The Brotherhood of The Book
January 4, 2025
“Making your Calling and Election Sure”
2 Peter 1:10
2 Peter 1:3-11, “His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. By these he has given us very great and precious promises, so that through them you may share in the divine nature, escaping the corruption that is in the world because of evil desire. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with goodness, goodness with knowledge, knowledge with self-control, self-control with endurance, endurance with godliness, godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being useless or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. The person who lacks these things is blind and shortsighted and has forgotten the cleansing from his past sins. Therefore, brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election, because if you do these things you will never stumble. For in this way, entry into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be richly provided for you.”
Within the visceral interior of these verses we have a limitless mine of godly treasures to uncover and discover. We have precious promises to take hold of, a divine nature to revel within, and Godly character to fashion our lives upon. We have Jesus Christ himself to redeem us from our sins, adopt us into his family and to guide us every step of the way.
But . . . and here is the big but . . . nothing matters in these verses if you haven’t first been “called”. Being “called” is the very first step and one that we might not give enough effort to understand and be assured of. Peter tells us to be “diligent” about making your “calling” sure and known.
1. What does being “called” mean?
At its root, to be “called” means that you are “regenerated”. To be “regenerated” means to be “born again”.
John 3:1-3, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
2. What is “regeneration”?
Regeneration is the very first spark of life you experience as a soul being brought from spiritual death to spiritual life. It is the moment in time when God himself “called” you from death to life.
John 11:43-44, “When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”
Once the “calling” starts, it never stops. Once a soul is regenerated, it never dies. It’s not the moment that you accept Christ as your Savior, it’s what happened beforehand that lead you to that moment of acceptance. It can happen very close to that moment of acceptance, and it may seem like it was one and the same moment as acceptance, but in reality being “born again” is a two step process. “Regeneration” is step one. “Redemption” is step two.
3. How does “regeneration” work? It’s a bit of a mystery.
John 3:4-8, “The wind blow where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
4. What does “regeneration” look like?
Ephesians 2:4-6, “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.”
Genesis 2:7, “then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.”
John 5:24, “Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life”.
Think of “regeneration” as the hearing part. Think of “redemption” as the believing part.
5. When did I experience “regeneration”?
When was the moment you first “heard” Christ shout aloud to you, like Lazarus, “Come out!”?
1 Peter 2:9-10, “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”
6. In the whole of scripture, “Calling” has two meanings.
“Calling” can refer to the moment in time that God said, “Come forth.” It can also mean the “work” God has called you to do after you have “come forth.” There is a spiritual “calling” and a physical “calling” that God has for those he calls his own.
Genesis 2:15, “The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.”
When a man has a physical “calling” on his life, what does that look like? Describe it to me.
1 Corinthians 7:17, “Nevertheless, each person should live as a believer in whatever situation the Lord has assigned to them, just as God has called them.”
2 Timothy 1:10, “He has saved us and called us to a holy life — not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace.”
Philippians 3:13-14, “But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”
What is your God given ”calling” that drives you on a daily basis? What are you straining for? No one has to tell you to do it. It just drives you? Do you have one? You were given one. What might it be?
How might being assured of both your Spiritual “calling” and knowing your what physically “calling” is make a significant difference in the way you live out 2025?
Listen for it, if you’ve never heard it.
Rediscover it, if it has been lost.
Dive deeper into it, if known.
Fan the flame of our calling as an act of daily worship that drives us heavenward in Christ Jesus til God takes us home.
What’s my job?
It’s my job to pray it out.
It’s God’s job to work it out.
It’s not my job to worry, doubt or figure out,
God’s eternal plans that are all mapped out.
It is my job to flex and help Him out,
when God sees fit to call me out.
It’s not my job to feel put out,
if God needs me to sit one out.
It is my job to walk it out,
with tired souls who feel burnt out.
It’s my job to hymn His praise and be content with standing out.
It’s God’s job to keep my days and take me home when time runs out.
by D. Mike Collins
Written 12/30/2024