Editorial Page
When God Comes Calling by Bill Zwiep

I have always wondered what people meant when they talked about "being called." You know, like a prospective ministerial student being asked if he/she felt called by God—or for that matter a prospective elder, deacon, or Sunday school teacher.

No, this is not a rhetorical diatribe on the merits of being, or not being, called into the service of God. Like most people, I’m usually too bushed trying to eke out a living and survive the everyday trials in life. Sure, I do my share of contributing to my church, financially as well as spiritually and socially, like most church members, and like most I attend church on Sundays to receive spiritual sustenance. Actually, I consider myself to be part of the silent majority; you know, that group in which statisticians place most of us.

The kind of calling I’m referring to is that kind in which God is actually seeking to communicate with you. Now, I’m sure most of us have experienced this kind of call at one time or other. The last time I experienced such an emotion or Happening was on the last Sunday in February. I want and need to share this experience with you.

That particular Sunday, our pastor was away at a regional synod meeting in Ontario. He had made arrangements with the Janz Team Ministries, whose head office is located in Winnipeg, to have the Janz Team Ambassadors take the Sunday morning service through a concert of celebration.

The ambassadors, consisting of Marvin and Larry Thiessen, vocalists and preachers, and Harding Braaten, pianist, immediately made their presence felt as their powerful voices mingled with those of the congregation and the song leaders during the hymn and praise songs part of the worship service, seeming to raise the volume several levels. Their musical presentation, consisting of spirituals, hymns, and praise songs, sung in harmony, stirred the hearts and soles of those present that morning as they took us on an emotional roller coaster, leaving many gasping for more.

Marvin Thiessen followed this with a short devotional, reading scriptures from Genesis, Ch. 3, Exodus Ch. 3, and the book of Jonah. In all three readings we heard how each of the characters tried to evade communication with God and found some excuse as to why they were not able to follow God’s directives.

Adam and Eve hid from God because they were ashamed after they had eaten from the forbidden tree.

Moses tried very hard not to hear God and do what he was asked, which was to go to Egypt and negotiate with Old Pharaoh.

And Jonah? Well we all know how Jonah tried to evade God’s directive. He ran away only to be swallowed by a fish.

Already we had noticed that there was difference that morning through the songs we had heard; the message through the word spoken seemed to indicate that the Lord spoke through one of our younger and newer members.

Kim asked for prayers for the parent of her neighbour, who had become critically ill while vacationing down south. While asking for God to look after her health, she also asked God for intercession in that family, that they might experience the power of the living Christ. It was at this point that Kim’s request became a testimony, as she relayed how she had been introduced to Jesus through a friend who attends our church. It was there she had met the man who would become her husband and where she learned about the love of God. With tears rolling down her cheeks, her voice breaking, she confided what Jesus has meant in her life and how she was ready to share Him with others.

At that moment God walked among us and spoke, loud and clear. Forgotten were the rhetorical questions and answers; forgotten was the semantics of language, the debates over dogma and religious legalism. In its stead were eyes filled with tears, hearts overflowing with emotion, souls eager to commune with God. God had chosen one of us to speak to all of us. Not a thousand sermons could create the feeling and emotion that filled the sanctuary at that moment.

No amount of catechism teaching or dogmatic philosophy can replace the impact when God chooses one of his own to touch the souls and emotions of His saints.

My eyes still weep, as does my heart, from joy and elation when I think back to that Sunday morning in February. It reminds me of the time when the Canadian synod sponsored the "Draw Near to God" visits. The effects of that experience lasted a long time, but eventually, because we are mere humans, it wore off.

Whatever happened to that attempt to awaken our congregations and develop a closed rapport?

Does God seek to communicate with us, but can’t find us because, like Adam and Eve, we are hiding? Or, when God calls we are like Moses and Jonah, too busy finding excuses as to why we shouldn’t answer the call?

It also leaves me asking the question: is the reason the "Draw Near to God" visits disappeared based on a lack of finances? If so, it seems to me we are hiding from God’s voice. Periodically we need to be exposed to that experience when God talks to us through people He has selected.

What better time than now, with the resurrection and ascension of our Lord, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost just behind us, to listen carefully for the voice of God.

Pass me not, O gentle Saviour. Hear my humble cry,

While on others thou art calling, do not pass be by.

"Lord, our minds have been filled with your knowledge; now fill our souls with your spirit, with your love, and with your emotion. Come quickly, Lord Jesus. We thirst"

Have you heard God call you lately?

Bill Zwiep is a member of Elmwood Community Reformed Church and a Regional Correspondent for The Pioneer.