"Do not be surprised when God leads you down a path that makes no earthly sense"

[Mark_Smith]

you are accountable for choices but God doesn’t offer direct help on making the decision?

Yup! You’ve got it! (I bolded the direct help above)

See the graphic above (here it is again)

God really doesn’t care if you as a young lad had chosen to be a doctor, an insurance salesman, a factory worker, a lawyer, an elementary teacher or a missionary…its all equally good for your life? You are the sole determiner of what choice to make and one isn’t better than the other?

[Mark_Smith]

God really doesn’t care if you as a young lad had chosen to be a doctor, an insurance salesman, a factory worker, a lawyer, an elementary teacher or a missionary…its all equally good for your life? You are the sole determiner of what choice to make and one isn’t better than the other?

You’re missing the point

• The spiritual Christian is mindful of the things of God (process box in graphic above)
• If I had the desire to be a Dr (I did not) … and the ability (I do not) … and choose to be a garbage man that would be shameful for me!
• But all the professions / job choices you mentioned can be God-glorifying occupations. Are all Doctors? 1 Corinthians 12:15-17. The Doctor cannot say to the factory worker, “I have no need of you”
• For my life it hasn’t been doctor, insurance salesman, (I was a factory worker in college), or lawyer, etc.

Are we really worried about making the wrong choice? Or about someone else making a more attractive choice?

You buy a Ford Fusion. Your friend buys a Chevy Camaro.

You go to school and study to become an EMT. Your neighbor becomes a doctor.

You get married to a nice girl. Your cousin marries a bombshell.

You bought a small house near the city. Your coworker buys a mansion in an exclusive community.

You decided to learn the accordion. Your buddy learns to play the drums like John Bohnam.

In college you quit baseball to pursue a teaching career. Your teammate went on to become a pitcher for the Red Sox.

None of your decisions were wrong. However, they look like the wrong ones, because they are not as attractive as the choices made by others.

We compare what we have with what others have, and feel insecure because they seem to have more than us. And then we begin to wonder… what if?.. if only I had done this instead…

[Mark_Smith]

My wisdom says to by a low mileage older car and send the rest to missions…rather than buy new.

My preference is:

• Buy a 2 year old car FWD sedan from Poquet Auto (specializes in 2 year old clean cars)
• Would have < 30000 miles
• Keep 100,000
• Rinse and redo

There is a tendency to view some professions as superior:

• The church secretary is serving the Lord while the woman who is an admin assistant at US Bank is not
• The Christian day school teacher is in the ministry while the Christian who teaches in the public school is not
• The pastor is “in the ministry” while the deacon who works full time in a secular job to provide for his family is not in the ministry

I view the above as flawed

• 
  God leading down “a path that makes no earthly sense” is not necessarily an argument for some kind of subjective sense of direction. When Jim Peet had his trampoline accident, that probably didn’t make a lot of earthly sense to those immediately concerned, for example. Just about any situation of human tragedy makes “no earthly sense” from someone’s human perspective.


• 
  Jim’s example aside, how much “common sense” did it make for someone like Adoniram Judson to leave the US as a foreign missionary (much less become a Baptist along the way and leave India for Burma)? How much “common sense” did it make for Jim Eliot and co to do what they did? I think you can make a sound theological case for each example. But those decisions weren’t obvious “no brainers” to everyone watching. And, FWIW, I don’t recall reading accounts of single, obvious subjective calling experiences for those men. They understood they were taking risks, but they also understood the Scriptural warrant they had for their actions.


• 
  At the same time, Jim’s cited example is more common than we like to admit. An acquaintance of some of my church members is trying to sell her house to one of them so she can move to California- no job, no acquaintances, no clear plan… just citing the example of Abraham in Hebrews 11:8. Now, God will accomplish something in those circumstances (in what circumstances doesn’t He?)- but I am not at all convinced that He is commanding her to drop everything and go. In fact, I think there are a lot of times people like to cite “God’s leading” when they really just don’t want to accept the responsibility for using the sense God gave them.


• 
  If God does have a specific plan for everyone’s life, I would like to see someone make a Scriptural case that we should each try to discover that for ourselves. I don’t think we need to concern ourselves whether or not ________ is God’s perfect match He picked for me, or whether or not I missed out on God’s best for my life because in 2003 I explored one pastor position over an assistant position in another church, or that I shouldn’t even exist because my dad should have gone to a musical conservatory rather than joined the US Navy. If there are such plans, those are the concerns of God, not mine. Mike Harding’s list nails our concerns down quite well.

Jim, if we go by a biblical definition of ministry, then one is only in the ministry if they are dedicating their entire life to the gospel(i.e. preaching, evangelizing, teaching, etc.)

The bible says that Jesus began his ministry when he was 30 years old. I am sure he was working and preparing himself during the first 30 years of his life. But his ministry officially began when he left his family and work and focused 100% of his time and being to preaching the gospel.

