Evening, October 11
<< Evening, October 11 >>
But even before I was born, God chose me and called me by his marvelous grace. Then it pleased him to reveal his Son to me so that I would proclaim the Good News about Jesus to the Gentiles.
Insight
Because God was guiding his ministry, Paul wasn't doing anything that God hadn't already planned and given him power to do. Similarly, God told Jeremiah that God had called him, even before he was born, to do special work for God.
Challenge
God knows you intimately as well, and he chose you to be his even before you were born. He wants you to draw close to him and to fulfill the purpose he has for your life.
Romans 8:30  Whom he did predestinate, them he also called.

In the second epistle to Timothy, first chapter, and ninth verse, are these words--"Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling." Now, here is a touchstone by which we may try our calling. It is "an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace." This calling forbids all trust in our own doings, and conducts us to Christ alone for salvation, but it afterwards purges us from dead works to serve the living and true God. As he that hath called you is holy, so must you be holy. If you are living in sin, you are not called, but if you are truly Christ's, you can say, "Nothing pains me so much as sin; I desire to be rid of it; Lord, help me to be holy." Is this the panting of thy heart? Is this the tenor of thy life towards God, and his divine will? Again, in Philippians, 3:13, 14, we are told of "The high calling of God in Christ Jesus." Is then your calling a high calling? Has it ennobled your heart, and set it upon heavenly things? Has it elevated your hopes, your tastes, your desires? Has it upraised the constant tenor of your life, so that you spend it with God and for God? Another test we find in Hebrews 3:1--"Partakers of the heavenly calling." Heavenly calling means a call from heaven. If man alone call thee, thou art uncalled. Is thy calling of God? Is it a call to heaven as well as from heaven? Unless thou art a stranger here, and heaven thy home, thou hast not been called with a heavenly calling; for those who have been so called, declare that they look for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God, and they themselves are strangers and pilgrims upon the earth. Is thy calling thus holy, high, heavenly? Then, beloved, thou hast been called of God, for such is the calling wherewith God doth call his people.


Matthew 6:9  "Pray, then, in this way: 'Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.

Exodus 34:14  -- for you shall not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God--

Exodus 15:11  "Who is like You among the gods, O LORD? Who is like You, majestic in holiness, Awesome in praises, working wonders?

Revelation 4:8  And the four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, are full of eyes around and within; and day and night they do not cease to say, "HOLY, HOLY, HOLY is THE LORD GOD, THE ALMIGHTY, WHO WAS AND WHO IS AND WHO IS TO COME."

1 Chronicles 16:29  Ascribe to the LORD the glory due His name; Bring an offering, and come before Him; Worship the LORD in holy array.

Isaiah 6:1-3,5  In the year of King Uzziah's death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. • Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. • And one called out to another and said, "Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory." • Then I said, "Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts."

Job 42:5,6  "I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear; But now my eye sees You; • Therefore I retract, And I repent in dust and ashes."

1 John 1:7  but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.

Hebrews 12:10  For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness.

Hebrews 10:19,22  Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, • let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

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