Have you ever felt God calling you to something and you wondered if it was really Him calling you to do that something? Have you looked for evidences of His calling? If so may I suggest a few evidences based on scripture that may not be the evidences one often looks for when desiring to know if something is the will of God or not.

The call of God is never to a place (literal or figurative) you think you want to go:

• Noah–“Build a boat and go float in a giant body of water you know nothing about.” (Genesis 6-8)
• Joseph–“I’m not telling you where you’re going, just follow the slave in chains in front of you.” (Genesis 37 & 39)
• Moses–“Go back to the place they wanted to kill you.” (Exodus 3)
• Daniel–“Enjoy Babylon.” (Daniel the entire book)
• Peter–“You’re going to go with Me until you eventually die on a cross like I did.” (John 21)
• John–“You’re going to write a great book on an empty island after being placed in a pot of boiling hot oil and surviving.” (The book of Revelation, writings of the Reformers and early church writers)

The Call of God ALWAYS requires leaving something behind:

• Abram (aka Abraham)–“Leave your homeland; okay that wasn’t enough now leave your family too.” (Genesis 12)
• Elisha–“Leave a lot of wealth and a good job, oh and kill some of that wealth while you’re at it.” (1 Samuel 19)
• Jeremiah–“Leave your pride at the door b/c your feelings are definitely going to get hurt.” (Jeremiah 20)
• Israel–“Leave your dreams of home behind, go to captivity and enjoy it.” (Jeremiah 29)
• Simon, Andrew, James, & John (and other disciples too)–“Leave your jobs and your Dad, we have no place to lay our head, and you’ll literally leave everything for me, but you’ll be okay.” (Mark 1; Matthew 4; Mark 10; Matthew 19)
• Rich Young Ruler–“Leave your stuff with poor people.” (Matthew 19)
• All followers of Jesus–“Leave it all, including your family (or at least be willing to)” (Luke 14)

The Call of God usually involves doing something that seems ridiculous/impossible/or makes no sense:

• Noah–“Build a boat for 120 years with no water around” (Genesis 6)
• People of Israel–“Take Jericho by just marching, no really it will work.” (Joshua 4-6)
• Rahab the Harlot & Ancestor of Jesus–“Hang a red cord out your window and when the entire city falls down your piece of wall will be spared.” (Joshua 2, 3, & 6)
• Gideon–“Only fight with 300 dudes that like to smash pots.” (Judges 7)
• Ezekiel–“Eat human feces…okay, it doesn’t have to be human, I’ll let you eat cow dung instead.” (Ezekiel 4)
• Esther–“Don’t worry about the previous Queen that was banished, you defy his laws too. It’ll all work out.” (Esther 5)
• Hosea–“No you don’t need to clean your ears out, you heard me correctly: MARRY a PROSTITUTE! (The entire book of Hosea)
• Peter–“No really, water is as sturdy as cement!” (Matthew 14)
• Paul–“They only thought you were dead, now go back and preach some more!” (Acts 14)

The Call of God usually comes with just enough evidence to build your trust, but not enough to give you all the answers:

• Noah–“Build a boat I’m sending a flood. Okay you don’t get any evidence you just have to trust me.” (Genesis 6)
• Abram–“Leave all your family and I’ll make you a great nation. Actually you don’t get any evidence right away either, just trust me and I’ll help you trust more along the way.” (Genesis 12)
• Abraham–“Yes you heard me right kill your son, the evidence is that I wanted this boy in the first place.” (Genesis 22)
• Joseph–“Slavery, imprisonment, yeah you don’t get any signs either, just trust me!” (Genesis 39 & 40)
• Moses–“You’ll deliver them, trust me! I already gave you a burning bush and a snake stick. What more do you want?”
• Gideon–“It was wet, it is dry, will you just go already.” (Judges 6)
• Jonah–“Really you still don’t understand, didn’t I deliver you from the belly of the whale?” (All of Jonah)

God’s Call sometimes leads to prosperity after tragedy: 

• Abram–>Abraham–>Many nations–>Many lands–>Many livestock, leads to much power!
• Job–“I know it was rough but here you have back more than you had before.”
• All God’s people–“Yes I said all the storehouse of heaven.” (Malachi 3)
• The People of Israel–“I promised you the land.”

Of course God’s call can ultimately result in death too:

• Moses death just outside the Promised Land.
• Samson death by self amongst his mockers.
• John the Baptist death by beheading at the bequest of a bitter queen.
• All the disciples minus 1 were martyred: Death by hanging, stoning, beheading, crucifixion, burning. They just wouldn’t stop talking about Jesus!
• Paul death by beheading. He went to Rome to witness even if it meant death.
• James White death by exhaustion (okay this one isn’t in the Bible).

Evidence of God’s call in summary:

• You probably will not immediately want to go.
• You will have to leave something you love behind.
• You will be asked to do the impossible/uncomfortable/ridiculous
• You will receive just enough answers to trust, but never enough to be fully satisfied (b/c the call is all about continued trust).
• Temporal life on this earth may in the end may turn out good or bad; in other words, you have no earthly guarantee that it will all be okay.

