Our Call

             After reading Matthew 4:18-22 quoted below, it reminds me of my “call” to the Pastorate.  It was a normal Thursday morning. (I had preached the night before at Calvary Baptist Church.)  However, in my prayer time I was wrestling with God.  Many times I had asked for a Pastorate in our region, so we wouldn’t have to move.  This particular morning I was running late.  My wife called to me to “get in the shower and go to work.”  (I didn’t end my prayer.)  I continued in the shower, and finally succumbing to the Lord, I told Him, “I will go wherever, and I will do Your Will.”  Later that morning, about 9:30 am, I received a telephone call from a Deacon in a Church just south of Palestine.  They asked if I would come and “preach in view of a “call.”

              They didn’t select me, but I spent the next two years “getting ready” for the “call” to do God’s will.  (My wife Sharil had to deal with her own “call.”  She wasn’t ready yet to become a Pastor’s wife.)

              When Jesus called His disciples, they immediately left and followed Him to become those “fishers of men.” 

              Sharil and I weren’t saved until late in our lives.  This is not an excuse, but at our ages, we never expected a “call” to the Pastorate.  Neither one of us considered doing, (obeying God’s will) prior to our Salvation and were just “learning” what God’s expectations for us were.

              One major problem we have in our Churches today is the refusal of individuals to accept God’s will in their lives.  Our Churches are stumbling because we as members refuse to try to eliminate sin from our lives.  This refusal limits our Church activity, our Church attendance.  It causes us to seek Churches that preach a softer, gentler Jesus, one who winks at our sin.  This refusal also keeps us from going to Church and in essence becoming a backsliding Christian.

              Are you looking down the road at an unanswered “call?”  Have you reasoned in your heart to follow Jesus, or yourself?  God tells us we cannot have two Masters, we will love one and hate the other. 

Matthew 6:24  No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

Who is your master?  Which do you follow, the one you hate or the one you love?                                      

Bro. John R. E Chastain

Matthew 4:18-22  And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers.  (19)  And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.  (20)  And they straightway left their nets, and followed him.  (21)  And going on from thence, he saw other two brethren, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets; and he called them.  (22)  And they immediately left the ship and their father, and followed him.