Which of the following are similar to the ways you've served Christ in your family? [check all that apply]
• Taught your kids to see God's glory in nature
• Washed the dishes without being asked
• Played a board game with your kids
• Encouraged your wife to finish her master's degree
• Attended a child's open house at school
• Worked fewer hours to be with your family
• Set an example of a godly prayer life for your children
• Held a crying child
• Swung on the tire swing with your daughter
• Told your wife why you're still in love with her
• Told your son he's got what it takes
• Coached soccer
• Let you child correct you now and then
• Fixed the vacuum cleaner
• Taught your sons to ride a bike
• Listened patiently to a complaint of your wife
• Taped your child's artwork to your office wall
• Admitted to your kids that you were wrong
• Told your children how Christ entered your life
• Cleaned up vomit
• Taught your children to love books
• Been romantic without expecting sex
• Told your daughter she's smart/beautiful
• Set standards for your kids and stuck to them
• Dealt graciously with a busybody neighbor
• Peeled carrots
• Watched movies together
Calvin Had Other Plans Theme of the Week: Sacrifice or Safety? Wednesday, February 18, 2004
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Men of IntegrityJanuary/February 2004Calvin Had Other PlansTheme of the Week: Sacrifice or Safety?Wednesday, February 1871
Key Bible Verses: Then the Lord spoke to Jonah a second time, "Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh, and deliver the message of judgment I have given you" ( Jonah 3:1–2). Bonus Reading:2 Timothy 1:7–8
Studious John Calvin suffered from migraines and asthma. After his conversion at age 24, he and some new Protestant friends fled Paris as fugitives from Catholic authorities. On the run for a year, he relocated to Basel, Switzerland, under an assumed name. There, he wrote his Institutes.
But then, Calvin said, "God thrust me into the game." When he was traveling through Geneva, Protestant leader William Farel insisted that he stay. Calvin had other plans. "If you don't help us," Farel declared, "the Lord will punish you for seeking your own interests rather than His." Calvin stayed.
Two turbulent years later, he and Farel were expelled from Geneva. Calvin returned to Basel. But then a Martin Bucer urged him to pastor French refugees in Strasbourg, Germany. Calvin wanted to run the other way, but Bucer said, "God will know how to find you, just as he found Jonah, another rebellious servant." Calvin went.
When a delegation from Geneva asked him to move back, Calvin confessed, "There's no place I'm more afraid of." Yet he returned to minister to the 6,000 Protestant refugees pouring in.
—William & Randy Petersen in 100 Bible Verses that Changed the World
My Response: How might radical obedience push me out of my comfort zone?
Thought to Apply: I offer my heart a slain victim for a sacrifice to the Lord. —John Calvin (when he returned to Geneva)
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