The Call Is For All Series

Dr. Paul Brand was called by God to become an expert in treating the deformed hands of lepers.

This Christian doctor has done more for restoring the hands of lepers then anyone in history. It all

began in 1947 in a leprosy sanitarium not far from Madras, India. He was being shown around the

hospital by Dr. Robert Cockrone the renowned skin specialist. He noticed so many of the patients

had twisted, gnarled and ulcerated hands with some fingers missing. He asked how they got that

way and what they were doing for them. The answer was that they didn't know, and that nothing

was being done.

Dr. Cockrone explained that not one orthopedic surgeon in the world had yet studied the

deformities of the 15 million leprosy victims. Dr. Brand was applauded. That was more people

than had been deformed by polio or in auto accidents world-wide. Yet there was not a single

surgeon to serve this desperate need. He walked up to one of the patients and pride his fingers open.

He put his hand in his own and asked the person to squeeze as hard as you can. He was shocked at

the power, and had to ask the patient to stop for he was hurting him. He realized that the muscles in

this deformed hand were still good, but the patient could not feel the force. At that instant he knew

the Spirit of God had called him to find the answer. With that hand shake his vocation for life was

determined. He went on to become the leading surgeon in the world for lepers hands.

Dr. Brand's call was as clear to him as was the call of Moses at the burning bush, or the call of

Paul on the road to Damascus. Dramatic calls like this are very personal, and they may mean little

to others. Paul's call was doubted, questioned, and fought by many. He had to defend his call all his

life. The same was true for Moses. A call from God does not mean that even godly people will

recognize it as God's call.

One of the greatest missionaries to China was the little British lady named Gladys Aylward.

She was converted at a Salvation Army street meeting, and as a cleaning lady she got to reading the

books of her employer who had a large section of them on China. She felt God wanted her to go to

China to share the Gospel. When she applied to the Mission Board they gave her an intellectual test

she could not pass, and they said no. She did not measure up and could not go. She went anyway,

and she became so successful that years later a motion picture called "In Of The Sixth Happiness,"

was made about her ministry. God's call is above man's approval.

We could go on endlessly telling stories of calls like this, for there are thousands of them. But

because they are amazing and dramatic they are the only calls that we hear about. The result is that

the greater call of God to all His people is obscured and terribly neglected. The very Greek word

that Paul uses in verse 1 to describe himself as called to be an Apostle is the word he uses 2 more

times in his introduction to the Romans to describe the call of all Christians. The word is kletos, and

it is used in verse 6 of those called to belong to Jesus, and in verse 7 for those called to be saints.

Every Christian is called to belong to Jesus and to be saints. This is a universal calling and one that

would be more history changing than any other calls of God if God's people would heed the call.

We have so exalted the special call to the few that we have ignored the general call to the many.

This is so even though the calling of God to all His people is the primary emphasis of the New

Testament.

This same word kletos is used by Paul again in Rom. 8:28 where he writes, "And we know that

in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His

purpose." All Christians are just as called as Paul. He does the same thing in I Cor. He uses the

word called twice as often for all Christians as for himself. We tend to think of Paul as somewhat

conceited because he is always telling people he is called to be an Apostle. But Paul exalts all

Christians, even the poor ones of Corinth, to the level of the called. He begins I Cor. with, "Paul,

called to be an Apostle," but in the next verse he refers to the Corinthians as those called to be holy.