Front Matter

Front Matter

Key Quotes

The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.

Though your sins are very great, the kind Redeemer will not cast you out; even if that were true which you sometimes think, that you are the greatest sinner who ever lived upon earth, he will not cast you out … It is easy for him to save a great as a small sinner. No one was ever saved because his sins were small; no one was ever rejected on account of the greatness of his sins. Where sin abounded, grace shall much more abound.

A few days, and our work will be done. And when it is once done, it is done to all eternity. A life once spent is irrevocable. It will remain to be contemplated through eternity. If it is marked with sins, the marks will be indelible. If it has been a useless life, it can never be improved. Such it will stand forever and ever. The same may be said of each day. When it is once past, it is gone forever. All the marks which we put upon it, it will exhibit forever … Each day will not only be a witness of our conduct, but will affect our everlasting destiny … How shall we then wish to see each day marked with usefulness! It will then be too late to mend its appearance. It is too late to mend the days that are past. The future is in our power. Let us, then, each morning, resolve to send the day into eternity in such a garb as we shall wish it to wear forever. And at night let us reflect that one more day is irrevocably gone, indelibly marked.

If you are Christians, be consistent. Be Christians out and out; Christians every hour, in every part. Beware of halfhearted discipleship, of compromise with evil, of conformity to the world, of trying to serve two masters – to walk in two ways, the narrow and the broad, at once. It will not do. Halfhearted Christianity will only dishonor God, while it makes you miserable.

A Narrative Journey Series

Foundations

• The Call of Christ: A Narrative Journey of Christian Faith

Essentials

• The Story Behind it All: A Narrative Journey of Christian Belief
• The Best Possible Life: A Narrative Journey of Christian Living
• The Open Invitation: A Narrative Journey of Christian Formation
• The Bond Between Us: A Narrative Journey of Christian Community
• The Glory Due His Name: A Narrative Journey of Christian Devotion

Pathways

• The Ends of the Earth: A Narrative Journey of Christian Mission
• The Sacred Script: A Narrative Journey of Christian Worldview
• The Making of a Shepherd: A Narrative Journey of Christian Leadership
• The Aim of Our Charge: A Narrative Journey of Christian Instruction

The Call of Christ: A Narrative Journey of Christian Faith Matthew R. Lynskey

York, Pennsylvania Noble Imprint 2024

Publishing and Licensing

The Call of Christ: A Narrative Journey of Christian Faith

@2024 by Matthew R. Lynskey, with a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license (CC BY-SA), version 4.0.

Published by Noble Imprint, a church-based publishing collaborative and ministry of Noble Collective, https://www.noblecollective.org).

This book is published under a CC BY-SA license, which means that you have permission to copy, redistribute, remix, transform, and build upon the content for any purpose, even commercially, as long as you give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original. License details: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/bysa/4.0/.

None of the Scripture quotations are published under the CC BY-SA license. Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

for Noble City Church— our family of fellow sojourners and exiles