When Work Becomes Toil

Work at something you enjoy and that’s worthy of your time and talent.

So says suggestion 2. In the life belonging to the world, working at something you don’t enjoy because it may pay better wages is often seen as acceptable. As is choosing ‘fallback’ career paths that bear little fruit and leave one exhausted while trying to live up to the grand dreams we’ve all had. Work becomes toil for a number of reasons; but the predominant reason is that we are simply not seeing what we do in the light of bringing glory to God. It’s taken me a few years to realize this, but thank God that He’s patient enough to wait while I’ve tried to figure it out.

Ecclesiastes 1:2-11 serves as the point of introduction I’m going to use here. It reads as follows:

“Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanities of vanities! All is vanity. what does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun? A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever. The sun rises and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it rises. The wind blows to the south and goes around to the north; around and around goes the wind, and on its circuits the wind returns. All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full; to the place where the streams flow, there they flow again. All things are full of weariness; a man cannot utter it; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun. Is there a thing of which it is said, ’see, this is new’? It has been already in the ages before us. There is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of later things yet to be among those who come after.”

A rather depressing start to a point that’s rather far from that. Ecclesiastes, if taken on its own authority, is the very personal record of a man trying different approaches to finding the meaning of life and ultimately resolving that this is the case: “The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.” (Ecc. 12:13). Solomon, in all his riches, in all his wisdom, did not have the advantage of knowing that man’s chief end is to glorify, rather than to fear God. Included as a large part of that is the work we do daily.

For those who read my earlier posts on spiritual gifts, you’ll remember that I believe in the presence of spiritual gifts in the lives of believers, and I recognize the presence of these gifts – at least the natural gifts and aptitudes – in the lives of non-believers. The purpose here is to be active in ministry with these gifts, and that’s where suggestion 2 comes in – Work at something that you enjoy and that’s worthy of your time and talent. If the gifts are given as ministry aids, and if one’s job is missional and a ministry, then you are to be working at something for which you’ve been given the gifts, in order that you might more effectively honor the Lord who gave you those gifts. You will not find such employment toilsome, because you’ll be doing those things for which you’ve been fitted to do.

Blessings;

Christ-bearer.

Heart-Sabbath

The phrase “heart-sabbath” keeps coming up in my mind, so I thought I’d look at it a tiny bit. Mostly, I’m just trying to figure out what it means. When it came up in prayer, I made a record of it, which I’ll return to now.

Hmm. Apparently not as clear as I’d like it to be. It came up in a discussion I was having, and the context was in the neighbourhood of letting the heart rest from depression. Spiritual depression, actually. I’m currently reading a book by Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones on spiritual depression, and it’s providing some unexpected insights into some of the things that have been coming up in my posts throughout this version 2.0. I’m going to be into version 2.7 with this post (pretty much a random number, by the way, but indicative of where on the scale of voice it fits.)

So. Heart-sabbath, as I’ve been thinking about it, is letting the heart rest in prayer and from the burdens it carries. It is also, in a sense, speaking to the discontent of the soul that seems to plague some who are in the church, or who call themselves Christian, but can’t find a crucial bit or an important piece of the faith. Holy and unholy discontent itself is a different topic, and I’ll look into that tomorrow, I think. In the meantime…

The problems that we cause for ourselves in opening our hearts to the wrong people are often avoidable ones, if we are discerning correctly (that is, by the Holy Spirit and through the Word). However, so often in life we are guided into error by those whose approval we seek, or those whose lives we want to try and emulate. We make small compromises here and there, which, taken apart, seem like nothing. But if put together, they become troubles that weight us down, and which can vex to no end. The Bible itself cautions, in Jeremiah, against the heart’s tendencies to error. Here’s Jeremiah 17:7-10:

“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? ‘I the Lord search the heart, and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.’”

What really sticks out to me from these verses is the peace of a tree by quiet waters, the man whose trust is in the Lord. See, we often manufacture mistrust in our hearts because of poor discernment in offering up its contents, and then we are left with the consequences, which become burdens that we carry around. I say ‘we’, but certainly this is not the case in all. I (who I generally mean when I say ‘we’) have a habit of carrying around a great many burdens, and so I guess the real point of taking a heart-sabbath is to acknowledge that, and unburden myself.

Not really much on what it means to take a heart-sabbath, but therapeutic nonetheless. Perhaps I should simply rest beside the still waters, as in the oft-quoted Psalm 23.

Blessings;

Christ-bearer.

