Shalom Aleichem...
Reflections is a weekly Christian Teaching Ministry. Each week we will talk about the Bible and lessons we can put to use in our daily life. We will try to, on a weekly basis, provide to you stories, thoughts, and just easy ways to live your life on a straight path.
THIS WEEK'S TEACHING....March 4, 2018
One of our problems in life is that we divide everything into secular and sacred categories..But we ought to see our everyday work in service for God.
For most Americans, Monday is a holiday, it’s Labor Day, and in the opinion of some, it is the most hypocritical of all of our holidays.
They say that if Labor Day is a celebration of the unique rights & freedoms that we, as workers, enjoy in our nation, that if we’re really thankful that we have jobs while some do not, that if we’re really serious about labor being a blessing, then what we should do on Labor Day is go to work and tell the boss, "I’m going to work today, and I’m going to work for free, just for the joy of working."
But no, we’re not going to do that, are we? Most of us will say, "I don’t want to work on Labor Day, but I do expect to get paid for it anyway." Maybe we’re not quite as dedicated to the celebration of labor as we thought.
So let me ask you a few questions, "Do you really like your job? How many of you look forward to going to work on Monday mornings because you really miss seeing your boss? How many of you miss your fellow workers so much that you can hardly wait to get back and see how they’re doing?"
Now if you answered "Yes" to any of those questions, then you’re in the minority. Surveys reveal that 72% of American workers are unhappy with their jobs. Many of them go to work simply because they have no other choice. "I owe, I owe, so it’s off to work I go."
They would probably tell you that they are unhappy with what they do because it is the same old routine day after day, and their life seems to be a meaningless merry-go-round with no real purpose to it.
The late singer, Tennessee Ernie Ford sang, "You load 16 tons, and what do you get, another day older and deeper in debt."
Someone else sang, "Up in the morning, out on the job, work like the devil for my pay. Fuss with my woman, toil for my kids, work till I’m wrinkled and gray. But that lucky old sun just rolls around heaven all day."
And just like that lucky old sun, many people dream of the day when they’ll have nothing to do but "roll around heaven all day."
Now this week, I want to share with you what I believe will help you see our work as an exciting opportunity to serve God.
One of our problems in life is that we divide everything into secular & sacred categories. We say that over here is the secular, and over there is the sacred. And we spend the best hours of every day in the secular world. We say, "We’d really like to serve God, but we have to spend so much time on our secular job."
So we give God a few hours on Saturday night or Sunday morning. Maybe another hour on Sunday night, & that’s about all for a lot of people.
You can see that sacred and secular pattern in the Old Testament, but not in the New Testament. The Old Testament says, "Over here is the sacred with its temple & priests, & everything else is secular." But the New Testament teaches that we’re all priests, and our body is a temple, & that God’s Holy Spirit lives in us, & every day is holy.
The New Testament tells us that we can take God with us wherever we go, and that He can be a part of everything we do.
With this in mind, I want you to see three things this week. First of all, I want you to see your everyday work as a service for God.
SEE YOUR EVERYDAY WORK AS A SERVICE FOR GOD
Do you realize that almost everything we do affects someone else? We have food because there are farmers who planted the crop or raised the cattle. We are the beneficiaries of their labor.
Jesus spent the first 30 years of his life in the little town of Nazareth helping his earthly father out in the carpenter shop. Why? Because work is important. Because people need houses. Because people need yokes for their oxen. Because people need chairs on which to sit, and tables on which to serve their food.
Every once in a while someone will say to me, "You know, I never thought of it quite the way you presented it in this teaching. Reflections this week really changed my way of thinking." And it humbles me to hear that.
But at the same time it reminds me of the awesome responsibility we have. What we say and what we do are important, and it makes a difference because others are affected by what we do.
I am convinced that that is what Paul means when he wrote in Romans 12:1, "Therefore, I urge you brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy & pleasing to God - which is your spiritual service or worship."
We can serve God in the way we work & where we work every day!
YOU CAN SERVE GOD WHERE YOU WORK
You might say to me, "You don’t know where I work. You don’t know my boss. You don’t know the kind of people I have to work with. You don’t know the power struggles that go on, the flirtations, the cursing. You don’t know the dirty stories that are told, the pornography that is passed around."
Let me share a scripture with you. In Ephesians 6, beginning in vs. 5, is a passage that I think is very appropriate today. It is addressed to slaves, but the closest thing to them today are workers like you & me. So let’s substitute the word, "worker," for "slave" & listen to what God has to say.
