Staff Blog

Staff Blog

experience the risen Christ

experience the risen Christ

Have you ever noticed while reading the new testament that the disciples are pretty weird guys? They get to hang out with Jesus everyday, as He pours Himself into them, they were right there while Jesus preached, healed, and did miracles. They saw it all! Yet why is it that we read of the disciples always blowing it? While Jesus is on the earth with them, it seems like they never "get it."  Jesus is constantly pouring Himself into them, revealing truths that nobody else on the earth got to hear, yet in the time when Jesus needed them most they were flakes. 

For example, Peter, remember him saying That all the other disciples would bail and flake on Jesus but he would stay and fight! Well, that was true for the most part. It was there in the garden of gethsemane when the soldiers came to arrest Jesus. Without a moments notice or second thought Peter went straight for his sword. As he pulled it out of its scabbard there was no doubt he was going to die to save His Lord. Although his intentions were good, his methods and actions weren't. In his huge crescendo and attempt to save he merely chopped off the soldiers ear. After peter's macho man attempt to save we see him encounter another adversary. A sweet cutie pie of a gal. In this second battle, peter did worse than he did in his first. The same guy that said He would die for Jesus and would never abandoned Him, denied, cursed, and refused to associate himself with Jesus at all to a little girl. 

Peter is one of my favorite bible characters. One of the reasons is because I can relate to him so much. Throughout the gospel we are constantly reading about him doing something dumb, weird, or impulsive. But how is it, that beginning in the book of acts we see a different peter? Peter is the man when the church first starts. He is the one who gets up and boldly preaches Jesus on the day of Pentecost and 3,000 get saved. Peter is also the one who wrote two books of the new testament. Furthermore church history records that he was crucified upside down because he told the men he wasn't worthy to be crucified right side up! That doesn't seem like the same peter that lost in a talking fight with a 10 year old little princess. The obvious question we might ask is what happened? What's the difference from the peter at Christ's denial to the peter that was willing to get crucified upside down for His Savior? 

Two words, risen Christ. Simply stated before Jesus died the disciples didn't really understand who He was. On numerous occasions they refer to Jesus as "rabbi" which means teacher opposed to calling Him Lord. They never fully understood who Jesus was in His full deity. Until, He rose from the grave. They experienced and saw Jesus in His glory. That He really was the Christ the Son of God. The one whom isaiah prophesied about hundreds of years ago, the Messiah that the jews had been waiting for, the one who would take away the sins of all and reconcile us back to God the Father. They saw Him as the Prince of peace and the Lord of Lords, and by seeing Jesus and experiencing Him like this they were utterly transformed. The gospel boomed after Jesus death, resurrection, and ascension. The disciples who saw and experienced Him preached the Word everywhere despite what the cost would be.

Now more than two thousand years removed, what we have is the book that contains everything we need to know to experience Christ in the way these men did. We have access, and the Spirit of God to prompt and give us all we need to enter into the lives of the disciples. So that we would be passionate about God's name, that we would be willing to lay our lives down so His kingdom would be advanced, to understand His deep and passionate love for us. In that He bore the sins of humanity for us, then three days later conquered sin, satan, and death. All for love and for the glory of His heavenly father.

May our response be that despite whatever comes our way, that we will stand firm in the knowledge that Jesus loves us and died for us. Not only did He die for us but He rose in victory three days later. That as we experience the risen Christ who did all of this, we would be in awe of His glory and motivated to live transformed radical lives for Him by His Spirit despite the cost! 

A different way of thinking

A different way of thinking

Have you ever heard or said the phrase "if you clean your room i will let you play your video game?" or something to that effect? I don't necessarily think there is anything wrong with that statement in and of itself, but it raises a few questions for me. One, why is it that the way we train our children, communicate with our friends, is based upon what they do and what they don't do? We tend to be a society that is based upon merit/demerit. If you do something good then you will be rewarded for it, yet on the other hand, if you fail to do what you were supposed to do; judgement is coming. 

We often to do this in other areas and relationship as well. For the most part we only hang out and socialize with people we "like" and stay away from the socially awkward, or those who don't fit our sense of social propriety. To take that a step further, if, God forbid, someone offends us or hurts us, we are quick to ostracize them from our group and lives. And choose to no have anything to do with them. Most of you have been doing it for so long now, that you don't even realize it and that response is now  built into the framework of your life. I would say, in fact, that all of us are guilty of judging in this manner.

