those who wanted to receive Christ as their Savior to come to the front of the church and make their salvation public. I quickly went forward. From that day, I started to serve the Lord. I faithfully attended every service at the church, because I just loved to be there and to be taught in the preaching and classes. In a year or so I was ask to teach a teenage class and later an adult class. My wife and I began working with the youth in our church and I loved it.

Yes, it was hard work, but I wanted everyone to know about the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Savior and experience for themselves what God did for me. I was a very successful businessman running a security systems company. Things materially were going great. God was blessing my wife and I very abundantly. I had a beautiful new home on a lake. I loved to fish and there was a forty foot pier with my bass boat parked by it on my property. I was living in a material dream world. By the world's standards I was a great success. Had I remained with the company, I would have become very well off financially. However, four years after God saved me, He called me to be a preacher of the Gospel. My wife and I then sold our dream home and we took the money and I went to Bible college.

My friend if you have taken the time to read this far, maybe you too, are realizing that this life is short and we all one day will face death. I wonder if you are like I was the day I went to that funeral. I surely was lost in my sins and according to God on my way to an eternity in hell. Thank God, that I was able to hear the Gospel, which is the Good News that Christ died for my sins and would give me forgiveness if I would believe and by faith accept the free gift and offer of salvation.

Would you admit that you too are a sinner, just as God says. And would you believe and ask God to forgive your sins and give you eternal life? I am so glad I did and I hope you will too. God says, “For whosoever (includes you too) shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Romans 10:13)

Why not right now, sitting at your computer, bow your head and simply ask God to save you. He most surely will!

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The Merchant Turned Preacher

A merchant’s sudden death of a friend led him to forsake wealth and become a preacher.

Peter Waldo was a citizen and opulent merchant of Lyons, and at one period a believer of the errors of popery. Being in company, however, with some friends, one of whom suddenly fell dead to the ground, he was aroused to the importance of religious truth, and led to inquire seriously after it. So deeply was he impressed with the superior value of eternal things, that he gave up his mercantile occupations, distributed his wealth to the poor, exhorted his neighbors to seek the bread of life, and became a most eminent minister in the Waldensian churches, who are thus designated from him.

Fourteen Ministers From A Class

Fourteen boys from one Sunday school class became ministers through early instruction.

Mr. Clark, afterwards schoolmaster at Sierra Leone, taught a Sunday school at Edinburgh. His method of giving instruction was, after the pupils had read, or repeated a portion of Scripture, to put such explanatory and practical questions to them as naturally arose out of the passage, and to conclude with a short address and prayer. Of one class, consisting of sixteen boys, fourteen of them at adult age, were brought to the saving knowledge of God, and acknowledged the early instruction he had given them as the means of their conversion. The whole of these were afterwards engaged in preaching the gospel, some of them in Great Britain, and others in foreign lands.