May 31
Get out of your country… to a land that I will show you. I will
bless you. (Genesis 12:1-2)
The call of God contains both grace and truth. Truth is the
separating instrument. "Get thee out." Grace is the promise. "I
will bless and make a blessing." Man often grasps at the grace, the
"I will bless" of God, and fails to comply with the demand thereof -
"Get thee out." Now this does not only apply in the matter of our
salvation in its first steps, but it comes in new revelations and calls at
different times in the Christian life. The call of God to some fuller and
higher acceptance of truth and ministry; of testimony and witness; of surrender
and experience, will undoubtedly come by one or another of the Divine forms of
visitation to such as the Lord wishes to lead in grace. This will be timed,
definite, and challenging. A messenger may come as out from nowhere; the
nowhere of reputation, recognition, worldly fame or honor. He will deliver a
message, only staying long enough to leave its essential implications with
those who hear. Then, having passed on, things can never be the same for them
again.
The "call" has sounded. The crisis has been
precipitated. The issue is between the life which has been with its limitations
known or unrecognized, and that which God offers. But, as usually is the case,
this truth is going to call for a "getting out." Getting out, it may
be, of a certain popularity, a comparative easy going. There may be a risking
of reputation, a loss of prestige, a disfavor among men, a being labeled
"singular," "peculiar," "extreme,"
"unsafe." It may mean a head-on impact of all the prejudice,
tradition, and disfavor of the religious world. It may involve exclusion,
ostracism, and suspicion. These are the accompaniments of all calls of God to
advance with Him beyond accepted standards. This is the cost of path-finding
for souls. This is the price to be paid for the higher serviceableness to God
and men.
By T. Austin-Sparks from: "Called. Chosen. Faithful."
This photograph is from a Facebook page called Live Life in Color.
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