I can remember the day that God called me into this deep, unquenchable, life changing ministry. Me of all people I was initially thinking. But why not me as my wife would say? Or as my dear friend would say at the time of my mother’s death, “Why not you Scott? Who knew her better? ” So I officiated at her funeral. Why not you! That is the question you have to ask yourself when you hear God calling or sense Him leading you into what you would consider uncharted waters. Why not you!! Hang on it can be a wild ride, but it all starts with you understanding or hearing and obeying God’s call on your life.
What you have to understand about yourself as I came to realize is, what does God really want me to do? Find a truth which is true for you, to find the idea for which you have such a passion that you can live and die for! Now that’s a calling. That is what I have had the opportunity to do over the past 16 years! For those who knew me when I was younger, they are simply amazed by they transformation in my life!
When I first made my calling public, the church was so excited, they had me already in the pulpit! That wasn’t my calling! God did not call me to lead a church. He led me to minister to my employees, to be there for 2 of my employees who died, to help them through the dying process. To be a spiritual leader for all my employees and pray with them. They were my flock and I was their shepherd in more than just a managerial role. I can remember walking through the factory and my employees would ask me “why are you always so happy?”, or they would shout out “Rabbi”, even though I am not Jewish, I think they were simply referring to me as a Teacher. I was honored to be their shepherd . And it continues today and you really don’t even realize it. So you have to find that one special thing that God has called you to do for Him. That one thing that you feel God sensing a real sense of accomplishment and you can feel God saying to you, Well done my faithful son/daughter.
My call was actually quite alarming because I was not brought up in a Christian home. Mom and Dad would dress us boys up for Christmas and Easter and off to church we would go. They tried sending me to Sunday School. The center beam and myself became best buddies as I would be hanging onto that metal post for all I was worth. Later on in life I would hear the term C&E kids or families. What was that? Christmas and Easter is the only time they come to church. I was one of them not only as a kid but also during my early adult life.
I can remember as a child growing up in Traverse City, Michigan and I was sent off to the local United Methodist Church for Summer Bible School. At the end of the summer classes each of us got a Bible with a front page that was specifically for us. Our name, the date of the Summer Bible School, the teacher and Pastors name. All of the kids had their Bibles with this page bound right into their brand new Bibles. Mine was not bound in. It was placed in the spot where it was supposed to be bound in. So I go up to one of the teachers, hurt because my Bible was not like my friends, mine was different. I ask the teacher why isn’t my page bound in like Mikey’s? The teacher said to me, “that is only for little boys and girls who come to Sunday school regularly” . I was crushed. Hurt! But God wasn’t done with me, I didn’t know it at the time, but He wasn’t done. I look back on this now and God was using this as a learning experience for me. Never let this happen again. Make people feel welcome in My name. A good example of this is, we normally sit in the same seat every week. However come Easter , our Pastor asks us to attend another venue so there are seats available for the first time attenders. I resisted at first, That is my seat! I sit there. But no, God knows I have been there before, so give up that seat and make that family feel welcome. It’s a weekend Scott, “Feed my Children”, make them welcome!
Then there was a time before God called me specifically into this unquenchable thirst and ministry that I was invited by my local church to attend the Annual Conference of the church. I thought that was pretty nice of them, so I take time off of work and I go to this Annual Conference . I get there, first no one speaks with me. Strike one. Second I go up to get my conference notebook, they don’t have one for me. Strike two. And the third strike was when the members of my own church decided to go to lunch and they didn’t even invite me to go along. Again crushed and hurt. And it only gets worse! How can it get worse?
When I got my call from God that He wanted me to “Feed His Children”, off to ministerial training. A week long training by the local church. A short course to become a pastor of a local church. I arrive at the place in Indiana and walk into the meeting hall. Now remember these are all people like myself that have been called by God to minister to His children in one way or the other. I sign in and not one person came up to me, not one person made me feel welcomed. Me being a people person, I figured hey we are all on the same team so I go and start finding friendly looking people and quickly broke the ice.
God wasn’t done with me yet! My wife and I were at a Phillips, Craig and Dean concert and I stepped out to use the restroom and as I was reentering the auditorium I walked past a local seminary table. God was now calling me to go to the Seminary! I was as old if not older than the professors . One of my favorite professors while at the Seminary was Dr. David Turner. He asked me during one of the breaks, “Scott what are you doing here?” I said , Dave God has called me to learn more about Him and His word and that perhaps I will be teaching/feeding His children.
So here before you today is a former C&E kid, someone who had been hurt as a child by adults, not intentionally but hurt nonetheless, to a young man who was the Quarterback of his high school football team and before each game the Coach would have us recite the Lords Prayer. That in itself is a story. Lord’s Prayer? I learned it by hearing and reciting it with my teammates enough! Did it have meaning to me at that point? No! Not a clue, but the main thing was God was not done with me and had much bigger plans for me. Little did I know!!
