The Red Pen #5 - June 14, 2009

The Red Pen #5
The Distortion of Calling-Part 2

Proverbs 22:6 (New International Version)
Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.
Ephesians 4:11-16 (New Living Translation)
Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ. Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.
Romans 12:6-13 (New Living Translation)
In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well. So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you. If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well. If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly. Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good. Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other. Never be lazy, but work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically. Rejoice in our confident hope. Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying. When God’s people are in need, be ready to help them. Always be eager to practice hospitality.
How do I find my calling?
1. Make your life about seeking God.
Matthew 6:33 (New Living Translation)
Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.
• How do I find my calling? it starts with this kind of seeking…
2. Remember God’s Kingdom is the point.
Ephesians 4:12 (New Living Translation)
…Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ…
We often confuse this reality…
3. Our Calling Defies Physics…
1 Corinthians 4:13-18 (New Living Translation)
But we continue to preach because we have the same kind of faith the psalmist had when he said, “I believed in God, so I spoke.” We know that God, who raised the Lord Jesus, will also raise us with Jesus and present us to himself together with you. All of this is for your benefit. And as God’s grace reaches more and more people, there will be great thanksgiving, and God will receive more and more glory. That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.
Conclusion:
A Calling is not:
• God’s Will
• A Spiritual Gift
• Vision
• Balance
Also:
• It is not a task
• It is not and excuse to not get involved somewhere
• It is not a forced agenda – “I have to do ________”
• It is not limited to what is available – God may be trying to start a whole new thing through you.
A Calling is:
• Wired into us by God from birth
• A “natural talent” or bent
• A motivation or underlying reason for doing a task
• To be used for God’s glory
• Found by looking backward, not forward

The Red Pen #4 - June 7, 2009

The Red Pen #4
The Distortion of Calling – Part 1

-Proverbs 22:6 (New International Version)
Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.

-Ephesians 4:1-3 (New International Version)
As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.

The Reality of a Calling…

-Ephesians 4:17-24 (New International Version)
So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more. You, however, did not come to know Christ that way. Surely you heard of him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

What is a Calling, and what is not a Calling?

Terms for definition:

1. God’s Will – “thelemah” What God has desired to be done for all of mankind.

-Romans 12:1-2 (New International Version)
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

2. Spiritual Gifts – “pneumatikoi” Unique abilities imparted to us by the Spirit of God for the purpose of accomplishing specific tasks within the Kingdom.

-1 Corinthians 12:1-7 (New International Version)
Now about spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant. You know that when you were pagans, somehow or other you were influenced and led astray to mute idols. Therefore I tell you that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, "Jesus be cursed," and no one can say, "Jesus is Lord," except by the Holy Spirit. There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men. Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.

3. Vision – The proposed future picture of the church – not a biblical term.
-Proverbs 29:18 (New American Standard Bible)
Where there is no vision, the people are unrestrained.
But happy is he who keeps the law.

4. Balance – The idea that I can find a “happy medium” in life where everything is in order.

Calling is only found by looking backwards, not forward.
This is why calling cannot be vision.

Some questions to ask…

-When did I feel God’s pleasure?
-What was I doing?
-What about that gave me that blessing?
-If God led me to this church, how can I engage in activity that helps me experience God’s pleasure here?
-Am I doing that now?
-What is holding me back?
-What obstacles can I remove in order to fulfill calling?

Project…

The Red Pen #3 - May 31, 2009

The Red Pen #3
Tradition vs. Presence

Philippians 3:2-11 (New International Version)
Watch out for those dogs, those men who do evil, those mutilators of the flesh. For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh— though I myself have reasons for such confidence.

If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless. But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

How do we determine between empty tradition and practice that leads to presence? Some questions to ask…

1. Does this tradition truly awaken a spiritual reality in you?

Proverbs 16:2 (New International Version)
All a man's ways seem innocent to him, but motives are weighed by the LORD.

Isaiah 29:13 (New International Version)
The Lord says: "These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men.

Matthew 15:1-13 (New International Version)
Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, "Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don't wash their hands before they eat!" Jesus replied, "And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? For God said, 'Honor your father and mother' and 'Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.' But you say that if a man says to his father or mother, 'Whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is a gift devoted to God,' he is not to 'honor his father' with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition. You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you:" 'These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.”' Jesus called the crowd to him and said, "Listen and understand. What goes into a man's mouth does not make him 'unclean,' but what comes out of his mouth, that is what makes him 'unclean.'" Then the disciples came to him and asked, "Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?" He replied, "Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots.

2. Does the tradition inspire others to walk closer with God?

Matthew 23:15 (New International Version)
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are.”

3. How has this tradition helped me fulfill the two Greatest Commandments?

Matthew 22:36-39 (New International Version)
"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'

4. When God is working outside of my tradition, what happens?

Luke 6:6-11 (New International Version)
On another Sabbath he went into the synagogue and was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was shriveled. The Pharisees and the teachers of the law were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal on the Sabbath. But Jesus knew what they were thinking and said to the man with the shriveled hand, "Get up and stand in front of everyone." So he got up and stood there. Then Jesus said to them, "I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?" He looked around at them all, and then said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." He did so, and his hand was completely restored. But they were furious and began to discuss with one another what they might do to Jesus.

Some thoughts for application:

1. The goal of the Christian life is presence, not tradition adherence. We all must work toward stripping away the things that get in the way of us truly experiencing God presence in our lives. Even good things can get in the way of that. Paul let it all go so that He could truly know Christ.

2. This is not an abolition of all tradition, nor is it an excuse to do whatever I want.

Galatians 5:13 (New International Version)
You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love.