Christian Calling

Understanding the connection between faith and work is critical, not only for adults, but also for students. A Barna study called “Faith for Exiles” shows that 18-29-year-olds who grew up in the church and remain committed followers of Jesus are far more likely to have a rich understanding of faith and work than those who still call themselves Christian but no longer attend church.

They strongly desire to use their unique talents and gifts to honor God (94% compared to 31% of those who identify as Christian but no longer attend church), believe that the work they do is important to God (82% vs. 32%), and have a sense of calling about their career (64% vs. 15%).

The statistical evidence is clear: young people who stick with Jesus and the church are far more likely to be able to say, “I know who God has created me to be and how my purpose fits with his plans for the world.”

Freedom is not free. If only Christians were as quick to act upon their responsibilities as they are quick to assert freedom. The tortures and agonies through which this generation is only the latest to go represent the inevitable judgment upon people and nations that refuse to live by the law of love.

I think Christians should stop blaming God for being absent when they themselves are not present. They should stop blaming God for all the ills of the world as if humanity had really been endlessly laboring to cure them.

Christ died to save us, not from suffering, but from ourselves; not from injustice, far less from justice, but from being unjust. He died that we might live--but live as he lives, by dying as he died who died to himself that he might live unto God. If we do not die to ourselves, we cannot live to God, and he that does not live to God, is dead.

If we are only out to be nice, mild-mannered folk, we should either change our name or change our calling.

Look, it all consists in the cross, and it all lies in dying; and there is no other way to life and true peace within.

I am learning that God intends salvation to be more than a ticket to heaven, and that his chief purpose in providing the church is not to transport us there with as little inconvenience as possible.

I sometimes wonder whether the church needs new members one-half as much as she needs the old bunch made over. Judging by the way multitudes in the church live, you would think they imagined they had a through ticket to heaven in a Pullman palace car, and had left orders for the porter to wake them up when they head into the yards of the New Jerusalem.

If you are a Christian, then you are a minister. A non-ministering Christian is a contradiction in terms.