(Read Acts 16)
I was in the garage before heading out on a bike ride, and as I strapped on my helmet my phone rang. Caller ID showed me it was a friend from church. Selfishly, I thought, this can wait. I’ll call him back after my ride. But there was something about him calling me this time of the day. It was unusual. I picked up, and he told me that his wife was dead.
How many of us answer a call on the first ring? Do we weigh our schedule versus the amount of time the phone call might take? Is talking with that person a priority right then? Do we feel like talking with that person at that time? God doesn’t treat us like that, why do we treat Him that way?
God called Abraham (first known as Abram) not once but twice to follow Him and do His work. The details of God’s initial call to Abraham are somewhat limited in the scriptures. However, the martyr Stephen expounded on this in his speech to Jewish leaders, as documented in the book of Acts. Through his powerful speech, Stephen unveiled this often-overlooked first calling, revealing its crucial role as a stepping stone in shaping Abraham’s destiny and ultimately Biblical history.
“Hear me, brethren and fathers! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran, and said to him, ‘Depart from your country and your relatives, and come into the land that I will show you.’”
Acts 7:2-3
Reading between the lines reveals a sense of reluctance or potential denial in Abraham’s actions, indicating a certain wavering in his complete faith in God’s plan. Despite God’s direct instruction to Abraham to depart from his family and familiar surroundings in Mesopotamia for an unknown land, Genesis 11:31 disclosed that it was Abraham’s father, Terah, and not Abraham himself, who led the entire family to leave their homeland and journey to Haran.
God’s callings are not a comfortable feeling. It’s uncharted territory. His callings challenge our deeply held possessions. God’s call to Abraham challenged the feelings of security he held from his family. God wasn’t asking for something trivial; He wasn’t asking Abraham to try on some new clothes; He wanted a life change, a heart change. Abraham might have dragged his feet the first time God rang, but he followed Him without abandon the second time. He saw God’s glory, and at that point there was no way he couldn’t believe. God initiated the calling. It was God who caused him to believe.
We often fail to recognize when we’re being called. We look for signs through the filter of our comfort zones. This morning, I ran past a neighbor I hadn’t seen in almost a year. I asked how he had been. It turns out he tore his Achilles tendon playing pickleball. “Maybe it’s a sign,” he said, “or maybe it’s not a sign, and it’s just something that happened to me.” Sometimes, signs are just signs. Following God involves giving up what we were doing, obeying God and His wisdom, trusting in His promises, and having our lives mirror the unending love of Jesus Christ. That’s what God wanted from Abraham.
The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.
“I will make you into a great nation,
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.”
Genesis 12:1-2
God is always working on us. He doesn’t push us for His gain; He pushes us for ours. He knows what we are capable of because He made us capable of being that. Looking at it from the outside, God had no particular reason to call Abraham, yet He still chose him, not once but twice.
Abraham’s story wasn’t a one-man show. It was a prologue, a divine promise that reverberates across generations. God didn’t say, “Abraham, because you’re so gifted, you will do this and that.” God’s “I will,” occurring three times in Genesis, wasn’t just for Abraham’s ears; the echoes were a prelude to the Great Commission in Matthew 28. Through Abraham, God planted the seed of a Christian calling, beckoning all nations to join in following Jesus Christ. Beneath Abraham’s journey lies a deeper truth: God’s calling isn’t about individual achievements; it’s about participating in a grander narrative, spreading the Gospel to every corner of the earth.
Every one of us reading this who has heard God’s calling also recalls the power of that moment when we left everything on the table to follow Christ. When God calls us, it’s not a Teams meeting or Zoom call; it’s personal. His calling challenges and pushes us to new understandings and new lives with new purposes. 19th Century Evangelist DL Moody wrote, “Many people are afraid of the will of God, and yet I believe, that one of the sweetest lessons that we can learn in the school of Christ is the surrender of our wills to God, letting Him plan for us and rule our lives.”
So, when the phone rang before my bike ride, I hesitated before I answered. I shouldn’t have, but I did. I’m still ashamed. We only sometimes see the significance of the moment at the time of the moment because we’re too busy looking away or looking at the wrong things. When your phone rings, do you sometimes look at it for a few seconds first? When God calls, do we pick up? When we pick up, do we listen?
