Called According to His Purpose

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28).

Sunday, March 13, 2011, 8:39 a.m. – When I awoke this morning, this song was playing in my mind:

Let My Words Be Few / Phillips, Craig and Dean

And I'll stand in awe of You, Jesus
Yes, I'll stand in awe of You
And I'll let my words be few
Jesus, I am so in love with You

Full lyrics: http://www.christianlyricsonline.com/artists/phillips-craig-and-dean/let-my-words-be-few.html

Just waking up… I slept well, but I am not fully awake. Nothing in particular is on my mind this morning. My husband, Rick, and I initiated a group on Facebook last night, which we titled “Love Rock TSA,” comprising all our friends on Facebook who had been a part of our college-age Bible study that ran from 1999-2006, mostly out of our home. It began as “The Love’s Bible Study,” based off of our last name, “Love,” then was later renamed to “The Rock Bible Study,” based off of Jesus Christ as our Rock, and then in 2002 it was renamed again to “This Space Available,” based off the cross of Christ as the available space for us to come to be crucified with him, buried with him in death to our sin and then resurrected to new life in Christ Jesus, our Lord. The responses to the group so far have been very encouraging to me and to my husband. We have been wonderfully blessed by all the comments that have been made on the group.

I pray, Lord Jesus, if this group is of you, which we believe it is, that you will use it for your purposes and for your glory, but if it is not, I pray it will cease to exist, because we only want your will to be done. I pray your spiritual protection over this group, as well as I pray, Jesus, that this will be a place where we can shine the light of Jesus Christ and his love into the lives and hearts of everyone in this group. Use us, Lord, for your glory in the hearts and lives of all the people in this group. In Jesus’ name I pray these things. Amen! Now I pray that you would speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read Galatians 2:

Fourteen years later I went up again to Jerusalem, this time with Barnabas. I took Titus along also. 2 I went in response to a revelation and set before them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. But I did this privately to those who seemed to be leaders, for fear that I was running or had run my race in vain. 3 Yet not even Titus, who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek. 4 This matter arose because some false brothers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus and to make us slaves. 5 We did not give in to them for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might remain with you.

6 As for those who seemed to be important—whatever they were makes no difference to me; God does not judge by external appearance—those men added nothing to my message. 7 On the contrary, they saw that I had been entrusted with the task of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles, just as Peter had been to the Jews. 8 For God, who was at work in the ministry of Peter as an apostle to the Jews, was also at work in my ministry as an apostle to the Gentiles. 9 James, Peter and John, those reputed to be pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognized the grace given to me. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the Jews. 10 All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.

Paul Opposes Peter
11 When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong. 12 Before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. 13 The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.
14 When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter in front of them all, “You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?

15 “We who are Jews by birth and not ‘Gentile sinners’ 16 know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified.

17 “If, while we seek to be justified in Christ, it becomes evident that we ourselves are sinners, does that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not! 18 If I rebuild what I destroyed, I prove that I am a lawbreaker. 19 For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”

My Understanding: As I prayed concerning what the Lord would teach me and/or have me share this morning from this passage of scripture, I believe he gave me a paraphrase of what Paul shared in this 2nd chapter of Galatians concerning his own calling and ministry, only as related specifically to this calling God had, and has placed upon the lives of me and my husband in ministry. So, this will be a little different from what I usually share.

Paul said he went up “again” to Jerusalem, in response to a revelation. I know God gave me and my husband a “revelation” in 1999 to begin this college-age Bible study out of our home. He told us to just begin a Bible study and invite people, so that is what we did, out of obedience to God. Then, again in 2002 he gave us another “revelation” when he had us change the focus of our ministry from more of a social ministry to being crucified with Christ (see Galatians 2:20-21), and he gave us the new name, “This Space Available,” and he inspired the logo that has now become my avatar in the ministry to which God has presently called and placed me in writing what he gives me to write each day (since 2006).

