Means Of Grace Series

Two or three months later I found out differently. God began calling, and I began resisting. At first I was worried it was going to be a call to go to Africa as a missionary; therefore, I became the original artist to record the Christian hit single “Please don’t send me to Africa with the lions, and tigers, and snakes.”

God soon clarified the call; it was a “call to preach.” God was persistent in doing what he wasn’t supposed to do. I argued with Him and constantly resisted the Call for 2 ½ years that I would never have peace until I fully obeyed the Lord. I finally surrendered to Him and His will and plan one cold, Saturday evening, February 27, 1965, when I was almost killed in an automobile accident. I said, “Lord, if you get me out of this, I’ll do what you want me to do.”

As I look back on that time of struggle, I wonder how I could have been so selfish and stupid, for I have found that following God’s plan for my life has brought contentment, joy, and peace beyond measure. I could not be happier or more fulfilled than I am in doing what God wants me to do with my life.

When I was ordained a Deacon in 1971 after my first year of seminary, that was one of the most sacred moments in my life as was my ordination as an elder three years later. I sensed that like Paul and Barnabas God had “separated me for the work to which I had been called.” [--Acts 13:2].

Yesterday Kelley Lascelles showed us in “The Priesthood of All Believers” that all Christians are called to be ministers. We all have been blessed with differing gifts to be used for ministry in Jesus’ Name. Clergy and laity are partners in ministry. Clergy are essentially ordained to care for souls and to administer the sacraments. In ordination those whom God has called to the “Ministry of Word and Table” are “commissioned by the Church for ministry in the name of Jesus Christ.”

V. MARRIAGE AND SINGLENESS:

In marriage a man and a woman are joined for a life together in the

Presence of God. Saturday, February 16, 1974, Liz Bluff and I had our first

Date. Saturday, September 28, 1974, just a short 202 days later, we were married. We celebrate both anniversaries each year. As with my ordination, that September evening in 1974 was one of the happiest and most sacred moments in my life. She was radiant and gorgeous as she came done the aisle.

Our wedding was not an event to call attention to us but a worship service to glorify Jesus Christ, and we continue to look to Him to guide our lives and our family through both hard and happy times. The basic responsibility in a marriage is to give 100% of yourself in representing Christ. If both partners gave 100%, think how much love would overflow into the world.

Too many marriages today are based on worldly standards and are full of tension, hardship, and pain; but when marriage is a “Means of Grace,” it opens the door for God’s grace to make a difference in our family and an impact upon society. The New Testament often compares the marriage bond between husband and wife to the relationship that exists between Christ and His Church. Practice Ephesians and