"Workers, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but like slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart." [5-6]
Now that’s interesting. He’s saying, "Even though your boss is a two-legged monster who is about as pagan as anyone you’ve ever seen, do your work for him as though you are doing it for Christ."
You might say, "You don’t know my boss or you’d never suggest that. I work in a pagan office in a pagan company. There is no way that Christian principles will ever change that."
I want to take you back to the Old Testament for a moment and remind you of Daniel. You’ve heard about him ever since you were children in Sunday School. Daniel was carried away captive to Babylon, taken from Jerusalem where he was surrounded by people who believed what he believed, who believed in one God.
But now he is in a totally pagan environment in Babylon. As time passed, King Nebuchadnezzar appointed him a government official. He became a government bureaucrat.
Now if a lot of what we hear is true, if you want to get as far away from God as you can, become a government bureaucrat. Serve in that kind of environment and you will be about as far away from God as you can possibly be.
But as Daniel worked in his government office, sitting behind his government desk, doing all his duties as a government bureaucrat, he was able to serve God. And King Nebuchadnezzar respected his faithfulness to God as Daniel rose higher & higher among the leaders of the country.
But when King Nebuchadnezzar died, the Babylonian Empire began to disintegrate, and finally it was conquered by King Darius. Once again Daniel’s outstanding qualities were recognized, and he was soon appointed one of the highest officials in all the land.
But there came a time when pressures were put on him to do things that were against God. So Daniel said, "That’s enough. That’s as far as I can go." And King Darius, who had become his friend, was forced to have Daniel thrown into the lion’s den.
You know the story. God shut the mouths of the lions, and Daniel was unharmed. The next morning, Darius came rushing to the lion’s den, expecting to find the mangled bones of Daniel.
Listen to what Darius says in vs. 20 of the 6th chapter of Daniel. It says, "When he came near the den, he called to Daniel in an anguished voice, `Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to rescue you from the lions?’"
Isn’t that interesting? Daniel worked in a pagan environment. He worked in a pagan office. He worked for a pagan king. And yet, the one thing that that pagan king knew about Daniel was that Daniel served God continually.
Do your fellow-workers know that? Do you try to serve God continually in the environment of your work? Have you seen yourself as a walking temple of God? Have you been able to put God first where you work, so that your fellow workers know that you are trying to serve God?
You might say, "Well, Daniel was extra-ordinary. I’m just ordinary." If you’re ordinary, thank the Lord. He made more ordinary people than He did anybody else. He didn’t make very many geniuses. He didn’t make very many five talent people. But He made a lot of ordinary people.
And God delights in taking ordinary people & infusing them with extra-ordinary power. And when an ordinary person goes to an ordinary workplace, determined to be faithful to God, God can do extra-ordinary things through him or her. And God always is glorified when that happens.
ALL OF US ARE MINISTERS
Now the third thing I want you to see is that all of us are ministers, no matter who or where we are.
At times people say to me, "I wish I could do what you do. I wish I were a pastor." Now I spent many years doing other work before I became a full-time pastor and chaplain, and I know where you are coming from. I know a bit about the language and the things that go on in the secular workplace, and I’m very thankful that God called me out of that into the ministry.
But I want you to understand that I am no more a servant of God now than I was then. You see, the Bible teaches that all of us are ministers no matter what our job description or workplace might be. If you’re a Christian, you are a minister of God.
Now God may call you out of that to a mission field, or to a preaching ministry, or whatever. And if He does, you need to respond. But you will be no more a servant of His then, then you are right now. Your ministry is now, wherever you are, that’s your sphere of ministry.
People might complain, "Well, I’m a victim of circumstances. I have this job because I couldn’t get the one I wanted. I have to make a living, so here I am, and I hate every minute of it."
Daniel was a victim of circumstances, too. Let me ask you, "Why was Daniel in Babylon?" And of course, the answer is that the Babylonian army took him to Babylon. But notice, in Jeremiah 29:7 God says, "I have carried you into exile." "I have carried you from Jerusalem to Babylon."
Here is Daniel in a pagan place, surrounded by pagan people, but the Bible says that that is exactly where God wanted him to be.
We’ve heard the old adage that "one bad apple can spoil the whole barrel" so long that we think that bad always wins, and good never does. But the Bible teaches that we can overcome evil with good.
If you’re in a secular workplace, working next to a pagan, then see that as a God-given opportunity to influence that person for good.
That person whom you work with every day, whose eyes you look into, whose voice you hear, who’s shared hopes and dreams with you, who’s told you about the new car they’ve bought and about their kids and family, doesn’t it make sense that that person is the one God would like to see you leading to the Lord?