I believe the biggest concern and problem with acting in this way is that it's un-biblical in every sense of the imagination. Could you imagine if God acted like this? We would all be doomed to hell! Thankfully, we have the doctrine of grace. What do i mean by grace? That God, through the atoning death of Jesus on the cross, has forgiven us all our sins and continues to forgive and bless us on a daily basis. Grace is the greatest anyone of us could ever hope to obtain. (cf. 2 corinthians 9:15)

The question that should be asked is: if God doesn't judge the same way we do, then how exactly does He judge the christian? God, instead of using the demerit/merit scale uses Christ's blood as His scale. While Jesus was on the cross, God poured out all His wrath that was justly due to fall on you and I, upon Jesus. Jesus paid the ultimate penalty for sin by what He did for us on the cross. Because of what Jesus did, we can now enter into relationship with Him through grace by faith. You see, now that we have began a relationship with Jesus, God doesn't judge us on what we do and what we don't do. He looks at you and doesn't see your sin and folly anymore, yet He sees the blood of Christ that has covered you. 

In light of this information, we should feel extremely freed from the pressure of trying so hard to be "good" for God. Because of the grace of God we don't need to keep track of what we did or didn't do. Paul says in Romans 8:1 "for those who are in Christ Jesus there is no more condemnation." God has cleansed you of all of your sins (1 john 3:16). You are a new creation in Jesus (2 corinthians 5:17). You have been saved by grace, and grace alone (ephesians 2:7). 

Additionally, God is not going to ostracize you when you fail (philippians 1:6). Once we have asked Jesus into our heart there is nothing more that we can do to make God love us. Similarly there's nothing we can do to make Him love us less. So for those that are stuck in sin right now, or for those who are depressed by life's circumstances, or you think that you are so far away from God that their is no way He can love you after what you've done, you're wrong. Jesus loves you despite what you've done and what you haven't done. 

The response that we should have towards this is freedom and motivation. Freedom in knowing that we are under grace and that we need not worry about God's un-failing love for us, His children. Additionally, motivation. We ought to be motivated by this deep and passionate love that Jesus expresses to us and seek to serve, worship, and love God with all our heart, mind, and souls. This is what happens to those who have tasted and seen how good and gracious our Lord is. 

 

 

Missional Living

Missional Living

Missional. As one of my friends said recently, “that whole word is pretty trendy right now.” Christian leaders, pastors, teachers, writers, and others are plugging this idea of being “Missional” to the point where now, the impact of this word often gets lost or confused amid the “Christianeze” of Evangelical Culture.

So what does it really mean to be missional?

At it’s most basic definition, “missional” is simply an alternative adjective for the word “missionary.” Essentially, if you are being missional, you are thinking, acting, and serving like a missionary would. In essence, you could define your existence in terms of being a missionary, which, quite simply, means someone who is sent out on a mission. This perhaps seems a little circular, or even confusing so let me expound on this idea.

Missional living is a term that is used in contrast with the model of institutional churches. Church leaders as well as Christians in general, often regard the Church as an institution to which outsiders must come in order to receive a certain “product,” namely, the gospel and all its associated “benefits”. Institutional churches are often perceived to exist primarily for the members / congregation, who in turn depend on the pastors, staff, and leadership of the church to reach out to others with the Gospel.

A missional church on the other hand, (made up of Christians who are committed to missional living), attempts to take Christ outside of the church building and bring it (contextualize it) to the culture, community, and the city / county in which the church resides. A congregation of believers in a missional church is personally engaged in reaching their communities with the Gospel, demonstrated by the way they live and interact with others who do not share their faith. In essence, if you boil it all down to the simplest and most concise definition, missional living means that you are sent by Jesus to bring the Gospel to the community and the culture.

Too often, Christians rage against the culture, condemning it either by the way they talk, act, or otherwise communicate, instead of being exegetical in regards to the culture, and discovering its values, philosophies, and ideas, and speaking to those and addressing them from a Biblical perspective. Being Missional does NOT mean that we are trying with all our might to make Jesus or Christianity relevant. Being Missional means showing our community and culture that Jesus and Christianity is already relevant. This means that we need to pay attention to the culture and know what is going on. 

