Why Abraham?

Why did God choose Abraham. Was there something special about him. He was not more virtuous than other people. he was a sinner, when God made his covenant promise in Genesis 12:2. God declared him righteous, when he believed the promise of the covenant, even though he was old with no family (Gen 15:6).

There were three reasons why God may have chosen him.

1. He was not part of the power establishment at Ur, and he did not join with the Canaanites, so he was free from the domination of the spiritual powers of evil.
2. He was old with no children, so there was no one to distract him from following God’s call.
3. He had failed to become a father, so he was desperate for a miracle.

Maybe God called many others, but Abraham was the first to respond and go. We don't know.

Find Your Calling

Every Christians needs to know their calling. You calling may not be the same as your occupation. Your calling is what God created you to be and do. If you are uncertain about your calling, you will find this Q Ideas Talk by Pete Richardson helpful.

Pete summarises the challenge in this long sentence.

Calling is the intersection of talents and heart passion
being applied to a specific part of God’s broken world
to restore and bring visible signs of God’s very real kingdom
alive through his community and people
in different sectors of the earth.

The Kingdom is on the move. God needs hour calling full owned, surrendered, activated and applied. A calling is worth living for, and its worth dying for.

Labels

I do not put a label on my calling. I notice that soon As soon as something has a name, people think that it must be done the way that they like that calling to operate. For example, if someone takes the label evangelist, people assume that they should be a clone of Billy Graham. That can sometimes make it hard for them to become the person that God wants them to be.

God is immensely creative. Just as there are numerous species of trees, and no two trees of the same species are exactly identical, there are amazingly diverse giftings in God's kingdom, and no two callings are exactly the same. . We have only discovered a few aspects of this diversity so far. There are many ways of operating that we have not even dreamed about yet.

I am not interested in being put in other people's boxes. I am only interested in being in God's box.

Employment for a Calling

Knowing your calling is really important. Too many Christians have only ever looked for paid employment and just assume that their employment is their calling. They are frustrated, because they are not fulfilling their calling.

If your calling does not pay, finding paid employment can be quite liberating. Some Christians leave their calling on hold while dreaming of a rich benefactor who will fund them to exercise their calling. This is a vain hope. No one will understand the value of calling as much as the person called. If they get paid employment, they can be the benefactor for their own calling. They are freed from dependence on trite promises that God will provide.

Understanding that your employment frees you to fulfil your calling will quell the frustration at what can sometimes seem to be pointless effort. Hard work flies by, if you know that it will support you to do something of value. Stitching stinking skins into tents can be fun if you are discussing peoples to reach and churches to plant.

Sometimes our employment will quite different from the calling. Making tents has very little to do with apostleship. Some people with more intellectual callings may need to do physical work to support themselves.

Christians should choose employment that will give their freedom to do their calling. Paul could have earned more money working as a lawyer for the Roman Empire, but it would have limited his freedom to be an apostle. Academia my provide employment for those with intellectual callings, but it can also limit their freedom to follow their dreams. I chose not to get employment as an economist with a secular institution, as that would compromise or confuse my freedom to publicise a Christian view of economics.

Calling and Employment

Many Christians do not understand the difference between a calling and paid employment. A calling is what God created you to do. It is what will make a permanent difference in the world. Paid employment is what you do to support yourself and your family.

A few Christians are able to get paid employment doing their calling, but that is not normal. People called to be pastors can often get paid employment doing pastoral work (many are actually doing management or administration). A person called to be a prophet is unlikely to get paid employment doing their calling. That is why so many become pastors, which is a pain for everyone.

Paul was called to be a apostle, but that did not pay well, so he often took paid employment as a tentmaker. This will be the situation for most Christians. They will not be able to get someone to pay them to do their calling, so they will need paid employment in field where they have skills to earn a living to support themselves while carrying out their calling. They should seek paid employment in a role where the can earn enough to live on as quickly as possible. This task may not be fulfilling and it may not have much eternal significance (all Paul’s tents have rotted away), but that does not matter, if it leaves lots of time for the real calling.

I am called to Christian economics. I have never seen a job advert for a "Christian economist", so I cannot support my family doing my calling. My solution has been to find employment in a role that has very little eternal significance, but allows me to earn a living in three days a week and gives me plenty of time to fulfil my calling.