“And it was there [at my parents’ home in Britain], I speak the truth, that ‘I saw a vision of the night’: a man named Victoricus – ‘like one’ from Ireland – coming with innumerable letters. He gave me one of them and I began to read what was in it: ‘The voice of the Irish.’ And at that very moment as I was reading out the letter’s opening, I thought I heard the voice of those around the wood of Foclut, which is close to the western sea. It was ‘as if they were shouting with one voice’: ‘O holy boy, we beg you to come again and walk among us.’ And I was ‘broken hearted’ and could not read anything more. And at that moment I woke up. Thank God, after many years the Lord granted them what they called out for.”

N.B. This week, we’ll be looking at how God has called His people to accomplish certain tasks or to fulfill certain roles. For each one, consider the following:

• How did God speak to them? (audible, inaudible, through dreams/visions, through other people, through the Word?)
• What did He call them to do? What were they doing at the time He called? What kind of radical changes, if any, did they have to make in order to obey God?
• What was their initial response? (immediate, without question; with fear and trembling; delayed; with a good or bad attitude?) If they had objections, how did God overcome those objections?
• Were they called to act alone or with others as part of a team effort? If called to work as a team, how did they identify the other team members? What was each team member’s area of responsibility and how did it fit into God’s overarching purpose?
• Were they fully equipped to carry out their calling from the start, or did they have to learn how to complete the task(s) God set for them? How did that learning take place?
• How long did the task take? How difficult was it? What setbacks did they suffer? How did the Lord help them stay focused on the task He wanted them to accomplish?
• What was the result of their labor for the Lord? Did the effects only last for a short time, or is their labor still bearing fruit today? In what way?
• What similarities and differences do you see between God’s call in their lives and in your own?

God Calling

[1] in Davies, Oliver. Celtic Spirituality. New York: Paulist Press, 1999. p 73.

Intimately Acquainted

[1] John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Henry Beveridge, tr. (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1953), Vol. 1, I.v.2, p. 51.

John Wesley, The Use of Money (sermon)

“You see the nature and extent of truly Christian prudence so far as it relates to the use of that great talent, money. Gain all you can, without hurting either yourself or your neighbour, in soul or body, by applying hereto with unintermitted diligence, and with all the understanding which God has given you; -- save all you can, by cutting off every expense which serves only to indulge foolish desire; to gratify either the desire of flesh, the desire of the eye, or the pride of life; waste nothing, living or dying, on sin or folly, whether for yourself or your children; -- and then, give all you can, or, in other words, give all you have to God.”

God's Business

“The spirit of worry which pervades our life is the spirit of little or wrong faith. For worry always concentrates on what seems to be the sole means of getting rid of worry: we are worried about the means of sustaining life, financial or political means, as representing the only means of safety – i.e. the way out sought the lack of a way out. We are living by bread alone; worry is nothing else but the worship of these means – the worship of bread, or the earthly lord of bread, who can put us on short rations.”[1]

Giving Up Worry

[1] Helmut Thielicke, Between God and Satan (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1973). P. 40.

Vance Havner, (1901-1986), Peace in the Valley, p 75[1]

To be sure, our main business is not to stir up trouble and certainly not personal antagonism because of our wrong attitudes. But when Christianity is inoffensive it is ineffective. The offense is the scandal of the cross. All we have to do is to be Christians, and take our stand with Christ for right from wrong, and there will be trouble aplenty. If there is no trouble, then we have a denatured Christianity.

The world has put up a “Please Do Not Disturb” sign and some churchmen are walking on tiptoe to respect it. They labor under the mistaken notion that it is un-Christian to take a stand against anything. The man who is not against something is not really for anything. In the very nature of the case, to be for God with any fervor is to be opposed to evil with equal fire. The degree of intensity with which we hate evil is a pretty good gauge of how much we love God.

Apart from the return of our Lord, the only possible hope today is for the church to stop passing resolutions and begin promoting revolutions—the Acts-of-the-Apostles kind of revolutions that stir the community, agitate the ungodly, alarm the workers of iniquity and enrage the devil. Anything is better than to be ignored. The church made greater strides when the wicked hurled brickbats at the saints instead of hanging bouquets on them for being nice, inoffensive people who never interfere with the program of Satan.

God make us disturbers of this world’s false peace!

Download this week's study: Disturbing.

[1] Vance Havner, Peace in the Valley (Westwood, New Jersey, Fleming H. Revell Company, 1962), p. 75.

Clement, Bishop of Rome (late 1^st century), The First Epistle of Clement[1]

“My brothers, do let us have a little humility; let us forget our self assertion and braggadocio and stupid quarreling, and do what the Bible tells us instead. The Holy Spirit says, The wise man is not to brag of his wisdom, nor the strong man of his strength, nor the rich man of his wealth; if a man boast, he should boast of the Lord, seeking him out and acting with justice and uprightness.

More particularly, let us remember what the Lord Jesus Christ said in one of His lessons on mildness and forbearance. Be merciful, He told us, that you may obtain mercy; forgive, that you may be forgiven, what you do yourself, will be done to you; what you give, will be given to you; as you judge, so you will be judged; as you show kindness, so it will be shown to you… Christ belongs to the lowly of heart, and not to those who would exalt themselves over his flock.”

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Download this week's study: Together.

[1] Staniforth, Maxwell and Louth, Andrew, trans., Early Christian Writings (New York, Penguine Books, 1987) pp. 28-29.