calling

When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.

Thus, for followers of Christ, calling neutralizes the fundamental position of choice in modern life. __ have chosen you,_ Jesus said, __ou have not chosen me._ We are not our own; we have been bought with a price. We have no rights, only responsibilities. Following Christ is not our initiative, merely our response, in obedience. Nothing works better to debunk the pretensions of choice than a conviction of calling. Once we have been called, we literally __ave no choice.

But beware of this about callings: they may not lead us where we intended to go or even where we want to go. If we choose to follow, we may have to be willing to let go of the life we already planned and accept whatever is waiting for us. And if the calling is true, though we may not have gone where we intended, we will surely end up where we need to be.

We have forfeited our calling for the simple reason that we__e ignored the God who says that the __ossible_ is never bound by the __robable,_ and instead we__e dutifully heeded the god of fear that incessantly says the __ossible_ is anything but __robable.

Do what you were called to do and guard your calling

We must wake up. If we are going to find our callings, we must live intentionally and audaciously. And we must be generous. This choice is not an easy one, and it doesn't come naturally, but it's how we were meant to live. It's the only way - I'm quite convinced of this - that we can find the satisfaction we've been searching for, the lives we've been dreaming of. And although there are legitimate health, business, and psychological benefits to generous living, the most important one is this: generosity gives your life meaning.

You'd been in Sunday school long enough to know how the story goes: the voice of God comes down from the sky and asks you to go where you don't want to go, to do what you don't want to do. And you have to do it anyway.

Our Soul Allies light the fire in those initial visits, but it__ up to us to keep it burning.

Do not seek recognition or gratification from man _ serve the Lord. He knows how to reward everyone

If you find what you do each day seems to have no link to any higher purpose, you probably want to rethink what you're doing.

Behind every specific call, whether it is to teach or preach or write or encourage or comfort, there is a deeper call that gives shape to the first: the call to give ourselves away - the call to die.

Every believer is called to teach and each needs to exercise toward this function. Otherwise, they will remain a babe and never mature. Sharing what the believer has learned should begin as soon as a person comes to know the Lord.

You and your calling are inseparable

How we respond to moments of interruption determine who we become and how we spend our lives. But you can never fully live in your calling without going through struggle, fear, and failure. Our decisions in those moments determine the legacy we will live.

Every gift, talent and every calling that you have from God has been given to you because somebody needs it

And we need Christians who don__ make others feel guilty (and don__ feel guilty themselves) when one of us follows a different passion than another. I read and write a lot. That__ what I do well. But that doesn__ mean anyone should feel guilty for not reading and writing as much as I do. You have your own gifts and calling. We have to be okay with other Christians doing certain good things better and more often than we do.

Every day is important for us because it is a day ordained by God. If we are bored with life there is something wrong with our concept of God and His involvement in our daily lives. Even the most dull and tedious days of our lives are ordained by God and ought to be used by us to glorify Him.

Once you make up your mind to be obedient to God, He will fight for you