My Call to Christ and His Service

This is the testimony and challenge that I shared at a seminary chapel in Crato, Brazil, in September 2005:

John 15:7  “If ye abide in Me and My words abide in you ye shall ask what ye will and it shall be done unto you.”

Early in my life I realized that receiving whatever I asked of God would happen as I accepted His desires as my own.  The desires that He gave to me were to be a pastor and to be a missionary.  My testimony is that God’s Word is true, God gave me these desires and He has been fulfilling them.  Being allowed to be here with my dear brothers and sisters in Brazil today is part of that.  Although I have believed God to be good for a long time, every day I am more certain!

I was brought up in a family with Christian parents who were away from the Lord for several years but had come back to Him at about the time I was born.  This meant that I had parents who loved the Lord sincerely with a realization of how desperate life can be without Him.  They also had, and still have today, a burden for lost souls that is contagious.

With that kind of a family it is not entirely surprising, but it is still wonderful, that I came to trust Christ as my Savior at the age of four.  Someone here asked me how I could understand salvation at the age of four, my answer is that I understood it very simply, the only way that anyone can receive it.  I was taken to church every time the doors were open since I was born, and we had devotions as a family almost every day of my childhood, but there was no question that I was a sinner.  I had a pastor who was not afraid to preach about hell, and he put it on a level that I could understand.  It was after a church service on September 16, 1973, that I knelt beside my bed to beg the Lord to save me.  The next day I told my father what I had done and he took me through the Scriptures to be sure that I understood my decision.  I was baptized a few years later at the same time as my newly-saved grandmother!

Now, about this verse, notice that there are conditions set for having our prayers answered.  They are that we abide in God and have His Word abide in us.  That has never come easily for me.  I was a disobedient rascal as a child and especially as a teenager.  I would have times of repentance, though, and I always knew that the Lord wanted to use me.  At the age of 11 I formally surrendered my life to the Lord’s service.  Even while I was a sneaky, selfish, trouble-making youth I was involved in many ways in my church and went on several missions trips.  I worked in AWANA, a bus ministry, and Children’s Church.  We ministered with American Indians, Haitian refugees in Miami, retired missionaries, a new church plant, and at a Christian camp.  The Lord was giving me valuable experience even before I had fully surrendered to Him.  A new pastor that came to my church took me in as an apprentice and taught me a great deal.

In my last year of High School I had begun dating the girl who would be my wife, and I began to get serious about preparing for the ministry.  The Lord still did not have my dedication on a consistent basis though, until I got into Bible College and began to faithfully have personal devotions.  You see, I had not been abiding in God because His Word was not abiding in me!

While in college I was given the opportunity to serve as a youth leader in a church and remained with that ministry for three and a half years.   Seeing how much I needed the Lord’s help in His service taught me to apply myself to my studies like I never had before.  I also grew more mature as I got married while in college and carried the financial responsibility for my education and that of my wife as well.  She trained as a teacher and put me to shame with her almost perfect grades.

I started school with very little money and a small scholarship which I lost when I married.  I learned then to work hard at several jobs and to earn an academic scholarship to pay our way through school.  I often worked more than 40 hours a week, carried a full class load, and spent the entire weekend at our church ministry 150 kilometers away.  Yet it was the Lord Who carried us through and we did it with great joy, still finding time to make good friends and play Volleyball and Ping Pong!

During our last year of school I took on a new ministry as an interim pastor, and that led us to the planting of a new church just before we graduated.  Because I had a burden to be used of the Lord in training missionaries in America and visiting foreign fields I continued to study after receiving my Bachelor’s Degree.  I wanted to come to places like this and be something more than a tourist.  The Lord was calling me to make myself more useful to Him through further training.  I just kept at it, not really stopping until last year when I had all of the degrees that my school had to offer for pastors.

As I have said, I count it a great privilege and a fulfillment of God’s promise to be here in Brasil today.  I did not ask Him to take me to a certain country, but to use me wherever there were precious souls that needed to be saved, and willing workers with a burden to reach them.  My church in Wild Rose is honored to have a small part in the ministry of the Willsons, and if the Lord is willing we will keep the church alive and make it grow.  Then it can do more yet to further the work here, and in Mexico, and in Italy, and in Tanzania, and in Cuiaba Brasil, in New York City, and in Wisconsin.