The Call of God cannot fit neatly on a list of pros and cons, or in a box defined by humanity.

The Call of God is however the only safe place ultimately for the Christian to walk in!

I am saddened when I see anti-abortion signs as I drive down the freeway. Yes, as a pro-life individual I am sad about all the abortions in the world. I find the idea of abortion cruel, but this is not why I’m sad about these signs. I’m sad about these signs because they are tools used to inflict guilt on young ladies that have or are considering an abortion. Because not only do I find abortion cruel, I also find guilt cruel!

I’ve had three close friends that I know of that have had abortions. In two of the three cases, I found out about their abortions after they had already happened. In each case, as they shared with me the decision they had made and the action they had taken there were tears in their voices. In the one case that I knew about prior to the decision, I urged against abortion. I prayed for her to decide against abortion. But in the end, she still chose to have the abortion. When I spoke with her after the fact, just like I had experienced with my other two friends there were also tears in her voice. In those moments I did not feel my Christian duty was to express my great opposition to abortions, they already knew I felt that way. Rather, my responsibility was to affirm my love for them, more importantly, to affirm God’s love for them and assure them that God does forgive (Yes this was a question they all had).

Would it not as Christians be far more beneficial to use our resources to come around these young ladies that have gone through these experiences and love them, to use our resources to provide counseling that will help them as many of them deal with the regret and grief of what they have just gone through? Could we use the resources we use to put up signs and picket abortion clinics to do more preventative training in our communities on the front side of an abortion decision? It seems like proactive work within a community will go a lot further than the last-minute guilt trip of a freeway sign that says, “Abortion will leave you feeling empty inside.” Yes, I’ve actually seen that sign, and yes that “empty” feeling you have about that sign is the recognition that guilt is cruel!

I hear people say, “well the unborn need a voice.” Let God be their voice. Our voices should be used to minister and love on those who are still living. Love is not the condoning of an action. Love is the expression of the value of each individual no matter how much we may disagree with their decisions.

Abortion is cruel, but so is guilt. Please Christians I appeal to you: tear down the signs and spend your money, your time, and your voice loving the living. Christian love will have a far greater impact on reducing the number of abortions in this world than any freeway sign ever will!

A cliche (def: a phrase or opinion that is overused and betrays a lack of original thought) that absolutely drives me nuts is the phrase, “This church is for sinners only.” People think they are being clever playing off the words of Jesus in Luke 5:32, “I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”

But the position, “this church is for sinners only” is really just obnoxious!

It is first obnoxious because it oftentimes comes across as a statement of feigned humility; what is referred to in the twitter-sphere as a #humblebrag, “I know I’m a sinner and you don’t, therefore, I’m better than you.” Or it seems to me in my opinion that folk that make this statement are somehow inferring that because they recognize they are sinners they are somehow more loving. But let me say this, a position that excludes anyone from the house of God whether broken sinner or broken perceived saint is not loving at all!

It’s also obnoxious because it is a gross misinterpretation of Jesus’ statement! First of all Jesus’ statement is not a statement of exclusion of any specific group to being a part of His body. He isn’t saying I will only associate with people who know they are sinners, Jesus is saying, “I am calling sinners to repentance.” His statement is about repentance not who can be part of the church club. Second, when this phrase is posted on church signs or dropped in a sermon because it gets an easy (cheap) amen it is being done in a way of pitting one group against another, Jesus was seeking through His statement to help the Pharisees see that they were actually in the same boat of need as the tax collector and his friends they were condemning. These Pharisees knew the scriptures, they knew Psalm 14:3 & Psalm 53:3, “There is none righteous, no not one.” I see no evidence of Levi-Matthew and his pals high-fiving and saying, “awesome we’re sinners and those legalists aren’t welcome! Woo hoo, this is our church, not yours!”

The third reason this phrase is obnoxious is that it actually places the people who are saying it in the exact same position they are condemning. A person saying, “this church is for sinners only” is, in essence, condemning those who think they are perfect and thus because of their perfectionistic state end up being judgmental. The statement though in and of itself reeks of judgment. Which leads to the final point.

Finally, this phrase is obnoxious because it places folk in a position of judgment that Jesus clearly tells us we are incapable of performing. In Matthew chapter 13 Jesus tells the parable of the wheat and the tares. In this parable, Jesus makes it clear that it is at the end of time that Jesus decides who are the wheat and who are the tares. Who are the sinners and who are the saints. Who are the redeemed and who have rejected redemption. If we spend a lot of time trying to root out folk now (even the legalists) we might just end up forcing out someone that Jesus considered “wheat.” Why because we aren’t very good judges of character, “for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7c)

In conclusion, I don’t want a church that is for “sinners only” and by this, I mean only those that recognize they are sinners. I want a church with people who know they are sinners because they need Jesus. I want a church with people that think they are perfect, because they need Jesus too, and finally I want a church of people who are indifferent, who don’t really care one way or the other, because guess what they need Jesus too.

You can keep your “church for sinners only,” I want to reach everyone!