[wkessel1]

I found the book by Kevin DeYoung - “Just Do Something: A Liberating Approach to Finding God’s Will” an insightful read. His subtitle for the book is great - “Or How to make a decision without dreams, visions, fleeces, impressions, open doors, random Bible verses, casting lost, liver shivers, writing in the sky, etc.”

[christian cerna]

Jim, if we go by a biblical definition of ministry, then one is only in the ministry if they are dedicating their entire life to the gospel(i.e. preaching, evangelizing, teaching, etc.)

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 18 Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, 19 that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. (2 Corinthians 5:17-19)

Questions:

• Who is in Christ?
• Have they been reconciled?
• What are they tasked to do?
• What is it called?

And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; (Ephesians 4:11-13)

Questions:

• Who are the equipped?
• What are they to do?
• What is it called?

Mike Harding wrote:

If we are truly submitted to God’s decrees and obeying his demands, we can trust that God will providentially lead through the godly desires he places within our hearts.

Yes, this does indeed nail it. Well said.

[Jim]

[christian cerna]

Jim, if we go by a biblical definition of ministry, then one is only in the ministry if they are dedicating their entire life to the gospel(i.e. preaching, evangelizing, teaching, etc.)

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 18 Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, 19 that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. (2 Corinthians 5:17-19)

Questions:

• Who is in Christ?
• Have they been reconciled?
• What are they tasked to do?
• What is it called?

And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; (Ephesians 4:11-13)

Questions:

• Who are the equipped?
• What are they to do?
• What is it called?

Ministry of reconciliation? How does one reconcile a person to God? Through preaching the gospel. “…and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.”(Ephesians 4:13)

Equipping the saints for the work of ministry? See the above.

Can a person be in the ministry and never preach/share the gospel? There are a lot of jobs out there. But how many of them allow a person to speak openly about the gospel? Not many.

[christian cerna]

[Jim]

[christian cerna]

Jim, if we go by a biblical definition of ministry, then one is only in the ministry if they are dedicating their entire life to the gospel(i.e. preaching, evangelizing, teaching, etc.)

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 18 Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, 19 that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. (2 Corinthians 5:17-19)

Questions:

• Who is in Christ?
• Have they been reconciled?
• What are they tasked to do?
• What is it called?

And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; (Ephesians 4:11-13)

Questions:

• Who are the equipped?
• What are they to do?
• What is it called?

Ministry of reconciliation? How does one reconcile a person to God? Through preaching the gospel. “…and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.”(Ephesians 4:13)

Equipping the saints for the work of ministry? See the above.

Can a person be in the ministry and never preach/share the gospel? There are a lot of jobs out there. But how many of them allow a person to speak openly about the gospel? Not many.

News:

1. You are in the ministry
2. You are the herald the gospel

[Jim]

Decision Making and the Will of God: A Biblical Alternative to the Traditional View

In my view. A great book. I rarely see it promoted in fundamentalist circles

Here is an 11-page summary of Friesen’s book, by Friesen, for the convenience of those who don’t have the book. (Used by permission, Garry Friesen)

The book was recommended to me while I was in law school by a BJU Th.D. candidate. It is one of a handful of books I can say changed my life. Decision-making became a much less stressful, though no less spiritual, exercise.

Here’s a practical example of how the “Biblical alternative” or the “Wisdom view” affected a major decision in my life, both before and after. Due to circumstances beyond my control, 18 months after I made partner at my first and only law firm (to that point), it became necessary to leave. There were numerous options available, including public sector (Dept. of Justice, etc.), private sector, and even leaving law altogether (if you had to deal with lawyers all day, every day, you’d consider that option too). One junior attorney had already announced he was leaving, with no landing place known yet. I knew another junior attorney would be unhappy about my leaving. Through a series of providential conversations, it became clear that the three of us were very interested in practicing together — much mutual respect, shared convictions, a range of practice areas, etc. I prayed for wisdom and God-glorifying motives; the others (and all of our wives) prayed; we asked friends to pray; we did our homework and put together a business plan; we sought wise counsel, including from the pastor shared by two of us. As a practical matter, we had to have a loan to start the new firm; this was a practical red light/green light hurdle over which we had no control. We applied for and were awarded an SBA loan. I clearly remember telling the other partners and all our wives as we gathered in one of our living rooms to finalize our decision that, while I believed we had done our best to make the wisest decision under all the circumstances, that was no guarantee of success. We might succeed, we might not, but either way God would take care of us, and if we happened to fail, we did not need to worry that it was because we had “missed God’s will.”

As it turned out, the firm did succeed — for the other two partners. I had to leave the firm after 4 years for financial reasons (and probably should have left 2 years before that). Despite the financial hole that took years to dig out of and the seeming career derailment or setback that seemed to result, and other seemingly negative consequences, I have never had to fret that those outcomes were because I had been outside God’s will.