Psalm 34:2 My soul shall makes it boast in the Lord.
When I feel afraid, I’m prone to pull the blanket over my head and hope it goes away. Or I nurse my fears. The adversary of our souls loves to get our attention focused on ourselves and not on the resources of our God.
What will happen when you praise and worship God? Your praise makes God big your heart and mind. Soon, your problem falls into perspective. When I worship God, sometimes even with tears coming down my face, my spirit is renewed as I praise God. My problem doesn’t go away, but all of a sudden, I see it in relation to the One who is in charge of everything.
Isn’t it interesting what we do boast about? Or even nonverbally message to those about us, whether by our attitude, demeanor, eyebrows, breathing, etc. At the last party, social event, opportune encounter, what did you boast about? And don’t give me this humble jumble that you don’t boast! We all have opportunity to so engage, perhaps even lead conversations if they are dragging or being negative. Put the spotlight on the Lord, give Him center stage.So many good things are happening in our lives as individuals, in our families, in our churches, that there is no scarcity for boasting on the Lord virtually continually.
It’s all perspective. Begin with praise prayer & worship!
David Jeremiah Sanctuary: Finding Moments of Refuge in the Presence of God 2002 July 5
“The job of mainstream media is not to inform, but to misinform the public, making it harder for people to make informed decisions about things that impact their own lives, and that of their families.
Mass media is used to divert public attention from important issues and changes that are decided upon by the political and economic elites, through the technique of derailing important facts or information through the continuous flood of distractions, mindless entertainment and insignificant information.”
Reading upon awakening this morning from Evening June 11 dailylightdevotional.org The Isaiah 65:17 verse led to reading the entire chapter well into the next book of Jeremiah providing future assurance. Be not mocked today by the Prince of the airways mentioned in “Is AI ah” 65:25 “…but snakes-they’ll get dirt! Neither animal nor human will kill hurt or kill anywhere on my Holy Mountain,” says God. Relish in the reality His Spirit provides you today from these verses… Just thinking… Is AI ah really an Ah-Ha moment? Sorry. Just my humor. But I’m deadly serious about the “lateness of the hour! Remember the ten foolish & the ten wise? Why the oil? Blessings as you go forth today. And tomorrow too.
Behold, I make all things new. Rev. 21:5
Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. John 3:3
If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. II Cor. 5:17
A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. Ezek. 36:26
Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump. I Cor. 5:7
The new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Eph. 4:24
Thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the LORD shall name. Isa. 62:2
Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. Isa. 65:17
Seeing … that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness? II Pet. 3:11
And now for the CLINCHER
Isaiah 65:1-25 (MSG)
“I’ve made myself available to those who haven’t bothered to ask. I’m here, ready to be found by those who haven’t bothered to look. I kept saying ‘I’m here, I’m right here’ to a nation that ignored me. 2. I reached out day after day to a people who turned their backs on me, People who make wrong turns, who insist on doing things their own way. 3. They get on my nerves, are rude to my face day after day, Make up their own kitchen religion, a potluck religious stew. 4. They spend the night in tombs to get messages from the dead, Eat forbidden foods and drink a witch’s brew of potions and charms. 5. They say, ‘Keep your distance. Don’t touch me. I’m holier than thou.’ These people gag me. I can’t stand their stench. 6. Look at this! Their sins are all written out— I have the list before me. I’m not putting up with this any longer. I’ll pay them the wages 7. They have coming for their sins. And for the sins of their parents lumped in, a bonus.” God says so. “Because they’ve practiced their blasphemous worship, mocking me at their hillside shrines, I’ll let loose the consequences and pay them in full for their actions.” 8. God’s Message: “But just as one bad apple doesn’t ruin the whole bushel, there are still plenty of good apples left. So I’ll preserve those in Israel who obey me. I won’t destroy the whole nation. 