Are
you one of the many? Are you one of the few? I know that many think they are
called and chosen! The few probably don’t even realize that they are. In this
parable, Jesus is referring to the wedding feast of the lamb. I am not going to
go into detail regarding that but I’m going to apply this to a more basic
meaning to life in general. I do this because most believers apply this verse
to their own lives. It is here that a distinction must be made in regards to
the few and the many. In this parable, the many includes everyone and the few
are the ones that respond. This indicates the world at large (the many) and
believers who accept Christ (the few). The same applies to this verse:
Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate
is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who
enter through it. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to
life, and those who find it are few.
Let’s delve a little deeper and apply this
just to believers and how this relates to their life. We will now look at the
many and the few in the category of just believers in Christ. I’m sure you have
heard many believers claim that God has called them to some specific thing they
are doing in their life. Most of the time this is referring to a special
“professional ministry” such as a pastor or evangelist. There are also us
ordinary “lay people” who say the same thing, such as God called me to be a
therapist or God called me to be an athlete. Have you ever noticed that most of
the time, those who claim this, are “called” to something that they want to do
and then superimpose the calling of God over what they want? It may even be a
high calling, as most would view it, so we tend to believe that it must be so.
Sometimes God call us to very simple, mundane things in life that have far more
value than the things we see as a high calling. Every part of the body is
essential to the working of the body as a whole. We all can’t be a heart or an
eye. Someone needs to be a middle toe!
When one comes to Christ, I see that what the
Lord offers us is a cross. This is His calling to the many. Only the few choose
it. I would suggest that most people who claim that the Lord called them to a
“professional ministry” are pursuing their own calling and dream, no matter how
lofty it may seem. I will go even further and suggest that the Lord calls most
of these to abandon their dream or calling in order to accept His, which is the
cross. I do not believe that the Lord calls anyone to a religious system that
operates inside of a world system. He calls all (the many) to a cross, which
has always been outside of this world and all of its systems. We have a
religious system of seminaries and bible schools that “called” men and women
must pay to attend in order to learn what is in the bible and pay to learn
about God. This then entitles them to be ordained into a religious system that
they, in turn, will be paid to dispense to others what they have learned. This
is no different from any other place of “higher learning” where one pays to
learn the certain field they desire to be in and then they have a degree in
which they can be paid to apply their trade. Is this how the church of Christ
should be? Is this what the Lord established? Remember the Lord is the same
yesterday, today and forever. His way hasn’t changed but what we do looks
nothing like His way.
I could go into hundreds of reasons why this
shouldn’t be but that would take another book to write and there are many books
already in print that do this very thing. I will only suggest that this is not
what the word of God teaches. There are no “professional ministries” in
scripture. There are no “lay people” in scripture. There are only brothers and
sisters. God did not establish any bible schools where “called” men would go
and pay other “called” men to learn about Him. There was the Jewish religious
system in place at the time, which Jesus condemned. We now have the same system
but we put the name of Christ on it and call it Christian. The disciples sat at
the feet of Jesus and experienced Christ. Paul was in the Jewish religious
system and Christ called him out of it! Paul did not get “called” and then run
off to a bible school. Neither did he establish one. Both Jesus and then Paul
gave us the pattern for establishing how leaders (servants) should be raised in
the church.
Seminaries and bible schools were established
by men. They created a new religious system that only enslaves men to that
system. It really wasn’t anything new, just the same old religious system with
a new coat of paint and a new name pasted over it in order to make it look
holy. Meet the new boss…same as the old boss! These religious systems are only
men creating God in mans image. They put God in a box and now they have all the
answers about God because they have been “called” by God. So now we have
many men “called” by God but very few men that are broken (chosen). Truth
cannot be held captive by men with limited understanding, who try to capture
and hold truth in a box (man made religious institutions). That is why they
fail so miserably at it and each have their own version of the truth and this
is why they are so split (denominations). This modern version
of “ministry” is a perversion of what we see in the Scriptures and the
“professional” ministers that it produces are evident by the fruit that they
produce. Truth is truth and the only adequate
defense of the truth is to live it.
The first call of God is a cross. We are all
(the many) called. Only a few will go. Once they have accepted the call of God
they will be broken and crushed. Their desires and dreams will be crushed in
the same way. God may even call a man, after he is broken, to work within the
religious system. He only does that if you are broken. When you are broken, it
is then that you are chosen because you have given up your will and desires,
for His. You are chosen because you are walking in what He created you for. You
learn to die daily. You offer yourself as a living sacrifice. You deny
yourself. You have been to Gethsemane. Your will and all your desires have been
broken and offered up as a sacrifice as you reverently embrace your cross. You have
been chosen.
There is nothing wrong with wanting to work in a field that helps other people. There is nothing wrong with wanting to lead others to Christ or to minister to those who are in Christ. This article is not written in judgment of anyone or judging anyone’s motives. God knows the heart. Most, if not all who enter a seminary or bible school, do so with good intentions. They do not even know they are entering into a religious system. It is all they know. It is all that is shown to them, it is tradition. It has been around for so long and it’s the way it has always been done. Actually, it is not the way it has always been done but they no of no other way. Man’s way and man’s traditions have kept them from the pattern that our Lord established. God may even bless them and their work but that doesn’t always mean they are chosen. There are many examples all through scripture where God blesses that which He has not chosen. Take for example Ishmael. He was Abraham’s work of the flesh and yet God blessed Ishmael but it was Isaac who was chosen. Saul was blessed but David was chosen. I hope that you can see and understand the difference. It is time to stop looking at what degree one has or what bible school or seminary one has attended and start looking at their fruit. This is the way that the Lord said you will know them. We do not need “religious professionals” leading the blind and lazy sheep around anymore. We need broken men and women.
The path that I walk is not what I have chosen. I had a completely different vision for my life. I have laid all my ambition and desires for what I wanted, no matter how lofty or Godly they may have been, at His feet. I have to die daily to many things that I still desire for my life. He has chosen for me something I would never have chosen for myself. I do not claim to be chosen nor do I judge who is chosen and who is not. I do know that those that choose their own way will not be chosen. There are still many ships that go to Tarshish for those that seek their own way. Sometimes we need to be thrown in the deep with no hope, in order to see what God wants, instead of what we want. I only relate what I have been shown by the Lord and hope that you are chosen to bring our Lord much joy by choosing what He has chosen for you.
Dana Leonardi
June-July
2012
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