'Callings'

Pastor Tim Keller teaches us that we can identify God's call for us through the abilities, affinities and opportunities that He has given us. Through that, we constantly direct our lives on how we can serve God and people best.

But sometimes, the word 'calling' have often been abused in my opinion. Some one might say, this or that is my 'calling', and therefore anyone who opposes my 'calling' is the 'devil' or is persecuting me. We have to be on guard against such self righteousness and be humble to listen to advice from people.

'Calling' can also be used as an excuse from doing what God really wants us to do. God calls some to full time ministry and Edmund Clowney gives us a valuable way to identify such people is that they have the gift of teaching God's word. So therefore, if one has the gift of teaching, he truly has to be humble and assess if God is leading him to a preaching/teaching ministry. God also calls others to so called 'secular' vocations and if that is done for the love of God and man, its an honorable call as well.

But the danger here is that one might hold on to a secular vocation for the real reason that it is more comfortable and receives a higher salary than ministry. And therefore if he is gifted to teach, yet chooses to hold on to a secular vocation for the sake of benefits. But we have to be careful not to judge certain people who belong to such a group. Each is accountable and lives himself before the Lord.

Another danger is that we push people into ministry even though they may be gifted more for a secular vocation. We put false guilt trips on them that they are not serving the Lord and other similar statements. We have to be careful of that. If they are truly gifted for ministry, we can encourage them, and let them enter ministry with a willing heart, and there after, support them financially and in prayer.

Its all quite complex and therefore we shouldn't be using the word 'calling' to swing it anyhow to put a heavier burden on people than they can bear.

Self-Righteousness

Self righteousness is never just a 'pharisee' problem. All of us have this problem. Yes, religious pride is a form of pride. But so is worldliness. Therefore be extremely careful when you judge someone to be a judger of others. (See the irony?) Also be very careful when we term someone as an anti-nomialist. Make sure that we first see if there is a plank in us before we take the speck out of others.

One can be self-righteous in doing good. One can be self-righteous in not doing good. What can rescue us from such sin? Simple obedience with a simple pure heartedness of gratitude to our Lord who first loved us and gave himself for us on the cross.

Words

Words can hurt. For life.

If we are using words to hurt others, why do we do so? Is it because we are insecure ourselves? It is because we want to bring down the reputation of others so that our own reputation can be relatively higher than theirs?

Why bother so much of our reputation before man who oppose God? But be bothered about our reputation before God and before truly righteous man. For our reputation reflects that of God's. We are to be good witnesses for Him.

Filter away unjust words. But listen carefully in humility words that point out where we truly fall short. They are more precious than gold.

Novelty

When we see someone do something for the first time, we get excited and give praise to it. But when the thing is repeated often enough, excitement dies down and it gets relegated to the backstage. We then are on the lookout once again for new stuff. Therefore, don't get too excited at something new. Analyze it, learn from the good points, and the bad ones. There is no need for envy or jealousy because it will normalize in the end.

The proper response should be, thank the Lord for it if it edifies man and glorifies God. And support it if you can. Else, don't bother too much about it unless it brings harm to man.