Your Calling

One ringy dingy. A gracious hello. Have I reached the party to whom I am speaking? Is this General Motors? Hi General.

How's everybody doing again? Charlie, how's Mrs. Motors? Oh, I beg your pardon. You are the president of the General Motors. Of course. Of course, now I recall General Motors. That's a switch, isn't it? Somebody recalling General Motors?

I found a love that I thought would save me. Welcome to the Christian Car Guy Radio Show. I say this calls for action and now! Okay, so no one's answering. Can't you just let it ring a little longer, longer, longer? Oh, oh. Okay, so no one's answering. Can't you just let it ring a little longer, longer, longer?

Oh, oh. I'll just sit tight through shadows of the night and let it ring forevermore. You're calling!

You might have guessed that one. You're calling today on the Christian Car Guy Show, and before I get into all that, I got a calling for you. God is calling you to set your clocks back tonight. If you didn't know that, yes, it's Halloween. How fun is that? And at the same time, God wants you to make it to church on time tomorrow, so you gotta set your clocks—I guess you—yeah, you fall back.

That's what's going on. So we get an extra hour of sleep and have fun. You know, we don't want you showing up at church too early. Or maybe that might be good. I don't know.

But I know this is one place that you're getting a call. So, you know, the famous laugh-in skit there that Lily Tomlin played just calling the General of General Motors is just classic stuff. Then we got, of course, Jim Croce with his love that he thought would save him.

You know, that's a really chilling kind of discussion, isn't it? And then, last week, somebody challenged me on whose ukulele that was underneath, you know, Welcome to the Christian Car Guy Show. And I knew it was the Hawaiian guy who sings Somewhere Under the Rainbow, but I looked it up. A lot of people refer to him as Izzy.

His Israel, like, Hawaiian name that starts with a K that's really long. But it's a beautiful Somewhere Over the Rainbow version, if you've never heard it. And I love the ukulele that's under that, so I use that.

And then the Electric Light Orchestra, right? Think about how many songs—I could have used dozens—to talk about phone calls. But you've got to call. It's coming from God. It's all the time.

And, you know, a lot of men, they struggle with that. And so we've got a boot camp coming up. I'm really, really fun. I'm with Masculine Journey Radio as well as the other things that I get to do. But one of my funnest things I get to do is boot camp. And we're going to start that one November 12th through the 15th, so we're about 10 days out.

And very, very exciting. By the way, that's all at ChristianCarGuy.com. Believe me, a lot of people fly in from out of state and stuff to this thing. It's a time that we spend alone with God.

There's no cell phone coverage up there, so you can get alone. We're going to have plenty of covenant of silence times for you to pray. But one of the things we pray about is what is our calling, right?

A lot of men struggle right here, including me. You know, God, what do you want me to be when I grow up? So there's a lot of instruction there. And so this particular camp, I happened to draw that talk, which is one of the talks that goes on a little bit later in that.

And it just intrigues me on how we kind of triangulate that position. And so I've been studying that all week really, really hard because I have that talk. And then yesterday was my birthday.

So really, really fun. My daughter, my granddaughter came over to help me celebrate my daughter Tess, who's the nurse. And as you would do at a family dinner, Tess is telling us that she really thinks she might have PTSD from what she experienced this week. And I really didn't have any idea what nurses go through at times. But clearly, you know, she works in the operating room at the trauma center at Baptist Hospital. And there was a gunshot wound to a 22-month-old baby. And she happened to be, you know, not in her normal position, but she was helping out some of the what they call scrub techs.

I don't know all that much about it. So she had scrubbed in in order to help them to get ready for anything that might show up. And while she scrubbed in, whatever that means exactly, and I suppose nurses and doctors out there know what I'm talking about, but I know while she's scrubbed in, all of a sudden, here comes this complete trauma case of this 22-year-old child that had been shot. And oh my goodness, what she described that she went through, and I did not know that they keep the operating room like at 100 degrees while they're going through something like this. And as she begins to describe all the things that they were doing to save this baby's life, and as I'm listening to her, I'm realizing the call that's on her life to do something just like really significant. And I can see how this, and fortunately, the child lived at least through these first couple surgeries.

