“However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying the gospel of God’s grace.”
~ Acts 20:24
Hi James and Ellen,
Do you know what vocation that your grandmaa and grandmaa are in today? A vocation can be a calling. The vocation that your grandmaa and grandpaa are in today happened because God called your grandmaa and grandpaa into the vocation. God’s foreordained vocation calling for your grandmaa and grandpaa was for your grandmaa and grandpaa to be missionaries. Do you know how God the Spirit calls a guy or gal into a missionary vocation? Early in the fall of 1973, God the Spirit called your grandpaa into a missionary vocation. God the Spirit gave your grandpaa a very clear call to pursue a missionary vocation during the annual missions conference that was taking place in the church in Aberdeen, South Dakota where your grandmaa and grandpaa had become members. God the Spirit gave your grandpaa a missionary vocation call during a plea that the missions conference’s speaker – who was himself a missionary, was making for every guy and gal who was attending one of the missions conference services to stand up as a way to show his or her wholehearted support for his or her kid or any one of his or her kids – no matter how young the kid is, if God the Spirit has given his or her kid or any one of his or her kids a clear call into a missionary vocation. Your grandpaa did not stand up. Your grandpaa was hearing God the Spirit clearly telling him not to stand. Your grandpaa had gotten to thinking that he was still young enough that he could take his kids with him wherever he went as a missionary. Your grandmaa did not stand up either because she wanted your grandpaa to stand up first. The Aberdeen Christian and Missionary Alliance Church’s annual missions conference’s special missionary speaker in 1973 was Rev. Larry Wright. Rev. Larry Wright had been a missionary for years in Ivory Coast. Ivory Coast is a northwestern country in Africa. Your grandmaa believes that she was called by God the Spirit into a missionary vocation because your grandpaa as her husband was called by God the Spirit into a missionary vocation. When your grandpaa received the missionary vocation call from God the Spirit, your grandpaa did not know what a missionary vocation was really like. A kid said one time that he thought that a missionary is a guy or gal who travels to another country, takes a lot of pictures and then comes back home to show all the pictures that he or she has taken. During a visit that your grandmaa and grandpaa made to a church in Newark, New York – a United Methodist Church, your grandmaa when she was asked to say something said that she did not picture herself in a missionary vocation as the missionary gals who she had met had all been short, had gray hair – which they had put up on top of their head in a bun, and they all carried a Bible under their arm. Your grandmaa is tall, does not wear her hair in a bun and . . .
Paul is thought of as being the premier role model for a guy or gal to follow who God the Spirit has called into a missionary vocation. God the Spirit called Paul to a missionary vocation. Acts 20 gives a guy, gal or kid a glimpse into what life was like for Paul as a missionary. Paul was on his third missionary journey. Paul’s third missionary journey would last for over four years. Paul would spend about three of those years in Ephesus – two of the years teaching in the Hall of Tyrannus in Ephesus. After what Paul was teaching nearly started a riot in Ephesus, Paul decided to head for Macedonia. A missionary vocation will have a guy and/or gal stay in one place for a period of time. A missionary vocation will have a guy and/or gal doing a lot of traveling. A missionary vocation will have a guy and/or gal wherever they end up encouraging guys, gals and kids. When Paul arrived in Greece, Paul probably stayed for three months in Corinth. While Paul was in Greece – where Paul spent part of his time collecting money gifts for the guys and gals in the Christ-follower fellowships in Judea who were suffering, Paul heard about a plot to kill him. Three guys from Macedonia, two guys from Galatia and two guys from Asia helped Paul collect money gifts for guys and gals who were suffering who were in Christ-follower fellowships in Judea. These seven guys went on ahead of Paul to Troas while Luke went with Paul to Philippi where they boarded a boat that took them to Troas.
Paul spent seven days in Troas. After celebrating the breaking of bread or the Lord’s Supper or communion with the guys and gals in the Christ-follower fellowship in Troas, Paul was given an opportunity to preach. While Paul was preaching, a kid fell asleep. The kid – Eutychus, was sitting in the third floor upstairs window when he fell asleep. When Eutychus fell asleep in the third floor window, Eutychus fell down to the ground and . . . when Paul saw Eutychus fall out of the third floor window, Paul hurried downstairs and threw himself on Eutychus. Eutychus was killed when he fell down to the ground from the third floor window but when Paul threw himself on Eutychus, Eutychus became alive again. Have you ever fallen asleep in a church when a preacher was preaching? Paul went from Troas by foot to Assos where Paul was met by the rest of the guys who had been traveling with him in Assos. Paul’s companions had taken a ship to get to Assos. Paul got on his companions’ ship in Assos. Paul by this time knew that God the Spirit wanted him to make it to Jerusalem in time to celebrate Pentecost with leaders of the Jerusalem Christ-follower fellowships of guys, gals and kids. When he arrived in Jerusalem, Paul told the Jerusalem Christ-follower fellowships’ leaders in verse 24, “However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying the gospel of God’s grace.” God the Spirit called your grandmaa and grandpaa into a missionary vocation to have them tell guys, gals and kids about God the Father’s grace. Your grandmaa and grandpaa believe that God the Spirit will have them finish strong.
Acts 20 (307)