“And how shall they preach, except they be sent?” Romans 10:15
Dear Ones:
It was Dietrich Bonhoeffer who said, “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.” The story is told of a young missionary who was in route to Africa many years ago, on board a wooden ship. The captain of the vessel considered the young man almost like a son in his care and concern for him. At one point in the voyage, the ship put into a certain port where the missionary prepared his bags to debark. The captain, when he saw him, came quickly, and told him he could not get off the ship at that port, for he would surely die, either by sickness or by the hands of the natives. The young man turned to the captain, and simply said: “My dear captain, I died before I left England.” Here is a man who has come to grips with “losing his life for the sake of Christ.” Is it the same for you and me? What about the preacher of the Gospel? Is it the same?
After Isaiah had his vision of God, Isaiah heard the voice of the Lord : “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” (Is. 6:8) It is noteworthy that this calling of God to Isaiah did not precede the revelation of God in His glory to his heart. Why? Because the weight and significance of the calling is dependent upon the revelation of the One who is calling…in this case, the Lord seated upon His throne. (v.1) When Saul of Tarsus had his revelation of the Lord Jesus, and the call came from God to “…make (him) a minister and a witness…” of the things that he had seen, and would see, the knowledge of the Author of the calling, eclipsed all else. Again, the weight and significance of the calling resided in the Person who was calling, not in the object of the call, Paul. Why is this so very important to grasp? It is simply because this “work” of preaching the Gospel, as a minister specifically of the Gospel, or the sharing of the Gospel by a housewife to her children, is the same. It is God, the Lord, who calls, and thus, enables and equips, by His Spirit for the effective task at hand.
The story is told of an evangelist, who received several invitations to speak to missionaries in the far East, in different missions. He was a bit distraught by such a task, as he considered himself unable to declare the truths of the Gospel to those who had left all to serve God in a foreign land. It was at this point, after seeking the Lord several times on the matter, that the Lord spoke to him something like this: “You cannot even talk to a child without me. What is the difference in speaking to these missionaries?” The issue is not the “called” but the Caller. With the calling comes the enablement. Do we see the Caller in His greatness? Does HE eclipse all else, so that even the calling pales in comparison with the revelation of the exalted, and sovereign Christ?
Dear Father, open our eyes, as you did for Isaiah and Paul, to see Thy glory…the glory of Thy Son. And give us ears to hear Thy voice concerning Your individual calling of us all. Give us grace to “die” to our lives, in order to follow Christ, to be His ministers wherever You would have us be. And give us the Spirit in such measure, that the life and message will go forth in power, love, and simplicity, that faith will be born in the hearts of those who hear the wonderful, glorious, and powerful truths of the Gospel. We thank Thee, in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Love, Dad