Henry Blackaby - Called and Accountable (Trade Book): Discovering Your Place in Gods Eternal Purpose

Other books in the Called and Accountable series

Called and Accountable:
Discovering Your Place in God's Eternal Purpose
(Bible study, revised edition)
Henry T. Blackaby and Norman C. Blackaby

El llamado de Dios:
El propsito de Dios para todo creyente
(Called and Accountable: God's Purpose for Every Believer)
Henry T. Blackaby and Kerry L. Skinner
Translated by Miguel Mesas

CALLED AND
ACCCCOUNTABLE

Discovering Your Place
in God's Eternal Purpose

Henry T. Blackaby
and
Norman C. Blackaby

New Hope Publishers

P. O. Box 12065

Birmingham, AL 35202-2065

www.newhopepublishers.com

2007 by Henry T. Blackaby and Norman C. Blackaby.

All rights reserved. First printing 2007.

Printed in the United States of America.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwisewithout the prior written permission of the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Blackaby, Henry T., 1935

Called and accountable: discovering your place in God's eternal purpose / Henry T. Blackaby and Norman C. Blackaby.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-59669-047-9 (jacketed hard cover: alk. paper)

1. Vocation Christianity. I. Blackaby, Norman C. II. Title.

BV4740.B57 2007

248.4dc22

2006035170

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked (KJV) are taken from The Holy Bible, King James Version.

Scripture quotations marked (AMP) are taken from the Amplified Bible, Copyright 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. NIV. Copyright1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

ISBN-10: 1-59669-047-X

ISBN-13: 978-1-59669-047-9

N064153 0407 12M1

DEDICATION

To my uncle and his wife, Lorimer and Olive Baker,
who faithfully served as missionaries in Manchuria, China,
working with Jonathan Goforth
during the great Shantung Revival,
and who baptized me as a nine-year-old boy and later
became my pastor when God called me into the ministry.

HENRY BLACKABY

To my wife, Dana, with gratitude to our Lord,
for your love and support.

NORMAN BLACKABY

PREFACE

T he message found in the pages of Called and Accountable has been on our hearts for many years. In 1986, I [Henry] was asked to speak at a retreat in Toccoa, Georgia. This conference was of particular significance in that it shaped the direction of the rest of my ministry and the life of my family. At this retreat, I preached four sermons: All Are Called, All Are Gifted, All Are Sent, and, in conclusion, How to Hear God. I was asked to put the teachings from the last session into writing; this eventually became the workbook Experiencing God. The teachings of the first three sessions were put into a small 35-page book titled Called and Accountable; this was turned into a workbook that has been enlarged and completely revised recently (2005).

The overwhelmingly positive response to the newly rewritten Called and Accountable workbook has been the impetus for this book. As Norman has preached and taught this message across North America and as Called and Accountable Weekends have been established, we sensed a need for a read-through book separate from the workbook. This book follows the chapter titles of the workbook and includes the significant subtitles, but it does not attempt to follow the daily readings and topics of the workbook. It is our hope and prayer that this book will be an encouragement to many of God's people to wholeheartedly live out God's call upon their lives, and we pray that studying Called and Accountable will result in each reader being enabled to walk worthy of the calling with which [they] were called (Ephesians 4:1).

HENRY BLACKABY AND NORMAN BLACKABY
January 2007

INTRODUCTION

A s we travel and minister around the world, we see so many of God's precious people who deeply want their lives to be used by God in a significant way in His kingdom. Often, they hear stories of how God is using other people on the missions field or in the city in which they live, and they wonder if God could somehow use their lives to make a difference. Others we talk with struggle to express what they are feeling, but share that they sense there must be more to the Christian life than they are experiencing. They do not know what it is they are missing, but they have a yearning for more.

We continue to meet many people who relate that God has been opening up their eyes to the fact that there is more to life than working 40 to 60 hours a week and taking their families to church on Sundays. It is as if God has been calling them out saying, The world has had My children long enough to help it be more successful, while My kingdom goes wanting. I am calling My people back to Myself to use them for My purposes and My kingdom. Some are being called right out of the marketplace to serve in full-time ministry positions. However, more often, God is not removing His people from the workplace, but reorienting them to Himself so that they begin to see their workplaces from God's perspective. For the first time for many of His children, the workplace is not simply a career or occupation for them, but a place where God has called them to walk with eyes fixed on Him and His work.

In our day, a growing distinction has developed between believers in Christ who serve God in a full-time Christian position, such as a pastor, missionary, or church staff person, and those who are typical members of a church who work out in the world during the week. Often persons in the first group are referred to respectfully as called into ministry, whereas those in the latter group are in some ways considered to be in a lesser position. No doubt, the Bible distinguishes different types of roles in the church; however, the Scriptures designate every believer in Christ as called by God. In a letter to the Christians at the church in Rome, the Apostle Paul wrote, You also are the called of Jesus Christ (Romans 1:6). Paul continually charged believers to walk worthy of the calling they had received from God (Ephesians 4:1), and he prayed that God would count them worthy of this calling (2 Thessalonians 1:11). And it was not just a few in the church who were called, but every believer in Christ was called by God and, therefore, responsible to walk worthy of the calling.

It is overwhelming to realize that the God of the universe, the only God and Creator of all that is, has chosen to call every believer into a very special relationship with Himself. This call and the relationship that follows are very personal and very real! The truth of this is found throughout the entire Biblein life after life and verse after verse. It is central to the entire message of the Bible. It is, in fact, an expression of the very heart of God.