The Calling to Higher Ground

Romans 11:29

For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.

     That was King James. Let's put it in modern English, NAS:

The gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.

     Now let's put it in an easy-reader translation, God's Word:

God never changes his mind when he gives gifts or when he calls someone.

Some scholars, and consequently some denominations, interpret this verse very narrowly. The say that "gifts" refers only to the gift of grace for salvation and that "calling" refers only to the invitation to accept salvation into the Kingdom of God. Fine and true, but let's look at some other scripture where the "call" is mentioned.

Philippians 3:13, 14 — in verse 14, Paul says that he is pressing on toward the goal of the prize of the high calling of God.  In the previous verse, verse 13, he clearly said that he does not regard himself as having laid hold of it yet. Surely Paul was using the word to mean something more than accepting an invitation to salvation, otherwise he would not yet have been born again. Notice also that the calling is a "high" or upward calling.

2 Timothy 1:9 — in this passage, the saving and the calling are treated as two separate functions of God, where He "has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace."  The works alone are insufficient for salvation because it is a call of faith. Yet at the same time, when it comes to one's calling, faith without works is dead, (see James 2:20, 26).

Ephesians 4:1 — the Greek word for "calling," κλῆσις (klēsis) is actually translated as "vocation" here in the King James: "walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called." Multiple contemporary English translations render it as a "calling" to which/with which/wherewith, "you have been called." The fact that Paul was in prison when he sent this letter to Ephesus gives even more credence to the idea that "calling" means more than an invitation to get saved. He was in the place God wanted him, a prison, even though he was not guilty of some wicked sin.

These passages provide further scriptural underlayment for the post of August 6, "Desires of the Heart." That post explained that God puts the desire for your call in your spirit. But desire alone was not enough to get KatieLyn, the runaway bride, to press on and pursue the prize of the high calling of God. She declined to follow God's upward purpose and take the place for God had made for her. She opted to not walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which she had been called.

There is an old hymn, Higher Ground, which captures what I wish KatieLyn had been able to sing from her heart. The lyrics were written by Johnson Oatman Jr.; here is the first verse and chorus:

 I’m pressing on the upward way,

New heights I’m gaining every day;

Still praying as I onward bound,

“Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.”

Lord, lift me up, and let me stand

By faith on Canaan’s tableland;

A higher plane than I have found,

Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.

The second verse is tragic when applied to KatieLyn's story:

My heart has no desire to stay

Where doubts arise and fears dismay;

Though some may dwell where these abound,

My prayer, my aim, is higher ground.

Apparently she did desire to stay where her doubts originally arose and where she'd first become dismayed by fear. She ran back home to resume dwelling where those thoughts had abounded. She did not aim for higher ground. She never entered Canaan's tableland but fled back to Egypt.

The Lesson
Today's lesson from the runaway bride is that the Lord's callings come with a vector, a direction; higher, deeper, onward, or as Aslan said in Narnia, "Further Up and Further In." If you are standing still, going in circles, adrift, or worse, running backwards, then you'll miss the prize for reaching the goal.

 

 ♦  If you are unfamiliar with this hymn, an audio file can be accessed here