And, today, as I was praying about this group we initiated on Facebook, I believe the Lord was confirming that he had initiated this group, and that it was also by revelation from God that He/we formed this. Then, he gave me insight into the name “Love Rock TSA,” that I had not previously had, and that is in asking the question, “Love Jesus? (The Rock) – then, This Space Available, i.e. the cross of Christ is available for us to come to him and to be crucified with Christ so that we no longer live, but Christ lives within us, and the life we now live, we live by faith in Jesus Christ, who loved us and who gave himself up to death on the cross for us so we could go free from the penalty of sin, and free from the control of sin over our lives on a day-to-day basis.

Over the course of this Bible study we had, as did happen with Paul, “false brothers” infiltrating our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus and to try to make us slaves to them (to man), only in our case, we invited these “false brothers” into our ranks, not knowing that they were “false brothers” when we invited them. We did not give in to them for a moment, though, so that the truth of the gospel might remain with all these young adults who were a part of this ministry over the course of time of its existence.

These men (and/or women) added nothing to our message. In fact, many of them wanted us to water down the gospel message, or they just wanted to use us to accomplish their worldly passions and desires, i.e. their human goals and visions. Some of them lied to us and tried to manipulate us into changing our message by watering it down to make it either attractive to the world or to minimize it so as not to offend the world with the message of the cross of Christ. Yet, God had called us to preach the true gospel of Jesus Christ to those whom God had placed under our care, and we took that calling and charge seriously.

The same God that was at work in the ministries of other local congregations was also at work in our ministry to which God had called, and had placed us, i.e. this college-age Bible study group. We were just as called as any official ministers were called to their respective local congregations of disciples of Christ.

Then, those who were reputed to be “pillars of the faith,” in some fellowships, extended Rick and me the “right hand of fellowship” when they realized the grace given to us by God. They agreed that we should continue in this ministry to our “Gentiles”, and they even offered to help support us in our ministry. Yet, some of those “pillars of the faith,” such as Paul had experienced with Peter, drew back from their support of us and began to separate themselves from us because they were afraid of those who belonged to the “circumcision group,” i.e. the establishment, the institutional church, i.e. those who would put God in a box and who would limit how God works, by trying to fit Him in with man’s thinking and perception of how God is supposed to work. Yet, God works in mysterious ways, and he will even use a donkey, or a false prophet (Balaam), or even rocks to cry out his messages if he has to. He is not limited the way man often limits him. He is only “limited” by his own divine nature and character. He will not act against his own character.

Paul addressed Peter publicly on this issue of hypocrisy and of drawing back from associating with Gentiles out of fear of the “circumcision group.” And, the Lord has had me, and Rick, speak privately, on some occasions, to those “pillars of the faith,” because we saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ and his word, and they were clearly in the wrong by siding with the “circumcision group” over and above God’s word sometimes. They were in the wrong, biblically speaking, too, in their rejection of us, or of just me, because they didn’t think God works this way or that he would use me in this way, even though the Bible supports me and us in this ministry, and God has continued to confirm his calling on my life and our lives over and over again.

Rick and I taught, and teach being made right with God through faith in Jesus Christ, not through following man’s teachings, rules, philosophies, and/or religious practices. I died to the law so that I might live for God in true freedom to be who God has called me to be. The true gospel of Jesus Christ that I live for, and am called to teach, and to be a witness for, i.e. what it truly means to be made right with God through faith in Jesus Christ, can be summed up, thus, in these words:

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”

I will leave you with this question, again, today. Do you love Jesus? Then, “This Space is Available,” i.e. the cross of Jesus Christ is available for you to come and to be crucified with Christ, reckoning yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus, our Lord, through whom the world was crucified to me and I to the world, so that I may no longer obey its lusts and desires, but I might be wholly devoted to God through faith in Christ Jesus, my Lord, and serve him as my only Lord and Master from now to eternity.

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b58/Christsfreeservant/SpaceAvailableLogo.jpg