In our weekly church email, I read that Pastor Andrew Taylor is teaching about some of the different ways people come to faith this Sunday. He mentioned three different conversion accounts from Acts 16: “a spiritually religious person,” “a spiritually tormented person,” and “someone who is spiritually indifferent.” While we all know people who have come from various places to get to Christ, we should also recognize that we show evidence of all these conditions at different times in our lives.
I look forward to sharing what I learn from Taylor’s message.
One of those listening was a woman from the city of Thyatira named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth. She was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message. When she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home. “If you consider me a believer in the Lord,” she said, “come and stay at my house.” And she persuaded us.
Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a female slave who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. She followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.” She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so annoyed that he turned around and said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!” At that moment the spirit left her.
Acts 16:14-18
Luke doesn’t specifically mention in Acts what religion Lydia practiced. She may have worshipped in multiple religions and may have been familiar with the Jewish faith, but we know she was a gentile believer who believed in the God of Israel. Through the Holy Spirit, her heart was opened to Paul’s message, she was baptized, and she opened her home to other followers of Christ. Lydia wasn’t called by God because of her religious activities, just as she wasn’t saved because of her baptism.
“We’ll get there by being in the prisons; in the communities; among the homeless; in the pregnancy clinics.” (JD Greear)
Works will never get us there. For that matter, religion doesn’t get us there either. God doesn’t call us to be spiritual or religious; He calls us to have a relationship with Him so we can share that with the world. God’s grace of the gospel goes beyond the traditional religious boundaries and extends everywhere around the globe.
True confession. When we moved to North Carolina, my wife and I half-seriously joked about what kind of churches we would encounter. We had seen stories on TV of churches that spoke in tongues and had rattlesnakes as part of their services. If these churches exist here, they are not part of our world. The troubling thing is that religious and spiritual people believe that “things they do” warrant God’s calling. If God shows favor, it’s to the poor, the humble, and the sick. If God shows favor, it’s to those who believe from the inside out, not those who say look at me from outside in.
The young slave girl was possessed with something. Even though she showed genuine recognition of Paul and Silas’ divine calling, it was spoken through the demon. She knew what grace looked like, but until Paul brought the spirit out of her, it was out of her reach.
The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!”
The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his household were baptized. The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God—he and his whole household.
Acts 16:27-33
Paul and Silas probably did not pray to God to be tortured or imprisoned. In all likelihood, they prayed for God to use them. So, when God gave them the opportunity to be used, what did they do? Did they wish it away? No, they sang! They prayed, they read Scripture, they loved. The jailer saw Jesus Christ, not religion. Nothing shines the gospel like grace in our trials of fire.
There is no perfect kind of person who qualifies to be a Christian. In Acts, Luke depicts three entirely unique people with no common threads who came to Christ. When God calls us, we need to pick up and listen.
Nineteen years ago, I was paired with two older gentlemen for our congregation’s annual meeting. Our Pastor wanted us to do something creative for the 2005 annual report. So, we decided to do a film. We asked another church friend who performed live and wrote songs in Nashville if he’d be willing to compose a score for us. He wrote a signature piece for the video and wanted no credit or payment. The lyrics perfectly fit our standing with God before and after He calls us.
Is it you that’s been calling
Are you that voice that I hear
Is it you that’s been knocking
Saying I have nothing to fear
In a world full of questions
It’s so hard to decide
I am waiting, I am listening
Are you calling?It’s been you that’s been calling
You’re the voice that I hear
It’s been you that’s been knocking
Saying I have nothing to fear
In this world full of questions
You’re the answer before my eyes
You’ve been waiting, you are listening
It’s you.
Are You Calling — Rich Fehle
- To hear God’s calling requires prayer, knowing God’s word, an active faith life in church, meaningful conversations with other believers, and spiritual discernment. Spiritual discernment is unlike worldly discernment. It can’t be learned online or on TV. It’s not in books, it’s in the Book. Paul and Silas took the time to pray and listen to God’s guidance. When confronted with tough decisions, hard times, and non-Christian spirituality, make the right choices. Spiritual discernment will allow you to hear the voice in your head God put there for this purpose.
Where else in your life can you live out the teachings of Christ? Look for next week’s Devotion.