God’s call still clear and strong

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There’s a debate happening on some internet blogs about the two missionaries who contracted Ebola while serving in Liberia. Dr. Kent Brantly, serving through Samaritans Purse, and Nancy Writebol, a nurse serving with SIM, were airlifted home and treated at Emory Hospital.

Brantly and Writebol both survived and are recovering. However, a third American missionary doctor has been diagnosed with the virus.

Some people were critical of their going all the way to Africa when there are so many needs right here. One blogger wrote, “Whatever good Dr. Brantly did in Liberia has now been overwhelmed by the more than $2 million already paid … just to fly him and his nurse home in separate Gulfstream jets, specially equipped … and to care for them at one of America’s premiere hospitals. There’s little danger of the plague breaking loose (here), but why do we have to deal with this at all? Why did Dr. Brantly have to go to Africa? Can’t anyone serve Christ in America anymore?”

This question puzzles me. What did Jesus command us to do? “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). Not just at home, but to all people groups in all nations.

What did Dr. Brantly say about his moving to Libera? He was called. Standing before his church family in Indy in July, 2013, Brantly said he heard the call in the teachers who urged him to memorize scripture and the neighbors who funded his first mission trip years ago. He saw it in the aunts and uncles who spent their vacations running Bible camps, organizing youth groups and serving missions themselves in Africa.

“It may not seem like much, but when you connect the dots you see a grand design that God has used to draw my life in a certain direction.” (religion.blogs.cnn.com/2014/08/09, “Why Missionaries Put Their Lives on the Line”). God’s voice didn’t boom from the sky, but God’s call was clear.

When Nancy Writebol addressed the press last week, she acknowledged that many might wonder why she and her husband would volunteer in Liberia during the Ebola outbreak, and she strongly stated, “It was God’s call.”

God’s call is that mysterious, inner drive that compels a believer to pursue a God-given direction or passion. Some have described it as “God’s tap on the shoulder.” Martin Luther described it as “God’s voice heard by faith.”

Occasionally, I am asked about my call to preach. I did not have a dramatic voice from the sky, either. God revealed His call for my life a little bit at a time.

God used my childhood preacher to plant a seed. As a youngster, I stood at the podium in the fellowship hall one Sunday night and mimicked him. His wife told him “Roy, that’s what you look like.” From that point on, he called me “his little preacher boy.”

As a college student, I was appointed to serve as a summer missionary. I realized that God would use me if I simply made myself available. I grew tremendously through that experience.

After college, I ended up in fulltime Christian service as a communicator-public relations professional for a Georgia Baptist college and then a Southern Baptist missions agency. Those experiences gave me a desire to pursue a master’s degree, and I felt I needed to go to seminary to better prepare.

About half-way through seminary, I began picturing myself as a pastor, and I got to the point where I could not see myself doing anything other than serving God as the pastor of a local church.

Charles Spurgeon described an indication of God’s call to the ministry as “an intense, all-absorbing desire for the work.” I had that God-given desire to preach the word and pastor God’s people.

Every believer is called to serve God and share the gospel. God sends some people to Africa, and he sends other people down the street. He provides for us a job as an avenue through which to glorify Him, and calls each person to serve Him through that job.

Why did Brantly and Writebol go to Africa? They were called. Can’t anyone serve Christ in America anymore? Of course. The question is, do we see ourselves as missionaries following God’s call wherever He leads us?

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[Dr. David L. Chancey is pastor, McDonough Road Baptist Church, in Fayetteville, Ga. The church family meets at 352 McDonough Road and invites you to join them this Sunday for Bible study at 9:45 a.m. and worship at 10:55 a.m. Visit them at www.mcdonoughroad.org and “like” them on Facebook.]