That’s lifestyle evangelism - when you go to work & see that place & those people as your God-given opportunity for service.
Now let me give you 4 suggestions for witnessing for Christ effectively.
1. First of all, don’t brag. Don’t go to work and brag about how wonderful your Christian life is. Don’t brag about how righteous you are and how much sin you have overcome, how you used to drink and carouse and be unfaithful, but now you are a model husband or wife and you don’t drink anymore. Don’t brag. That will only turn them off.
Self-righteousness has always been repulsive. It simply won’t work. Don’t brag.
2. Secondly, don’t nag. Don’t carry a big Bible under your arm, & every time somebody cusses pull it out and say, "Look here. It says, `Thou shalt not swear.’" Every time they brag about what a hangover they have, don’t pull it out & say, "Look, it says, `All drunkards are going to hell.’" Don’t do that.
Because all you are going to do is turn them away. You may think that you are being bold. No, you’re not being bold. You’re simply turning them away.
3. So don’t brag, and don’t nag, and don’t lag. As a Christian it is important for you to do your work & do it well, to set an example for others, to be there on time, maybe even early, to do your job and maybe a little bit of their job if they’re falling behind, to help them out in any way you possibly can.
If you’re lazy, if you’re slothful on the job, then that’s a poor testimony for the Lord. So do your job & do it well, as if you are doing it for Christ.
4. Fourthly, don’t sag. Be really careful not to go back to your old way of life. Be really careful not to listen to their language and start to use it yourself. Be really careful not to see the bright lights of a far country and be enticed. Make sure you keep your eyes fixed on Jesus.
Then, if you keep your eyes fixed on Jesus, if you don’t use their language, if you react in a different way to problems & difficulties that come, sooner or later they will come up and say, "I notice you’re different. What has caused the difference?"
They will, because inside they are hurting. Inside they are looking for answers and solutions. And if you can mirror what Christ can do in a life, sooner or later the door will swing open for you to share gently & tenderly your testimony with them. If you’ll just be there every day, setting that solid consistent Christian example.
Back in that 29th chapter of Jeremiah, God gave instructions to the children of Israel as to how they should behave in a pagan environment when they were taken from Jerusalem to Babylon. He said, "Now here is how I want you to live as my children." Listen to these very plain and practical words beginning in verse 5.
He said, I want you to "Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons & daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper." [5-7]
Those are very practical instructions, and very up to date as Jeremiah passed on the thoughts of God to a people in exile.
I believe we are in exile. "This world is not my home. I’m just a’passing through." Jesus is building a real home for me, & I’m anxiously awaiting that home.
But in the meantime, I’m here. And while I’m here, God says, "Settle down. Build a house. Plant a garden. Get married and have children. Find wives for your sons, and marry off your daughters. They too will have children. Go out and work and prosper, because as the city prospers you, too, will prosper."
You see, He is saying, "You be God’s person. Be different, and yet blend into society. Don’t give in to their way of doing things. Daniel didn’t. Meshach, Shadrach and Abednego didn’t. They went so far, and then they said, `This is as far as we can go.’"
There were fiery furnaces, and there were lion dens. But God saw them through all of that, & He’ll see us through, too, if we’ll just settle down, build houses, get married, have children, go to work, and be the stable part of society until finally society realizes it needs changing. And we’re the ones who have the message of change, the message of Jesus Christ.
You carry it in your heart today. So carry it to the workplace on Tuesday. Someone desperately needs to hear that message. I hope that in some way you can see your workplace as a sacred place, where you can serve the Lord, where you can witness your faith with those who don’t know Jesus.
DID YOU EVER WONDER???
We convince ourselves that life
will be better after we get married,
have a baby, then another.
Then we are frustrated that the kids aren't old enough
and we'll be more content when they are.
After that we're frustrated that we
have teenagers to deal with,
we will certainly be happy
when they are out of that stage.
We tell ourselves that our life will be complete
when our spouse gets his or her act together,
when we get a nicer car,
are able to go on a nice vacation,
when we retire.
The truth is there's no better time
to be happy than right now.
If not now, when?
Your life will always be filled with challenges.
It's best to admit this to yourself
and decide to be happy anyway.
One of my favorite quotes comes
from Alfred D Souza.
He said, "For a long time it had seemed
to me that life was about to begin -real life.
But there was always some obstacle in the way,
something to be gotten through first,
some unfinished business,
time still to be served,
a debt to be paid. Then life would begin.
At last it dawned on me that these
obstacles were my life."
This perspective has helped me to see
that there is no way to happiness.
