We Are Called

So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me his prisoner. But join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God, who 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. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time.”

• Be pro-active, by the power of God, and live in the purpose and grace of Christ.

“Do not be ashamed!”

In 1975 there was a rag-tag group of hippies, draft-dodgers, old sea dogs and scientists who gathered under the name of Greenpeace to protest the slaughter of whales in the Pacific. Their strategy was simple – head out in an old fishing boat to the North Pacific waters where the whales feed every year then use smaller Zodiacs, inflatable motorized boats, to come between the harpoon boats and the whales.

We picked out a departing harpoon boat, the Vlastny, and followed it. It was soon pursuing

a pod of sperm whales. Hunter leapt into a Zodiac with Watson, Korotva took Fred Easton,

and I went with Patrick Moore. Hunter and Watson tried to position themselves between the

harpoon boat and the frantic whales, but Watson’s outboard sputtered to a stop and they were

thrown aside by the bow of the killer boat. Korotva pulled up, traded passengers with Watson,

and sped off with Hunter. They positioned themselves directly in front of the massive cannon,

shielding the whales. When they dropped into a trough, however, the cannon fired and the

harpoon flew over their heads and exploded in the side of a whale. The harpoon cable slashed

down beside us,” recalls Hunter, “nearly ripping us in two.” Easton turned to me with thumbs

up. He had captured the entire episode on film.

That small group of people took a dangerous pro-active stand for something they believed in and they helped change the world’s view of God’s creation. I couldn’t help but be thankful to them after watching whales breach and dive in the bay off Puerto Vallarta. What beautiful creatures.

I pray that we might be as pro-active in our Christianity; to boldly stand between the mad morality and the values of this crazy culture we’re enmeshed in and the way, truth and life that we believe comes from Christ and Christ alone.

We are called by God!

We are empowered, emboldened and emblazoned to God to “live a life worthy of the calling (we) have received.”

Therefore, I pray for all of us the prayer of Paul for the Ephesians: “I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints.”

We are called. Let’s live like it!