Answering The Call! (part 1)

ANSWERING THE CALL! (part 1)

DID YOU LEAVE THE ANSWERING MACHINE ON?

Do you get frustrated when you want to talk to a person, but all you get is their answering machine or an electronic recording instructing you to punch more buttons on your phone? What an impersonal world in which we live! Then there are some who let their answering machine intercept their calls even when they are home.

Is this the way we are with God? Does He keep calling us, yet we fail to pick up the phone, letting Him listen to the “machine message” of our life? Consider the following individuals who, in this sense, left their answering machines on.

Consider Felix:
“And as he [Paul] reasoned about righteousness and self-control and the coming judgment, Felix was alarmed and said, ‘GO AWAY for the present. WHEN I GET AN OPPORTUNITY I WILL SUMMON YOU.’” ( Acts 24:25 ESV)

Felix’s machine was saying: “I’m sorry, I can’t answer your call right now, but if you will leave a message I’ll get back to you when it’s more convenient in my life.”

Consider some invited to the great banquet in one of Jesus’ parables:
“(18) But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. Please have me excused.’ (19) And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them. Please have me excused.’ (20) And another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’” ( Luke 14:18-20 ESV)

The property buyer’s machine was saying: “I’m sorry, I can’t answer your call right now, but if you will leave a message I’ll get back to you as soon as I’m able to buy up the rest of these lots on which I plan to build condominiums so I can rest and take life easy and then be able to eventually clear my mind to answer your call.”

The livestock buyer’s machine was saying: “I’m sorry, I can’t answer your call right now, but if you will leave a message I’ll get back to you as soon as I tear down my corrals and build bigger ones, build up my herds so I can be set for many years and take life easy. Then when I’ve had ample time to rest up I’ll get back to you.”

The newlywed’s machine was saying: “I’m sorry, I can’t answer your call right now, but if you will leave a message I’ll get back to you as soon as we are able to get our house in order, the bills paid, the kids through college, and I have more time after retirement; that is when we’ve completed our traveling abroad, of course.”

What is the “machine message” of your life saying? Or have you gone ahead and picked up the phone and answered the call?

Have a great day prepared to ANSWER GOD’S CALLING!
Carl

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[This focus was originally sent 02/22/1999 (Edited some with passages changed to ESV)]

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