November of Thanksgiving 9

You can get this button from Lisa of Lisa Notes.I’m thankful that so many people are participating by giving thanks daily this month. It is a joy to put these posts together. It’s a blessing to read each of your links and be reminded of all the good gifts God has given.

Others thanking God today:

• Diane is thankful that she can grow old gracefully with God.
• Trisha is thankful for “the kindness and love [God] continually pours out on us through the body of Christ.”
• Joan is thankful for her Christian heritage.
• Becky is thankful that “God’s Word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.”
• Lisa is thankful for honest fiction.
• Kim (The Upward Call) is thankful for beautiful fall sunshine.
• Persis is thankful for modern medicine.
• Victoria is thankful for the leaders of her church.
• Kevin is thankful for God’s grand design in creation.
• Melissa is thankful for her husband.
• Jennifer is thankful for supportive parents.
• Connie is thankful for homeschooling.
• Hollie is thankful for the gift of fellowship and friendship.
• Pam is thankful for dogs in her life.
• Lindsay is thankful for dancing.
• Sallie is thankful for pain medication.
• Leslie plays catch up in her thanksgiving.
• Becky (All We Like Sheep) catches up with a list of nine things she’s thankful for.

Update 7:30 pm PST:

• Sandra is thankful for God’s promises.
• Dorothy is thankful for what God has done as written in Isaiah 12:1-3.
• Rosemary is thankful for safe arrivals before the snow and more.
• Kim (Hiraeth) is thankful the energy to clean her windows and more.
• Aadel is thankful for technology.
• Amy in Peru is thankful for faithful young men and women and more.
• Leslie is especially thankful for her husband.

What are you thankful for today?

I’ll be back this evening to add any more thanksgiving posts I find (or that you point me to). As more people participate, it gets more likely that I’ll make mistakes in my posting, so if I miss your post or mess up a link, please tell me. And remember, if you miss a day or two, you’ll need to give me a heads up on your next thanksgiving post.

Do you want to participate, too? You’ll find instructions here for the ways both bloggers and nonbloggers can join in the thanksgiving.

Called According to Paul: 1 Corinthians 1

I want to put this old series of posts in the favorite posts section on the right sidebar, so I’ll be reposting them from my previous Blogger blog one by one over the next few weeks. An explanation of this series of posts can be found here.

Not Herman Ridderbos.What did Paul mean when he used the word called in regards to God’s calling? How did he define it? What significance did he give to it? Those are the questions this series of posts is seeking to answer. I’ve already posted a quote from Herman Ridderbos in which he gives us his studied view of Paul’s usage of the word; the point of these posts is to check things out to see if he’s right.

I’m going to start with 1 Corinthians 1, for no real reason except the word called or calling is used of God’s call several times there, and I know this passage fairly well, so I’ve got a bit of a head start on things. What I’ll do is look at each instance of the word in the context it is used to see what I can learn about the way Paul uses the word from that. I’ll not worry too much about the exact form of the word, but look at every usage that comes from the same root, as long as it is God doing the calling. Besides the text itself, I’m going to limit myself to my concordance, because that’s a tool that most people have and know how to use.

Okay, here we go. Right off the bat, we have this:

Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus… (verse 1)

What can we learn from this verse? First of all, the call here is to apostleship. If you’ve read Paul at all, you know that he considered his apostleship to be a personal appointment from God, so we can understand that in this usage, the call is a call that is particular in nature and of some strength, like a summons, maybe. It is this call that made Paul an apostle rather than a more ordinary follower of Christ. This call also originates in God’s will or choice, and it is to something: to be an apostle.

Next up:

To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ…(verse 2)

The church is often refered to by Paul as the “called” or “called saints”. Here he explains that this saintly calling is to all believers everywhere, but it is only to believers. So we can understand this call as well to be particular rather than general: to all who call upon the name of the Lord, but only to those who call upon the name of the Lord. And it is a call to something: to be saints.

Verse 9:

God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

This calling is also to something: into fellowship with God’s son.

 [After I first posted this, Brandon Watson added that this verse shows the power of God’s call,

since the call seems to be put forward as part of the clarification of verse 8, i.e., that God will keep you firm to the end. The idea seems to be that, because God is faithful, His call is the explanation of our steadfastness in Christ.

