Gospel

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If you have really heard the “Call” of Christ, His love and His holiness sinking into your awareness through the murky night of the soul, then somehow your life has become different. The Call of Jesus in your life, if allowed to have its way, cannot help but whisk you into a new reality, one that is completely different from what life would be like had He never sent you the Call or had you not hearkened to it.

Don’t think for a moment that you can “meet” God, and just walk away as if nothing has happened. Folks often see the salvation of God as simply a means to escape punishment for wrong-doing. And while it IS true that we are released from condemnation forever once we have placed our faith in Him (“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” [Romans 8:1 ESV], Jesus’ invitation to you is so much more than a mere escape hatch from @#!*% .

Neither is the Call simply a matter of getting your reservations turned in for your after-life. Although God Himself has indeed promised us a “forever after” life with Him (“For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, Who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with Him” [1 Thessalonians 5:9-10 ESV]); even so, Heaven is not just a Hilton Hotel for all eternity.

The Call of Jesus Christ in your life is an appeal for you to leave what you once knew, to cease to be what you once were, and to become something completely new… recreated with a new position, a new passion, and a new power. “…If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, Who through Christ reconciled us to Himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:17-18 ESV).

When you turn in faith to Jesus, your new position is that of “child of God”, citizen of His heavenly kingdom, servant to the Lord, and ambassador for the King of kings. “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone” (Ephesians 2:19-20 ESV).

Your new passion is a hunger for more of God’s glory to be revealed through your life and in the world and a forgetting of the spiritually trivial priorities and goals you once kept for yourself. “…Whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ” (Philippians 3:7-9 ESV).

And tapping into the new power that is yours only in Christ, you have an eternal hope given you through His victory over sin and death. You’ll find yourself unconquerable as long as you keep your eyes upon the Savior and discover that He faithfully calms either the storms in your life or calms you in the mist of those storms as you walk with Him. “The weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:4-5 ESV).

The Call of Jesus pulls you out of the despair of a life that may seem beaten down and oppressed by tragedy and heartbreak and places you squarely in the arms of the One Who is all loving and all powerful. The Call takes you by the hand, leading you from the drudgery of a pointless existence and mere survival mentality and puts your suddenly eager feet upon a path full of new purpose, meaning, and worth.

If you cannot say that you have in the past “heard the call of Christ”, God may even now be initiating a relationship with you, one in which He beckons you to join Him, leaving behind your sin, your selfishness, and your plans. Trust Him. Try Him. “Taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!” (Psalm 34:8 ESV).

If you have heard the Call in the past and have yet to really answer, perhaps you hesitate for fear that God will let you down. But know this: those who really trust Him, allowing that trust to result in faithful obedience, are the ones whose lives matter most in the eternal realm. “Those who look to Him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed” (Psalm 34:5 ESV).


Copyright © Thom Mollohan.

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