romans10seventeen

Have you found your purpose…the reason for which you were created?  I think I’m starting to, but I believe it’s only revealed to us in snippets.  At least that’s the way it seems to me.  Remember when Jesus said to the disciples in John 16:12-“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.” ?  Well, that’s what it feels like to me sometimes; like there’s so much more that He wants to share with me but I’m somehow not ready yet.  My heart wants to be ready.  I want to just dive in to all the fullness of Christ; of what He has prepared for me, but there’s still so much I’m not ready for.  His word for me this year was “patience” and let’s just say, that has been…(we’ll call it) interesting, in so many ways!  I keep finding myself trying to produce patience in my life; by my own will and in my own strength.  It just doesn’t happen like that though.  He’s trying to remind me, even as I write this post that I still haven’t learned to just…be.  Be loved, be forgiven, be present, be fruitful, be quiet, be p.a.t.i.e.n.t.  I’m a doer…I learned that quite well as a very young girl.  My mother is a doer…her mother was a doer…my aunt is a doer…I come from a very long line of “Good Catholic doer’s”.  It’s EXHAUSTING!  And for over 4 years now I’ve been trying to un-learn doing and start be-ing.  I really have a hard time just be-ing.

Our Common Purpose vs. Our Special Calling

I believe our common purpose is to bring glory to God.  To praise Him and to worship Him.  We praise Him by recalling the wonderful way that He saved us and the mighty things He has done and is still doing in our lives and in our hearts; our testimony gives praise to God for how He saved us and how He’s changing us.  Growing up, I never knew what it meant to have a testimony.  However, as a born again believer and follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, I have one now!  A testimony is what shows the power of God in your life.

We worship Him because of who He is.  He is the one true God, Creator of Heaven and Earth and all things great and small.  When we offer praise and worship to God we bring glory to Him.  When we allow Him to be King of our hearts, when we seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, when we choose to set aside our selfish ways and choose His will over our own, then we glorify God. And that, my friends is the common purpose we are all called to.

Special Calling

I look at my special calling as something that the Lord is revealing to me a little at a time.  It comes with obedience and relationship.  He is patient with me as I seek to understand His ways and His character through studying His word and spending time in His presence.  If we are, as the Bible says, created in His image (Genesis 1:27) and chosen before the foundation of the world to be holy and without blame (Ephesians 1:4) then what’s stopping us from walking in our destiny?  The Bible says, “If the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed” so what’s stopping us from living in freedom?  I’m still working on that one…patience, right?

(In the meantime) Show yourself approved…

Part of our Common Purpose is the study of His word and rightly dividing the word of truth.

Years ago I believe the Lord called me to learn His word.  I knew I had a “stirring” in my heart to read the Bible but honestly, I paid little attention at that time.  Let me explain: In 1998 or 99 there was a man named Tom Curran who came to speak at the little Catholic Church I used to belong to.  He was a former Protestant who had converted to Catholicism.  He’s kind of a “big wig” now.  He said something that night that I never forgot.  He said that Protestants take the Bible literally but Catholics understand the Bible literarily (as in a form of literature; a good read..not necessarily all true).  He said this as if to say, the error of the Protestants was to believe the Bible.

What a shame!  

After Jesus saved me in 2013 He brought this memory (from 14 years earlier) back to my mind confirming that I had heard Him back then!  Of course I didn’t know that at the time.  We weren’t taught to read our Bible or that God actually speaks to His people through His word.

I think that’s one of the biggest differences between my life as a Catholic and my new life.  I believe the Bible now.  I believe it to be the Word of God and inerrant.  I believe everything in it was God breathed.

2 Timothy 3:16New King James Version (NKJV) ¹⁶ All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for ^[a]instruction in righteousness,

I pray the Lord will give you wisdom and knowledge of His truth.  Catholics, Protestants, anyone reading this…Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, New Agers, everyone.  This can only come from a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.  Not a “do this, don’t do that” kind of relationship but a true friendship.  The only way to have a relationship with Jesus Christ is to spend quality time with Him reading and studying His word.  Relationships don’t happen once a week sitting in a church (no matter what church or how wonderful the service is).  Relationships take time and effort.  Cultivating a relationship with Jesus only happens as you dig in to His word and learn about His character.  He is the Vine, we are the branches and His Father is the Vinedresser…pruning us as we grow.  (Now that’s a good word!) You can’t learn about truth and the secret things unless you spend some quality time with the Author of Truth itself; Himself, that is…Christ.

John 14:6New King James Version (NKJV) ⁶ Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

How’s that for literature?  And while we’re at it, how about this…

The Eternal Word

John 1:1-5 (NKJV) 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was in the beginning with God. ³ All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. ⁴ In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. ⁵ And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not ^[a]comprehend it.