I have spoken of my calling specifically, let me say a few words about the calling which we all share.  Acts 5:17-20 "Then the high priest rose up, and all they that were with him, (which is the sect of the Sadducees,) and were filled with indignation,  And laid their hands on the apostles, and put them in the common prison.  But the angel of the Lord by night opened the prison doors, and brought them forth, and said,  Go, stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life."

That passage can serve as an illustration of what the Lord is asking of each of His children.  This passage illustrates my ministry calling, and perhaps it will be a challenge to you as well.  The apostles had been imprisoned by the high priest and Sanhedrin for doing God’s work, but the Lord did not want them out of service for long, in fact they did not even get the whole night off!

An angel was sent to break them out of jail and give them God’s orders.  First he said that they were to “Go.”  They had no cause to feel sorry for themselves or permission to take it easy and lie low for a while.

The angel also said that they were to “stand.”  That meant that their ministry would be open, and particularly that they were being sent out into the court of the temple even though that was very near to the men who had commanded their arrest!  “If our gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost.”  The people needed to see their determination and conviction and they needed to hear their message.

That brings us to the angel’s third command, for God’s men to “speak.”  They had something to say and they refused to be made quiet by any threat.  It is hard to keep good news to yourself, but when it may be dangerous or uncomfortable for us to speak up we can often find excuses for silence.  Now let us apply these three commands to Christian life and ministry.  I particularly want to point out how important it is that we obey all three together and do not leave any one undone.

What if we are willing to stand and speak but do not go anywhere?  I am afraid we will be like a great many of the Lord’s people today.  Sometimes we treat our churches like traps, we are just waiting for the lost to come in so that we can spring upon them with the gospel.  That is great, we should do that, but let us make that our Sunday strategy, the rest of the week is hunting season and we need to go out to where the game is, wherever the Lord sends us, near or far away.

What if we are willing to go and speak but we do not really stand for anything?  We are not only disobedient, we will be totally ineffective. The Lord has designed His work to be done as a harmony of sound doctrine, pure testimony, and compassionate outreach.  Too many have gone to a mission field or church ministry and have become so much like the lost that they are no good to them.

Let me say one more thing about standing firm in the ministry, and illustrate it.  I used to push the limits of Christianity with things that were new and exciting which I felt that I had liberty to do.  During college the Lord impressed upon me the necessity of standing “fast,” or “firm” which He commands many times.  Remember this: the way you lean is the way you will fall.  Are you technically standing in obedience, but beginning to lean?  The world the flesh and the devil will push us at every opportunity and often right in the direction that we are leaning.  We will have a much better chance of staying true and straight if we are not leaning.  Are you conservative, but leaning contemporary?  Are you standing pure but leaning toward worldliness?  Are you standing in what is right but leaning toward compromise?  The way you lean is the way you will fall.  The safest stance is the straightest one!

Lastly I ask you, what good will we do for the lost if we go to them and stand faithfully, but do not speak the gospel?  A silent witness is no witness at all, the truth must be spoken or it is not rightly lived.  We cannot take this for granted among God’s people.  Sadly, there are many evangelistic efforts that never get to a clear presentation of the gospel!

I am so glad that a pastor answered his calling to go to Lincoln, Nebraska, USA.  I am so glad that he stood for pure living to remain in the ministry, and that he stood for the truth of God’s Word.  I am also very glad that he spoke the whole gospel, the terrible penalty of sin and the hope of salvation.  His obedience made all the difference of eternity for me!

"Lift Up Thine Eyes"

Isaiah 60:1-5

As illustrated by Isaiah 59:9,10, there are many types of blindness.  Sometimes the environment is just so dark that we are unable to see until we get some light.  Another kind of blindness comes with something that happens suddenly, like a flash, which causes temporary blindness.  In other situations there may be a disease or injury of the eye which has caused a loss of vision, and we are blind.  When Jesus healed a man who had been blind from birth, and I guess that congenital blindness would be a fourth type, He introduced Himself as the Light of the World.

What does it take for us to see?  We can use three elements of physical, natural, vision to illustrate the message that Isaiah was given.  If we have spiritual vision as he describes it, then we will also have the hope that he is giving to God’s people who anxiously anticipated Christ’s coming. 

