{"id":468830,"date":"2025-02-02T02:25:18","date_gmt":"2025-02-01T20:55:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.com\/?p=468830"},"modified":"2025-02-02T02:25:19","modified_gmt":"2025-02-01T20:55:19","slug":"the-constraint-of-the-call","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/2025\/02\/02\/the-constraint-of-the-call\/","title":{"rendered":"The Constraint of the Call"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-vivid-red-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-189ababce32056007962b90ccfc8b99c wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!<br>\u20141 Corinthians 9:16<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Have you been called to preach the gospel as a disciple of Jesus Christ? If you have, beware of turning a deaf ear. The call to discipleship is a special kind of call. Everyone who is saved is called to testify to their salvation, but there is nothing easier than being saved. Salvation is God\u2019s sovereign work; all we have to do is turn to him. \u201cTurn to me and be saved\u201d (Isaiah 45:22). Our Lord never says that the conditions of discipleship are the same as the conditions of salvation. We are condemned to salvation through the cross of Jesus Christ, but discipleship has an option with it: \u201cWhoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me\u201d (Luke 9:23).<br>To become a disciple is to be made broken bread and poured-out wine in Jesus\u2019s hands; it is to experience the pain of being constrained. In 1 Corinthians 9:16, Paul describes the distress that would seize him if he tried to break free. Having accepted the conditions of discipleship, he is now \u201cset apart for the gospel,\u201d entirely kept and bound for God (Romans 1:1).<br>To lead a set-apart life is to suffer agonies worthy of the name disciple. Every personal ambition is nipped in the bud; every personal desire is erased; every perspective apart from God\u2019s is blotted out. Discipleship is not for everyone. But if you have felt God grip you for it, beware: woe to the soul who puts a foot in any other direction once the call has come.<br>By Oswald Chambers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!\u20141 Corinthians 9:16 Have you been called to preach the gospel as a disciple of Jesus Christ? If you have, beware of turning a deaf ear. The call to discipleship is a special kind of call. Everyone who is saved is called to testify to their [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[686],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-468830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-daily-devotion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=468830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468830\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}