“Now the word of the Lord came to me saying, ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born, I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations’” (Jeremiah 1:4-5).
“The Lord called me from the womb, from the body of my mother he named my name” (Isaiah 49:1-2).
“But when God, who had set me apart even from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, was pleased to reveal His Son to me so that I might preach Him among the gentiles…” (Galatians 1:15-16).
I believe that we serve a Sovereign God who holds the whole of history in His hands. The late R.C. Sproul said, “God has not left one maverick molecule in the universe.” Meaning that there are no loose parts that are flying around and able to jam up the works of God’s ultimate plan for the cosmos, that includes His ultimate plan for you and for me.
The verses quoted above reveal God’s watch care concerning men of His choosing before they were ever formed in the womb. And I do not believe for one second that this applies only to Jeremiah, Isiah, and the Apostle Paul. He has a divine plan and purpose for each one of us.
I have been serving Christ and His Church for the past 47 years. But I recognize that His calling was on my life for many years before I surrendered my life unto Him and that calling.
I remember the time, I could not have been more than eight years old, when I preached my first sermon. It happened in the living room of my family’s home outside of Filer, Idaho. My pulpit was an old wooden orange crate stood on its end. Atop of that crate was my Bible, which I still own. Seated before me was my congregation, my younger sister Carla and an assortment of her dolls and teddy bears. A hymn played on an old record player and that was followed by a sermon. The subject of the sermon I do not remember, but I am sure that it was a salvation message that was followed by an altar call. How many dolls and teddy bears made decisions to follow Christ that day I do not recall. But this I do know; they heard the gospel.
It was during my 21st summer, 1972, that I was awakened to the fact that God was calling me into His service. I responded to that call and have been serving Christ ever since. Today, I am more convinced than ever, that God's calling on my life did not come in 1960 or in 1972, but like Paul and Isaiah and Jeremiah, I was separated and called from my mother’s womb.