Ordination Response

When I was a child, my mother, April, repeatedly told me that God had a special job for me to do. She didn’t know what it would be, but she was confident God had a purpose for me. My mother’s investment in me was one of the tools God used to call me.

Beaver Eller, Richard Thomas, and David Currier were three young men in high school who had purposed to serve God with their lives. The devotion of these young men, and the example of their willing hearts was a tool God used to call me.

When I was a 15 my pastor took an interest in me. He spent time with me. He invited me to join him in his ministry, and he told me he believed God had a job for me. Steve Caza’s personal investment in me was one of the tools God used to call me.

When I was 16 I took up the challenge to read the Bible from cover to cover. When I got to Isaiah, I read about a man who, like me, felt that he was unworthy to be seen and known by God, much less for him to see and know God in His glory. He said, “Woe is me! for I am lost; I am a man of unclean lips… [and] my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” (). God sent an angel to touch Isaiah’s lips with a coal from the altar of burnt incense in the heavenly sanctuary, and the angel said, “your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.” (). Then, with an awesome significance I heard God in my heart saying, “Jason, your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for… whom shall I send and who will go for us?” Isaiah’s story was a tool that God used to call me.

What I’ve learned through the years is that I am not in ministry because I am better equipped than others, or more eloquent than others, or more intelligent than others, or more righteous than others. I am in ministry because God chose me to do something for Him.

I may not be a Moses who wrote arguably the most significant parts of the Bible. I may not be a Paul who articulated the theological foundation of and built the missionary branch of the early church. I may not be an Isaiah who spoke righteousness and obedience to power. I may not be a Daniel whose diplomacy and godliness influenced at least two world-conquering kings and paved the way for the freedom of the Israelites. And I may never be a one of the great speakers or administrators of Adventism. But you see, achievement is not the point of calling. God does not call us to excel. He does not call us to conquer. He does not call us to succeed. He calls us to serve. For 15 years I served God as a teacher and leader of literature ministries. For the last couple years I’ve been serving God as a pastor. Either way, and wherever the future path may lead me, I am at God’s disposal. My prayer is that my heart will stay true to Him, that my hands will diligently do His will, and that my life will bring honor to His name.

In Jesus says,

:

John 15:12–13 ESV

12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

Jesus said this in the middle of talking to his disciples about their calling. He had just told them that they need to abide in Him and let Him abide in them, and He was about to tell them they will be hated by the world. In the middle of all that He calls them to love each other, and then He says this:

John 15:14-

John 15:14–15 ESV

14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.

“You are my friends”, He said. He didn’t called them simply to serve Him. He has called them to be His friends. Then he adds this incredible point:

John 15:16–17 ESV

16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. 17 These things I command you, so that you will love one another.

John 15:16-17

“You did not choose me, but I chose you...” To me, that’s the most significant part of God’s calling. God has chosen me. If you really knew my heart you’d probably think He made a bad choice. But that’s the point. He chose me, even though He knew me. He forgave me, and cleansed me, and gave me a new life. I am forever in His debt, and forever grateful that He has chosen me.

He’s chosen each one of you too. He has some purpose or another for each one of us. No matter our past, or what we think our future might be, each one of us is part of God’s spiritual building. Whatever our task may be, whether it’s teaching a children’s sabbath school class or washing the dishes after potluck or making sure the building is in good repair, God has chosen us. Some people get the lime light—and God help them that they don’t become proud from it. Others of us are given responsibilities that don’t get as much attention. But there is no small task in God’s service. Every job that God gives us, every responsibility He asks us to take on, has God-sized implications. In eternity we’ll all realize that the only one who ever really had the lime-light was Jesus.

To Him be all glory, all honor, and all praise. And His will be done.