And last I heard, they were still in critical condition, and we can still be praying for that. It means a whole lot to my daughter, believe me, because she feels like, oh my gosh, Dad, we were in the operating room at 100 degrees for like five or six hours, and seeing this doctor just do amazing things that would save this child's life. But as she's describing it, you know, to me, she says, you know, Dad, like when you clean a fish, and you see this, and she's describing things that you, and then all of a sudden it hit me, that's right. One of the reasons that Tess wanted to be a nurse was I took her fishing when she was a kid.

And part of the thing that, you know, my son was never all that wild about cleaning the fish. Tess loved it. And one of the things I used to love, which just sounds really gruesome, but it turned out to be instrumental that God would use this in a powerful way. That like, oh my goodness, I used to love, if you catch the fish, and you get the guts out really quick, you can watch their little heart beat. And it just was neat.

And I used to show Tess, look at that, you can see his heart still beating. And so she just fell in love with this whole process. And so part of the reason that she wanted to be, my mother was a nurse, and she loved that idea of service, but she really wanted to be a nurse and involved in things that I don't think a lot of people, you know, naturally have a gifting towards. But clearly she does. But as I'm sitting there watching this, I'm looking like, oh my goodness, God, how did this happen?

How did she understand this? And I realized that because of some of the callings that God had on my life, which was, I love to fish. I actually love to clean fish. I love to hunt.

I actually love to dress deer. You know, it's something I've always done. And I did not realize, oh my goodness, God would use this in order to save or help save this particular person's life, or maybe all kinds of people that God is working on in so many different ways while we're just sitting back there thinking about it.

But there's this wonderful movie clip that we use in this talk that just is down in everybody's soul that's ever seen it. It's Eric Little in the, you know, the Olympics near the turn of the century. He was a runner, but he was also wanting to be a missionary to China. And in this little quote there, his sister's trying to talk him into just being a missionary. And he says, but God made me fast. And to not run would be to hold him in contempt, because when I run, I can feel his pleasure. And to win is to honor him. Well, the point is that quite often our calling isn't that big thing to go to China. It might be. I mean, all those things are part of it.

But we were called to an abundant life. And there's little things in life that could be a huge part of your calling, because you feel God's pleasure when you do that. It may be playing a musical instrument, which is part of what I'm going to do. And this is part of the reason I want you all to come is you may know I chopped up my little finger and I play guitar. So at the end of this, I'm going to play my and then my 12 string came off my 11 string guitar.

The little part that holds it up at the bridge is gone. So I'm going to play classical gas on 11 strings with nine fingers. OK, you get a chance to experience that if you go to this book. We're going to talk about this calling.

And, you know, there's a lot of really, really powerful forces that are at work here. But then there's always something really simple that God's just trying to get at in all of this. And he really kind of makes it clear just in Genesis when he just gives you your first calling, right, because he sits Adam down.

He says, OK, the very first thing he says to Adam is what? Be fruitful. Oh, my gosh.

Can we dive into that? But here's what I want you to do to help share with me today, because I'm all by myself and I need your calls is what do you do? And it may not be your actual occupation or maybe what do you do where you feel God's pleasure? It might be selling cars. You know, it might be doing something else or working the board at church. I don't know. But what do you do where you sense God's pleasure like Eric Little did while you do it?

Eight, six, six, three, four, eight, seven, eight, eight, four, eight, six, six, three, four. Truth. I would love to hear your story today. I don't want to be all alone. So call me. You're calling today on the Christian Car Guys show. God's calling you and actually is calling you all the time. The question is, do I pick up the phone?

But meanwhile, we have I'm very excited. I ask, where do you sense God's pleasure and what you do? And I ask that people call in and share with that with me, which I'm very excited to have. Joan is in Greenville, South Carolina.

Joan, you're on the Christian Car Guys show. Good morning. Good morning.

So I am dying to know what you want to share with us. OK. When I was growing up, my mother was a school teacher and I always did not want to be like my mother. Like a lot of kids do. Right. And so guess what God has me doing today? I saw that one coming.

Yeah, you guessed it. And not only that, but I'm teaching release time, which is where we take the kids out of the school to a nearby church to teach them Bible study and prayer, have prayer during the school day. And we are able to do that because of a ruling that the Supreme Court made in the 1950s, that this was constitutional, that we could do that as long as we have the parents permission and do it away from the school ground off of the campus. So I think it's a wonderful opportunity when they when they were asking at my church for teachers, I thought, well, I'm just going to try it just to see what happens. And I've never done anything, any taught, any teaching before.

