The Lord calls us to life

The Lord calls us to life, therefore we shouldn't let our struggles, our failures define who we are. Each one of us has a struggle we face. We are, after all, sinners. But when we come to Jesus and accept Him as our personal Lord and Savior, because of His great love for us, we are freed from the bonds, the chains which confine us and overwhelm us and keep us locked up in our minds of what we can't do.

I think there are a great many Christian people who gravitate to this level of thinking. It is disheartening. God tells us, "I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you." (Psalm 32:8) So what do we do?! We listen to others, we talk to ourselves. We think, well God may say that, but its others we have to convince that the reason something is or isn't is because of this and this or that. Bunk!

Where does it say in the Bible that we have to convince others of anything? No one other person is better than another. We have no right to judge another of our shortcomings. We are all sinners, saved by God's grace.

We don't have to convince anyone that because of this you can't do that.

If you are a pastor and think a Bible lesson is boring, why did you present it that way? If it is worthwhile, and Bible study is very worthwhile to my way of thinking, then present it in a way that is exciting. Bring it to life for your listeners. If you think its boring, others will think its boring, and if that's the case, one would think twice about anything to do with God.

Struggles. Failures. Poor choices abound. God brought you out of a past, whether it was 30 years ago or 30 minutes ago. We make mistakes. Past, current, future. We don't have to spend our time talking about them and reliving them. God knows us, inside and out. If we confess our sins, if we truly repent of our sins, God forgives us. We do not need to repeatedly confess our sins to others. We do not need to apologize for our past. God has not condemned us. He has forgiven us.

Perhaps you have not forgiven yourself. Perhaps you think if you explain, then the fear you have of what others will think of you will be less.

God calls each of us to a specific task. Pastoring a church is a noble thing, but it's not the only thing, it's not the top bar on the ladder.

It is not fair to say, I can't because I failed. King David failed. It didn't stop him. You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you. It would be fairer to say, I can't because I believe my failures prevent me. I can't because I'm scared.

What is your failure? That maybe you truly didn't hear God? Sometimes the road we travel winds this way and that. Sometimes we backtrack.

We listen. God's voice is sometimes in the still of the morning rush, sometimes in the roar of thunder directly overhead.

Do we sometimes think that when God calls it is only to preach and pastor a church? ... that He only calls men? Could He not call us, male and female, to another just as noble position in life?

We are to go forth and serve.

Jesus is our goal, our model. To be like Him in every respect. To carry on, to go forth, to serve, to be. God doesn't make failures. He loves us. He guides us. He does not condemn us. So we shouldn't condemn ourselves either. Start from where you are.

Some people say "I'm sorry" for everything; in a perpetual state of apology for past, present and future shortcomings.

Jesus didn't apologize. He stated fact, lovingly, and moved on.
He was. He is.
We are sinners.
We have been born-again, set free.
Let's live as free, not still enslaved in our past, striving to break free. God wants us to live, not be defeated by something that is no longer.

"Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us." (Romans 5:5)