Isaiah 60:1-5  “Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee.  For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.  And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.  Lift up thine eyes round about, and see: all they gather themselves together, they come to thee: thy sons shall come from far, and thy daughters shall be nursed at thy side.  Then thou shalt see, and flow together, and thine heart shall fear, and be enlarged; because the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee, the forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee.”

1. Sight

A.  Who Can See  Isaiah is delivering a prophecy of the coming Messiah which is somewhat like the famous one in chapter 9.  Both prophecies speak of His Second Coming but they are previewed by the wonderful things that He would do upon His first coming.  The purpose of these prophecies is also similar, it was to encourage God’s people of the present with His power, and His plan to exercise it.  He will do that first on behalf of Israel, and then as blessing to all who will come.

We are given this book full of promises to Israel so that we too will be encouraged with the fact that God knows what He is doing, and He is doing it well.  Would you agree that not everybody sees that?  Spiritual blindness is an epidemic today, and even Christians, who have been cured, often seem to suffer the symptoms of their old disease.

Isaiah had a certain hope of a day when this disease would be eradicated.  It is common for prophets to speak of the future in the past tense because God’s Word is so certain.  I have described it as being “as good as done.”  More eloquently, J. Vernon Magee put it this way:  “Prophecy is the mold into which History is poured.”

B.  How We See  When Isaiah speaks of “gentiles” and “kings” coming to the light, he was referring to how they would receive sight, they would be saved.  The classic passage on this is John 3:3 “...Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”  This is a part of how “all things are become new” for a believer according to II Corinthians 5. 

Verse three reminds us of how the Wise Men came to see Jesus in Bethlehem, and that may be a glimpse of what Isaiah was talking about.  Yet as He looked to Christ’s Kingdom established after the Second Coming, it reminds us that coming to Jesus has always been the only means of salvation.

2. Light

A.  Who’s to Shine  “Dayspring” is one of the beautiful titles given to the Messiah.  He always has and always will bring light to this world because He is the Light!  John tells us that when He came the first time He truly shined into the darkness of the world, but for the most part the world did not get it.  They “comprehended it not.”

      Isaiah was writing to people who had rejected God’s revelation over and again.  It occurs to me, though, that the people paying the most attention to this prophecy were the ones who did see and love God’s light.  The heart’s desire of a precious few among God’s people was to reflect God’s light from the heavens into the darkness of their times.  The world will never “get it,” but we can, and we certainly ought to receive Him wholly for ourselves.

B.  How to Shine  We always ought to search out the commands or responsibilities as we look into Scripture.  Those who were listening were commanded to “shine,” “behold,” and “see.”  With God’s light we too can scatter the darkness and in that way give glory to God and hope to the world.  The command of Jesus from Matthew 5:16 that we have etched on our front windows is, “Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in Heaven.”  If Jesus is the Light, and He is, then we are not the source of Light but reflectors of it. 

Our cleanliness or personal holiness will make a great difference in how well we reflect Jesus Christ in the world.  For someone to look at this old sinner and somehow see the Light of the World is a fantastic miracle, and only He makes it possible.  He does that by washing away our past sins and supplying all that we need for victory over sin in the present and future.

Jesus also commanded that we not hide our light under a bushel, because our courage is the other main factor in shining for Jesus.  I thought that maybe it is just apathy that keeps us from shining, and maybe that is part of it, but that will be answered if we come clean with God and take courage from Him.  He made us and saved us to be meek for ourselves but bold in speaking out for Him.

A simple example of this is the way that we are seen on Facebook.  If we are to shine for Christ everywhere we are, then that must include everywhere we are on the internet.  We know that it does not take much courage just to re-post someone’s religious cliché or picture, but it does take courage to share your personal walk with God, and to give Him glory for everything in your timeline.  That takes courage because it will also put your cleanliness under a lot more scrutiny.  So, you “like” Jesus, what else or who else do you “like?”  What kind of attitude do you display?  What kind of language and humor do you use?  God’s light is needed everywhere.

To see as God wants us to see we need sight, light, and-

3. Height

A.  Where We Are  v. 2 “gross darkness”  In the one sense darkness is darkness, and if you cannot see, it does not matter how dark it is.  On the other hand, darkness is often described as “thick,” “total,” or “pitch black.”  The Egyptians suffered a plague of darkness “which could be felt.”  The “gross darkness” here refers to a thick cloud. 

