January 9- Our Calling

JANUARY 9, 2009
All things work together for good to those who love him who have been called according to his purpose. (Rom. 8:28)
Whom shall I send? Who will go for us? And I said, “Here am I send me.” (Isaiah 6:8)
Calvin: “God inspires special activities , in accordance to each man’s calling. Many examples of this occur in the Book of Judges where it is said that ‘the Spirit of the Lord took possession’ of those men whom he had called to rule the people (6:34). ..When Saul’s consecration as king was foretold, Samuel said, ‘Then the Spirit of the Lord will come mightily upon you, and you shall be another man’ (10:6). And this was extended to the whole course of government, as is said of David: ‘The Spirit of the Lord came upon him from that day forward.” (Inst. II.1.17). “The Lord bids each one of us in all life’s actions to look to his calling. ..that no one may thoughtlessly transgress his limits, he has named these various kinds of living callings. Therefore each individual has his own kind of living assigned to him by the Lord as a sort of sentry post. So that he might not heedlessly wander about throughout life.” (III.X.6)
Today I heard a radio commentator on NPR say that Roland Burriss was crazy or at least kind of crazy for saying he was “called by God” to be a U.S. Senator from Illinois. In the next breath she said that the president of the United States was kind of crazy too because he said he was also called by God. I guess in that reporters mind millions and millions of people are crazy because they believe God calls them to do something with their lives. Maybe they are hearing something that she can’t hear? In talking about God’s calling them, Calvin was not talking about audible voices as much as God’s providential tug and placement on their lives. It is similar to a call to duty. Calvin believed God gives people gifts, talents, abilities, and providentially places them at the right place at the right time. I wonder if this announcer is “heedlessly wandering” as Calvin put it. So many don’t believe God can act, reveal, or act through creation. God is nothing to them, because God can do nothing. So those who think God calls them are a little bit “crazy.” For Calvin there is the call to salvation and there is a call to vocation.
I believe God calls us all to be saved (though we may not answer), and calls us all to serve him in certain ways.
This will be true in 2009.