Make sure of our calling…

I’ve decided again to read the ‘devotional’ passage that my church sends every morning (as I enjoyed a nice cup of coffee that the office coffee lady made me). The verse which it focuses on this morning is 2 Peter 1:10 which reads:

“Therefore, brother, be all more diligent to make your calling and election sure, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall” (ESV)

Now I do not intend to go into a long theological debate about whether God has predestined some people to salvation and others to damnation (I think from my past entries it should be quite clear that I believe that that belief is a deception), I believe that the clear teaching of the bible is that “calling” “election” and even “predestination” are always in relation to some job or task that God wants a person to do rather than unto salvation. But I believe that the main thrust of the message contained in this verse, one which I think is of utmost importance is that we constantly have examine ourselves.

Notwithstanding my comments in Sunday’s entry about the will of God, we can never be too sure that any particular job or opportunity is what God intends for us (for our entire lives). I believe that the best way to approach the will of God is to just move along with the opportunities that present themselves and then consider it in retrospect to determine whether it was the right move. The key is in the willingness to admit and accept if you’ve got it wrong and then to choose a different course of action. After all, it was Einstein wasn’t it who said that, “insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result”.

So bottom line: If we are willing to constantly question and examine ourselves, our beliefs, the things we are taught, certainly we “will never fall”.

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More rules a sign of strength or weakness?

I had a thought this morning as I was getting ready for work. It was about how people put so many restrictions, rules and “traditions” into the Christian life.

The strange thing is that if it were for the purposes of protection (of themselves and those around them – the paternal tendency of wanting to protect those in your “care”) then it should produce a sense of humility. I say this because there has to first be the acknowledgement that you are weak, so weak that you require placing “additional” restraints on yourself. However, what I see in churches today is quite the opposite. Its used as a “weapon” or “licence” by many Christians. A weapon to “bash” others with, a licence to judge those around them.

The funny thing is that Christian beliefs and teaching were never meant to be forced on people, just the same way that one cannot force another to accept Jesus into their hearts. Force is completely antithetical to anything in the Christian faith – we always have to exercise our “free will” and choose. Even if one has a conviction about a particular activity or belief, he must not “force” others to accept or agree with him. After all, shouldn’t it be a matter for God, the Holy Spirit, to deal with that person on? If you were the one of either “convinced” the other person by your skillful eloquence and wit, would all the glory go to you instead of God?

I do not presume to know everything about living the Christian life or mean to suggest that I have lived or am living a perfect Christian life (I haven’t by any stretch of the imagination), but one thing I do know – things are not what they should be.