An Authentic Calling: Representing Christ and His Kingdom through the Church

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An Authent i c Ca l l i ng: Represent i ng Chr i s t and Hi s Ki ngdom through the Chur ch

calling, having faith in the God who had given men the gifts. . . . God’s calling is in relationship to building his Body. It is not the ultimate purpose of God to glorify himself through individuals, but rather through groups of people who are called by his name (Eph. 1.18; 3.10). God did not intend for me to be a lone-wolf Christian. Ever since we got to Mississippi he has given us people who could support and encourage us as well as hold us accountable. As an individual I can be a witness. But even though I as a missionary may seem to be alone, there are always others standing by me, praying from afar off, or working by my side. And this is a reflection of how God moves us out of our individuality toward a body. In the body, with all the gifts making up the arms and the legs and the other parts, we can become the actual in the flesh representation of Jesus Christ, the very Body of Christ. 1. God’s demand for his people to completely annihilate the nations of Canaan, Deut. 7.1-2 (ESV) – “When the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and mightier than yourselves, [2] and when the Lord your God gives them over to you, and you defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. You shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them.” 2. God’s desire for his people to be a distinct and precious people to himself, Deut. 7.6 (ESV) – “For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.” 3. God’s covenant with his people: individual fidelity to the covenant is lived out in conjunction with God’s community , Deut. 7.7-10 (ESV) – It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, [8] but it is because the Lord loves you and is ~ John Perkins. A Quiet Revolution . Waco TX: Word Books, 1976. p. 37. A. Definition of the call to community in the Exodus story