by Rusty Stowe - Senior Adult Minister
One of the most difficult things for me to do when my phone rings is not to answer it! I grew up with a phone on the wall of our kitchen or on a table in the hallway. There was no such thing as “call waiting” or “leave a message and I will call you back.” If you wanted to know who was on the phone, you had to pick up the receiver and say “HELLO!” More times than not, many of our phone calls were not that important, but there was just something inside of me that would not let the phone ring without answering it.
Several times in the Word of God we see people answering a call from God. It may not be on a land-line or even a super-duper high tech cell phone, but a call is issued from God to many of us and we have to decide whether or not we are going to answer.
Jonah was one of those guys. God called him to go to a place called Nineveh to preach the Word of the Lord. Jonah decided not to answer the call but decided to head out for Tarshish. It took God issuing a second call before Jonah obeyed. Jonah trusted God to take care of him as he responded to God’s call on his life.
Right now, we have people, in several parts of our church, that are receiving a call from God. Two in particular are Griff and Shari Henderson. Griff has answered the call from God, and our Pastor Search Committee, to come back to CHBC and serve as our Senior Pastor. We, as the church, need to be aware of the things that will take place in the lives of the Henderson family as they prepare to move to a new place of service. Just as Jonah was blessed by God for answering the call in his life, our prayer is that Griff and Shari will be blessed by answering God’s call in their lives.
There are some great days ahead for the CHBC family. Let me encourage you to listen for God’s call, do not check call-waiting to see who is calling and do let the spiritual phone ring! Answer it, respond quickly and be willing to follow God as He leads you to where He wants you to serve.
Rusty