THE CALL
I. FROM A SCHOOL TEACHER TO A SAINT
"By
blood, I am Albanian. By citizenship, an Indian. By faith, I am a Catholic nun.
As to my calling, I belong to the world. As to my heart, I belong entirely to
the Heart of Jesus." Small in stature, rocklike in faith, Mother Teresa, a
school teacher of Calcutta, was entrusted with the mission of proclaiming God's
thirsting love for humanity, especially for the poorest of the poor.
On 10
September 1946, while traveling by train from Calcutta to Darjeeling for her
annual retreat, Mother Teresa received her "inspiration," which she
would later describe as a "call within a call." On that day, day
Jesus' thirst for love and for souls took hold of her heart, and the desire to
satisfy his thirst became the driving force of her life.
Mother
Teressa often challenged people saying, "God still loves the world, and he
sends you and me to be his love and his compassion to the poor." God is still calling people to follow Him and
be his voice, feet, hands, and heart to the hurting masses in India and the
world.
I was
born and raised in a Christian family in Tanuku. At age 18, in an Evangelistic
meeting of the Evangelist N. Jayapal, I gave my life to Jesus. In 1985
December, in a Missionary Conference in Cuttack Orissa, I heard the call of God
to become a missionary.
After
completing my final year B.Sc. exams without even waiting for my results, I
joined Youth With A Mission in 1986.
While I was serving with YWAM, one day, I met Mother Theresa. After
twenty years of preaching the Gospel in various places, God took me to the USA
in 2005. After completing my Master's in Divinity, I was a small church pastor
for eight years and currently at a Bible-believing Church called Hope Church
Sharon. The calling of a pastor is something I cherish for the rest of my life,
and I do not take it lightly.
If
you are a Christian; you heard the call to follow Jesus. But to a call to serve
God, through a specific ministry, is altogether different. Scripture tells us
many are called, but few are chosen. What is your story? What brought you into
the ministry?
Can you recall the time and place you have heard the call with in the call? If not, maybe you came to the ministry for some other motives. For some, today may be the first time they will receive that call within a calling. Whatever may be the calling, it has a two-fold purpose. It is to be a blessing to the nations and to preach the good news of the Gospel. Let me explain.
II. AN IDOL MAKER BECOMES THE FATHER OF NATIONS
Do you
think that God calls idol makers and worshippers to serve Him? Abraham and his
family were in the business of making idols. When Abraham was 75 years old, God
called him to
Genesis
12:1-3, "The Lord had said to Abram, "Leave your native country, your
relatives, and your father's family, and go to the land that I will show you. I
will make you into a great nation. I
will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others. I
will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All
the families on earth will be blessed through you." Vs. 4, "So
Abraham departed as the LORD had instructed."
Abraham
was obedient to God's call. He left everything his family, hometown, country
except his wife Sarai and followed as the Lord directed Him. God blessed Him,
Abraham became a blessing, and in Abraham, all the earth's families were
blessed.
You
and I are the recipients of Abraham's blessing. If you are following Christ
today means because of Abraham's obedience. God has blessed you, not just for
you and your family to have a good life, but you will become a blessing to
others.
Through
you, God wants to reach out to others. Are you asking God only to bless you
more and more? Or are you asking the Lord to use you to become a blessing to
many others? God calls us to be a blessing to others
III. WHOM SHALL I SEND WHO WILL GO FOR US?
One
of the challenging passages from the Bible as a missionary with YWAM for me was
from Isaiah 6:1-9. It was Isaiah’s Call within a Call. "It was in the year
King Uzziah died that I saw the Lord. He was sitting on a lofty throne, and the
train of his robe filled the Temple. Attending
him were mighty seraphim, each having six wings. With two wings, they covered
their faces. With two, they covered their feet, and with two, they flew. They
were calling out to each other, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Heaven's
Armies! The whole earth is filled with his glory!" Their voices shook the
Temple to its foundations and the entire building was filled with smoke. Then
I said, "It's all over! I am doomed, for I am a sinful man. I have filthy
lips, and I live among a people with filthy lips.
Yet I
have seen the King, the Lord of Heaven's Armies." Then one of the seraphim
flew to me with a burning coal he had taken from the altar with a pair of
tongs. He touched my lips with it and said, "See, this coal has touched
your lips. Now your guilt is removed, and your sins are forgiven." Then I
heard the Lord asking, "Whom should I send as a messenger to this people?
Who will go for us?" I said, "Here I am. Send me." And he said,
"Yes, go, and say to this people,
A
call within the call is an upward calling where we see God's Holiness. When we
see God in his splendor and Holiness, we are confronted with our sinfulness,
and we will cry out to God as Isaiah did; it is all over! I am doomed, for and
a sinful man, I have filthy lips, and I live among a people with filthy lips.
God, in His mercy, would not leave us to our sinfulness.
He
will cleanse our sins with the fire of His Holy Spirit. Then we will hear His
divine call Whom should I send as a messenger to these people? Who will go for
us? God is still calling out and saying, whom should I send? Who will go for
us? How are you going to respond to that call? Many of us want Jesus to come back fast to end
the misery in the world, right? But let me tell you, that may not happen today,
tomorrow, or even in the next several years. This is the reason why? Mat 24:14.
And the Good News about the Kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world
so that all nations (ethnic groups) will hear it, and then the end will
come."
The
Scripture is clear unless the Gospel is preached to all ethnic groups, Jesus
won't come back. Let me explain the task ahead of us. Joshua Project. When He
had a direct encounter with Jesus after His resurrection, the doubting Thomas
became a firm believer in Christ. According to traditional accounts of the
Saint Thomas Christians of India, the Apostle Thomas landed in Muziris
(Cranganore) on the Kerala coast in AD 52.
Thomas
was martyred in Mylapore, near Madras, in AD 72. He was the first one to bring
the Gospel to India. Yet, after all these years, India, by and large, remain an
unreached country for the Gospel. If India is reached with the Gospel, half of
the remaining task is done?
Who
will tell the masses of India that Jesus Christ loves them? Are you still
waiting for people from outside to share the good news? As you know, outside
involvement is becoming harder and complicated by the day.
Time
to wait for the outside help is over, and it is now up to the local churches,
pastors, Christians to become the Gospel messengers. Are you hearing the call
of God that is saying, Whom shall I send and who will go for us? Would you like
Isaiah to respond to God and say, Lord, Here I am, send me? Indian Christians
like myself living outside India will do what we can to pray and support your
efforts, but in the end, the challenge of reaching India with the Gospel is
resting on your shoulders. Don't look to people for resources, but look to God
for His help.
God
has all the resources that you need to bring the Good news of the Gospel to
every tribe, ethnic group, and family in India. If you are blessed today, it is
not for you only, but through your other families to be blessed. We just
celebrated Easter and sang the songs saying Jesus has risen. Yes, Jesus has
indeed risen, and He is fully alive in our hearts today by the power of His
Holy Spirit.
My
prayer for you all today is that you will hear God's call within a call and cry
out like the Apostle Paul who said, “God compels me to do it. How terrible for
me if I didn’t preach the Good News.” I Cor 9: 16. May we all feel terrible if
we don’t preach the Good News. Amen!
