The call of God is utterly unique. We think we are answering God\u2019s call when we devote ourselves to spiritual service, but once we get into a right relationship with him, we see how wrong we\u2019ve been. When God calls, he calls us to something we\u2019ve never dreamed of before. In one radiant, flashing moment, we see what he wants us to do\u2014to \u201cfill up\u201d in our flesh \u201cwhat is still lacking in regard to Christ\u2019s afflictions\u201d\u2014and we are riveted with a terrific pain.<\/p>\n
The call of God has nothing to do with personal holiness. It\u2019s about being made broken bread and poured-out wine. If we are ever going to be made into wine, we will have to be crushed; you cannot drink whole grapes. But God can never crush those who resist the fingers he uses to do it. Those fingers may belong to someone we dislike, or to some set of circumstances to which we said we would never submit. We think, \u201cIf only God would use his own<\/em> fingers to crush me, and do it in some special, heavenly way!\u201d We have to learn that we cannot choose the scene or the means of our martyrdom.<\/p>\n I wonder what kind of fingers God has been using to squeeze you. Have you been hard as a marble and escaped? If God had persisted in squeezing you while you were still unripe, the wine would have been remarkably bitter. If you wish to be a person whom God can easily crush, you must allow his presence to govern every element of your natural life and to break those elements in his service.<\/p>\n We have to be rightly related to God before we can be broken in his hands. Keep right with him, let him do with you as he likes, and you will find that he is producing the kind of bread and wine that will benefit his other children.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The call of God is utterly unique. We think we are answering God\u2019s call when we devote ourselves to spiritual service, but once we get into a right relationship with him, we …<\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":2284,"template":"","collection":[39],"class_list":{"0":"post-2705","1":"modern-classic","2":"type-modern-classic","3":"status-publish","4":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"collection-service"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/utmost.org\/id\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/modern-classic\/2705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/utmost.org\/id\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/modern-classic"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/utmost.org\/id\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/modern-classic"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/utmost.org\/id\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/modern-classic\/2705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utmost.org\/id\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/utmost.org\/id\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"collection","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utmost.org\/id\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/collection?post=2705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}