Continued from: Foundations of missions: Our Calling (part 2)

"I have appeared to you..."

Jesus makes himself known to you.

Think back to the first time you ever came to grips with the person of Jesus. I was probably about eight. My mother had just become a Christian. I remember her sharing the story of how Jesus had been so cruelly tortured. Although I didn't understand the theology of propitiation, I did grasp the pathos of his suffering. I did grasp that he had died for a reason and that I needed to respond. In that moment, Jesus made himself known to me.

Jesus appeared to Paul in a dramatic fashion, to others of us he reveals himself in a more subtle way, but before he demands justice and accountability, he appears to all of us in one way or another. We are accountable for the glimpse of Jesus which we have been given. This is the start of our relationship with him. It is the seedbed for commitment.

If you have not met the person of Jesus Christ, then you are missing God's plan for your life. He may not bop you over the head as he did the apostle Paul, but He does desire to appear to you.

"...to appoint you..."

He gives you a role.

Jesus does not tolerate slackers and free-loaders. The Bible says that he is not willing that any should perish and He has enlisted us to make sure that they don't. When an army recruit enlists, he is given a rank and a role. When Jesus appears to us, He not only does so to save us, but to save the world through us.

Many of us have never listened for or responded to Jesus' appointment. And in the absence of information, we make assumptions about what we should be doing. I want to suggest that if you've not received an appointment from Jesus that you take the time to listen to him. Block out time in your calendar just to pray and hear from him.

Dwight L. Moody said, "For years Jesus has been leading me where I never could have gone myself." Where has he been leading you?

So, practically speaking, what does such a leading look like? Realize that God is more concerned with who you are than what you do.

Continued in: Foundations of missions: Our Calling (part 4)