And I always loved little kids and I felt comfortable with little kids. But this is middle school. So God was taking me, definitely taking me out of my comfort zone. But it's been difficult at times because middle school is a hard time in life for kids and everybody that works with them. But it's been difficult at times that I felt would feel like, you know, I'm not getting through to these kids.

I'm not doing any good here. But yet there's been there are times when I'm telling a Bible story and they are just hanging on to every word. Well, it feels like God is smiling down at that time. I know I'm doing God's word, God's work in my life. And then there are times too, and there's times too in the community where I will run into a student that I had in middle school who is now graduating from high school and either going to college or working. And it is amazing sometimes those kids that I have the hardest time with are the ones that are going to be missionaries and, you know, doing jobs, working in a pharmacy, just things like that. And it just really touches my heart and it validates what I'm doing to see those kids that I didn't think were hearing a word I said. Oh, that's the very, yeah, that's the very word, validation.

Now they're doing God's will. And I call that the, this is going to sound a little weird, but I've always thought about this, you know, I call it the buck knife strategy. And here's the deal, that those kids that are difficult to work with, and I've dealt with a lot of them over the years, they're like a buck knife. They're really, really, really hard to get sharp. And I really think Jewish people, to a great extent, not to, you know, I don't know, to be judgmental or whatever, but I've met a lot of Jewish people and they're really, really, really hard to get sharp. But once you get a buck knife sharp, it stays sharp.

I mean, it really can do a lot of cutting. And so those same kids, they're influencers and they really have giftings. But of course, they got different attacks because Satan's very aware of what those kids are capable of.

And he's been coming after them big time, right? And so it's so beautiful that, you know, you have this testimony that others listening, you know, well, maybe it's worth the extra 10 minutes with this kid that's driving me crazy. So that's beautiful. I've seen God work in so many amazing ways in that, that it encourages me now to take those that are difficult and spend that extra time with them.

You know, because I've seen already in the past how God has worked in that life. That's just beautiful, Joan. God bless you. Thank you for calling and sharing.

I really, really appreciate it. Thank you. It's just so wonderful to have your call today.

I love your show. Thank you, Joan. Thank you. Bye-bye. Thank you. All right. You know, you got something to say and you are welcome. Please me. I'm dying to hear what you want to say.

866-348-7884. You know you've sensed God's pleasure when you're doing this. Even though it didn't seem at the time like this would be something, oh, God was in it. He was in that fishing trip.

He was in that time you went, you know, out and started playing the piano or whatever the situation was. It's just amazing to see how this stuff comes back. So as I'm preparing for this boot camp, I am looking at these things that I've used in the past to try to help me, what I call, triangulate my position. So if you went out to try to find your way right now to somewhere, you would probably need a map or a GPS system. Or a lot of times you triangulate your position with your eyes. You just don't even know it. It's like I'm sitting here and I know where the microphone is, which kind of tells me where my producer is.

Right, Kim? And based on where that window is, I kind of know where I'm supposed to sit or where I'm headed because I'm actually triangulating my position with my eyes. Which is what you do if you're out at sea and you've got a buoy over here to the left and an island to the right. And you take your compass and you see what degrees that's headed that way and that way and you triangulate your position. But in order to do that, you need a really good compass that knows where true north is and you also need a really good map. And so as I'm doing this talk for the boot camp, the three touch points that I'm going to be talking about that we use to kind of triangulate our calling are desire.

Like something you really, really want to do like go fishing or maybe you teach or not. Desires are big, one of those three things you can triangulate. On validation, which you just heard Joan talk about, you sense God's pleasure. You can get validation from a lot of places, but validation from God, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased, means a ton.

And the third one is risk. Now the map, you might guess, is your life story and the compass, as you might also guess, is Jesus slash the word of God. So when we get back, we'll talk about that. But I would more like to talk about your story because that's how the stuff really comes where people can see how God is actually doing this in your life. 866-348-7884. 866-34-TRUTH.

