The Ultimate Calling

This blog is designed to give people an inner look at a devotional life. Taking time each day to spend time with the Lord. The hope is if you travel on this journey with Rev. Jacob Shaw, you may be more inclined to spend time with the Lord as well. I encourage the use of a devotional, a scripture reading and prayer, then finally some form of artistic mark to tie it all together. 

Today's devotional is taken from: Zacharias, Ravi. The Logic of God: 52 Christian Essentials for the Heart and Mind. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2019. [E-Book] Chapter 2: The Ultimate Calling

Opening Thought: Reading this next chapter has for me affirmed my decision to read Zacharias’ work despite his trespasses revealed in his scandals. Zacharias speaks of two main points. First, that apologetics are part and parcel to the Christian life, sighting a portion from 1 Peter 3:15 which say, Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. Zacharias notes that the Greek for “reason” apologia means to give and answer or defense. Which means that we have to be able to articulate our faith well enough that at the very basic level we can explain why we have faith, and what it means for us to have faith.

Then it would seem that a passive faith is not the purpose of a Christian life, rather a dedicated and full immersed faith is. Now this does not mean we each need to be a biblical scholar, but it does mean we take our faith with enough seriousness that we can explain it to another person in a way that articulate some logical consistency, empirical adequacy, and experiential relevance. Otherwise we could falsely represent the faith.

The second point is well summaries by a quote that Zacharias offers form British evangelist, Rodney Smith, “There are five Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and the Christian, but most people will never read the first four.”[1] In short this means we as Christians are evaluated as a testament to the faith. If we live counter to what the faith call us towards, then we do not affirm the faith but counter it. Now there is some complexity here. The message of the gospel tells us that we as human beings are inherently flawed, and that is the main reason we need Jesus’ salvation. Sometime non-believer have the expectation that if you claim to be religious, then you should have a spotless record, or come across pious all the time. This skewed understanding may give the non-believer a hard time understanding that just because someone is a believe doesn’t mean that person will always make perfect decisions or even remember they should aim to. Seeing this discrepancy can make people feel faith people are hypocritical. But the faith is more about owning your limitations and doing you best to overcome them, but ultimately it is about accepting Christ to heal you where you cannot do it yourself. This means in life we don't want to make mistake, but as Christians we still may. We should aim not to, not only because it is the right thing to do, but also because we could sway an non-believe away from faith. 

As I said in my last blog post, one of the main things I see stopping people from coming to faith is a worldview they do not know how to look past. The second major barrier seems to be the idea of broken followers. People look at Christians in the past, and present that do not seem to mesh with their understand of the faith and thus they assume Christians are hypocritical. This is so appropriate to the author of the book we are reviewing, because many people now knowing that one of the prominent defenders of the faith was not living to the faith within these sex scandals (see https://devotional-reverend.blogspot.com/2021/03/introduction-to-logic-of-god.html) feared that Zacharias' lack of righteousness in his scandal might lead people to think the faith of Christianity is false. In reality, Zacharias’ failure actually affirms the faith oddly enough as the scriptures speak to the nature of sin, how sin seems to lurk waiting for us to let it in. This applies to those outside of faith and in it, therefore we must always be vigilant to make sure we do not fall to error.  

The devotional begins with: 1 Peter 3:8-9, 15-16

Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble. Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.  But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.

Second Thought: Christianity is really about being proactive in faith. Many people attend Sunday service for a quick “life coaching fix” or a social outlet and then never think about faith in their day to day living. To me this is a real shame, there is such a powerful depth to the intellectual, emotional, and spiritual knowledge that one can gain, but with that come some responsibility. The passage here speaks of action in faith, being sympathetic, loving one another, being compassionate and humble. Even entering into faith isn’t passive, we must revere Christ as Lord, there is an intentionality here. Also, as you may be discovering, we must be willing to defend the faith in word and demonstrate the faith in our actions. I recently came across a theological idea of faith as enlightenment or illumination of the heart. I would maybe say a good way to express this is like a light switch, when we put the light on we can see clearly but we need to make sure the switch does not turn off, not for just our sake but the sake of others too. When we make the faith a fuller part of our personal definition it moves us inwardly and outwardly.

Continual Work: Spend some time thinking about how you represent the Christian population. Are you honest, respectful, steadfast, righteous, noble, and more… No one will do it perfectly, but all should effort to do our best for Christ and in turn they will be a living fifth gospel.

What Rev. Jacob is Working On: In ministry leadership, people are always on watch to make sure the ministry leader do not make mistakes. This can be a double edge sword, sure ministers should aim to behave morally and ethically  just like all Christians, but there can be a level of hostility to those in ministry who fail compared those who fail who are not in ministry. I think the misconception is that people go into ministry because they are more holy, rather people, in my experience, go into the ministry because they feel they need more holiness in their life, sometime even to aid them in their combat with the demons inside. That means ministry people need to be extra vigilant to the lion that lurks, and as a whole, society needs to care for all people, the sinners and saints alike. 

Rev. Jacob’s Scripture time: 1 Peter 5:8 

Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil walketh about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.

Because I grew up in a religious household when I was in my youth, I felt a sort of false confidence in my ability to not sin or make mistakes. I believe myself to be a good person, and in many ways, I was, but somehow, I always found myself in sticky situations because I did not take the caution that a faith calls us to hold. I often found I would hurt people’s feeling when I had no idea that I was hurting feelings. This happened because I saw myself as a white knight and never as the villain. Humility is key to maintaining a steadfast output of faith. If you are always careful and considerate, and you are mindful that your actions may be harmful, you are less likely to produce an outcome that will allow sin, death, and the roaring devil to get the best of you.

Closing Words: I hope you enjoyed and were lifted by this devotional time; it is truly important to take time for God each day. By doing so, you welcome God into your life, and in turn you will be able to better see the world through the eyes of God, rather than God through the world's eyes.

Prayer for your day: Lord, help us to be mindful of the pull we have in our heart which can guide us away from Your will. You call us to faith but also to be mindful of our thoughts and action so that we can be a better beacon of Your Love and to avoid harming our neighbors. Help us strength our will to Your own, In Christ’s Name, Amen.  

Artistic Close: Sometimes I feel we romanticize our fallen nature as we see the beauty in the tree as they hibernate in winter and look as if they die. But the truth is that trees have a genetic code that allows the hibernation and their falling leaves to bear prosperity, so they may survive the harshness of winter. Sometimes we too can become stronger from our failing, but that does not mean we should glorify the fall, rather the glory belongs to the restoration. Our code of restoration is in Christ.

Autumn Leaves (1874) by Mary Vaux Walcott. Original from The Smithsonian. Digitally enhanced by rawpixel.





[1] Quotes by Bobby Conway,  The Fifth Gospel (Eugene, OR: Harvest House, 2014), 9 

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