Here are verses 7-9 so you can see the flow of the thought:

….you are not lacking in any spiritual gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ,  who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.  God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.]

Verses 23 and 24:

we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

In these verses we see a little of the power within the call of God. The message of Christ crucified (or the gospel) is, in general, something that is despised as worthless or troublesome. It is offensive the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles. However, there is an exception: to those who are called, from both Jewish people and Gentile people, the message of Christ crucified becomes the power and wisdom of God. This call then, changes how the message of the gospel is perceived. This is also a particular call rather than a general call, for it is to certain Jews and Greeks out of the Jews and Greeks in general.

There’s another statement in this passage that is parallel to this one, so let’s put the phrases from the parallel statements side by side to see if we can glean a little more about the meaning of the words. The parallel statement is in verse 18:

For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

Putting the two side by side:

the word of the cross/
the preaching of Christ crucified

folly to those who are perishing/
a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles

but to us who are being saved/
but to those who are called

the power of God/
the power of God and the wisdom of God

Paul statements equate being called with being saved. It is “those who are called” who are “us who are being saved.” This is a call that saves. This is a particular call, then, and a call with the power to save.

Verses 26-28:

For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are…

These verses are interesting because they show us again the parallel between God’s choice and God’s calling. God calls what (or whom) he chooses.

This passage also stresses the insignificance of what (or who) is called. It is an “out of nothing” (things that are not) calling. This wording reminds us of God’s creation of the world out of nothing by command, suggesting to us that this calling, like God’s command in creation, is a creative command.

Thats it. We’ve gone through the whole chapter. Since this is all very rough, and what you are reading is more or less a bunch of study notes, I’ll ask what you see that I missed. What can you see in this passage about the meaning of the word called or calling when it is used by Paul in regards to the call of God?

All scripture quoted from the ESV.

November of Thanksgiving 8

You can get this button from Lisa of Lisa Notes.I’m thankful for work. I have work I need to do today—and probably tomorrow, too—and I’m not enthusiatic about it. In fact, I get tense just thinking about it. Last week I filled holes, sanded the filler, and painted the top part of the dining room walls. (I have a chair rail dividing top from bottom.) The painting was fun because I was excited to see the finished results. (Which reminds me: I’m also thankful for CIL paint colours Misty Glen and Chalk.) Now, today, I need to  put things back on the newly painted walls, which is turning out to be a big job because I’m changing things up as I go. Then I need to restore order to the rest of the house. I let it get embarassingly disordered and dirty around here while I focused my attention on the paint job. This is the part of the whole job that I’m not finding fun.

But work‚ even work we don’t like, is a good thing. It gives purpose to our lives—purpose to my life—and I’m thankful for it. And when it’s all done, I’ll be thankful for that, too.

Others thanking God today:

• Diane is thankful for fine new hymn writers.
• Trisha is thankful for life in pictures.
• Joan is thankful for God’s peace.
• Becky is has a whole list of things she’s thankful for.
• Lisa is thankful for that God’s presence is everywhere.
• Kim (The Upward Call) is thankful for Dr. Martyn Lloyd Jones.
• Persis is thankful for a reminder in yesterday’s sermon.
• Victoria is thankful for our great High Priest.
• Kevin is thankful for music and singing.
• Melissa is thankful for her daughter.
• Jennifer is thankful for her church and for being able to be part of the Ladies Ministry Team.
• Connie is thankful for friends.
• Jen is thankful for sleep.
• Laura is thankful for memories of a simpler time.
• Hollie is thankful for memories in photographs.
• Dorothy is thankful for God’s word.
• Pam is thankful she was able to attend an Elizabeth George Seminar.
• Lindsay is thankful for wonderful time with her sister and more.

Update 8pm PST:

• Rosemary posts a poem of thanksgiving.
• Sallie is thankful that God knows her frame.
• Kim (Hiraeth) is thankful for cell phone photos and the son who sends them.
• Aadel is thankful for farmers.

What are you thankful for today?

I’ll be back this evening to add any more thanksgiving posts I find (or that you point me to). As more people participate, it gets more likely that I’ll make mistakes in my posting, so if I miss your post or mess up a link, please tell me. And remember, if you miss a day or two, you’ll need to give me a heads up on your next thanksgiving post.

Do you want to participate, too? You’ll find instructions here for the ways both bloggers and nonbloggers can join in the thanksgiving.