GodSpeak for the Week of February 10
“Calling”
With Rev. Demelash Yoseph as our guest preacher this Sunday, our devotions will center on the Lectionary readings for this week.
Day 1…Read Isaiah 6:1-7 (focusing especially on v. 1).
- Consider this – this is the famous passage about how Isaiah was called into prophetic ministry. However, before he talks about God’s call, Isaiah offers one particularly important detail – that his call by God occurred “In the year that King Uzziah died…” (i.e., about 739 or 740 B.C.)
- Answer this – why is it important that writers like Isaiah include details like the death of a particular king (or, in Luke’s account of Jesus’ birth, that certain people were leaders)?
- What does this do in terms of the reliability of the account?
Day 2…Read Isaiah 6:1-7 (again).
- Consider this – Isaiah’s call to ministry was dynamic…it was a vivid scene…it was clear and bold.
- Consider this – many folks in our modern world complain that God no longer acts in the same dynamic, vivid ways He did in the Bible.
- Answer this – how many other people witnessed Isaiah’s call to ministry, besides him?
- Did that negate or call into question the reality and validity of his call by God?
- Answer this – reflect on how God has called you to ministry.
- Was it as vivid and dynamic as that of Isaiah?
- Where were you, what was happening – when you first realized God was calling you to serve Him?
Day 3…Read 1 Corinthians 14:12-20.
- Consider this – Paul is talking here about the spiritual gift of speaking in “tongues”; a spiritual gift which compels the speaker to utter (what to the casual hearer) may sound like babble (or, “babel”), but to another Christian ear is understood and then interpreted for the congregation.
- Consider this – Paul notes that he himself has the gift of tongues (v. 18).
- Answer this – while tongues is indeed a spiritual gift, what is Paul’s concern with its practice in this passage?
Day 4…Read 1 Corinthians 14:12-20 (again, especially vv. 18-19).
- Answer this — what is Paul’s point in saying this?
Day 5…Read Luke 5:1-11.
- Consider this – this is the famous story of Jesus’ calling of Peter, James and John.
- Consider this – as a result of Jesus’ miraculous provision of fish, Peter falls to his knees and says: “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful” (v. 8)
- In Greek, that word “sinful” carries with it the notion that Peter is saying he is “not free from” sin.
- Answer this – what does Peter’s response (along with the emphasis that he’s not free from sin) tell us about Peter’s reaction to what Jesus has done?
- Why is that insight important and helpful?
Day 6…Read Luke 5:1-11 (again).
- Consider this – Jesus simply declares that the three shouldn’t be afraid, but that rather than fishing for fish, they’ll now “catch men.” (v. 10)
- Consider this – the new disciples’ response is that they “left everything”; literally, they “gave up all claim to” everything they’d owned and followed Christ.
- Answer this – what does that look like for us to “give up all claim” to the things around us to follow Jesus?
- How do we do that in a practical yet faithful way?