From Moreland’s blog:
My fundamental life-commitment, the very reality that drives me on a daily basis, is increasingly to fall in love with the Triune God, to bring honor to Jesus Christ and make him famous among the nations, and to become like him in attitude and action. Under the power of the Spirit, I want to lead a victorious Christian life and experience a Christ-honoring, vibrant death.
The fundamental means by which these life goals are achieved revolve around making progress in what I have summarized as the “Kingdom Triangle,” and to do so in community with other friends, brothers and sisters: This involves:
Cultivating the life of the mind: It is important to know what one believes and why one believes that way. It is crucial to learn how to think as a Christian throughout the whole of life in a Christ-honoring way. While the Bible is not a philosophy text, still, it embodies a worldview, including implications for metaphysics, epistemology, value theory, and other areas, and my goal as a disciple is to honor Jesus Christ in my worldview thinking in which there is no distinction between secular and sacred.
Flourishing the life of a tender, non-judgmental, loving and joy-filled heart, centered in biblically-informed spiritual formation, the practice of spiritual disciplines, and a constant invitation from God to co-labor with Him in accessing my heart and its current state. I want to be a winsome, non-defensive, courageous witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ and to do so with a heart of agape love.
Attending to the supernatural life of a disciple of Jesus, empowered by the Holy Spirit and the Kingdom of God, in which I learn to grow in seeing answers to prayer, the sick healed, the demonic addressed appropriately, and words of knowledge, prophecy, and wisdom flowing through me for the edification of others.
All three values are to be done in the context of a priority on developing close friends in the body of Christ and serving alongside brothers and sisters in a local church.
The “Kingdom Triangle” is not the Gospel, but it does offer good news for those whose identity and way of life are defined and nurtured by the Gospel of God’s Kingdom, the proclamation of saving life, redemption, power, forgiveness and grace in Jesus Christ.
From Moreland’s blog: Five values have informed my own sense of vocation:
1. The value of love and devotion to the triune God, with special focus on Jesus Christ, along with an intentional plan to make progress in spiritual formation.
2. The value of the mind and a developed intellectual life in which truth and reason are central.
3. The importance of being a Christian activist, one who seeks to penetrate the world with a Christian worldview, with special emphasis on the Great Commission.
4. The value of friendship and community in the body of Christ, in which one learns to give honor to others and to be genuinely enthusiastic about their successes and concerned about their hardships.
5. The importance of learning how to live a supernatural Christian life, in which the miraculous power of God’s kingdom breaks through in such a way that I become “naturally supernatural.”
We’ll latch on to anything besides Jesus for security and significance, even learning about Jesus. HT – Justin Taylor.
Filed under: Vocation
Paul was a tentmaker – that was his job but it wasn’t his calling.
North:
“The calling is the most important task that a person can perform in the kingdom of God in which he would be most difficult to replace … A calling is less specific, unless it is a job. There are a few jobs that serve as callings. Ordination to the ministry is one of them. You get paid to do your calling. Teaching in a Christian school can be a calling.”
Paul had confidence in his calling because it wasn’t his occupation and nobody would replace him unless also called by God. Paul was irreplaceable.
“The hard part about identifying a calling is not judging it’s irreplaceability. The hard part is judging the tasks value to the kingdom of God. As a man who has several occupations – writers are afflicted with low specificity – and at least one major calling, with two additional ones looming, let me say that assessing the value of a calling is the hard part. That something which doesn’t pay needs to be done is easy enough to assess. Lots of non paying tasks need to be done. Large armies could not do them all. The difficult question is ‘does this need to be done soon, and by me?'”
Pauls job was crucial. If you seek a crucial calling, forget about status.
The Brooks 