The Call

# 694 The Call
by Timothy VanValin / tvanvalin@hotmail.com / December 17 , 2009

Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 28:19) This verse is one that everyone knows but hardly anyone does. Make disciples. Okay. Seems like pretty clear direction from Jesus. Come to think of it, it probably couldn’t be any clearer. So then why do some people do it and others do not? Why is it so incredibly appealing to the people who are doing it but about as appealing to those who aren’t as their next Rotary Club meeting? After Jesus ascended into heaven the disciples wasted zero time in making more disciples. What prompted them to step into the Call so quickly? I think we’ll come to find the answers to these questions are not grounded in obedience but rather in trust and intimacy.

In a favorite story, Aladdin stretched out his hand to Jasmine and invited her up onto the magic carpet and into a whole new world with four simple words, “Do you trust me?” It cuts to the heart of what would hold Jasmine back in her old predictable life. God does the same. He’s always speaking, always calling to His people. He’s always inviting them up and into the Call and the story He’s been telling since before time began. And so, with God’s part completed, His Call through Jesus ripping clearly through our muddled thought and stagnate state, the question becomes this--What will we do with it? What will we do with His Call? Will we step into the unknown with Him? Will we trade what we know for what He knows? The answer to these questions depends on who we know God to be. All the vigor with which we respond and follow or all the excuses with which we decline stems from this and only this. After all, we don’t follow or obey anyone we don’t know intimately or don’t trust completely.

...If our focus is on the senseless pain in this world we’ll surmise God has simply abandoned His creations. And if He’s abandoned us then we’ll side with the crowd that says God no longer speaks to His people; believing that the Holy Spirit has somehow been muzzled. And if we can’t hear His still small voice we can’t be told what to do. And if we can’t be told what to do, then the only heading we have is our own, born of our own emotional sway and desire and the deafening proof of God’s absent voice and intervention. And so we’ll just go about our lives, much the way pagans do, and hope things work out for the best.

...Today, our face-to-face encounters with God occur during our time with Him in the Scriptures. And so we must approach our time together with a desire for intimacy. We must always ask, “Papa, can we talk? I need and want to know you more deeply, more intimately, today. Reveal Your heart to me in what I’m reading so that I can know You better.” That’s the prayer God has been waiting for. After all, His desire for us is not simply more knowledge about Him, but more intimacy with Him. That is what he offered Isaiah and that is what He is offering us today; an intimacy with Him that manifests itself in our own transformation and His glory. When this happens, answering the Call becomes the greatest honor we could ever receive. T. Van Valin

(From the Editor: These are excerpts from an amazing article. Timothy is a nephew of ACTS Board member, Jewel Van Valin. He has recently joined our writing team. You can hear his heart. In the future we will try and post his complete articles on our web. Due to space, we have given you a sampling. The second part of the article is focused on Isaiah 6. Read it and see the prophet's heart preparation in an intimate, close encounter with God and the response of Isaiah to The Call, “Send me.” Ask the Lord God, as Timothy has, to give you a personal encounter with Him and He will empower and enable you to be His disciple and to go and make disciples of all nations. Glory! God touched Timothy. Now the outgrowth of his walk with God is circling the Globe by emails and the printed version. ACTS reaches 47 countries each week. Pray for Timothy and his family. Bless them. Respond to The Call of God in a deeper way than every before, Amen. He needs you!)

We speak a blessed Christmas season over you and your entire family tree. We pray that you will have a worshipful Christmas!

If it were possible, we would invite you all to dinner at our home…”Father's House”, but, instead
we trust God to fill your home, apartment, and for some, prison cell or hospital room, with
His glorious LIGHT.

2010 is going to be an exciting year in the Kingdom of God—righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit! We need your prayers for us and our family tree. Be assured of our daily prayers for you and your family tree.

Blessings, Ralph & Susan McIntosh
on behalf of the ACTS Foundation Board and Team Members!