Calling

Pastor Tanya was our special guest today and she shared her story of her calling. Based on this practical example we tried to determine general principles used to determine our calling: seek after God, scriptural basis for our choices, affirmation of community, circumstances, experiences, gifts, passions, prayerful consideration and rarely "fleecing" (Judges 6:36-40).

We tied our understanding of calling back to our recent discussion on election, predestination and free will. The glossary of our book equates election to calling. The glossary then defines calling as "An invitation or summons God issues to people, initially to follow him but then also to perform specific tasks in the world or the church." A calling is not our choice, but God's summons. We looked at the dictionary definitions of "vocation" ("calling") and "profession" (of our faith). While modern usage is in the secular workplace, these words have deeply Christian origins and tie back to God's call for our salvation.