Calling of God Janet Taillight Ohlin May 1, 2011

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1 Calling of God Janet Taillight Ohlin May 1, 2011 Take a look at Christ's last week of life, the triumphal entry into Jerusalem, several days of frustration and teaching, followed by twenty four hours of pain and mental anguish. All this led to a horrible death on the cross. Why? So that he could become the first human to defeat death and live forever. But why would Christ do this? He was after all, God made into human form. Philippians 2:7 says "he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being." Again why? The answer can be found in two places. The first is in Isaiah 42:1. It says "Look at my servant, whom I strengthen. He is my chosen one, who pleases me." Isaiah prophesied that the Christ or Messiah was chosen by God for the role of servant. In 1 Peter 1:20 we see that Christ fulfilled that calling. We are told "God chose Him as your ransom long before the world began, but He has now revealed Him to you in these last days." He revealed Christ when he put Him on the cross and then raised Him into heaven. Even before God created the world, he chose the solution to the problem of sin that He knew was coming. So Christ was chosen to be our Sacrificial Lamb before time began. He was in essence called to a ministry; the ministry of teaching and sacrifice. If God gave his own son a calling, did He give us a calling as well? We know we are chosen just as Christ was chosen. In 2 Thessalonians 2:13 Paul says "We are always thankful that God chose you to be among the first to experience salvation..." And in Ephesians 1:4 he says "Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in His eyes." We are chosen just as Christ was chosen. So if we are chosen, are we called as well? Peter gives us that answer and it is an emphatic YES! We are in fact called to a five-fold purpose. That five-fold purpose answers the age old question of why we were created. Why we exist. What our purpose for being here on this earth really is. The first call tells us our first purpose for existing and that answers the question of who is called. 1 Peter 2:9 says we are called out of darkness. It says "for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, Gods very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light." We are chosen to be God's possession and to live in the light of God. Matthew 5:14 says we are the light of the world. I John 1:7 says "if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin."all who claim the blood of Jesus and His cleansing of our sin is the "who" that are called. Our first call is to leave the darkness of the world and become

2 one of God's holy nation. And in doing so, we will fulfill our first purpose for existing by becoming a light to the world. The second call tells us why we are called and gives us our second purpose for existing. In 1 Peter 3:8-9 we are called to be a blessing. This verse says "Finally, all of you should be of one mind. Sympathize with each other. Love each other as brothers and sisters. Be tenderhearted, and keep a humble attitude. Don't repay evil for evil. Don't retaliate with insults when people insult you. Instead, pay them back with a blessing. That is what God has called you to do, and He will bless you for it. God is very specific about how we are to be a blessing. We are to be of one mind with our fellow believers. We are to be sympathetic and to love each other, tender hearted and humble. We are also to set the example; be the bigger man, if you will. We are not to treat people like they treat us. We are to treat them better than they treat us. We are to bless them. Why? Because God called us to do that and if we will do that it will bring us a blessing as well. And that is our second calling. The third call is what we are called to be, our third purpose for existing if you will. In 1 Peter 1:15-16 we are called to be holy. This verse says "But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. For the Scriptures say, "You must be holy because I am holy." The quote is from Leviticus 11: God says be holy twice there. (The NLT says "just as God who chose us is holy" but the NIV says "just as He who called you is holy... ") So how are we to be holy? That sounds like such an impossible goal to obtain. But in reality it isn't that far out of reach. In the same passage of 1 Peter 1 we are told how to be holy. In verse 13 we are told to think clearly. Don't let the things of the world muddle our minds. The things we put into our minds; like words from books, images from movies, TV and video games, obscene lyrics from music and so on, are the things that cloud God's word and muddy our thinking. So we must think clearly by making holy choices of what we put into our minds. Verse 13 also says we must exercise self-control. This is one of the hardest disciplines to practice. We must tell ourselves NO. We must say no to that second piece of cake that our taste buds want; no to that pornographic website that our sexual lust wants to see; no to the video game with explicit violence that our mind says is fun to play. We must say no to the flesh and all that it desires. That is self-control. We must also keep our temper under control. We must pray away the resentful thoughts that come to mind when we are hurt or offended. We must turn away from the too revealing clothing displayed by some woman on the street or by some man in too tight jeans to protect our eyes. We must say no to everything that does not conform to Philippians 4:8 which says "Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise."