God took this raw piece of clay and molded it into what He desired, not what I desired! It took a long time and I thank God for His hand of protection while I was running wild and crazy. I could have easily spent eternity in Hell! But that wasn’t in God’s plan. My calling by God has been the BEST thing that ever happened in my life. When God called me into this ministry I made a covenant with God. I would give up gambling and drinking as long as I had the unquenchable thirst for God’s Word. My library today is unbelievable, the knowledge that God has placed in this mind is truly a blessing, and the people I have been able to minister to along the way a true blessing.
C.S Lewis said, “The more we get what we now call “ourselves” out of the way and let God take over, the more truly ourselves we become”. During my time of getting out of God’s way and letting God be in control people noticed a huge difference in my life. I would often be asked, what happened to you? I just quit resisting and I kept learning and learning and learning all about God! In Isaiah 43:1 God says, “I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are mine”. Then the Psalmist said in Psalm 139:6; “such knowledge is too wonderful for me, it is too high, I cannot attain to it”. What knowledge was to wonderful to understand? The knowledge was the fact that God was everywhere! He was in heaven , in the depths of Hell, and that Your hand shall lead me and hold me. Then in verses 13-16, “For I formed your inward parts, you wove me in my mothers womb, I will give thanks to you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; wonderful are your works, and my soul you know very well. My frame(bones) was not hidden from you when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth. And Your eyes have seen my unformed substance and in your book were written the days that you have ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them.” This is some awesome stuff. Consider the fact that God already knew us before He knitted us into our mothers womb! He made my frame in a hidden and secret place in the depths of the earth, and He knows the number of days He has made for me! In other words hHe knows my expiration date. Pretty cool stuff.
Knowing that God knew us before He made us, knows the number of days He has ordained for us and made our bones in a secret place in the depths of the earth our strength of our call and our endurance is of the Lord’s Creation (Ps 62:5), in other words it is from God that my soul be subject for patience and strength. If we look at Romans 5:3-5; we will rejoice in our sufferings knowing that sufferings produces that endurance we need and endurance produces character and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s Love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. who has been given to us.
Your body normally gets strength from what? “BONES”. That hidden bone that was formed in our mothers womb in that secret space. To other Christians this inner bone that was made in us in the depths of the earth is well known as it creates:
1) Firmness and strength
2) Inner firmness of the soul
3) whenever we are suffering, in distress, misfortunes fall upon us, that inner structure that God made in secret is firm in us and cannot be broke or even bend under pressure. The Apostle paul had that inner bone; 2 Cor 6:10, “as if sorrowful, we always have cause for joy.” Paul had been abused, beaten, stoned, put in prison and in chains, yet he remained in joy!
That strong bone was made known at Christ’s resurrection. The body which had died had not perished. The fear of death was gone! The strong bone had prevailed.
While I was working around the farm the other day a verse came to mind and stuck with me and stuck in my mind until I could figure out what Gospel it was in. It was in the book of Mark when Jesus says whoever is ashamed of Him and His words here on this sinful earth, the Son of man will also be ashamed of us when He comes in Glory of his father and the Holy Angels. So listen for God’s call, be obedient to the call, as;
God’s call will always do the following:
1) challenge us directly to rise to our full stature as a human being.
2) His call will resonate in us at depths no other call can reach and draws on us and out and up to heights no other call can scale or see.
3) God’s call creates an ethic aspiration not just an obligation in us!
The reverse side of a Call is “Conceit and Pride. Pride has been traditionally been viewed as the first, worst and deadliest of the seven sins. So lose the bigheaded attitude, quit the self satisfaction, quit the self centeredness as the world does not revolve around you, trust me I know. Lose the arrogant attitude and ego! The worse is when you look down on other people and don’t care what they think of you! Stop and realize people who you are hurting.Trust me, the world revolved around me for years and I hurt many people along the way until God got a hold of me and I realized God was indeed much bigger than I was! He got my attention! He won! I wish there was a way I could apologize to all those I hurt along the way! God knows my heart! He knows that I am sincerely sorry that I hurt people along the road of my life.
As we close this up you can differentiate a call from conceit/pride when you hear God whisper 3 things to you in a hundred intimate ways:
a) you are chosen
b) you are gifted
c) you are special
That is so cool to wake up in the morning and know that you have been chosen, and you are very special to God!
I know this has been long, but have you heard God’s call? I would love to hear of how God is using you to further His work here on earth. Until next time, God loves you and so do I
Peace out
Time to wake up America!! 