You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com . You're calling today on the Christian Car Guy show. Where do you sense God calling you and where do you feel his pleasure? You know, it's it's an amazing thing. And one of the places we here at the Christian Car Guy show actually feel God's pleasure and we get to do this is in the Jesus labor of love, where we help out single moms, widows and families in crisis. And you may know that I got a new volunteer here about five, six months ago, Scott, who he's told me about these phone calls and how he can sense God's pleasure as he gets a chance to pray with these ladies and see what they could do. But, you know, it's kind of interesting. God was kind of calling on me this morning to go, you know, you really need somebody else to help you, because lately we've had a lot of cars donated.

It's just been absolutely wonderful. And keeping up with all that has been a struggle to stay between the people that need the cars and the people that donating the cars and getting the cars fixed and all that stuff. So maybe you would feel God's pleasure in dealing in that in some way. You can go to christiancarguy.com and there, of course, you can listen to all the shows, past podcasts, Christian Car Guy Theater. But you can easily see how to email me if you want to get connected to the Jesus Labor Love. There's all sorts of stuff there. Or maybe you want to go and come to the boot camp and hear the complete talk on calling that I'm going to do and all that stuff.

You can register for the boot camp right there at christiancarguy.com. But getting back to these stories, I'm really blessed because we got a couple of callers calling in. I got, I think it's, is it Che in Durham? Good morning. Hi, Robbie.

This is Che. Yes, I feel that I have a little story to share and hopefully it'll be edifying to others. Yes, basically what you're saying is a calling. You know, I feel the life I had lived since I became a child of God, that's almost about three decades ago, that was calling, and that was God's calling, of course.

And from then on, that all the transformation taking place in my heart, in my life, and some are tangibly, obviously, some are internally transformation of heart. One of the things that I felt for sure was that in my late 30s that I entered into nursing field, nursing school, that the kind of opportunity that I had, that I had not had in the country that I had grown up, which was South Korea, that I was born right after Korean War, that, you know, taste all the poverty, all those poignant things that I faced through, that never had a chance to get a formal education. So for me, from the get-go, when there was an opportunity from then entering the nursing school in my late age with English being my second language, I knew it was God's calling. I knew, without my doubt, that I knew it was going to be hard.

I knew that I had to study twice harder than other people, which I did. And that was about 20 years ago, and the career that I had been in, this nursing field is definitely, I knew in my heart that it was called. No doubt how God has used this opportunity as a mighty lead to really just give me so many opportunities. In my nursing career, there have been numerous and numerous opportunities that opened for me to share the Gospel. It may not directly, it may not direct Gospel sharing, but there were many. Because of the fact my ethnicity and my language, it also had opened many doors that come to realization that every person has the uniqueness that other people do not have. I knew that God was enabling me to see that.

So therefore, I used every opportunity. When I share Gospel, I get so excited. And people even tell me, Che, most of the time you are reserved and quiet, but when you talk about Christianity, you grow, and you get so excited. And which I am. Sometimes I would go on and on, and I have to remind myself, oh no, I am overpowering this with a message from a person who doesn't have an understanding.

So I have to kind of refrain myself. But yeah, so to respond to your... Oh yeah, that's beautiful. And I know from past experience that you were working in oncology, and you gave people this poem, right? That you sent me one time. Exactly, the cancer poem. And therefore, there was another tool that God has enabled me to use as a tool, and which had opened many doors.

People may not be able to respond at the time, but it prompted them to think through it, because those words are very powerful, very penetrating words that it demands to examine their hearts. And many patients have told me that, and I usually use that tool when I know that they are transitioning to hospice care. From then on, I take my limitation as a nurse, that I would approach them, I would try to establish a relationship, and I would try to approach them as though, you know, when they transitioned, I would try to make connections, so I could be able to make them a call at their home. And I made a lot of friendships, and then I even visited their homes, I even went to many of the funerals as well, too. So through that, my take-on was that I would tell them, from now on, I'm approaching you as a friend, not as a nurse.

And I am putting you as a messenger of God to tell you. And then, yeah, for me, the opportunity has been that there was not much of a time. For me, my message was a sense of urgency. Many times I had to get to the point, you know, so you know what's happening to you.

