Today we have a special guest, and a massive topic. Tom Ziglar and I bring you Dr. Ramesh Richard as our guest. Dr. Ramesh Richard walks us through, “We each have an individual calling. It is our responsibility to pursue it. The pursuit will be a hard life, full of striving and some struggle. It will also be the most joyful, glorious and fulfilling life we can imagine.”
We hone in on these areas:
- That calling is the culmination of the true desires of our hearts. Our greatest fulfillment, joy, wealth, and yes, even fun, will be found in it.
- What are the costs of NOT discovering, committing to, and pursuing our calling?
- Is a true calling ultimately only spiritual?
- Eternal rewards are great, but what about the earthly, NOW rewards of committing to this hard endeavor?
Dr. Richard is a prolific global speaker, presenter, and leader. His bio, which I‟m about to read, showcases a life of work as an evangelist of Jesus Christ.
But I want you to know we have him here to talk to all of us about OUR unique, individual callings. I also am a follower of Jesus, but my vocation is wholly in the business world. Is evangelism to others about Christ important to me? Yes. Is it the main agenda? No.
So whether it‟s yours or not, this show is relevant to you.
There are, however, some people Dr. Richards needs. One hundred, to be exact. We‟ll tell you about that.
A quick overview of Dr. Ramesh Richard
Dr. Richard is the founder and serves as president of RREACH. Ramesh Richard Evangelism and Church Health, which you can find at www.rreach.org
RREACH‟s vision is to change the way one billion individuals think and hear about the Lord Jesus Christ through evangelizing opinion leaders, strengthening pastoral leaders -- primarily of Asia, Africa and Latin America -- and media outreach.
From his platform at RREACH, Dr. Richard travels throughout the world clarifying the message of the Bible through lectures and preaching. His audiences are wide-ranging, from non-Christian intellectuals in major universities to poor pastors in rural areas, from gatherings of a few to crowds of a hundred thousand.
The Lord has given him the opportunity to train thousands of church leaders in over 100 countries to preach, live and think biblically.
He also has the privilege of exposing society‟s “opinion leaders” to the good news of Jesus Christ. Dr. Richard addressed presidents/heads of state, secretaries of state, and ambassadors of state of 53 African nations in Khartoum, Sudan, at the Fourth Annual African Union Heads of State Prayer Breakfast.
In addition, he spoke to an audience of 200 ambassadors and world leaders as the keynote speaker for the 23rd Annual International Prayer Breakfast at the United Nations in New York City.
He and his wife, Bonnie, live in Dallas, Texas, and have three grown children and three grandchildren.
Ramesh, thank you, what an honor it is to have you on the Ziglar Show!
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Tom, you said, “Ramesh has a Zig story, a huge vision, so I know he will be great.” Tell me what excites you about Ramesh.
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Ramesh, Tom says you have a Zig story…will you share it with us?
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OK, Ramesh, as you know, I want to tackle your perspective on one‟s calling and the hard life of striving for it.
But really quick, a couple questions in regards to you personally.
In your bio information, it says, the Lord has given you the opportunity to train thousands of church leaders in over 100 countries to preach, live and think biblically.
OK. These are church leaders. One would think that, by proxy, they ARE thinking biblically. Help us understand.
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Next, your bio also says, “Ramesh also has the privilege of exposing society‟s „opinion leaders‟ to the good news of Jesus Christ.”
That‟s interesting. It reminds me of the theory of Occam‟s Razor, where, in taking liberty…instead of trying to reach 1,000 individuals, try to reach one who influences 1,000. You are aiming for leaders who influence many. Is that why you chose that target market?
>> Hear Ramesh Richard‟s response by listening now
So I found a message you gave at Dallas Theological Seminary on striving. Your focus was Colossians 1:29 29 To this end I also labor, striving according to His working which works in me mightily.
You put emphasis on - toil, laboring, striving
Then you spoke of meeting with millennials who were admittedly concerned about their laziness and lethargy. Their fear and how they don‟t want to risk anything. There are so many things they can‟t control, economic and social factors. They seek a trouble-free life, and a task-free life.
Ramesh, while the millennials may be acutely showcasing this, do you see it across our culture? A propensity to remaining safe instead of risking to do something bigger than ourselves?
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We, as a culture, and even more so as Christians, see the atrocities of life and are somewhat aghast. We are so far removed from committing a blatantly evil act. We can so easily think of ourselves as nice, righteous people. And the enemy, Satan, knows he can‟t tempt us to do something or accept anything that is too blatant.
Do you feel this is the primary strategy? To simply entice us into “responsible irrelevancy”?
> > Hear Dr. Richard‟s responses
You highlight and punctuate the aforementioned scripture with:
“For this cause, for this purpose I strive…”
But you differentiate that “Striving is different from struggling…”
- Striving has physical and non-physical elements to it
- Striving is massive, intentional pushing to the max
- Jesus needed laborers for the work. Hard work.
It‟s easy to say,” No pain, no gain.” And that anything worthwhile will be hard work to attain. But if today‟s responsibility and cultural expectation is to play it safe, then to go after something worthy is not only hard work, but will also likely cause criticism from those around us.
How do we prepare for that?
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I want to talk about our work. What most of us spend the majority of our week engaged in. You cite a quote by Dr. Howard Hendricks, “Career is what you‟re paid to do, calling is what you‟re made to do.”
From what you‟ve shared, you seem to say that…
- We each have an individual calling.
- It is our responsibility to pursue it.
- The pursuit will be a hard life, full of striving.
To focus in on one‟s calling though, while it may be hard work, won‟t it be the culmination of the true desires of our hearts? Our greatest fulfillment, joy, wealth, and yes, even fun, will be found in it?
>> Listen to the show
What are the costs of NOT discovering, committing and pursuing our calling?
>> Hear Dr. Richard‟s responses
Is a true calling ultimately only spiritual?
>> Listen to the show
Eternal rewards are great, but what about the earthly, NOW rewards of committing to this hard endeavor?