A Biblical View of Work!

Monday we celebrated Labor Day.  A time set aside to celebrate the rights that have been restored for the American worker through the American Labor Movement and the men and women who do so much to make it a prosperous country through our labors.

Yet, I wonder how many have a Biblical view of work.  Often we hear people talk about how horrible work is like it is a result of sin, yet if we look at the Scriptures Adam was told to tend the garden (Gen. 2:15) and to name the animals (Gen. 2:19) which made for a busy day of work that first day of creation.  Sure sin brought much harder labor than it was before the fall of man (Gen. 3:18-19) but that does not mean we should whine about it. In fact as believers we are told to do all things without complaining or disputing. (Phil. 2:14)

What many do not realize is that all are expected to work.  Even some of our founding fathers used the Biblical principle from II Thessalonians 3:10 “If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat.”  Every able bodied individual (Able-bodied opens a whole new can of worms I cannot address in this short essay…) should be doing their part to provide.  We happen to live in an area Brown/Schuyler County where the unemployment rate is the lowest in the state and likely among the lowest in the country.  If people want to work and have not disqualified themselves through character flaws or laziness, they can find work.  I understand it may not be the most glamorous or enjoyable, but it will put food on the table and some kind of shelter over the head.

The manner in which we work is addressed in a few other places.  For example, In I Cor. 10:31 we are challenged, “Whether therefore you eat or drink do all to the glory of God.”  Even more pointedly in Ephesians 6:5ff those who are working for others are challenged to work “in sincerity of heart, as to Christ:” in other words we work as if Christ is our boss.  In fact it continues “not with eye service as men pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ doing the will of God from the heart, with goodwill doing service to the Lord, and not to men.”  Just think of how many people work hard if the boss or the foreman are somewhere that they can see them, but as soon as they walk out of sight they go back to being lazy and their production drops.  As believers we work to please God, and I have found that most of the time if my work pleases the Lord then my work will please man as well.  I understand that occasionally there are those difficult bosses that will never be pleased, but they aren’t our concern.  In the end we do not answer to them for our attitudes and actions, but we will answer to God.  And if we are believers we are representing Jesus Christ even in the way we work including our attitudes and actions.  May Jesus Christ be praised by our work ethic!  (This article was first published as the "Feature Preacher" article in the Rushville Times)

Staying Faithful

Christmas is approaching fast!  We set aside December 25^th to remember the day of our Savior’s birth.  In all of the busyness of our often “hijacked holiday,” let us take time to re-read and learn from, the passages reminding us of what was going on in the lives of the people involved.

Today I would encourage you to go and reread Luke chapter 1.  Think about Zacharias and Elizabeth.  Verse 6 lets us know that they were righteous.  They had faith in God, as we know from Romans 4 that all who are justified or “declared righteous” have put their faith in God, both in the Old Testament Times and the New Testament Times.  The also had a daily walk in their lives in which they were considered blameless when it came to keeping the Lord’s commands!

It is amazing that they kept this attitude, even when God had not seemed to grant them their wish of a child.  Because of not having a child, they bore the reproach of people around them (vs.25).  Many people of the day assumed there was a sin problem if God had made one barren.  The statement in verse 6 makes it clear that this was not the case.  In today’s society, I have met many people who give up on their walk of faith if God, who they look at as a Genie in a bottle, does not grant them their wishes.  As we study the customs of the priests serving in the temple, we realize that if Zecharias is indeed well advance in years along with his wife, that he would be approaching retirement age of 50 as prescribed in Numbers 4:30.  The priests usually only got one opportunity to go in and trim the candles,  burn the incense, and offer the blessing on the people yet he had served many years and never gotten this special opportunity.  Yet, they remained faithful!

Their faithfulness, as always, was worth it.  God would bless them with being the parents of the one who would come in the “Spirit of Elijah,” as the forerunner of the Messiah!  May we stay faithful no matter what we face in our walk of faith!

Karma or Harvest?

I seldom go through a week without someone seeing or hearing someone use the term “karma.”   “He got his karma.,” “Karma is a pain!,” “I’ll give him his karma.” or “Your karma is coming.”  In these contexts, it is nearly always dealing with someone getting back in kind for their wrong actions.  Some of the time, it is an excuse for revenge.  These ideas are derived uses of the term which comes out of Buddhism and Hinduism, though the meaning has been changed to some degree.

My concern is that this attitude seems to be prevalent in many who would claim to be Christians.  Karma is not a biblical concept.  The biblical concept is harvest.  If I go and plant a corn seed in my garden, I expect to pick corn when the plant matures.  The same is true for beans, tomatoes, or whatever I plant.  I expect to harvest in the same kind as the type of seed that I have planted.