9. I’ll bring out my true children from Jacob and the heirs of my mountains from Judah. My chosen will inherit the land, my servants will move in. 10. The lush valley of Sharon in the west will be a pasture for flocks, And in the east, the valley of Achor, a place for herds to graze. These will be for the people who bothered to reach out to me, who wanted me in their lives, who actually bothered to look for me. 11. “But you who abandon me, your God, who forget the holy mountains, Who hold dinners for Lady Luck and throw cocktail parties for Sir Fate, 12. Well, you asked for it. Fate it will be: your destiny, Death. For when I invited you, you ignored me; when I spoke to you, you brushed me off. You did the very things I exposed as evil; you chose what I hate.” 13. Therefore, this is the Message from the Master, God: “My servants will eat, and you’ll go hungry; My servants will drink, and you’ll go thirsty; My servants will rejoice, and you’ll hang your heads. 14. My servants will laugh from full hearts, and you’ll cry out heartbroken, yes, wail from crushed spirits. 15. Your legacy to my chosen will be your name reduced to a cussword. I, God, will put you to death and give a new name to my servants. 16. Then whoever prays a blessing in the land will use my faithful name for the blessing, And whoever takes an oath in the land will use my faithful name for the oath, Because the earlier troubles are gone and forgotten, banished far from my sight. 17. “Pay close attention now: I’m creating new heavens and a new earth. All the earlier troubles, chaos, and pain are things of the past, to be forgotten. 18. Look ahead with joy. Anticipate what I’m creating: I’ll create Jerusalem as sheer joy, create my people as pure delight. 19. I’ll take joy in Jerusalem, take delight in my people: No more sounds of weeping in the city, no cries of anguish; 20. No more babies dying in the cradle, or old people who don’t enjoy a full lifetime; One-hundredth birthdays will be considered normal— anything less will seem like a cheat. 21. They’ll build houses and move in. They’ll plant fields and eat what they grow. 22. No more building a house that some outsider takes over, No more planting fields that some enemy confiscates, For my people will be as long-lived as trees, my chosen ones will have satisfaction in their work. 23. They won’t work and have nothing come of it, they won’t have children snatched out from under them. For they themselves are plantings blessed by God, with their children and grandchildren likewise God-blessed. 24. Before they call out, I’ll answer. Before they’ve finished speaking, I’ll have heard. 25. Wolf and lamb will graze the same meadow, lion and ox eat straw from the same trough, but snakes—they’ll get a diet of dirt! Neither animal nor human will hurt or kill anywhere on my Holy Mountain,” says God.
and after listening to last Sundays Pastor Carl’s YouTube sermon titled “Oh be careful little eyes what you see,” for the third time, I’d sorta figured I’d be quenching the Spirit if I didn’t share it with you. Sermon starts 30 minutes in. I’m not providing either popcorn or my notes this time. Make and take your own. God’s just delivered a most appropriate message for our understanding and reflection. I pray God’s anointing on the best sermon I’ve ever heard (perhaps better said that I recall) on King David and Bathsheba. YouTube sent prior. Blessings.
Faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. Heb. 11:1
Virtue means manly spirit, bravery, courage, moral goodness or excellence.
We are in danger of forgetting that we cannot do what God does, and that God will not do what we can do. We cannot save nor sanctify ourselves— God does that. Nor will God give us good habits or character, and He certainly will not force us to walk correctly before Him. We have to do all that ourselves. God only operates invitationally; as we must too, with all those persons in our sphere of influence whom do not yet walk in His guiding presence. For first, we must “work out” our “own salvation” which God has worked in us by loving invitations (Philippians 2:12). To Add implies that we must get into the habit of actually doing things, such as completing assigned tasks, and during the initial stages of our walking the Kingdom Road, that can be really difficult. To take the initiative is to make a beginning— to instruct yourself in the way you must go.
Beware of the tendency to ask the way when you know it perfectly well. Take the initiative— stop hesitating— take the first step. Be determined to act immediately in faith on what God says to you when He speaks, and never reconsider or change your initial decisions. If you hesitate when God tells you to do something, you are being careless, spurning the grace in which you’re now standing. Take the initiative yourself, make a decision of your will right now, and make it impossible to go back. Burn your bridges behind you, saying, “I will write that letter;” “I will make that visit,” or “I will write up and present that volunteer proposal to area nursing homes I was given two years ago. Make it irrevocable.
