Welcome and thank you for taking a bible break to test your knowledge of God's word. This week's question:

When Samuel was a boy, visions were infrequent, and he was given to the Lord because she made a vow to do so if she could but have a son (1 Samuel 1:11), and the Lord called out to him in the night four times before he understood that it was not Eli who was calling him, but the Lord. The Lord told him that the house of Eli would be judged because of the evil sons of Eli and the ears of those who hear the words spoken to him would "tingle" (1 Samuel 3:1-19). Moses hear the Lord speak from a burning bush that did not burn (Exodus 3:4) while Abraham heard the Lord ask him to leave his country, his relatives, his fathers home, and go to a land that He would show him, and "so Abram went forth as the Lord had spoken to him." (Genesis 12:4).

So that brings us to our question, "How does God call us?". There seem to be many who are still looking for that direct intervention of the Lord, the Holy Spirit, or at the very least, an angel of the Lord to introduce Himself to them with that "personal calling". There may be an event in our lives that does get our attention about our "spiritual deficit" which may change our outlook on the hereafter.

Peter tells us by inspiration, "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; For you were once not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy." (1 peter 2:9-10). Then again in verse 21, "For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps, ….(24) and He himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed. (25) For you were continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls."

So we are called for the purpose of walking just as Jesus left the example of a sinless life and became a pure sacrifice for the sins of the world as we too are to be in the likeness of His death in that burial of baptism, "Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in the newness of life. (Romans 6:3-4), as we heed the calling of the word of faith, "So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ." (Romans 10:17). Then we confess Him, "Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession;" (Romans 3:1), and again, "But what does it say? 'The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart' -that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in you heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation." (Romans 10:8-10).

So, just how does the Lord call us? Through the faith within each of us that comes by hearing the word of our Lord, the gospel, in power, the Holy Spirit, and with full conviction (1 Thessalonians 1:5)! "For this reason we also constantly thank God that you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, bur for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe. For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea, for you also endured the same sufferings at the hands your won countrymen, even as they did from the Jews, who both killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out. They are not pleasing to God, but hostile to all men, hindering us from speaking the truth to the gentiles so that they may be saved; with the result that they will fill up the measure of their sins. But wrath has come upon them to the utmost." (1Thessalonians 2:13-16).

So this calling comes from the word of God for salvation to those who believe, repent (Acts 2:38), confess, and be baptized in that watery grave as we are born again (John 3:1-21 & 1 Peter 3:21), and walk in the newness of life to the end for life eternal (Colossians 3:1-17)!