If you are a Christian, it is far too easy to become assimilated into the Christian subculture where you have Christian friends, a Christian dog, and only listen to Christian music and Christian radio. If you are steeped in the Christian subculture, you really have no idea what people are looking for or how to be missional to them. This kind of living basically treats Christianity and the Church as a kind of bomb shelter where you can kind of hang out and be protected from the bombardment of the world. This kind of thinking leads to many “us” and “them” ideas where Christians are the good guys and non-christians are the bad guys. 

To the other extreme are the Christians who view the church as a mirror. They believe that the main purpose and goal is to be aware of the culture to the point where nothing is sacred and everything is negotiable. If the culture says something is okay, so does the church. This is essentially liberalism and while these kinds of people and churches are culturally aware, no attempts are made to redeem the culture, only to embrace, accept, and mirror the culture. This makes the church impotent in reaching people and changing lives. 

A church and a people that are truly missional on the other hand, are not steeped in the Christian subculture, are not engaged in theological or practical liberalism, and are not antagonistic or negative towards the culture, but practice an alternative way of living (Christianity) and invite other people to join them.

Consequently, we need to consider the message we are preaching with our lives! If your neighbors see your girlfriend leaving your apartment in the morning and they know you’re a Christian, what message are you preaching? If your friends know your’re a Christian or that you go to church on Sundays and you get hammered or stoned out of your mind with them after work on Friday, what message are you preaching? If your family and friends know you’re a Christian and you’re selfish and rude and bitter, or a gossip - what message are you sending about Jesus? If you pray before your meal when you’re at a restaurant and then leave a bad tip because the service was slow or because you’re stingy with the money God has blessed you with - what message are you preaching about grace, forgiveness, generosity, selflessness and what it means to be a Christian? Being Missional means living your daily life in a way that reflects Jesus and communicates the Gospel. You have to be intentional about it. You have to stop preaching a false gospel with your life and start living like a Christian. Start living like you mean it. Observe, study, and communicate to the culture. Know where people in the community live, work, and play. Ask the “why” questions. 

This means we have to change the way we think and stop being so lazy. Where I live, instead of just rolling my eyes and saying how ridiculous it is that even more new outlet stores are going in, or joking about the expansion of and constant refacing of the malls and shopping centers, I should ask “why is there such an overabundance of retail stores and shopping locations in my community? Why are the shopping centers and malls regularly being updated and refaced? What does that tell me about the culture where I live, the people who live in it, and their priorities?” If I ask these kinds of questions I can immediately make some basic observations: 

1.) people are really into buying things - they like to shop. it is not only a personal, but a social experience.

2.) there are a lot of clothing & retail stores - people who live in my community are probably concerned with the way they look and the kinds of things they have. consequently, I could conclude that the way they are perceived by others is of significant importance.

3.) on average, the stores / outlets / etc. in my community are not going out of business, so people must be frequenting these places and supporting them with their purchases - perhaps spending more than they make.

From these basic observations about this one aspect of the culture I live in and the people who live in it, I can begin to identify ways in which I can be missional to my city. For example, since shopping is such a big deal and shopping centers / malls / outlets are prevalent throughout my city and community, I can conclude that the culture I live in has consumerist and materialist tendencies. However, instead of preaching against materialism and consumerism, as a Christian desiring to engage in Misional Living, I need to ask more “why” questions: “Why does my culture appear to be materialistic and consumeristic?” Perhaps it is because people are searching for something when they are shopping. Not necessarily for the latest styles or trends, (though that most likely is part of it) but for something that will satisfy. They are searching for, shopping for something. Perhaps they are shopping so that they “fit in.” If they fit in, they will have friends, if they have friends, they will feel appreciated and loved. If they are appreciated and loved they will feel safe and secure and validated as a human being. Their life will have value. Their life will have meaning and purpose. And all of that from shopping. 

Our job as Christians engaged in Missional Living, is to ask the questions. To get to know our culture, and be able to connect the dots for them and show them how Jesus is relevant to their lives and how their fundamental worth as a human being is inextricably tied to the Gospel. Too often we are merely lazy and take the easy way out. Even in the  example I gave, I have not yet even begun to explore all of the complexities of the questions I asked and all of the related issues, (i.e. people who become Christians and join the church on its mission to the culture will most likely have consumerist tendencies and it might be difficult to get people to realize that being a Christian means being a servant and being selfless, giving, and generous with their time and money - so the church needs to intentionally teach people who come to church how to be good stewards, etc. etc.)

