"When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die."
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Sharing from Acts 26 yesterday, Danny brought to light the way God calls each of us to Himself and to His service. The reality of this calling on our lives is that it is a call to die for the sake of others. Jesus tells us this directly in the Gospel of John, "Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends." (John 15:13) As Ben pointed out yesterday morning, it’s unlikely he (or we!) will fulfill this call to die by heroically pushing someone out of the way of an oncoming train, thus becoming 'Ben soup.' And yet, what does it mean? What is God's calling on your life? To what vocation (not job or career) is the Lord calling you?
I’m passionate about college students distinguishing the difference between jobs, careers, the competitive edge of the 'right' education, or social status on the one hand and vocation, the death of self and a life laid down for the sake of the Kingdom of God on the other. Most of you are either beginning a new school year or you're headed out of or back to SLO for another year. I challenge you to begin to see your education differently. Avoid the temptation that you are only receiving job training. Put aside the idea this is a hoop you have to jump through to succeed. You're engaged in training for your vocation as a citizen of the Kingdom of God. I can't express what I'm getting at any better than Cornelius Plantinga Jr. when he says in his Engaging God's World:
Let's call a person who accepts Jesus' commission a good citizen of the kingdom of God, and let's call a person who accepts this commission with enthusiasm a prime citizen of the kingdom. A good citizen likes the kingdom of God just fine, but a prime citizen passionately yearns for the kingdom. A prime citizen has been redeemed far down in her spirit, way downtown in her heart, so that she deeply loves God and the things of God. She relishes God's Word. She rejoices in God her savior. She finds the things of faith—repentance, forgiveness, hope in God—seem sweet to her. Her pulse quickens at the prospect of blessedness such as "no eye has seen, nor ear has heard, nor the human heart conceived" (1 Cor. 2:9). In her best moods she longs not just for happiness, but for joy; not just for joy, but for God; not just for God, but also for the kingdom of God. Because of her enthusiasm for the kingdom, she doesn't merely endorse justice in the world; she hungers and works for it. She doesn't merely reject cruelty; she hates and fights it. She wants God to make things right in the world, and she wants to enroll in God's project as if it were here own. She "strives first for the kingdom" in order to act on her passion.
In short, she is a person with a calling. She has been elected to be a follower of Jesus, which means she has been elected to serve the kingdom of God. A Christian's main vocation is to become a prime citizen of the kingdom of God—and this is true of every Christian, of artists and engineers as well as ministers and evangelists. All are called to mesh their kingdoms with those of other citizens in order to work together inside the kingdom of God.
Sharing from Acts 26 yesterday, Danny brought to light the way God calls each of us to Himself and to His service. The reality of this calling on our lives is that it is a call to die for the sake of others. Jesus tells us this directly in the Gospel of John, "Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends." (John 15:13) As Ben pointed out yesterday morning, it’s unlikely he (or we!) will fulfill this call to die by heroically pushing someone out of the way of an oncoming train, thus becoming 'Ben soup.' And yet, what does it mean? What is God's calling on your life? To what vocation (not job or career) is the Lord calling you?
I’m passionate about college students distinguishing the difference between jobs, careers, the competitive edge of the 'right' education, or social status on the one hand and vocation, the death of self and a life laid down for the sake of the Kingdom of God on the other. Most of you are either beginning a new school year or you're headed out of or back to SLO for another year. I challenge you to begin to see your education differently. Avoid the temptation that you are only receiving job training. Put aside the idea this is a hoop you have to jump through to succeed. You're engaged in training for your vocation as a citizen of the Kingdom of God. I can't express what I'm getting at any better than Cornelius Plantinga Jr. when he says in his Engaging God's World:
Let's call a person who accepts Jesus' commission a good citizen of the kingdom of God, and let's call a person who accepts this commission with enthusiasm a prime citizen of the kingdom. A good citizen likes the kingdom of God just fine, but a prime citizen passionately yearns for the kingdom. A prime citizen has been redeemed far down in her spirit, way downtown in her heart, so that she deeply loves God and the things of God. She relishes God's Word. She rejoices in God her savior. She finds the things of faith—repentance, forgiveness, hope in God—seem sweet to her. Her pulse quickens at the prospect of blessedness such as "no eye has seen, nor ear has heard, nor the human heart conceived" (1 Cor. 2:9). In her best moods she longs not just for happiness, but for joy; not just for joy, but for God; not just for God, but also for the kingdom of God. Because of her enthusiasm for the kingdom, she doesn't merely endorse justice in the world; she hungers and works for it. She doesn't merely reject cruelty; she hates and fights it. She wants God to make things right in the world, and she wants to enroll in God's project as if it were here own. She "strives first for the kingdom" in order to act on her passion.In short, she is a person with a calling. She has been elected to be a follower of Jesus, which means she has been elected to serve the kingdom of God. A Christian's main vocation is to become a prime citizen of the kingdom of God—and this is true of every Christian, of artists and engineers as well as ministers and evangelists. All are called to mesh their kingdoms with those of other citizens in order to work together inside the kingdom of God.
As the 2005-2006 school year gears up, I challenge you to seek out God's calling on your life. Think. Pray. Check out Plantinga's book (written for college students) as a place to start. We saw yesterday in Acts that God call us individually and specifically. He transforms us from one type of person to another. What is God’s call on your life?
“The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”
- Frederick Buechner
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