Especially when we are away from man-made lights and have snow on the ground, the little lights of the heavens can make a big difference.  When there are heavy clouds, though, everything is obscured.  Have you seen pictures of places that are overcome by clouds of volcanic ash?  My favorite view of scenes like that comes from satellites which show us how the world can be blanketed and the sun totally obscured.  Heaven always has the ultimate perspective on Earth!

Spiritually, we live in a world of tall buildings, smog, and light pollution.  Like city-dwellers we have a hard time getting a view of the horizon or even the clear sky.  The sun is obscured and heavenly lights are unseen in the night.  Yet it seems that we do not know what we are missing.  We just go on from day to day, without guidance, bearing, or perspective.

Jesus said, “Ye are from beneath; I am from above: ye are of this world; I am not of this world” John 8:23.  Paul described Him as being “Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come:” Ephesians 1:21.  When we see where the Lord is in the events of our world and of our lives, then we will begin to see where we need to be!

B.  How to Rise Above  I said that the commands in this passage were, “shine,” “behold,” and “see,” but I left out two commands.  The first word in verse one is “arise” and in verse four begins with, “Lift up thine eyes.”  In their distress, God’s people were hanging their heads and it seemed that they would miss out on God’s working if they did not raise their heads and their gaze.

It should always be a comfort to us when God gives us a command.  First because then we know what to do, and we are not left clueless.  Secondly, a responsibility from God means that we also have an ability from Him, and we are not left powerless.  Apparently, God’s people can “arise, shine,” and “lift up” their eyes and “see!”  We need not hang our heads in this life, because God hung His Son on a cross to give us eternal life.  Even more, He gave us eternal vision!  We can rise above and see forever, “round about,” in every direction.

Do not let this world, the daily hassles of this life, get you down or keep you down.  Some great philosopher said, “It is hard to soar with the eagles when you are in a flock of turkeys.”  If you are saved you are in a world of different creatures.  As a new creature, “behold, all things are become new” so do not go about your life the same old way!  Live on a higher plane, by higher standards, with a higher purpose for living.  Trust me, that will not give you a higher view of yourself, but it will give you a higher view of our infinite God.  Life on a higher plane will give you a right view of yourself and your responsibilities to God.

Conclusion:

What is there to see around here?  Do you think of the local attractions, the lighthouse, the museums, the lake, the Jelly-Belly factory?  Or, are their souls around here that we have yet to truly see?

If we have spiritual sight, if we have the Light of the World, and if we have the perspective of the high moral ground, what are we supposed to see?  Isaiah was given a vision of all kinds of people coming to Christ.  He mentions their scattered families coming and their mortal enemies coming as well.  Perhaps we should begin with our family and friends, at least we do not need to be convinced to love them.  Hopefully we care for their souls already, but what are we doing for them?  If they are in the dark and we have the light, what are we doing to make a connection with them?  Do you have a vision of the glory and the goodness of your Savior, how He loves your loved ones, and how He wants to use you to reach them? 

I would like to challenge you to make a promise and make a plan.  Tell God you will do what He wants you to do to bring your loved ones into the kingdom, God’s family.  Then start earnestly, honestly figuring out what exactly He wants you to do.  Begin with prayer, make a list of those who God wants you to see, then plan to write a letter, have a meal, have a talk, get to the point, extend an invitation!  Make a plan of action, pray about it for a few days (not years or decades!), then put the plan into action!

Do you recall that Jesus also told God’s people, His disciples, to “lift up” their eyes?  He was pointing out the opportunity for ministry among the needy souls of Samaria.  They hated the Samaritans!  However, the disciples had just been in the town of Sychar buying lunch and rubbing shoulders with those lost souls.  What had the disciples seen there?  A Value Meal?  Had they given the slightest consideration to what God wanted for those people and how He could use His disciples to reach them?

Here is how a church family is supposed to work together.  We are to encourage one-another toward obedience, and we help one-another fulfill our responsibilities.  Do not be a spiritual deadbeat and expect someone else to do your work for you!