In order to transition into new modes of service for Him as we mature spiritually, we must get into the habit of carefully listening to God from everything he places about us, perhaps in our devotional times or Bible study, or from our mentors or even, our mentees, or unusual circumstances that force us out of our comfort zones, hopefully that we then habitually first turn to Him for His wisdom, finding out what He says and promptly being obedient by heeding it. So, if and when those times of transitional crisis threaten us, we will instinctively turn to God, and we will know and be assured that His habits of spiritual survival and thriving under pressure have been formed in us.
BOTTOM LINE:
Yes indeed, we have to take the initiative practically where we now are, not merely theoretically where we have not yet been.
Wisdom From Oswald:
The Christian Church should not be a secret society of specialists, but rather, a public manifestation of believers in Jesus. Sincerity implies that our appearance and our reality are exactly the same.
NEXT UP:
Again, possibly the script of a unique Mother’s Day sermon May 12 delivered here in Wayne Co.
Reading of the text, Matt 5:1-12, begins at 32:00 minutes on the attached YouTube
My crudenotes from Pastor Carl’s sermon April 14
Psalm 46: nations are in uproar. Israel, Ukraine, Be still and know that I am exalted,
Our God is inviting us to be unshakable in the midst of overwhelming shaking and quaking,
Jesus said there be famines and wars, and rumors of wars, the church needs to be prepared, theme for the year 2024 is being unshakable, now we’re talking about an unshakable kingdom, being unshakable ourselves, on the sermon on the Mount, the beatitudes, Matt 5: 1-12, our boat is tied, it appears we’re moving, but that’s because the world about us is moving, but we are anchored. God, help us to understand the reality of our situation
We will look at three parts of this passage:
First, Jesus is teaching about our CITIZENSHIP: Process of naturalization, I want to be become a citizen here, forms, civics class, some basic functional knowledge, tested, ceremony, take an oath, similar to children of Israel, what does it mean for you to live in relationship with me, in a world that doesn’t acknowledge me? I’m making of you a nation, I’m giving you citizenship, you’ll have all the rights and responsibilities of citizenship in being in relationship with me, gave them and us the Ten Commandment, first four concerning our relationship to God as my people, next six for how are we going to live in relationship with people in His community, it’s all about citizenship in His kingdom, Sermon on Mount is 1.) instructional for us to join, 2.) invitational for us without to join, to become kingdom people, this is what it means to be citizens, to have a Savior from our past, to have a Lord of our lives right now, king & guide presently during this shaking, what does it mean for us to be kingdom people? Matt 6: 9 Kingdom prayer, not a ritual, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, seek first the K of G, kingdom Priority, then K Provision (seek His Rightousness, and thse things will be added to you, birds of the air, food, clothes, do not get so focused on provision, then onto K Priority, v 19,20, whoever Practices, unless you surpass the Pharisees, these are Practical, calls 4 , Peter, Andrew, James, John, He’s doing invitational, what does it mean to be Citizens in the Kingdom of God,
Second, Jesus is teaching about our CONVICTIONS(what you believe about God),CHARACTER(who you are before God), and your CONDUCT (how you do live before God), Sundays are getting the desserts after all the meals of your self-studies of of the Kingdom meals you’ve been eating & living all week long, so you need to be worshipping, studying, and growing all week long, because if you’re just coming for desert on Sunday, that is not going to hold you over, So looking at each of these Beatitudes, what is God desiring to teach us from each of them in regard to driving and undergirding the formulation and implementation of our convictions, our character, and our conduct?
Start with V 3, do I recognize my being poor in spirit, my poverty in the image God created me to be, and when I see Him, do I recognize who this Holy God is? that on my own I can’t achieve or attain His intended Rightousness for me, I’m spiritually impoverished, so how does that shape my character? How does that determine how I conduct my life?
V 4 Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted? Does my spiritual character reflect an awareness that comes to me when I become aware of my own waywardness? Do I grieve that I am spiritually deficient, or even that the world about me is so spiritually impoverished?
V5 Blessed are the meek for they will inherit the earth… meek … colt born, later time to be trained, or broke, Meek here in his verse means to be broken, have I been broken for Kingdom use by recognizing my impoverishment even though as a son of the King so that God can use me, Just as a horse must be broken in order to be trained so to be usable by his Master, to be guided and controlled by the reins to move and to work appropriately for his master’s wishes, commands,
V 6, hunger and thirst after Rightousness, Jesus reflected, Do I Hunger & Thirst after Rightousness, Do I actually crave His Rightousness being exhibited within me? Do I exhibit His fruit of the Spirit? Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, Self-Control Gal. 5:22-23 Memorize them, because these are the character of Christ, don’t use another man to be your model, because you must want to be like Jesus, that is whom you are hungering for, how does that impact your 3 C’s (convictions, character, conduct)
V 7 blessed are the merciful… do I show mercy, compassion to those I meet?
V 8 blessed are the pure in heart…does my outward walk reflect my inward heart?
V 9 blessed are the peacemakers, do I believe (God’s desire) is it my desire? Do I bring people together in love & reconciliation? As citizen people we have a God who is defining in the example of Jesus Christ, what Kingdom Citizenship looks like; how your convictions of who God is and who we are, will shape your character, who you are, and out of that will determine your conduct, how you will live as a Kingdom Citizen in this world, so we can’t expect people to act right if they are not believing right, if their heart isn’t right. They may have the right conviction, but it must permenate who they are, and that is a training process (broken as a horse) for all of us, and over time, since none of us yet have fully arrived, that we become transformed and empowered (via our convictions, character & conduct) and do battle with church membership imposters (luke-warm cultural Christian who excel at sitting soaking and souring in our faith communities until their lack of fruit reveal to everyone, that they are tares and they choose to either split and to remove themselves from Kingdom fellowship, or if they are so overwhelmed by the forgiveness and the reconciling love from within their community, they choose to repent, turning from the evil one toward Christ for the absolution of their sin and their complete restoration in their local community of the Kingdom of God…)
Question? Did those on the mountain that day understand all Jesus’ teachings on the first setting? No, it’s an ongoing continual process, that of learning who God is, who Jesus is, allowing that to shape me into who I am, before Him, then living that out, in the world around me,
So in summary, your citizenship will determine your convictions, what you believe, your character, who you are; your conduct, how you live; and I need to tell you these Beatitudes are not exhaustive, they are just illustrations of who God is, what He wants you to be, and how He wants you to live.
Third, Jesus is teaching about your CONDITION, for if you are a Kingdom Citizen, your Convictions, Character and Conduct will reflect Christ in your life and that these 3 C’s (convictions, character, & conduct):will cause your life to exhibit a specific CONDITION, which will be called what? Can you guess? The word is blessed….It means happy or joyful, really. You will be blessed if you know you are a citizen in this kingdom, that is unshakable, that you serve an unshakable king, and that you absolutely know who He is, for when you know who He is, you will know more about who you are, you’re going to know about the past, present and future, and convictions on all kinds of things, such that you can declare, “I am a citizen of the Kingdom of God, part of the family of God, my Father is in heaven, He sent His Son because He loves me, and this is going to shape your character, and by the way He gives you His Spirit to just come along inside of you to help shape that character, that’s why we call it the fruit of the Spirit, but He keeps working on you, then guess what, the when you know who God is, and you know who He wants you to be, your life should show it, Ok? And then when all of that is happening, it really doesn’t matter what is happening all around you, I know this a little radical, yes, the world may be shaking, nations may be in uproar, mountains may be falling into the heart of the seas, or it may be your own life that is falling apart, the devil will try to bring things into your life, that will cause you to be shaken, but you don’t have to be, because you’ll say I know the King, And I’m part of his family… I’m a citizen of his kingdom, He is doing a work in my life, He is allowing me to live my life in a manner that reflects my relationship with Him, but I know and down the road, the war is won, even though the battle continues on….and I already know the outcome, so I can live a blessed (happy & joyful life now!!
As Paul says in Philippians Two, “I’ve learned the secret of being content,” and living the really blessed life, it is not found in all that stuff, power, prestige, in fact the world keeps telling you that all that stuff will be beneficial and helpful, but they are wrong, for Paul says again in ch 4, I’ve learned that whatever I’m going thru I can just go before the Lord in prayer, and I’ll just be given this peace from God that nothing is going to happen to me that the King is not already aware of, and because I serve that King, and because I’m a citizen in that kingdom, because I serve in that Kingdom, then I think what Paul is telling us then, is that my condition is blessed. I can ignore the prison, the chains, ignore the possible death thing coming up, ignore all that stuff, because I’m blessed, and what Paul wants us to know is that Jesus is trying to help us, through the Sermon on the Mount, throughout the gospels, is to know what it means to be a citizen of his kingdom, in Christ, and let’s remember that attaining that citizenship is our primary, single focus, for when we understand that He is our king and we are his citizens, in his kingdom, (I think the term Kingdom comes up 121 times in the gospels) for when I understand I’m a citizen of this kingdom, then I understand, that awareness, or knowledge, is going to shape my convictions, going to shape my character, going to shape my conduct, of who I am in Christ, shapes me in all those areas, for when I know I’m a citizen, that then changes my condition to blessed…to blessed being happy & joyful, and that joy transcends, prisons, chains, all those things that Paul went through. Next week, Matt will speak on what it means to be salt and light in that Kingdom…
Blessed are They Who Suffer in Faith for the Glory of God is Theirs…
Next Up: A revealing short five paragraph incident with Radio psychiatrist Frasier Crane , from the TV show Frasier, giving the quote “Who am I to draw the line at the acceptable level of force?” Realize anger and murder come from the same root!
We are experiencing an unparalleled assault on our civilization that will be experienced first by societies non compliant, Christians included, because the first move by any totalitarian dictatorship, is to get rid of houses of worship, for if I bow down to God, I’ll not bow down to them. The mechanism they are using is fear, and if you’ve studied psychological warfare, you’ll know that anxiety, fear, and human isolation, will cause people to de-compensate psychologically and become very vulnerable, gullible and easy to manipulate. Look at yourself and those around you now since covid. How else can you explain this passive emotional fragility?
Seriously church, we are now in a war unlike any prior. How and when it escalates, only God knows. This war may not be typically combatant with guns, tanks, & bombs. Our conflicts are now largely psychological, and I fear we’re not prepared at all to go up against its games, whether we choose compliance, apathy, a Goliath, a fiery furnace, even a lion’s den, or a guillotine or any of the other weapons recorded in Martyrs Mirror. How does one prepare for such? I’ve been so sheltered.
None of the above was in the works when I typed up what follows. The last two days have been an unsolicited and unexpected journey for me. Understand I’ve been under conviction for months that at some point I would need to speak more candidly about what little I have been privileged to learn about our world and its subsequent implications for the anabaptist community.
I was told year’s ago by a friend to readBrad Jersak’s book “A More Christlike God, A More Beautiful Gospel, which I finally did, and now it’s buried amongst many boxes, awaiting its release. Therefore, I am sharing this formerly prepared document with you from pages 10-13.
“I’ve been pleasantly surprised how this proposition – the message that Jesus shows us what God is like – is often well received by those who don’t profess Christian faith. If I say, “God is love and Jesus was love incarnate,” no problem! Jesus is seldom the issue, even for a rabid, self-avowed ‘non-Christian’ such as Saturday Night Live satirist Bill Maher. His primary attacks are not against Jesus at all, but against Christians whose religion does violence in the name of the Prince of Peace. He castigates:
“If you’re a Christian that supports killing your enemy and torture, you have to come up with a new name for yourself. . . . ‘Capping thy enemy’ is not exactly what Jesus would do. For almost two thousand years, Christians have been lawyering the Bible to try to figure out how ‘Love thy neighbor’ can mean ‘Hate thy neighbor’. . . .
Martin Luther King Jr. gets to call himself a Christian, because he actually practiced loving his enemies. And Gandhi was so Christian, he was Hindu. But if you’re endorsing revenge, torture, or war, … you cannot say of the guy who explicitly said, ‘Love your enemy’ and ‘do good to those who hate you.’ …
And not to put too fine a point on it, but nonviolence was kind of Jesus’ trademark – kind of his big thing. To not follow that part is like joining Greenpeace and hating whales. There’s interpreting, and then there’s just plain ignoring. It’s just ignoring if you’re for torture – as are more Evangelical Christians than any other religion. You’re supposed to look at that figure on the Cross and think, “how could a man suffer like that and forgive?” …
I’m a non-Christian. Just like most Christians.
If you ignore every single thing Jesus commanded you to do, you’re not a Christian – you’re just auditing. You’re not Christ’s followers, you’re just fans. And if you believe the Earth was given you to kick ass on while gloating, you’re not really a Christian – you’re just a Texan.”
Brad Jersak now:
Ok, Maher’s unbelief is actually biting hatred directed against un-Christlike perversions of God, the projections of religious fundamentalists. Audiences find this commentary comedic because the irony is tragically accurate and laughably contradictory. Instead of reacting defensively or hanging our heads in silent shame, why not hear his indictment as a clarion call back to explicit Christlikeness.
At other times, atheism is self-created through some offense. We despair of faith when a tragedy or disappointment makes nonsense of the God we inherited or imagined. Touched deeply by loss, our misperceptions of who God is, should have been or failed to be for us, can lead us from mere doubt to an active rejection of faith.
Charles Darwin exemplifies this experience. His discoveries about natural selection and the evolutionary process certainly undermined his faith in ‘special creation,’ but they did not ‘kill God’ for him altogether. In fact, Darwin’s theories were not generally regarded as problematic by key Christians of his day. That great battle comes later in America. Toward the end of his life, he wrote, It seems to me absurd to doubt that a man may be an ardent theist and an evolutionist.”
When his precious ten-year-old daughter died in 1851, it broke his heart and crushed his faith. Darwin could hold the good purposes of God and the suffering in natural processes in healthy tension until he had to endure the terrible suffering of his little girl. It was too much. Whatever Darwin had believed, about God, that belief could not survive his grief.
I wonder. In the case of the sardonic Bill Maher or the brokenhearted Charles Darwin, the real culprit may actually be a non Christlike image of God. Which is to say, no God at all. If so, I’m inclined to agree with Walter Wink, who affirmed such atheism as a first step toward true worship, because it represents the rejection of an idol. That is, people like Maher and Darwin might be turning from – i.e., repenting. The next step, which I don’t pretend they have taken, is a turning toward – i.e., faith. I say a Christlike God is worth turning to.
Continuing, when I personally turned my gaze to the God who is completely Christlike, I was confronted with how non Christlike the ‘church-God’ or even the ‘Bible-God’ can be. Setting Jesus as the standard for perfect theology, many of our current Christian beliefs and practices would obviously face indictment. Even significant swaths of biblical literature don’t line up well with the Christ of the Gospels. Claiming that God is revealed perfectly in Jesus triggers tough questions about the God I once conceived and preached. Jesus’ life and character challenges my religious cliches and standby slogans – especially the rhetoric of supreme power and irresistible force. Christ never reveals God that way in his teachings and especially not in his Passion ( that is, Jesus’ arrest, trial, torture, and death).
Yes, he proves victorious, especially in his resurrection, but remember that Paul resolved to preach ‘Christ and him crucified’ (I Cor 2:2). You could resist him, you could mock him and beat him up. You could kill him. And we did. Our God is the cruciform Christ, the ‘weakness of God’ I Cor 1:25) who is stronger than men. Why? Because he operates by overcoming love, not by overwhelming force.
Take heart. Assuredly, we will encounter whatever comes, transformed by His love, and empowered by His Spirit, as we turn from, by repenting; and toward, in faith. … GO FORTH IN HIS CONFIDENCE>>>> mle
Next Up: Eugene Peterson literally stole the non-believer’s catchphrase “A Long Obedience in the Same Direction” and made it the name of his best book released in 1980, as well as commandeered a key word phrase associated with atheist philosopher Frederic Nietzche “that the only way to live life is to find a standard and stick to it.” Unfortunately for Frederic and the world ever since, he rejected his childhood standard, Jesus Christ, and instead became the pawn of the Imposter, the Devil himself. I’ve summarized Peterson’s Ch 13 titled Obedience. Two of his quotes are “a Christian who stays put is no better than a statue waiting to be pulled down when the tide changes” and “you ever notice for all its interest in history the Bible never refers to the past as “the good old days.” The past is not, for the person of faith, a restored historical site that we tour when we are on vacation; rather it is a field we plow, disc, harrow and plant, fertilize, and lovingly work to insure a bountiful harvest.”
Back in the early 2000s, the evangelist Billy Graham said, “I believe that one of the next great moves of God is going to be through the believers in the workplace.” George Barna also made a similar prediction when he said he believes the workplace will be a core future innovation in ministry.
Isn’t it true that we often look only at church, youth groups, and schools as places for evangelizing and for making positive changes to our communities? And we done well in those areas. We saw the need for our own school curriculum, we have church-organized youth activities, and we encourage each other to pray for our ministers and deacons.
But I fear there is one area that we overlook, and that is the workplace. It has been said an individual will spend almost a third of his life in the workplace – far more than any other place outside of his bed! And it also has been said that you become like the average of the five people you spend the most time with.
Many of us probably spend fifty hours at our workplace each week, and only several hours at church each weekend. If we become like those with whom we spend the most time with, this indicates that we are being molded more at work than we are at church. Should we take a deeper look at the importance of a godly workplace?
At first, this may seem like a foreign thought. Isn’t work simply to put bread on the table while ministry belongs to the church? However, when you study the life of Jesus, workplace ministry doesn’t seem that unusual at all. In fact, that may have been the plan all along. After all, Jesus bypassed the seminaries and the synagogues when He sought His disciples. He went out in the workplace and found men who were fishing and collecting taxes. Jesus spent His time on earth working along side these disciples. Rarely do we read of Him preaching a sermon inside a building.
What we don’t want to do, however, is to minimize the role of the church. Sunday sermons and church brotherhoods certainly are a vital part of keeping the torch of faith alive. Hebrews 10:25 tells us, “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together…” And Romans 10:17, reads “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” Verses such as these express the importance of participating in an active church life. But one weakness I fear we have, is to believe that evangelizing is only for the church and that church is primarily for converting the lost. Ephesians 4:11-12(NKJV) states, “And He himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry…”
This verse seems to suggest that church is also designed as a place for the saints to be equipped so they can be an effective witness during the week. Each one of us is called to ministry – not just a handful of us.
While speaking at an AF seminar, Doug Ramer said, “We, as Anabaptist people, tend to measure our success in witnessing by how many people we bring to our Sunday service, However, Sunday is a day of getting inspiration and instruction for the battle that begins Monday morning.”
The words spoken in church sermons prepare us to witness to the broader community and to the coming generation. Church sermons are not often the deciding factor that impacts whether the next generation decides to join. Neither is it the most effective means to draw unbelievers to Christ.
So, what is it? What draws the unbeliever to the church?
It’s our life during the week. It’s the men who are out working in society. It’s the women who are out shopping. It’s the children with innocent smiles and joyful laughter. Yes, it’s the working people who are the face of Christianity to unbelievers. Never minimize the role you have to God’s kingdom even if you are not in some leadership position in the church.
What about our teenagers? What draws them to follow Christ? Of course, there are multiple factors that will influence them to commit to a life of Kingdom service. Church culture, school life, and home environment will all stamp deep impressions in their minds. But I do want to highlight the role that our businessmen may have for the keeping of these young and vulnerable souls.
We have long recognized the value of godly school curriculum. We recognize the importance of youth programs with church oversight. But why do we so easily neglect the portion of their life where our teens spend most of their waking hours? As many of our families move off the farm, and a larger percentage of teenagers no longer work beside their fathers, we may have to place more emphasis on the importance of godly business owners, managers, and supervisors. It’s the businessmen and the co-workers who influence our teenagers and young men, because this is where they spend almost a third of their time.
If you’re a business leader, please take your vocation seriously. If you have teenagers under your care within your place of business, please be aware that your business environment is molding tomorrow’s leaders. Can they grow spiritually spending time on your job sites?
When we send prayers heavenward on behalf of the ministers and teachers in our communities, let us also remember the workplace leaders. They have tremendous influence and opportunity with our youth.
And it’s the workplace where the Kingdom is demonstrated to the broader society.
Let’s demonstrate it well.
Ivan Lee Lapp – Editor, PCBE
PCBExchange, a condensed version of the momthly PCBE (Plain Communities Business Exchange) a business publication providing plain communities across the U.S. with Kingdom focused business teachings and helpful connections. Each month, our objective is to supply you with relevant advertisements and publish helpful business-related articles for the diversified Plain communities which span much of North America. Within our magazine, we aim to provide a wide scope of business resources which we hope will prove to be an asset to you, whether you’re new in business or have been business for years. In a typical month, we print an average of twenty-six articles with a combined word count of 48,000 to 55,000 words. This editorial is almost 1,000 words. Each edition of our glossy, easy -to-read magazine consists of more than 400 pages of stories and advertisements.
Plain Communities Business Exchange, PO Box 520, Millersburg, PA. 17061
Relax in God’s Overpowering Purpose For Being Counter Cultural
I have appeared to you for this purpose… Acts 26:16
The vision Paul had on the road to Damascus was not a passing emotional experience, but a vision that had very clear and emphatic directions for him. And Paul stated, “I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision” (Acts 26:19).
Our Lord said to Paul, in effect, “Your whole life is to be overpowered or subdued by Me; you are to have no end, no aim, and no purpose but Mine.” And the Lord also says to us, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go…” (John 15:16).
When we are born again, if we are spiritual at all, we have visions of what Jesus wants us to be. It is important that I learn not to be “disobedient to the heavenly vision” — not to doubt that it can be attained. It is not enough to give mental assent to the fact that God has redeemed the world, nor even to know that the Holy Spirit can make all that Jesus did a reality in my life. I must have the foundation of a personal relationship with Him. Paul was not given a message or a doctrine to proclaim. He was brought into a vivid, personal, overpowering relationship with Jesus Christ.
Acts 26:16 is tremendously compelling “…to make you a minister and a witness….” There would be nothing there without a personal relationship. Paul was devoted to a Person, not to a cause. He was absolutely Jesus Christ’s. He saw nothing else and he lived for nothing else. “For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2).
PERTINENT WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS God created man to be master of the life in the earth and sea and sky, and the reason he is not, is because he took the law into his own hands, and by attempting to become master of himself, gave up the mastery for all of which he was created. from The Shadow of an Agony, 1163 L
Your Word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You. Psalm 119:11
When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, He faced it head-on with the Word of God, quoting it to silence Satan: “It is written,” “It is written,” “It is written” Luke 4:4, 8, 10). So folks, if Jesus triumphed over temptation with God’s Holy Word, how could we ever think today with the world’s prevailing selfish evil narrative, that we can live a life of holiness and purity apart from it?
Just as God has created a physical immune system to equip our bodies to ward off diseases, (that the world system has for decades deliberately compromised) God has provided us a way of overcoming temptation assuring our continual immunity. Only by rooting (planting, hiding) His Word in our hearts, does God implant in us His spiritual immune system empowering us to live godly lives. Jesus Himself models the best spiritual antioxidants for strengthening and protecting ourselves against the infection of Satan’s temptations – the godly discipline of reading (studying, pondering) and then, obeyingGod’s Word.
Are you polluting your spiritual immune system with junk food – the pollutants of the world’s system? Let’s commit to daily filing our hearts with God’s Word to fight temptation like Jesus did: “It is written….”
Prompted by and revised by merlin from David Jeremiah’s “Destinations – Your Journey With God”
