THE CALL OF GOD: POINTED AND APPOINTED -- Devotional for October 24, from "Good Seeds"

The Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” When they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them out. The men sailed to Cyprus, where they immediately began to proclaim the Word of God. (Acts 13:2-5)

Though the call of God upon His missionaries is primarily a spiritual thing, it is not entirely separated from geography. Before he was converted, Saul’s base of operation was Jerusalem. From there he branched out to neighboring cities rooting out followers of Jesus and dragging them back to headquarters, where they would be flogged, jailed, and in some cases put to death. If you asked Saul he would tell you he was doing God’s bidding: he had spiritual work to do and he was going to do it! And he would do it within the parameters of his own particular mission field. It just so happens that this mission field of his extended to the town of Damascus. POINTED in that direction, he kept his APPOINTMENT with destiny, for that was where Saul met his Waterloo. In fact, that’s where we say goodbye forever to Saul, and hello to Paul. “Same guy,” you say? Hardly! For Someone met him there, and after he was APPOINTED to his new assignment, he became a clear picture of what he later would teach as the position of the Christian: “If any man be in Christ he is a new creation: old things pass away; behold, all things become new” (II Corinthians 5:17). And if you asked Paul now what was God’s bidding, though he again would say, “I must be about my Father’s business” (Luke 2:49), that business would be in building the church, not destroying it. It would be the exact opposite of his former profession: “I must go, for I am an appointed instrument of Christ’s, to bear His name before Gentiles and Jews alike – whoever stands in my path! (Acts 9:15). When Christ appeared to Saul on the Damascus road, it was like what happens when a mounted cowboy enters the rodeo ring: he appears out of nowhere to the little doggie, and confronts him, and in no uncertain terms, constricts him! Jesus stopped His enemy cold, in his tracks, and bound him – not his legs, but his eyes – getting his full and total attention. And here Jesus APPOINTED Saul to a new task. POINTING to the same road He said, “Get back on your horse and keep going to Damascus, and there you’ll find out “what I’ve got planned for you, and what things you will suffer for Me” (Acts 9:16). That suffering started right away: when he arrived no one would touch him, for no one could trust him. He was white hot with the fire of God, and folks feared getting burned. By the way, that’s the sign of a man appointed and called of God. Is that you? Is that me?