The Vineyard
Dear Friends,
Isaiah 6:8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”
Isaiah was a man in love with God before God called Him. This was a man ready to do whatever it was that God required—-regardless of if the assignment was great or humble, inspiring or dispiriting, noteworthy or quickly forgotten. It did not matter. His resolve was shown in his plucky response to God: Here am I. Send me!
This, if you will, is what happens when one experiences the call of God on their life. And the call of God happens when we soberly consider, or take an inventory of, our gifts and talents, and humbly submit them to God’s sovereign will and purpose.
Now these might sound like easy words for us to subscribe to Isaiah, or Moses, or Saint Paul—-but what happens if we apply these words to Ed, or John, or Yvonne, or Dean or anyone else reading these words. If I know Him it is a certainty that I love Him. And if I love Him I am compelled to be used by Him! So that, my friends, is the question. If we claim to know Him and love Him, are we surrendering to Him? Have we accounted for the gifts, talents, time and environment in which we have been placed and have we allowed Him to “send us” to whatever tasks He has——-or have we focused on something good——not the “best”, but nonetheless “good”?
It’s a lot easier to criticize the President of the USA than to be the President of the USA. The same holds true of being a pastor, or evangelist or Christian speaker. It takes very little preparation to disparage the message, the delivery, the effectiveness, etc, of a man or woman in Christian vocation than it is to invest the time preparing, practicing and praying.
But accepting God’s call to teach, preach, evangelize, or even to be a “sold out disciple” of Jesus Christ, has costs and considerations. You don’t have to be behind the pulpit each Sunday to be following God’s call, but to follow Him, I do know that these things have to be present:
Yo must be prepared to go it alone; you must understand that you WILL be misunderstood; you must give up any expectations of being celebrated; you must daily rise above your fears, your doubts, and that urge to give up and go back to what you were doing before. No matter how dark it gets, no matter how many friends or members of your family turn your back on you, you must complete the mission He has given you—-and that mission might take a life time to complete.
Warmly,
Dean Barley
The Vineyard
Dean@VineyardCamp.com
336 351 2070
919 360 8493 (Mobile)
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