God loves us. Don’t ask me why. But not only did Jesus die for us in the past, God personally reaches out to many people in order to make His love known to them today. It’s not always a matter of a person stumbling over a Bible and reading a passage in Scripture, or coming forward at the end of a church service. There are millions of examples of this. Of course, God doesn’t call us on our cellphones. Instead, a friend, relative, or perfect stranger may ask if we’re saved and witness to us if we are not. We may find or be offered a Gospel tract. Perhaps a radio, television, or podcast touches our heart. But like the featured photo of this post, we have a choice whether to accept God’s call or (to) decline it, however it arrives. I’m mentioning just a few examples in this post where this has happened. Each of these inidividuals were ordinary people but when they responded, when they heard God’s voice and accepted the call, their lives were forever changed.
Eli and Samuel
Eli was the priest of Shiloh and he was charged with raising a boy named Samuel. When Samuel was twelve years old, God spoke to young Samuel. We read about this in the Old Testament of the Bible. The encounter goes as follows:
“One night Eli, whose eyes were becoming so weak that he could barely see, was lying down in his usual place. The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the house of the Lord, where the ark of God was. Then the Lord called Samuel.
Samuel answered, ‘Here I am.’ And he ran to Eli and said, ‘Here I am; you called me.’
But Eli said, ‘I did not call; go back and lie down.’ So he went and lay down.
Again the Lord called, ‘Samuel!’ And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, ‘Here I am; you called me.’
‘My son,’ Eli said, ‘I did not call; go back and lie down.’
Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord: The word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him.
A third time the Lord called, ‘Samuel!’ And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, ‘Here I am; you called me.’
Then Eli realized that the Lord was calling the boy. So Eli told Samuel, ‘Go and lie down, and if he calls you, say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’ So Samuel went and lay down in his place.
The Lord came and stood there, calling as at the other times, ‘Samuel! Samuel!’
Then Samuel said, ‘Speak, for your servant is listening.’”
I Samuel 3:1-10
At that point, God shared his plans for the young boy, who became a great servant and prophet for God. He eagerly accepted God’s call.
The Apostle Paul on the Road to Damascus
Saul of Tarsus who was a few years younger than Jesus spend part of his life as a temple “enforcer.” His mision was to round up followers of Jesus and have them punished or executed. But God saw a person such as Saul as someone of value, though Saul hated God at the time. Saul was on his way to Damascus with warrants to arrest other Christians when he was struck down and temporarily blinded as he confronted the risen Christ. The rest is history. Christianity might be understood differently had Saul declined his call.
Augustine of Hippo
As a teenager, Augustine was totally out of control. He managed to break almost every law of God as well as his mother’s heart. But his mother Monica did not give up on him and neither did God. Augustine wrestled with his guilt, feeling miserable, and one day he found himself on a park bench reciting his failures. Here is what he remembers:
“I was saying these things and weeping in the most bitter contrition of my heart, when suddenly I heard the voice of a boy or a girl I know not which–coming from the neighboring house, chanting over and over again, ‘Pick it up, read it; pick it up, read it.’ Immediately I ceased weeping and began most earnestly to think whether it was usual for children in some kind of game to sing such a song, but I could not remember ever having heard the like. So, damming the torrent of my tears, I got to my feet, for I could not but think that this was a divine command to open the Bible and read the first passage I should light upon. For I had heard how Anthony, accidentally coming into church while the gospel was being read, received the admonition as if what was read had been addressed to him: ‘Go and sell what you have and give it to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come and follow me.’ By such an oracle he was forthwith converted to thee.
So I quickly returned to the bench . . ., for there I had put down the apostle’s book when I had left there. I snatched it up, opened it, and in silence read the paragraph on which my eyes first fell: ‘Not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof.’ I wanted to read no further, nor did I need to. For instantly, as the sentence ended, there was infused in my heart something like the light of full certainty and all the gloom of doubt vanished away.”
https://www.ling.upenn.edu/courses/hum100/augustinconf.pdf
Augustine was a tremendous influence on Martin Luther, who was an influence on John Wesley. Augustine found the peace and redemption he was searching for after he accepted his call.
Christ in the closet?
And speaking of teenagers. . .I worked once for a male nurse who had a twelve or thirteen year old daughter at the time. He was telling a few of us one day about an experience his daughter had recently. She was getting ready for school or for some other activity and opened her closet door, only to see who she believed was Jesus. She was shocked and probably frightened as well, and ran out of her room, but she was certain in her mind that it was Jesus. Now, this family did not have any true faith, and when the daughter tried to discuss this incident with her parents, her dad thought it was hilarious. “Christ in the closet” he chortled when he told us about the experience. His daughter was not amused, however. I’m not saying Jesus really was physically present to her so much as I’m saying she thought that he was. That works, too. This might have been an opportunity worth exploring if her parents were more thoughtful or open-minded. You might ask “Why would God frighten a little girl in this way if He wanted to make Himself known to her personally?” Again, I don’t know, but if this was a date with divinity, He likely had his reason. As a hypothetical, suppose this girl, now a woman, has a teenage daughter herself, who has the same experience today that her mom had some forty years ago? That would be something for them to think about. But in my fifty plus years as a Christian, I’ve seen stranger things than that when the Holy Spirit was moving.
As it is, the girl’s father (nurse) died several years later of AIDS and the wife and child moved out of state, so I don’t know what followed in the child’s life.
“For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
Luke 19:10
There are all sorts of opportunities for Christians to share God’s love with people. I had a dream once in which I recalled a ten digit number upon waking. When it occurred to me that a telephone number had ten digits as well, I dialed the number out of curiosity, and a young woman answered, angrily demanding to know who I was and how I got her unlisted phone number. [Gulp!] I told her, just outed it. After that, I assured her that God loved her as she was right then, and encouraged her to find a good Bible-believing church near her home. She gave me just two minutes of her time, and she was in tears as we said good-bye. I sometimes wonder what happened to her, but it’s none of my concern, unless I feel the urge to pray for her.
The efficacy of the Word
Scripture tells us that God’s Word never comes back void:
“. . .so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”
(Isaiah 55:11)
This verse is a money-back guarantee that whenever a person reads or hears the Word of God, something will happen in that person’s life. His heart might melt, or like Pharoah’s, may harden. It may happen immediately, or sixty years later, but it will happen. This is one reason for Christians to use five or six key Bible verses when sharing the Gospel with others, rather than using their own words. Nor should a Christian be disappointed if he or she has spoken about Christ to dozens of people without apparent success. It’s not up to us to “win souls” for Christ. That is the work of the Holy Spirit. Some of us are just meant to plant seeds while others merely water the young plants after they have sprouted. It takes a village.
Your call
What will you say when you call comes? It may arrive when you least expect it. Will you accept it or deny it? In fact, this post, itself, might be your call. This might be the only invitation, the only voice, the only dream that comes your way. I pray that you’ll make the right choice.
The stakes are high and there’s a battle for your soul between the angels of God and the devil’s minions. Remember Blaise Pascal’s dilemma:
“If God exists and I believe in God, I’ll go to heaven, which is infinitely good. If God exists and I don’t believe in God, I may go to hell, which is infinitely bad. If God does not exist, then whether I believe in God or not, whatever I’d gain or lose would be finite. So, I should believe in God.”
https://1000wordphilosophy.com/2021/01/04/pascals-wager/
If you are interested in accepting the call, you can find instructions abut how to do so here, or you can contact me through the comment section of my blog:
