Tag: relationships

Categories
Serving Others

Am I Wasting My Life At Work?

“Am I Wasting My Life At Work?”
    by brian rushing

Work can be drudgery.
Work can be difficult.
Work can be thankless.
Work can be stressful.

At times, these feelings cause many people to wonder – “Am I wasting my life by working at my current job?”

photo of an office with many cubicles - symbolizing a place where people might ask - am I wasting my life
That same question might take a different form as we think about our work in light of our Christianity, especially when we think of ministers and missionaries. Then the form of the question might become, “Am I wasting my life by not working in a church-related occupation?”

Here is a concluding quote for us to remember about our work:

“…secular work is not a waste when we make much of Christ from 8 to 5. God’s will is that his people be scattered like salt and light in all legitimate vocations. His aim is to be known, because knowing him is life and joy. He does not call us out of the world. He does not remove the need to work. He does not destroy society and culture. Through his scattered saints he spreads a passion for his supremacy in all things for the joy of all peoples.

If you work like the world, you will waste your life, no matter how rich you get.

But if your work creates a web of redemptive relationships and becomes an adornment for the Gospel of the glory of Christ, your satisfaction will last forever and God will be exalted in your joy.”


I totally agree with this statement that God’s aim is for people to know Him because knowing Him is life and joy. Therefore, wherever you are, you have an opportunity to use your workplace as a platform for creating relationships where people can see Christ in you – bringing them into the life and joy of beginning a relationship with Him.

Certainly ask the questions: “God what would you have me do as an occupation?” & “God where would you have me work for you?”

But while you are waiting for the answer, do not fret, worry, or despair… Instead, use your workplace as a platform for showing others how wonderful life is when it is lived out with Jesus. Doing so could never be considered a waste!

        (Quotes in today’s post are from Don’t Waste Your Life by John Piper)


Categories
Serving Others

Making Much of God Through Your Work

“Making Much of God Through Your Work”
by brian rushing

There were several other helpful thoughts from John Piper on how we can “Make Much Of God” in our secular jobs. You can read my recent previous posts about this idea here:
     Taking Jesus All The Way To The Office
     Your Job is Your Mission Field
     Your Mission if You Choose To Accept It Is At Your Office

I didn’t want to take these next ideas and make a whole post about each one of them, but I did think that they were very helpful for me in continuing to think about how to live as a workplace pastor to my coworkers:

Work Is Good.
God is a creative, working God. His work included creating this world. He created us in His image and gave us the work of continuing to rule and shape His creation. “If you are not God, but like God—that is, if you are human— your work is to take what God has made and shape it and use it to make him look great.”

You Are Not a Beaver.
The difference between you and a beaver – “No beaver or bee or hummingbird or ant consciously relies on God.”

picture of a beaver symbolizing our work
photo from wikimedia commons; by steve from washington, dc.
A beaver does not think about God and make the conscious choice to work with excellence because God is excellent. No beaver decides for God’s sake to make a dam for another beaver and not for himself. But as a human, you have this potential, because you were created in God’s image. When God gives us work to do, he doesn’t mean for you to do it like a beaver. He means for you to do it intentionally for bringing Him glory.

“To be sure, when God sends us forth to work as his image-bearers, our ditches are to be dug straight, our pipe-fittings are not to leak, our cabinet corners should be flush, our surgical incisions should be clean, our word processing accurate and appealing, and our meals nutritious and attractive, because God is a God of order and beauty and competence. But cats are clean, and ants are industrious, and spiders produce orderly and beautiful works. And all of them are dependent on God. Therefore, the essence of our work as humans must be that it is done in conscious reliance on God’s power, and in conscious quest of God’s pattern of excellence, and in deliberate aim to reflect God’s glory.”

People See Christ Through You.
Have high standards of excellence and integrity and goodwill at your work. By doing so you remove obstacles in the way of the Gospel and call attention to the goodness and beauty of Jesus.

Your Conversations at Work Need to Change.
“Speaking the good news of Christ is part of why God put you in your job. He has woven you into the fabric of others’ lives so that you will tell them the Gospel. Without this, all our adorning behavior may lack the one thing that could make it life-giving…. The Christian’s calling includes making his or her mouth a fountain of life.” Our mouths must speak to others about Jesus. “No nice feelings about you as a good employee will save anyone.” Only by telling people that you are a good employee because of Jesus will move them toward Him- toward His grace and salvation.

Consider a Strategic Move
“For many of you the move toward missions and deeds of mercy will not be a move away from your work but with your work to another, more needy, less-reached part of the world. Christians should seriously ask not only what their vocation is, but where it should be lived out. We should not assume that teachers and carpenters and computer programmers and managers and CPAs and doctors and pilots should do their work in America. That very vocation may be better used in a country that is otherwise hard to get into, or in a place where poverty makes access to the Gospel difficult. In this way the web of relationships created by our work is not only strategic but intentional.”

Are you asking God the serious questions of:
God what occupation do you want me in?
Where do you want me to live and do my work?
How can I be a better workplace pastor to those I am working with?

        (Quotes in today’s post are from Don’t Waste Your Life by John Piper)

Categories
Christian Living

Things We Get Wrong, part 1.

#1. God Cannot Look On Sin
You’ve probably heard that statement before.
Maybe you’ve even said it yourself.
But is it accurate?

man hiding his face symbolizing God not looking on sin - something we get wrong

Let me ask it another way…

Can God save sinners?
Of course He can. Certainly So.
This is one of the key beliefs of Christians. A key teaching of the church.

But… how could that be possible if our opening statement is true? How can God save sinners if He can’t look on sin? or if He can’t hear the prayer of a sinner? How could He save a sinful person if He must turn His back on them until they are righteous?
Hmmm… maybe this statement is one we’ve gotten a bit wrong.

Now it is true that God will not allow sin into His eternal, heavenly kingdom. But sin in our lives does not necessitate that God turns His back on us. Instead, it means that we have broken our fellowship with Him, not our relationship.

As a parent, when your child does something “wrong” by deliberately disobeying you does it damage your fellowship with the child? Yes. But does it break your relationship – such that you are no longer the child’s parent until he/she comes and apologizes? Do you turn your back on them until they confess their wrongdoing? Of course not. It doesn’t break your relationship… you are still his/her Mom or Dad. Your child is still a beloved son/daughter. It is the same with God. When we are rebellious, it damages our fellowship, but it doesn’t change our relationship. He is still the loving father who doesn’t turn His back on us. Rather He reaches out to us.

Many of us have heard that the moment when Jesus took all the sins of the world and became our sin, God the Father turned His back on Jesus, God the Son. It is true that at that moment, God could not retain full fellowship with Jesus, who became sin. But He did not turn His back on Jesus… In fact, Psalm 22 – a prophetic psalm of the crucifixion of the Messiah, indicates that God did not reject Jesus nor did He hide His face from Jesus. Jesus willingly took on our sin and so willingly felt what it was like to be without the intimate fellowship of God the Father.

But let us be careful that we don’t say things that let others think that God might turn His back on them.

What a terrible thought! …That God might turn His back on me.

From the very first sin that happened in the Garden of Eden, we find that God doesn’t hide Himself from sinners. Instead He pursues them. He is the One who pursued Adam & Eve who were hiding after their sin. Had God not pursued those two sinners, it is unlikely they would have interacted with Him again. So even in the midst of my willful sin, God pursues me and calls me to return to Him. He pursues me to restore fellowship with me.

God is holy.
God will not let sin into His eternal kingdom.
Therefore He gives us Jesus to provide us with righteousness to cover our unrighteousness. While we were still sinners, God looked upon us with love and sent Jesus to show us the full measure of His love for us in sin.

God’s mercy is huge. God’s grace is unfathomable.
His righteousness is big enough to cover our sin.
But let’s strive to hate our sin like God hates it.

“God started the sacrificial system for at least two reasons. First, He desired His people to loathe sin. With the constant stream of bloody sacrifices offered by the priests, people were confronted continually with the seriousness of His holiness and their sin. Every time they sinned, something had to die. Second, the sacrificial system was intended to help people long for a Savior whose sacrifice would be complete and perfect. The system was elaborate, but it was never intended to be sufficient; instead, it pointed to something much deeper. It was designed to be a tutor to teach people they could never fulfill the law.” (Matt Chandler, ‘Creature of the Word’)

On this, the week we remember the cross and the empty tomb, let’s thank Jesus for fulfilling the law for us… for becoming that perfect and complete sacrifice. And let’s thank Him for looking on our sin, hating it, and doing something amazing about it.

Categories
Relationships

Designed for Community, pt. 2

As I mentioned previously, you were designed for community.

You were designed to have both an intimate relationship with God and intimate relationships with others. Without both, you will never find complete satisfaction in life. Here’s another great quote on community from “Creature of the Word”

…The reason most community is shallow in our world is because it’s built on temporary foundations. The reason most relationships don’t last is because they’re built on commonalities that change over time.
When the common bond changes, the relationship changes. If you’re married, you see this happen immediately when you have kids. You once had friends you would hang out with late at night, but now you can’t do that. Even if you get a babysitter, you’re not staying up till 1:00 in the morning, because your kids are waking up at 6:50 and you’ll be exhausted.

If you play sports with a group of guys, and if nothing deeper than your love of basketball binds you together, that community will weaken and likely disappear if you blow out a knee and can’t play anymore. If relationships aren’t built on something deeper than finding good restaurants, working at the same company, or having kids in the same activities, they will change whenever the common bond is no longer there. Community is only as strong as what it’s built upon. And nothing is as strong as the gospel.

The gospel is the deepest foundation for community. What connects believers is the reality that we were all very messed-up people, broken before a holy God, yet rescued and given new life in Christ. What unites believers is deeper than anything that can divide.

A unity that is deeper than anything that can divide.

That’s what I want.
That’s what I long for.
That’s what I need.

A community built on the strongest foundation.
A community built on the gospel.

Make sure that you are a part of that community!

(How have you found this to be true? How have you found that the community you have with others through the gospel is deeper than anything that can divide?)

Categories
Relationships

Designed for Community

The Purpose for Life… What is it?
What is your purpose for life?
Could you verbalize it if someone asked?

I don’t know what you have chosen as your purpose for living, but I do know what you were designed for… Relationships.
Connectedness.
Community.

We all want to connect.
We all desire community.
But how will we get this community that we crave?guys cooking on a big grill to signify relationships and community

We find little connections all the time – at the ballgame with fellow fans, at the office with our co-workers, with our neighbors at the barbeque. But isn’t there a deeper connection we can find?

I love how this is explained in “Creature of the Word” as the authors discuss the early church of Philippi:

So the little growing church in Philippi was now home to people like this: a Wealthy, upscale businesswoman… a slave girl with a deep, dark, wounded past… a tough-nosed jailer and his family…. What else did these people have in common but the gospel? They never would have gone to the same restaurants, hung out in the same parts of town, or listened to the same music. But because God had radically transformed them, they shared a common bond deeper than anything that divided them. They were together only because of the gospel.

Together only because of the gospel….
You see, you were created for an intimate relationship with God and others.
It is the only thing that’ll satisfy completely.

Leave one or the other out, and you’ll still be missing a part of the community that you need.

What we find out is that the gospel is the only thing that can truly put us together in real community. It is what we were designed for.