Happiness is the way,
so, treasure every moment that you have.
And treasure it more because you shared it
with someone special,
special enough to spend your time...
and remember that time waits for no one.
So stop waiting until you finish school,
until you go back to school,
until you lose ten pounds,
until you gain ten pounds,
until you have kids,
until your kids leave the house,
until you start work,
until you retire,
until you get married,
until you get divorced,
until Friday night,
until Sunday morning,
until you get a new car or home,
until your car or home is paid off,
until spring, until summer,
until fall, until winter,
until you are off welfare,
until the first or fifteenth,
until your song comes on,
until you've had a drink,
until you've sobered up,
until you die, until you are born again
to decide that there is no better time
than right now to be happy...
Happiness is a journey, not a destination.
So, Work like you don't need money.
Love like you've never been hurt and
Dance Like no one's watching.
~Author Unknown~
BOOKS OF THE BIBLE...A TEACHING
Last week we began the Book of 1 Samuel and this week, we continue with 2 Samuel
Who wrote the book?
As we noted in the previous chapter, 1 and 2 Samuel form one book in the Hebrew Bible. The Septuagint, the Greek version of the Bible, first divided these books into two parts. Although the book does not name a specific author, the material was compiled from documents written and collected by the prophets Nathan, Gad, and Samuel—the prophet for whom the book is named (1 Chronicles 29:29).
Where are we?
Second Samuel is set in the land of Israel during the reign of David and follows the course of his forty years as king of Israel (1011–971 BC).
Why is Second Samuel so important?
First Samuel introduces the monarchy of Israel, and 2 Samuel chronicles the establishment of the Davidic dynasty and the expansion of Israel under God’s chosen leader. The book opens as David learned of Saul’s death. His lament over the deaths of Saul and of Jonathan (2 Samuel 1:19–27), David’s unlikely best friend, demonstrated David’s personal grief over their demise. The Lord soon set David over the tribe of Judah (2:4) and then over all Israel as His anointed king (5:3), uniting all twelve tribes into a tight-knit nation.
The first ten chapters show David as victorious in battle, praised by the people, compassionate to the sick and poor, and righteous in God’s sight. We see David dance before the Lord in the streets of Jerusalem as his men brought the ark of the covenant back home (6:12–16). We also meet Mephibosheth, the crippled son of Jonathan to whom David extended grace, “for the sake of [his] father Jonathan” (9:7).
Yet biblical writers did not overlook their heroes’ flaws. In the chapters that follow, we note that David’s adultery with Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11:1–27) was followed by a series of tragedies: their child’s death (12:18), David’s daughter Tamar’s rape by his son Amnon (13:1–39), Amnon’s murder (13:28–30), David’s own political overthrow by his son Absalom (15:1–37), and Absalom’s subsequent death (18:1–33).
Despite the turmoil in his later years, David enjoyed the Lord’s forgiveness and favor. His genuine sorrow and regret over his sins revealed his repentant heart, with which the Lord was pleased.
What's the big idea?
Key to the book and to the entire biblical record is 2 Samuel 7:16, “Your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; your throne shall be established forever.” This divine promise marked the beginning of an additional covenant, called the Davidic covenant, in which God promised an eternal throne to the house of David. “Because of David’s faith, God did not treat [David’s] descendants as He had treated Saul’s. Sin would be punished, but David’s line would never be completely cut off.”1
David celebrated God’s faithfulness in Psalm 89, penning these words inspired by God:
“My covenant I will not violate,
Nor will I alter the utterance of My lips.
Once I have sworn by My holiness;
I will not lie to David.
His descendants shall endure forever
And his throne as the sun before Me.
It shall be established forever like the moon,
And the witness in the sky is faithful.” (Psalm 89:34–37)
God’s unconditional promise to David would be fulfilled ultimately in David’s descendant Jesus Christ. The covenant also included a continuing promise that the people of Israel would have a land of their own forever.
How do I apply this?
David is known as a “man after [God’s] own heart” (1 Samuel 13:14) because, though he sinned greatly and made mistakes, he acknowledged those failures and repented before God. Repent means to turn away from sin and turn toward righteousness. Our Father knows we are not perfect. So His Son, Jesus Christ, paid the price for our sins so that we can become righteous in God’s sight through faith. And although our salvation is secure, our daily sins can hinder our relationship with God. When we confess our sins, turning to the Lord in humility, He will forgive us and restore our relationship with Him.
The apostle James has written what might be an appropriate epitaph for David. It can be yours, too: “Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you” (James 4:10).
HAVE A SAFE AND BLESSED WEEK:)
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