Encountering an extraordinary God in ordinary life
Issue # 246 August 31, 2001
Highest Calling

I did the happy dance yesterday, or as my friend Tim would call it, “the Snoopy dance.” Our house finally sold.

It was actually on the market for less than five weeks, the last two of which it has been under a conditional sale. It seemed like five months. When that little sold sign went up, it felt like a huge burden had been lifted from my shoulders.

So many things in life can burden us.

One thing that keeps Christians for realizing their true potential in Christ is they refuse to believe they are made anew and continue to live and re-live past mistakes. They live their lives everyday, with the heavy burden of past failure pressing on their necks, keeping them down.

We’re called to live each day with the Lord. As believers, we have been made new and our past wiped out.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV

Even in the Old Testament, God challenged His people to look forward not backwards.

Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland. Isaiah 43:18-19 NIV

As a believer you:

ARE CALLED TO THE ROYAL PRIESTHOOD

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. 1 Peter 2:9-10 NIV

ARE GIFTED FOR THAT CALL

There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men. Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers,to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines. 1 Corinthians 12:4-11 NIV

ARE MINISTERS

Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 4:10-11 NIV

You have been given a great responsibility and a great privilege by God. You have been called into the highest calling, the service of the Most High God. Don’t allow the opportunity to pass you by because you feel dragged down by some mistakes in your past.

You have been set free. Now share that freedom.

Until next time, may the yoke of bondage to past sins be lifted from your neck. May you understand your freedom in Christ.

God bless.

Kevin

If you live with the burden of past mistakes and don’t know how to be free of them, email me. I’ll share a few Bible verses that explain why a personal relationship with Jesus is important and how it will set you free. I’ll also share a prayer that will make that relationship possible.