Calling
(Jer. 1:1~10)
Jeremiah, the prophet of tears wrote his Lamentations in the darkest age of Judah. Lets think about how Jeremiah carried out his mission in response to Gods calling of him.
1. The Word came to him. 'The word of the LORD came to me' is repeated three times, which shows us the first prerequisite of calling. The meaning of Jeremiah, who was called by God at the age of eighteen, means God raises or God hurls. When the Word came to Jeremiah, he had King Josiah who constantly supported him. But he also had King Jehoiakim who persecuted him and King Zedekiah at the peak of persecution. Thus God cast away Jeremiah before raising him. How sorrowful he might feel that he shouted for his people in vain throughout his life until Jerusalem fell and his people were put to death! He seemed to be a loser. The core of his prophecy was that Israel would fall and his people would be Babylon captives. This harsh message was the Word that came to Jeremiah. Did the Word come to you? If so, its the high time to humbly receive it and be warned by it.
2. God set him apart from the womb. We are predestined by Gods providence. Therefore, we should not waste our life. Knowing this itself is Gods call. If weve already had a non-Christian marriage, we need to live our captivity life well where we are. We need to take holiness as our road with our consecrated perspective. Without knowing Gods calling for us, even Christians abort and divorce. What matters is having godly values. At the moment, we face lots of youth problems. The key to these issues is parents. There are no problem children. There are only problem parents. The parents right-and-wrong attitude is the very source of problems. There are no good or bad parents. There are only Christian parents or non-Christian parents. We need to have a perspective of redemption history and meet the Lord, who knows us even before we were born. Like Jeremiah, we are also called by God as a prophet to someone in the world, whom we need to tell this message. We are all different in our roles, but the same in Gods calling. God constantly consecrates us through a lot of trials.
3. Calling precedes volunteering. Jeremiah responds to Gods calling, saying 'I do not know how to speak. I am only a child.' However, God enlarges his message while bringing up Jeremiah. We are all nothing but a weak child before God. What with so busy and what with no money, we always have excuses for saying No to God. God simply wants us to obey his command, committing everything in his hands instead of alleging that we are a child. We are afraid of people and circumstances because we see our mission in human perspective. However, it is the Lord who actually fulfills our mission. In our small group community, we can be spiritually awake and endure one another at least for the sake of our application. We should not live a devil-may-care life. We are Gods ambassadors. We think we may say 'No thank you' to Gods calling for our servant life. But Christians have no choice to this calling. We should not find our mission somewhere else but where we are now. All we need to do is enjoy sharing it with others.
4. God put the Word in his mouth. We understand the message of Gods judgment in the midst of being judged by God. When we understand it, God puts the Word in our mouth. Without carrying our own cross, we cant understand the gospel. Jesus Christ was baptized by John the Baptist in obedience to the order of rank on earth. We are living in a spiritual dark age without a godly perspective that transcends morals and ethics. Passing through the different reigns of King Josiah who supported him, Jehoiakim who persecuted him, and the worst of all, Zedekiah, Jeremiah accordingly received different messages of God, which enabled him not to be afraid. Calling is a constant war against fear. It is also the process of putting the Word in our mouth based on our relationship with God, the foundation for us to stand on without fear. Whether praying or counseling or preaching, we can be clear in logic and make no mistakes when we act on the basis of the Word,
5. We increase spiritually as much as we lose physically. God lets us uproot and tear down, destroy and overthrow, and build and plant. Notice that destroying precedes building and planting. The Scripture is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, In it, there are no words of consolation. What matters is not circumstances or incidents but our godly values. The theme of Jeremiahs prophecy was Repent! Or your will be the captives of Babylon, to which no one paid attention. Surely his mission called for tears and lamentation. When God destroys us, we need to lament not out of sorrow or bitterness, but for the sake of our mission. Without having ever fallen, we dont know what it is actually about. Despite all our trials, we still continue our evil of discriminating and despising people. People who used to say 'Things will be OK' are totally helpless when we fall. However, those who remind us that being torn up and destroyed by God is a blessing will be with us, lamenting together with us when we fall. Those who are called by God have only to repent. God destroys us to help us pull out our sins. As 100% sinners, we are all about to fall at any time. Yet we need to spiritually rise up on all such occasions.
Then the LORD reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, 'Now, I have put my words in your mouth (Jer. 1:9).
