Tagged with cross

Walk worthy of your calling

Our Lord Jesus spoke through his suffering on the cross and sent me a word “it is finished “.  I heard it and received it and that truth that went deep in my heart , Its power delivered me from sin, guilt and shame. “It is finished” that word found a resting place in my heart like a seed planted.But it was not an idle seed, soon that seed started budding in my my life and that divine word started encroaching all sin, it started encroaching the areas the sinful nature (flesh) was ruling. In my heart there was a barren land and dry ground that only produced death but amazingly God’s word started bearing life, death was surely finished and life had begun.  my sins are forgiven and condemnation is finished , The rule of flesh is finished, guilty conscience is finished, wretchedness is finished. Now I can start healing  and this seed will gave me new life and where there was a desert, dry and dead , now there is a refreshing oasis , a garden of peace, Joy and rest and my Heavenly father is its gardener. By the effect of this word in my life now  know the Word of God had power to make me dead unto sin and giving abundant life and eagerness to live and serve God.

Now I hear another word from the faithful Jesus powerfully urging us to “walk worthy of your calling”. God’s calling has made me rich “with every spiritual blessing” in Christ Jesus, My calling has replaced fear with faith and discouragement with Joy , where once there was fear of death and decay now my heart is full of hope and rejoicing and anticipation of resurrection .God is a great and mighty creator whose wisdom is able to create all creatures and build such a complex world is amazing . All the scientists and wise men of the world still cannot figure out God’s greatest mysteries. How did man come into existence?  Why was man made ?

As the Hymn goes

All things bright and beautiful,

All creatures great and small,

All things wise and wonderful:

The Lord God made them all.

He gave us eyes to see them,

And lips that we might tell

How great is God Almighty,

Who has made all things well.

Everything that exists is created by God and almighty God now he has called me to be his “son”. What a wonder? Iam made of dust, living on the sin and sickness infested earth, bound by chains of sin and without hope now have received a mighty calling to become a son of God (Rom 9:26)?  So Who is a son? A son must share the same substance (1John 3:2 ), the same house, the same riches, the same glory  and be honored as a family along with the heavenly father, Praise God ! what a God and what a divine calling? God has done infinitely more  than I can ask or even think (Eph 3:20).

So after knowing these heavenly truths , How should I pay attention to the voice of the Lord saying  “walk worthy of your calling”? How should I receive this word carefully, meekly and implant this word in my heart (Jas 1:21) and bear fruit? How should I make sure that I do not miss the blessing of the “walk”? How do I make sure that I do not disobey my Lord who command me? How should I “be” God’s Son ?

To reach any destination, We need directions and we need guidance. Our Rich calling is our hope and the map and obeying these directions of the Lord will ensure that we will reach or destination accurately.

Always carry the map before you journey. Keep your calling before you or you will lose your way

Our holy calling tells us to take certain roads many times through paths of suffering, humility and earthly loss , if there is spiritual ruin and destruction before us God will show us different roads and lead us to salvation. The Path of the Lord Jesus is the narrow road. The narrow and straight way of the Lord leads to everlasting Joy , peace and glory (Rom 8:30). The narrow way of the Lord is delivering us from the coming destruction into eternal rest. We must move as fast as the Holy Spirit leads us without wasting time.

When God calls and if we heed that calling we will be blessed

If it true for a lifeless star how much more true is it for us?  Isa 40:26  Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these? He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name, by the greatness of his might, and because he is strong in power not one is missing.

God has named and remembered a lifeless start How much more does he remember you who is called by his name?

Individual or a Body?

Col 1:3 We always pray for you, and we give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Col 1:4 For we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and your love for all of God’s people,

A farmer in a kingdom is happy when his own fields are green and if he is fed and his needs are taken care. But a ruler of the kingdom is happy when all the fields that belong to all the people are green, all the needs are met then there is peace for the whole nation. The ruler has a corporate interest in mind i.e. interest of the whole people in mind. Christ is our ruler and as per our calling  if we think like our Lord (phillipians 2:5) then we will also be seeking “the interest of all the people”.

Php 2:20 For I have no one like him, who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare. For they all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ.

In the same way Paul was like the Lord Jesus , he prayed and thanked for the body of Christ. As their faith grew so did his thanksgiving because he enjoyed the growth in the church. It did not matter in which person the growth took place. What matters is our Lord’s work is going on and his pleasure and plan are coming to fruit. We too must be mature and look beyond our own interests and look to God’s interests but it requires us to enlarge our hearts and minds and to be alive to God’s plans and purposes

When is a christian lonely?

A christian is lonely when they are living for their own desires, for their own purposes.

All those who feel a calling, a burden, a desire to do more for God must learn to die to their own plans, positions and surrender to God and allow him to re-design our inner and outer lives. The proof of maturity in this way is that we become many and hence fruitful and pleasing to God.

Paul’s Joy and thanksgiving to God reveal that he had a great love for God and God’s work . it is a great inspiration for us and we must be imitate such lives. Such a unselfish mind, Joy and such a thanksgiving is only achieved by dying to self otherwise we are alone by ourselves

John 12:24 Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.

Then when the body grows i.e. other brothers and sisters grow we too can be filled with spontaneous Joy leading to thanksgiving to God.