God in His word tells us in Galatians 6:7–9 (ESV) “⁷Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. ⁸For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. ⁹And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.”

All through scripture we see people receiving the consequences of their actions.  He reaffirms that here in this passage.  The things we sow, or plant will come back to us.  We see it in the lives of individuals in scripture.  How many can you name?  Do we see it in the lives of nations? Do you remember them?

Some think it is their responsibility to pay back for the wrong people have done to them.  This violates Romans 12:17 where we are commanded, “Repay no one evil for evil.” And vs. 19 “Do not avenge yourselves.”   Why does God tell us this? Verse 19 continues, “Vengeance, is Mine, I will repay.”  When we try to pay back individuals for wrongs that they have done to us we are trying to take the place of God.  We need to let God work in His way in His time.   He sees, He knows, He cares, and He has promised.  If we take vengeance upon ourselves, then we are wrong, and will bring consequences upon ourselves.  Our part is to “repay evil with good.” (Rom. 12:21)

The greatest challenge today as you read this is to evaluate what you are sowing or planting with your life.  Have you trusted Christ as Savior so that you can sow to the spirit?  If you have not, you are simply sowing to the flesh.  The final harvest then will be corruption; eternal punishment in the lake of fire.  Put your faith in Christ today, and begin to serve Him, then you will know a blessed harvest!  

Is It Time To Rebuild?

Years ago, when my wife and I were newly married, we bought our first house. That first house had some real problems.  The main one was that whoever built it did not take the time to put a footing under the foundation.  Therefore, the house had settled on one end.  The 20 foot living/dining room dropped about 12 inches from one end to the other. It took an incredible amount of time and effort to try to get that house back to level.  Eventually, someone had to come and dig out the old foundation, and put in a new footing and foundation, so that the house could be solid.

Today I see many families struggling.  They will say things like, “My kid is on suspension from school.”, “Our marriage is falling apart.”, “My kids won’t listen and obey me,.”, and the list goes on…

When you get a chance to talk with them and challenge them, you realize that their lives and families have a foundation problem.  They need to return to the Biblical principles, and teaching, and Jesus Christ in their lives and families.  Matthew 7:24–27 (NKJV) ²⁴“Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: ²⁵and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. ²⁶“But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: ²⁷and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.”

Some of you may think that you are fine, because the storms of life have not yet hit, but they will.  Many others are facing the storm and seeing their homes beginning to sink. and oOthers are seeing them collapse.  I want to let you know there is hope!  Remove the foundation that is allowing your life and family to fall apart, and start rebuilding on the Rock of Jesus’ teachings.  I am not here telling you it will be easy. It will be harder than rebuilding the foundation of our house, but it will also be more rewarding when you are done.  I also am not telling you to do it alone, in fact, I will work to help you in this process, or connect you to someone else who will point you to the Biblical principles that are needed in the life of you and your children.  Don’t put it off, because the longer you wait, the more difficult the job becomes.  If your children are young the job will be easier than if they are old, if you are working from multiple generations of the improper foundation your work is cut out for you, but don’t lose hope.  Do the job “one brick” at a time, then slowly and surely, you will see the benefits of your efforts as you submit to God’s Word in your life and family!

For assistance contact: First Baptist Church 309-257-2290 or littletonbap@mtcnow.net

Christmas Communication

How do you communicate with friends and family at Christmas? Cards, letters (we prepared 200 this year), phone, Skype, and the best is a visit.  God also has communicated to us in different ways through different generations through the prophets (Heb. 1:1).  Much of this came through their preaching and writing of the Bible.  Yet, we are told in verse 2 that he spoke to us through His Son.  Jesus Christ came to earth to visit not for His benefit but for ours. 

This communication from God was not happenstance. It came just when God had planned it.  Gal. 4:4-5a says, “But when the fullness of time had come God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law to redeem them who were under the law.”  We, because of our sinfulness, needed a redeemer.  Someone to pay the price of our sin.  Jesus Christ was born of a virgin and lived a sinless life so that he might be the perfect sacrifice!

