Make your calling count

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But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified. --1 Corinthians 9:27 Did you know that the apostle Paul lived with a deep concern? You could even call it a fear. It’s true. As a devoted soldier of the Lord Jesus Christ, Paul feared that he might do something that would keep him out of the great spiritual battle he had been called to fight. Well, you and I might look at Paul and think that sounds crazy coming from this great man of God. But that’s how seriously Paul took being a servant of Jesus, and it’s how seriously he took fighting the good fight of faith. In fact, Paul chose to discipline his own body and keep it under control rather than allow it to dictate his life and jeopardize his place in the battle. And with fierce determination, Paul threw himself into the heat of battle without reservation. He let nothing stand in his way when it came to pleasing the Lord and sharing the Gospel. So let me ask you something. How important is your calling to you? Is it everything? You might not be called to preach the Gospel like Paul, but you are called to share Christ Jesus with your world. If you belong to him, then make your calling count. Let nothing stand in your way of doing what he has called you to do.   HOW IMPORTANT IS YOUR CALLING TO YOU?

Even the Philistines Knew Better

by Dr. Paul Chappell

“Wherefore then do ye harden your hearts, as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? when he had wrought wonderfully among them, did they not let the people go, and they departed? Now therefore make a new cart, and take two milch kine, on which there hath come no yoke, and tie the kine to the cart, and bring their calves home from them: And take the ark of the LORD, and lay it upon the cart; and put the jewels of gold, which ye return him for a trespass offering, in a coffer by the side thereof; and send it away, that it may go.”
1 Samuel 6:6–8

Because of the wickedness of the sons of Eli and the old priest’s failure to stop them, God gave the Philistines victory over the Israelites in battle. They captured the Ark of the Covenant and placed it in the temples of their gods as part of the spoils of war. God destroyed the idols, making the stone statues bow down before the Ark. And He brought great diseases to the Philistine cities. They quickly realized what was going on and determined to return the Ark to Israel. They remembered the story of God’s judgment on the Egyptians when they would not let the Israelites go in the days of Moses, and did not want to experience His judgment any longer.
Too often we cling to our sin, hardening our hearts against the convicting voice of the Holy Spirit and reproving words of the Bible. We love our sin and do not want to let it go. As a result we suffer the punishment God brings on His children. He loves us too much to allow us to continue in sin. “Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby” (Hebrews 12:8).
 

Today’s Growth Principle: 

Rather than hardening our hearts, we should quickly repent when God chastises us for our sin.