Too often, we as Christians stop at the surface level and instead of going deeper and continuing to ask the follow-up questions, not only in our own head, but also to others in the community to find out what they buy, what they spend time on, what they do for a job, etc. we stop at the answers to our initial questions and merely observe that people in our culture appear to be materialistic consumers. We then proceed to either look down on the culture in our pride because they are selfish consumers - or we antagonize the culture by ranting against their materialism, which only serves to prod and jab at the hurting and dying culture - making ourselves feel good when often we are just as guilty if not more so of consumerism, selfishness, and materialism. Instead of being a healing balm to the culture, we scar it even more, making people even more defensive and resentful towards Christianity and the Gospel, not only because of our attacks, but because of our hypocrisy.

Think about what it means to live missionally to your culture. Don’t be lazy. Ask the tough questions and get to the heart of the issues that affect your community. Get to know your neighbors, your culture, the people, your community as a whole and discover what matters to them so you can accurately and appropriately contextualize the Gospel to reach the city where you live. I’ve just barely scratched the surface in this blog. Missional living requires us to constantly observe, think critically, and make choices about the way we live our lives so that Jesus and the Gospel is reflected in everything we do. Our primary goal as Christians should be to live as good witnesses for Jesus and stop preaching false gospels by the choices that we make and the way we live our lives, and instead, draw people to Christ through missional living.

God are you good?

God are you good?

"In times of trouble, may the Lord answer your cry..." Pslam 20:1a

Have you ever tried to wrestle with the fact that our God is a good and perfect God and yet He allows evil in this world? If you never have, i don't recommend trying. It is a hard thing to understand. Lately, i have faced some hard times. I do not mean to complain. I am so blessed. I have more than i could ever ask for and certainly more than I deserve. However, life is hard. I feel pain and often I see no escape to that pain.

It is during these times of pain and hurt and anxiety that I call on God the most. I am embarrassed to say this because i truly want to be a person who praises God and calls on Him during the good and bad times alike. However, it's always during the painful times that I find myself on my face crying out to my God.

I have many fears that cause pain. I am scared of losing people I love; I am scared of things in my life falling apart. And i wonder to myself, God, if you were to take these things away, how could you still call yourself good? I pray that God continues to bless my life and Psalm 20 is a huge comfort to me ( i recommend reading the rest). But truly, I have to wrestle with this question:

Would i still praise and trust God if i lost everything?

When times are good, i usually answer with a quick yes. But when life's hard, i struggle with it. And through the tears and cries, I really can come to the point where I can praise and trust Him. That despite my circumstances, despite the pain i feel or am going to feel in the future, GOD IS STILL GOOD! and if he takes away a seemingly good thing, he must have a reason, a bigger plan that i can't see right now.

How much faith would i have if i only trusted God when i had what i wanted? Doesn't God, the one who made the whole earth, know what's best for me, even if it hurts for a while? And ultimately, He has already given me eternity. What more could I ask for.

I am not trying to tell you to be joyful through trials and just "praise the Lord" through your pain. I am not trying to be cliche. I'm just trying to be real. I have felt pain. I have been hurt. And through it all, even though it has been the hardest thing to do, i can honestly say the best thing to do is run to God and trust Him more.

Praising God is the last thing I want to do when I'm hurting. But I praise Him by being honest with Him. I share my pain with him and proclaim that even though i'm hurting, HE IS STILL GOD and He still deserves my praise.

This isn't an easy thing to do. And while i write it here, i know there will be days when I fail to praise God through my pain. But i'm trying. And the more I seek God and spend time with Him, the more I make him #1, the easier it is going to be when #2 and #3 let me down. It is hard to see God through our pain. But He is there. Cry to Him; He will never fail you.

Home Groups

Home Groups

"...not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some..." Hebrews 10:25

Home Groups often seem to be just an extra thing to do during the week. With Sunday morning and Wednesday night services already, the thought of ANOTHER Bible study seems overwhelming. We live in a society that thrives on busyness. We have to do so many things in so little time.

However, instead of seeing home groups as "another thing to do" during the week amongst everything else, I like to see it as a time of rest. It is not just a time to sit through another service. Home groups are a time to get away from the busyness and form relationships with REAL people. Through home groups, we meet people who have the same struggles as us. We build relationships with people we might not normally talk to. It is like a little family or community of it's own.