3 In verse 13 we are also told to look forward to salvation. Our whole focus should be on the end result. We are running a race according to Paul and we can't get side-tracked from the goal line. Verse 14 says we are to live as obedient children. Obedient children do what they are told. They don't push limits. They don't rebel or act disrespectful. If we are to be obedient children, we must know what God requires of us, which means reading his word, talking to Him, listening for His voice. It means that we must always be aware of what He wants from us. It means that we must always do our best to display His teaching in our lives in a positive way, without trying to cut corners or "cheat" the rules, even a little bit. Verse 14 also says we are not to slip back into old habits left over from our pre-christian days. We must be very careful of our habits and behaviors so that we don't revert to our old way of living. This is especially true in our thinking. If we find ourselves trying to justify a behavior as acceptable to our new life style, it probably isn't acceptable. If we find ourselves thinking about the old days and wondering if it is ok to do something that we used to do, odds are, it isn't ok. Our thoughts will revert back to the old ways before our behaviors will so we must be always aware. Finally, in verse 17 it says we must live in reverent fear of God. What does that mean? It means that we must always be thinking about "will this please Him"? Will my words be acceptable if I were speaking them directly to God? Would my actions be pleasing if I were behaving this way toward or in front of God? Would my thoughts be acceptable if I were to speak them out loud to God? It means always remembering that God created me and the world I live in. It means thanking him for everything that happens in my life because He allows it to happen. It means always remembering that He is GOD; creator, provider, healer, comforter, friend, father, advisor, disciplinarian, advocate, protector... Well you get the picture. God is everything and must be acknowledged at such. He is almighty, omnipotent and omnipresent. Following these simple steps; thinking clearly, having self-control, being obedient, looking forward not back, avoiding old habits and fearing God are what is required to be holy. That is our third calling. The fourth call tells us how we are called and is the fourth reason for existing. But it is by far the most difficult one. In 1 Peter 2:20-21 we are called to suffer. This verse says "you get no credit for being patient if you are beaten for doing wrong. But if you suffer for doing good and endure it patiently, God is pleased with you. For God called you to do good, even if it means suffering, just as Christ suffered for you. He is your example, and you must follow in his steps. We are called to do good knowing that sometimes we will suffer. In fact, in this life we will suffer more often than not. Our calling is to do good in spite of the suffering. We are

4 to do good regardless of how much we may suffer. The problem is that most of us will try to avoid all pain and suffering, even to the point of avoiding our calling. God says that not only are we to endure suffering, we are to do it patiently! Patience is one of the cornerstones of our development. Without patience we struggle to learn some of the other important lessons of God. But we have the least patience with pain and discomfort. This is very evident when we humans get sick. We become whiny and argumentative. We also become surly and generally disagreeable. When we reach the point in our sickness when we don't feel as bad as at the beginning, but we aren't well enough to return to normal activity, we become downright obnoxious in our complaining about everything. We do the same thing with God. When we are "suffering" through something, we are whiny and disagreeable. As the situation improves but isn't fully finished we get completely obnoxious with God. We start complaining that our situation isn't fair. We start bargaining with God to make it go away, we lose all perspective and start taking things out on those around us. God says we must suffer and we must do it patiently. That is not a request. It is not a suggestion. It is not a multiple choice option and we can choose a different option. It is something we are called to do. Christ suffered for us. We must suffer as we do good for others. Verse 21 says "He is your example, and you must follow in his steps." There is no room for compromise in this verse. There is no way to reinterpret the verse. There is no way to call this a suggestion. It is a command. We are called to suffer patiently. It is our fourth calling. But having said this there is hope on the horizon. Our fifth and last calling is the when of our calling and our final reason for existence. 1 Peter 5:10 says we are called to share God's eternal glory. This says "In his kindness God called you to share in his eternal glory by means of Christ Jesus. So after you have suffered a little while, he will restore, support, and strengthen you, and he will place you on a firm foundation. God does not punish for the sake of watching us suffer in pain. God is always teaching. I have an expression that I use often. It goes like this. "God loves me too much to let me stay the way I am." If God allowed us to stay just the way we were when we were saved, we would still be living in our sin and filth. But God immediately begins to clean us up. At first, it is a gentle cleaning. He points out our habits that are unacceptable, like drug use, excessive drinking, indulging in adulterous affairs, gambling or other selfdestructive behaviors. But as we get the obvious problems cleaned up he starts to work on the less obvious choices like our attitude. Finally, somewhere around the time of our death here on earth, God says "Ok, I think you are clean enough to come into my presence now." See God has a plan, and it is for us to share eternal glory with Him. In order for us to share in that glory, we must suffer. But God in his kindness knows that we can't endure

5 too much suffering, so he promises to "restore, support and strengthen" us when our suffering is done. He promises a "firm foundation" which is the rock of His salvation, or Jesus Christ. Our last call is to accept the love and help God offers us in this world so that in the end we can stand on the rock of Christ and enter into eternal glory which we will share with God, Himself. We were chosen before God created the world. Then He gave us certain rules to live by in His word. And He gave us our calling or ministry, if you will. Christ was called to teach and to become the perfect sacrifice. That was his ministry. Our calling and our ministry is to come out of darkness and become the light of the world; to become a blessing to others; to live holy lives; to suffer as Christ suffered for us and to prepare for eternal glory.