Have you thought about what's going to happen to you after you take a last breath? So, of course, that opened the door for many opportunities. You can see their hearts, where they are. But it has been, I consider privilege, Ravi, that how God has used my nursing sphere, and also how God has put that passion in my heart. And obviously that passion intensified after I, my husband died of heart attack at the age of 58, you know, after being married for 30 plus years. And during that time, of course, my spirit went into pitfall. It took a while to get out of pitfall. Obviously, Jesus rescued me from there. But what it did, he intensified the passion.

I always been evangelical ever since I became a Christian. But it intensified. And I see people there when I see those people whose bodies are deteriorating from the cancer, you know, the body and mind ravaging by. But I see the sower. I see over there what Satan has done today, what God has created most precious, and that we were created by image of God. And Satan, ultimately, always destroyed what God has created.

And I saw behind when I see that. You know, when patients say, I pray that God didn't hear me. And of course, there's an opportunity.

So many of us, you know, what patients say, and I was able to use this opportunity to share the truth. You know what? This is what the Bible says. The Bible says you and I are dying because God did not make you die. It is Satan's work.

But at the same time, I would tell them, but you know what? This is what Jesus said. Jesus said, I am the resurrection.

If you truly believe that Jesus was resurrected, and you believe that you could resurrect it, you and I would have a new body. But many, many different opportunities came into my way. And many people, the thing about the Bible is that most times I get attention from these patients that other people may not. For some reason, I get attention. They listen.

And they will come around and come back. And I think that when you dive into that, Che, that the reason why you get their attention is because, literally, when you're connected to the vine, right, he's got the power to touch hearts. We don't have that power. But he can touch people's hearts through us when we give him a chance.

Hey, we got to move on, Che. But thank you so much for that wonderful testimony. Absolutely beautiful.

Exactly where you feel God's pleasure. And what a story. Just keep up the great work, my friend, and we'll be praying for you. God bless. Thank you for allowing me to share. Of course. Thank you, thank you, thank you. All right. Bye-bye.

I've got my good friend, Sarah Linda, up in Port Archer, Washington, who also has a story for us. Sarah, you're on the Christian Car Guys show. Good morning.

Oh. Good morning. About the time I say good morning, here comes the break music, because we've got to go to a break, Sarah.

But when we get back, we're going to hear more from Sarah. But I've got to tell you, when he just said, be fruitful, there's a secret in the Hebrew word, fruit. And it's that first letter, which means it's God's presence. So I thought about this.

You know you can't have fruit without God? It's like it takes two to tango. You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. One ringy dingy. A gracious hello. Have I reached the party to whom I am speaking? Is this General Motors? Hi, General.

How's everything? Tell me, how's Mrs. Motors? Oh, I beg your pardon. You are the president of the General Motors. Of course. Of course. Now I recall General Motors.

That's a switch, isn't it? Somebody recalling General Motors? You're calling today on the Christian Car Guy show. And speaking of calling, coming up at 1 o'clock on the Truth Network, you've got The Cure. And their show today is a movie maker and the star of the new show, Faith Under Fire, which gets right into calling, because right before the break I mentioned that in Genesis 1.28, he actually made this really, really simple.

If you just stop right at the first one. Here he's telling Adam, here's what you're supposed to do. Be fruitful. Okay? And so you may be aware in Galatians 5 they give us these fruits to kind of give us an idea of what that means.

And they are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and of course self-control. Well, I don't know. As I was thinking about this, in order to have fruit, right? It takes two to make a baby.

It takes two to tango. In other words, I've got to have Jesus. And he says that in John 15, right?

Abide in me and you'll bear much fruit which will glorify my Father. I mean, that's kind of how the deal works. But that last fruit of the Spirit that has always been a bit of a challenge for me, I don't know if it is for you, but it's called self-control.

And I had to just pause on that this morning and think, wait a minute. For me to get self-control, I've got to rely on somebody other than myself, right? That's fascinating that it's kind of an oxymoron almost, you know, like self-control.

It can't be done in and of yourself. It takes God in order to do that deal. And so if you will stay in his presence, seek his face like it says in Chronicles, right? Those who seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then he's going to, you know, that's where all the fruit comes from. It's his face.

It's his presence. Getting back to Sarah, I didn't mean to hold you off, but I want to get those thoughts in, Sarah, before we got your story. But now I'm ready.