It is SOO hard to meet people on Sundays. It seems like there is barely room to walk in the sanctuary, let alone try to talk to someone new. This is why we have home groups. It is so sad to me that many people come to our church week after week but never meet people. They come and leave like clock work, never stopping to say hi to someone new, never reaching out for real relationships.

You can change that. If you click "more details" on the right hand side of this page, there is a list of some home groups that meet throughout the week. I encourage you to e-mail one of the leaders and get involved. At least just try it for a couple weeks. And if you make time for it, I guarantee you will be blessed.

Nexus Info!

Nexus Info!

nexus: a second campus for calvary chapel of camarillo

nexus is a means or place of connection, a connected group, or the center...

read the whole post by clicking here

One: the quest and celebration of unity

One: the quest and celebration of unity

days ago, i experienced an incredible celebration of the unity of believers at an event called One: one heart, one gathering, One God. after months of planning, the day had arrived. on 5.31.09 the majority of evangelical churches in our community suspended their sunday morning services so that we could gather as one [although we had not planned it, God seemed to orchestrate that the event would be celebrated on the day of Pentecost - the day His church was born]. 

it was 6:30 a.m. when i began to walk from my house to our local high school for an epic event. walking a mile or two, on a quiet grey morning gave me time to think, to reflect, to pray, to hope ... unfortunately, getting local churches to come together in unity is a challenge. There are perhaps countless reasons why but suffice it so say it is a challenge. also, coordinating large-scale events is a struggle. essentially, this epic event was a labor - yet a labor of love: love for Jesus, love for our community, love for His people, and love for those who don't know Him yet. as i arrived at the venue, the stage and sound system were in place, the sound check was completed the night before, prayer meetings had taken place and would continue but for now it was quiet. the bleachers of the high school stadium hold 6,000 seats and from the hillside the mountains in the background were shrouded in fog. soon guests and volunteers would arrive.

the event was scheduled to start at 10:00 but by 9:45 guests were asked to move closer together and people started to sit on the hillside and soon they would occupy the visitors bleachers on the opposite side of the field. certainly people wondered how many local churches were represented ... but there was only One church gathered that day.

Lincoln Brewster led us in worship - his passion for Christ, heart to worship, energy and joy were contagious. i had watched the crowd assemble, and now watched and listened as 7,000 or more voices filled the air with praise - AMAZING!

Josh Mc Dowell shared the message, his story of coming to Christ. his was a story of overcoming pain, despair, and intense bitterness and the hope and love he discovered in the truth of Jesus. when he invited people to come forward to make a decision for Christ, hundreds streamed down the aisles. God had touched the hearts of people and they wanted to respond. 

soon people would share: refreshments, love, the buzz of this historic event, a t-shirt, cd or a book. soon the clean-up would begin and soon it would be quiet. there was a stillness as if in the presence of the True and Living God - the One who does exceedingly, abundantly beyond what we could ask or think.

as i began to walk home there was a time to reflect. hours before the cross, Jesus had prayed for unity of his church - a prime concern, "I do not pray for these alone, but also for for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in you; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me" [John 17:20-21]. Undoubtedly, this is Jesus' desire, to see His church in unity as a declaration to the world of the truth that Jesus is alive.

certainly, in His wisdom, He has established countless varieties of local churches for no one local church could satisfy the tastes of all His people. Yet, when we come together as we had just done, we can see why the psalmist was moved to declare, "Behold how good and how pleasant it is for the brethren to dwell together in unity" [Ps.133:1].

The Bride of Christ

The Bride of Christ

In Kid's Ministry we've been going through the book The Calvary Road and this week's chapter "the highway of holiness" (sounds pretentious, i know, but it's quite the opposite) really truly and spiritually collided with some other thoughts on my brain about the Lord.  God has had the phrase "the bride of Christ" on my mind like a hot dog over a campfire--slowly turning and cooking and now, with seasoning of fresh ideas, it's ready to eat and share.

The chapter was speaking of how after we have been broken before Christ, we are able to walk on His path and be continually refilled by His Spirit and it simply gave me hope.  For a while I've been discouraged thinking of how broken I need to be and how much being broken hurts--hurts my pride, my expectations--I forget the benefits of it.  First of all, I forget how much God makes me grow when I submit to Him, and how much I rejoice to grow and be closer to Him.  Secondly, I forget that being broken is NOT the end of the road.