I will give you the same challenge for folks you do not know or hardly know as I did for your loved ones.  Pray that God will lay some souls on your heart, it may well be that He will burden you for people on a distant mission field, make a promise and make a plan to do your part.  Look to get personally involved in correspondence, prayer, spreading information and meeting specific needs.

If you are looking for a burden for souls, it will likely be a neighbor or an acquaintance at work whom God wants you to reach.  Make a promise and make a plan.  Pray for that person and ask God how He would have you to make a connection.  Perhaps you will see someone as you have never seen them before, perhaps hatred or annoyance will even turn into a heavenly love!  It all begins when you lift up your eyes!

Stick to Snake

During my early morning meditation in the still and dark, I asked the Lord if there is a lapse in my faith.  I admit that it was due in part to a strange dream that I had, but it will always be a good question:  “Lord, is there anything that I think You cannot do?”

This bit of soul searching was a good opportunity to deal with some struggles that I was having with God’s will.  I have not always liked what God chose to do, but I recognize that He is doing the choosing, He is in complete control.  It may be partly my nature, but I really believe that He can do anything with anybody, not just in abstract, general terms, but also in a practical sense in my life.  On this occasion, the prime discovery that I made is that I do not believe that God can make something extraordinary out of me.

This was not a great achievement in humility, it is just a matter of knowing myself as well as I do.  My moment of clarity was to get beyond the self-deception with which I am often plagued.  The truth is that in forty years of walking with the Lord I have always managed to go right from progress to regress.

I am always looking for a bit of self-improvement and I am coming to see it as spiritual micro-evolution.  I make slight but mostly helpful adjustments to the old man, my old nature.  I have never believed in macro-evolution, one species changing into another, and apparently I have come to a sad acceptance of my mediocre spiritual species.  What I lack in faith in the worst way (at the moment) is belief in God’s ability to change me!

II Peter 1:3-5 “According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:  Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge.”

My lack of faith is not a respectable problem, it is an unacceptable condition.  I know that I must constantly build my faith, and this is clearly a major building project which needs to begin now.  Knowledge is important, but, as Peter said, it must be built upon faith and virtue.  For instance, I know that God changed Moses’ stick into a snake, but I just do not see that happening in my life.  I guess that I do not like the stick or snake as a personal metaphor!  Moses himself, though, went through some major life-transformations, as did Peter and Paul.  Those men are good examples because they had additional major life-makeovers even after their conversion.  I know that God can work at all stages of life, but perhaps the missing link between my faith and my knowledge is virtue.  I need a love for God and His work that is greater than my love for myself or anything in this world.

I do not need a new job, but I do need new determination to be all that God wants me to be.  I need to be renewed as God’s child, as a husband, as a father, and in all my relationships in this world.  A first step to seeing it happen will be believing that God can make it happen.  The Lord asked both Abraham and Jeremiah, “is there any thing too hard for me?”  He asked me as well, and I know the answer.  Now I just need to know the victory.

Family Likeness

Romans 6:4,5  “Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.  For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection.”

When we hear that two people we know are related we will often look for the family likeness, maybe a nose, something around the eyes, or the shape of their head.  We know that we join the family of God through salvation, but what a wonderful thing to have the family likeness!  Paul told the Romans that this is the purpose of our baptism, to identify with Christ’s death and resurrection.

It is often said that “blood is thicker than water” in reference to family ties being greater than friendships.  We are powerfully related to Christ and our fellow Christians by both blood and water!  The blood of Jesus Christ is the most powerful tie imaginable.  When we accept His cleansing for our salvation we find ourselves bound to the Lord so strongly that nothing can sever the eternal relationship!  We share that relationship with other believers.

Then there is the water of baptism through which we are united with the Church, the Body of Christ..  Publicly identifying with Christ is a big and sometimes very dangerous step in some cultures.  It can bring tension to families with strong religious traditions here as well.  We are not seeking to alienate our relatives, but we stand for something in order to help those whom we love come to see the preciousness of our relationship with Christ, a relationship which they can have as well.

Certainly we do not want to be ashamed of Christ but to obediently identify with Him and His other followers on this earth.  Baptism by immersion, by our own choice, after salvation, is the means of identification that the Lord has commanded.  Let me encourage you, if you have not yet taken this step of obedience, get your questions answered and take the plunge!