God’s communication seemed like it was shortened.  His followers were expecting him to give them victory and freedom from Roman control.  Their hopes were dashed as Jesus hung on the cross and proclaimed “it is finished” (Jn. 19:30).  What they did not yet understand is that Jesus was going to rise from the dead three days later.  Jesus Christ had come not to give them freedom from the Romans, but rather freedom from sin and death.  I Cor. 15:56-57 say, “⁵⁶The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. ⁵⁷But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

When we get our letters and Christmas cards many of us respond in various ways. Some are quickly thrown in the trash while others are cherished and looked at again and again.  Some are ignored while others are looked at sometimes for months or years.  I ask you today, “How do you respond to God’s Christmas communication, Jesus Christ?”  Do you cherish Him and His word?  Or do you ignore Him and basically discard Him from your thinking?  I challenge you to put your faith in Jesus Christ for salvation and cherish Him.

Bearing with and Forgiving One Another

Ephesians 4:1–2 (NKJV)  ¹I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, ²with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love.

As believers who have been called “out of darkness to His marvelous light”, we have a manner in which we should live.   Paul calls us to this lifestyle when he calls us “to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called.”

He then begins to describe some of the characteristics of this lifestyle, “lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love.”   Al Broom described this concept in this way, “The word ‘bear’ in Ephesians means to be tolerant toward Christians: to bear with them; to patiently endure their idiosyncrasies and weaknesses; to have a forgiving spirit toward others who may sin against us.”[1]

In Colossians 3:12–13 (NKJV) it says , “¹²Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; ¹³bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.”   We are to clothe ourselves with these traits.  We forgive those who wrong us remembering the manner in which Christ forgave us.  He forgives completely.  He forgives and does not remind us of our sin. He forgives and never brings it up again.  When we get a true understanding of the forgiveness that we have in Christ Jesus we can more easily forgive others in the same way.

What Paul is describing here is sanctification, the ongoing process by which a sinner is made holy, separated, by God.  Forgiveness is just one aspect of that.  As we are granted a fuller and fuller knowledge of what God has forgiven on our behalf we should find it easier and easier to overlook the shortcoming of those around us and reach out to others with “tenderness, kindness, meekness, and longsuffering.”   And may others do the same for us. 

This lesson is a final installment from “Putting Value in the Local Church.”  If you would like to be challenged on many of the other “one another” commands of Scripture look back to episodes 32-36 and 43-46.  

The video version of this can be viewed at www.youtube.com/churchoflittleton  FW # 55

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[1] Broom, Al & Lorraine, One to One Discipling, Multiplication Ministries, pg. 61

Lessons from Paul # 4 - Are you a bondservant of Christ?

Romans 1:1–5 (NKJV)

¹Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God.

Paul was a bondservant.  A bondservant is a slave.  They became a slave when they were sold into slavery to pay off a debt or gave themselves up to slavery for an assigned period of time.  Then when that assigned period of time was up they could decide to stay on as a slave the rest of their life.  It is a willful turning oneself over to be a slave.

For instance in colonial America individuals would get someone to pay for their voyage to the new world by committing to serve for a period of time.  We’ll use seven years as an example.  When a servant had served his seven years he was free to go, but   if that servant had watched others who earned their freedom struggle with hardships and barely get by.  If they had a loving and fair master at the end of that time they may make a commitment to stay and serve them the rest of their life.  They had come to realize, as a friend once put it, “It doesn’t get any better than this.”

A similar situation was discussed in Exodus 21:5-6,  (NKJV) “⁵But if the servant plainly says, ‘I love my master, … I will not go out free,’ ⁶then his master shall bring him to the judges. He shall also bring him to the door, or to the doorpost, and his master shall pierce his ear with an awl; and he shall serve him forever.”

The process of marking the ear distinguished this individual a slave for life and revealed their allegiance to that particular master.

Some may say,  “I don’t think I want to be bondservant.  I don’t want to give up my rights.”   Yes, it is true a slave does not retain any of their personal rights.  They also do not get to work to please anyone other than their master.  Paul’s command made this clear in  Titus 2:9 (NKJV) “ ⁹Exhort bondservants to be obedient to their own masters, to be well pleasing in all things, not answering back.” 

A slave worked only to fulfill the master’s plan.  They worked to please him fulfilling his will.  Likewise as bondservants of Christ, God desires to “make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to be glory forever and ever.”  (Heb. 13:20-21)  As believers we “keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.”  (I John 3:22)

As bondservants of Christ we should look to get our direction for life from the Holy Spirit.  Romans 8:12-14 challenges us to be “led of the Spirit” and not of the flesh.  Galatians 5:18-26 challenges us as well to be “led of the Spirit” and to be “walking in the Spirit”.

Paul was a great example to us as he lived his life committed to Christ as a “bondservant”.  We would do well to follow his example.

The video version of this is available at www.youtube.com/churchoflittleton   FW # 52