Here is where the bride of Christ comes in.  We have to be broken to walk with Him, but He was first broken to walk with us.  Jesus' death and resurrection was  His marriage proposal to His church--he bought the ring with His blood to seal us and returned even from death to give us Hope in His life, that we may be married to such a bridegroom!

Jesus is like a man who, after proposing, patiently and persistently waits for his bride to answer "yes".  He approaches her door--our individual hearts--everyday with flowers and chocolates--gifts and examples of His beautiful creation hoping for the yes.  He never tires and never stops lovng her through all the rejection.  So we are the bride; when we finally realize Jesus is the only one for us we cry and get on our knees and ask for forgiveness for all those selfish, prideful days we sent Him away.

However, we also rejoice that we are finally with our true love.  Let us not forget that though brokenness is necessary, it is not the end of the road.  He didn't forgive us that we would be perpetually broken, but that he would make us whole (not fogetting humility).  This is where life begins. The hero picks up his broken princess and carries her towards his safe warm castle--away from the roaring lion and poisoning snake.  Be hopeful in walking with Him and not despair in your guilty fall. 

God has proposed and we have accepted. Now we get to enjoy the engagement, ever looking on in hopeful anticipation of the glorious wedding and then eternal life with our bridegroom.  Praise God, He is so romantic!

Calling

Calling

If you have served in ministry for any length of time you have probably noticed that it's a different experience then your job, or anything of the like. Working in a spiritual context should be different. we tend to have a different perspective on what we are doing and why we are doing it. for example, people will work a "job" for years and hate what they do. yet they need to in order to pay bills etc. ministry on the other hand places much importance upon the person to discover whether they are called to be their or not. what i mean by "called" is that God has spoken to you, through scripture, people, vision, or something of the like and has told you of where you ought to be in ministry.

In ephesians 4, paul encourages the church of ephesus to walk in their calling. To continue to fulfill what God has placed upon their hearts to do. We don't want people to do, and be in a ministry that God has not called them to be in. a question you might ask is: "am i called to one specific area of ministry my whole life?" i would say not always. Their are certain times and seasons in our lives where God wants us to do and be somewhere for His purpose. This could be a time of testing, breaking, learning, and maturing for us.

One way of knowing what you are called to do is what you are passionate about! What gets you excited? or, on the flip side, what breaks your heart? has God put something or a group of people in your life that you desperately and passionately want to see God reach and save them? God does not call us to something that we are not going to be passionate about, He can find someone else to do it. Rather He will break our hearts, or build a passion in us to see the need and have the desire to be a part of spreading the gospel.

This is what happened to nehemiah. nehemiah's job was the kings cup-bearer. Which meant that he would live in the kingdom with the king, that he would have access to the king on a regular basis and that nehemiah lived a very comfortable, care free life. In chapter one, nehemiah hears of the wall which surrounded Jerusalem had been torn down by an opposing nation. And the city is in ruins. Upon hearing the news of the wall, nehemiah is destroyed by it. He immediately begins fasting, mourning, and praying for three months. The shocking news in all of this is that the wall had been torn down for almost 141 years! After three months of prayer and fasting, nehemiah goes before the pagan king and asks him for help. Nehemiah tells the king that he will need people, material, and time off to go re-build the wall that surrounded Jerusalem so that God's people could once again meet and worship their God.

In God's providential care He puts it on the heart of the king to say yes, and nehemiah begins his trek to go and build this wall. The big point in all of this is that at this time it was common knowledge that the wall had been torn down for so long and that it wasn't as big of a deal as it used to be. Furthermore nehemiah had a great cushy job in the palace in which he never had to worry about much of anything. Yet God had called nehemiah to re-build this wall, so in doing this God gave nehemiah the heart and passion for building the wall. As God did this it completely rocked nehemiah's life. He became consumed with re-building this wall and making sure that God's people could worship again. That's what i am talking about in the discussion of "are you called?"

I would encourage each of you in the weeks and months to come to go before God and talk to Him about your calling. In doing so ask the questions of "what am i called to do?" "am i where i am supposed to be right now?" God may already have you in the right spot for this time and that is awesome, yet for some of you God maybe moving in you to do something else or be somewhere else. Ministry is a lot better and we are much more effective when we are walking in our callings. Jesus doesn't hide are callings from us, yet He does want to break us and have us search Him out for that calling and seek the answer.