THE CALL
Rev. D. F. Ferguson, a senior pastor in Riverside, California, was an excellent preacher with a real understanding of Calvary and of grace. At a district conference of his denomination, a fellow pastor was testifying of how he had left a job as a successful attorney making a six-figure salary to follow the call of the Lord into the ministry.
Following him, another pastor stood and said, “I was making two hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars a year in Kansas grain when I gave it all up to serve the Lord.”
After two more pastors followed this theme of what they had given up to follow Jesus, Ferguson could take no more. He jumped to his feet and ran to the front. He seized the microphone and in broken voice said, “When God called me into the ministry I was standing behind two mules plowin’ a field in Arkansas. It was 105+ degrees and I had on one tennis shoe and one of dad’s boots. I threw down the reins of them two mules and said, ‘God, I’m ready – anything beats this’, and I’ve been in the ministry ever since!”
The conference roared in laughter and came to a standing ovation. God has a unique way of calling each of us. Some sacrifice greatly in following Christ, but for many others, following Christ was nothing but a step up. Which was it for you: a step up or a step down?
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