What have you got for us? Well, I was thinking this morning before I turned your program on about my granddaughter. And I was thinking about, I have this maybe different understanding of the millennium on which we were headed for, when we will return with our Lord, and that we will be... Well, I've been thinking about that, and I was thinking about the fear that my granddaughter Erica had of water. And we didn't discover it till much later, but when she was just little, her mom had, you did Mommy and me learning to swim. And anyway, that was when she, it was just something that happened in her life. And she had this fear of water.

We didn't know that. But anyway, she had her stepmother, who was a very precious woman, had given her... Anyway, the thing is that this fear of water, I felt that God was really going to be...

I can't give you all of that. The thing is, I was thinking about how those fears are gone now, and that she is with the Lord. And those things that God is going to be blessing her in that new creation, as He's blessing her now. And I started writing a poem, because that's the way I form my thoughts, and I'm just working on it. So all those things that may have been a problem to us in this life, God is going to make them a blessing in our forever life. Yeah, I like it. And I know, as people are listening to Sarah Linda, who's just one of my dearest friends, I mean, I'm just so glad you called this week, because I've been missing you.

But in her early life, she had struggles forming thoughts and sentences. So these poems that you do, which I don't want to miss out on this, because I don't want to run out of time. So will you mind reading to us what you got so far? Okay, here's what I got so far.

I'm working on it. We are made in the likeness of our Savior, of His body we are a part. He is the ark of our salvation. We are the treasures of His heart, forever in His heart. The life we live in this dimension, He has given us to find His pleasures. Our delights we find when we've received Him become preserved, eternal treasures preserved within our heart. Within the new heart He did give us are stored the blessings which will not fade.

Within the ark which is His body, from His broken heart, from which we're made. And I have to write one more sentence. Well, saved kind of goes in the end.

I was thinking about that. So you illustrate a number of things right there, Sarah Linda. It's just beautiful. Number one, I can sense God's pleasure when you write your poems. And it's interesting that when you look in the description of King David, when they were going to have King David sing for Saul and play his harp, it says that this man is skilled at playing an instrument, but he is also a man of war and a warrior. And the idea of a warrior poet, which the Scotsman did for years, you see there's a side of us that has to fight Satan, but then there's this other side of us that's for all of us is a poet. And that may come out through music or it may come out through some other art form or drawing or whatever. But you see, when you're sensing God's pleasure and all that, you literally are seeking His face, right? And as you're there abiding in Him, then you can bear fruit, including self-control, because if everybody was listening to this segment, I hope you taught this, right? Sarah Linda was given the gift of poetry to help her frame her thoughts so she could communicate with them, and that's a form of self-control. When she's in God's presence, you see?

You see what happened? All of a sudden, she framed her thoughts perfectly, because if you didn't get something out of that poem, you just weren't listening. Right? Oh, that's so beautiful. Thank you. It just is.

And your granddaughter, I was also thinking this. You know, Jesus is the living water. Yes. Satan would love for us to be afraid of water.

But there's no reason to fear, because there's nothing, nothing, compared to the living water. Amen. Yes. It's just absolutely, it springs up to eternal life. Yes.

It just does. Yes. And so, as I was thinking about your precious granddaughter and the struggles and her mother, what a treasure, what a pleasure it's going to be. You know, I want to put my arms around you guys in heaven.

I do. I'm looking forward to this. Because, you know, I just know that it's going to be like, here's Jesus, and we can see what all he's done in your life. Thank you, Sarah Linda, for calling.

I've been missing you. Oh, thank you. I mean, well, there's lots been going on, and I just thought this morning thinking about the blessing that she is, and that is not, is that we're still within her, and that there's more to come. Yeah, there is.

I hate we've got to run, but that music tells me I'm about out of time. Thank you, Sarah Linda. God bless. As always, we'll be praying for your loss. And so, as you're listening, you know, think about where do you sense God's pleasure? What's he calling out?

Where can I bear fruit? The situation is if we seek his face, especially in this coming week, the closer we can get to, eyes on Jesus, hearts on Jesus, wow. I mean, we can't miss but bear fruit if he's there with us. That's the deal. He's in control. So slow down, Jesus walked everywhere he went, got it all done in 33 years. You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com