I came across an interesting expression in one of Arthur
Pink’s books—“Career Christian.” Imagine if someone were to ask you, “What is your occupation?” and you answered “I’m a full-time Christian.”
I don’t know about you, but what with setting my mind on
things above, taking all thoughts captive, renewing
my mind, putting off the old self and
putting on the new, watching over my heart with all diligence, letting the peace of God
rule my heart, walking in love, in unity, in light, and by faith, and don't forget walking worthy, speaking the truth in love, loving my brothers and
sisters from the heart, loving my wife as Christ loves the Church,
and making sure all I do, even eating and drinking, glorifies God, well… I’m fully occupied.
Is this what Jesus meant when he said “occupy until I return?” Yes. And, thankfully, He furnishes us with an infinite supply of grace to assure our progress and success until He does return (2 Cor. 9:8; 2 Peter 1:10).
This semester at SUM Bible College, I am teaching a “College Success” course—a class to prepare incoming freshmen for the academical challenges ahead. One of the objectives of the course is to make them better managers of their time. Last week, after showing them how to set up tracking systems for their assignments, I asked them to make a list of their short and long-term goals. What I received was a plethora of desires and wishes that were not only un-measureable, but probably unattainable. It looks like we’ll be taking a second stab this week at how to establish specific, realistic and measurable goals.
But most of you reading this have already learned that clear vision and good planning is an essential part of success—right? Those who reach their goals in this life are those who have a clear vision of who God is, who they are, and what is His calling (2 Peter 1:10). They follow His vision—not their desires.
Proverbs 29:18 says, “Where there is no vision, the people perish” (KJV) or “When people do not accept divine guidance, they run wild” (NLT). The Hebrew word “vision” refers not to man-made goals, but to divine vision. We all know of pastors, missionaries and leaders who have left ministry, disillusioned and discouraged, by their lack of success. I wonder how many mistook their goals and desires for God’s vision. Perhaps there’s a “freshmen class” lesson, or reminder, here for all of us.
Do any of you make New Year’s Resolutions? While I don’t, I do find the beginning of the new year to be a good time for self-examination, for taking inventory of my gains and losses, for making “certain about His calling” (2 Peter 1:10) on my life, and for making corrections. One of the things I will be most painfully aware this year of is my continuing penchant for complaining.
There’s a startling episode in Israel’s journey through the Wilderness where they complained about the “manna” God gave them to eat. They started craving meat (Nu. 11:4). God was angry (Nu. 11:33). And His response to their complaint of a meatless diet may be the source of the unbiblical phrase “Be careful what you ask for.” Sending enough flocks of quail to over-satiate, they must have said ‘I hope I never eat another quail as long as I live.' (More complaining.) The end of this story is not pretty—as “the anger of the Lord was kindled against the people” many were killed by a deadly plague (Nu. 11:33).
It is all too easy for me to excuse my complaining as a natural human tendency. But God hates it. It is worse than a rejection of His provision—it is a flat-out rejection of Him (Nu. 11:20; 14:27). We should pay close attention to Paul’s warning: “All these events happened to them as examples for us. They were written down to warn us, who live at the time when this age is drawing to a close. If you think you are standing strong, be careful, for you, too, may fall into the same sin” (1 Cor. 10:11-12 NLT).
Years ago Altha and I heard a sermon by Daniel Henderson at Los Gatos Christian Church neither of us has ever forgotten: “Stay in Your Lane.” Daniel meant that each of us should know our ‘calling’ from the Lord and stay there; using the analogy of cars on the freeway, we should stay in our lane. As long as we stay in our lane, we are promised to be fruitful. But when we move into someone else’s lane or into one that God didn’t call us to, we will find ourselves unfruitful and frustrated. Jesus knew His calling: “I do nothing without consulting the Father. I judge as I am told…” (Jn. 5:30 NLT); and “I have finished the work which You have given Me to do” (Jn. 17:4 NIV). Using our analogy, Jesus knew His lane and stayed in it.
But lately, I seem to be experiencing a lot of “lane changes.” When we were in Guatemala recently, we had planned an overnight trip to El Salvador. But on the morning of that day, our daughter became sick and we had to take her to the hospital. In a moment, the day’s agenda changed. Last Monday, I had planned to do some writing and to pay bills. But at 7 am my mother called and told me my father (who has cancer) was not able to get out of bed. And in a moment, my agenda changed. These are only a few of many "lane changes" I've experienced this last month.
Now of course as any good, experienced driver knows, when you are on the freeway, you must always be aware of what is happening in the lanes to your left and right: you never know when something ahead of you may force you to change lanes suddenly. Similarly, when God suddenly brings about circumstances that cause you to change lanes, you must be immediately ready and obedient. But thankfully, you don’t have to worry about crashing in the lane he sends you too—He has already cleared the way. Your job is to move quickly when he says “change lanes!”
As a child, I envisioned growing up to be the greatest preacher of all times (certainly someone would have to replace Billy Graham). When I got married I was sure I would be the husband every woman dreamed of. When Esther was born, I resolved to be as perfect a father as any child ever wanted. To greater and lesser degrees, I failed at each of these. But because of my failures, I am a better father, husband, pastor/teacher.
Accordingly, I thank God for showing me the failures of Peter. Peter, most confident of disciples, stepped out of the boat to walk on water and declared allegiance to Jesus to his last breath! Peter probably had few failures in his life—I wonder what he thought when Jesus foretold his failure (Luke 22:31-34).
I am also intrigued that Jesus did NOT say ‘Peter, I am praying you won’t fail.’ Rather Jesus prays: that 1) Peter’s faith will not fail, and 2) he will RETURN and strengthen his brothers. Why doesn’t Jesus just pray that Peter won’t fail? Wouldn’t Jesus’ prayer have been answered? Yes, but Jesus knew that Peter needed to fail—in order to be broken of self-confidence and self-reliance so he could do the work he was called to do.
After his failure, Peter did what many people do. He turned back to familiar things. Is this why Jesus prayed he would RETURN! Not surprising, Peter turned back to the one thing he did well: FISHING! He fished all night, but FAILED to catch even a minnow.
The incident serves as a vivid reminder to Peter (read the whole story in John 21) that Jesus had promised he would become a great fisher of men. Changing the analogy, but with the same intent, Jesus spoke the words: “feed my sheep.” The significance should not escape us. BECAUSE of his failure, Peter was ready to give up. And Jesus says BECAUSE of your failure, I can now use you.
Without a bitter experience of his own inadequacy, Peter was not ready to feed the sheep. Not until he had miserably failed in his own strength was Peter ready to fulfill his calling to be the great evangelist and shepherd of the early Church.
[Question: Does God MAKE you FAIL? Answer: No, You don’t need any help with that! He just allows you to dig your own hole and fall into it, knowing this will cause you to RETURN to Him.]