A World Apart – Rock and Salvation

There are some things that we don’t have the strength for in ourselves. I was just reading the story of Polycarp’s martyrdom in Christianity Today – I had no clue who he was prior to that – and it struck me anew that we just can’t do the things that God provides for us to do without looking to Him, and – cliched as it may be – fully relying on Him.

For those of you who may not be aware of the FROG phenomenon, there was a time when initials were all the rage in fashion accessories…What Would Jesus Do (WWJD), Fully Rely on God (FROG), Pray Until Something Happens (PUSH). You would see them on bracelets and necklaces, shirts and Bible cases, and in many cases the proliferation of these adornments left them without the weight of meaning that they should have. They became trendy in youth circles. They still appear now and again, though not with as much frequency.

But I digress. My point here is that the initials FROG or PUSH are sound doctrinal statements. You can PUSH and see tangible results, if God wills it, or maybe you may just find a new perspective of the heart. You find that to FROG becomes your nature. All of this, however, is meant to indicate one thing:

I can do all things through Him who strengthens me (Philippians 4:13)

Praying until something happens is indicative of faith, as is to fully rely on God. But in all of it, nothing of our own merit is considered. Look at the verse again…I can do all things through him who strengthens me. Nothing in me is able to do all things. Martyrs are strong witnesses for one reason only: They, by dying, glorify God, the strength by which they have lived.

Blessings;

Christ-bearer.

A World Apart – Prayer

There’s so much that we think we can handle on our own, under our own power, with our own resources…you know. But can you buy your way out of exhaustion, or conquer misery with a credit card? And what happens when we run out of steam, when we are destroyed by tragedies within our families or in our communities? Where is our own power in the hospital wards?

We can’t do anything when it really counts, when it really matters to the heart. We sit helplessly by and watch loved ones go through pain and torment in illness and in addictions. We try so very hard to be a friend to those who feel they don’t need it. How much, then, can we really do, and with what?

That’s the first step in prayer. Admitting that we need help, seeking to find it in talking things through with God and watching in amazement as the solutions to our problems seem to unfold. Acting on realizations and in poverty of spirit, calling on God to help and then crying as He does.

Who cares if people think we’re crazy…God loves the prayerful heart, because the prayerful heart is more and more capable of loving Him and giving Him glory.

Next time – We stand on His strength.

Blessings;

Christ-bearer.

A World Apart – Sanctification

This is the second of two posts on fundamental doctrines to the Christian. The first is justification, the second sanctification. If justification is the gift of freedom, then salvation is opening the package. It is a process, sometimes a very long one (if any one of you have played the party game Hot Potato, you’ll know what I mean!) and it leads ultimately to satisfaction, though sometimes through frustration.

Sanctification is not an immediate thing, by any means. We are not transformed in thinking, in heart, in mind overnight. And we are certainly not intended to be that way. Generations of sin are not easily broken as we live our lives, nor are the patterns of sinfulness that work back through our culture overtaken in one go. I’m going to spend a post, maybe two, on types and means of sin, and what they mean for both Christians and non-Christians, but for now, I’m simply going to look at the means whereby we are enabled to overcome. This is sanctification.

Just as it takes time to accomplish the work of learning to play an instrument, it takes time for sanctification to transform the lives of justified, born-again believers. I do not want to suggest that we have to work at our own sanctification exclusively – Biblically, see Philippians 2:1-12, which is reproduced in part below – but that it is a process, one which we can’t expect to see completed in our lifetimes, until we come before the Lord after death. We are not perfect. We are not complete. But we are on our way there.

Philippians 2 gives an eye-opening example of what the process of sanctification is meant to lead towards. I’m going to include vv. 5-12 for context:

“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Therefore my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling”

Blessings;

Christ-bearer.

Call for Responses

To my faithful few readers, whoever and wherever you are;

I’ve decided to begin grouping these posts into essays, and maybe looking into publication. My call here is for you to indicate via comment to this post what, if any, I should put together, polish up and perhaps formalize. Go back through my archives, drop me a line here, and suggest away. I’ll also be searching for topics that I might make into series on here, because I find it’s getting a bit too numbing, and very much a narrowly-focused forum, lamenting the church’s decline rather than edifying by its truths.

Secondly, tell me which entries are the most accessible and the most relevant to you, and I’ll try to make the newer entries more like them, as I write. This is, as I believe, a ministry opportunity if not a ministry, and I need to know if it’s actually a valuable one.

Blessings;

Christ-bearer.

Sufficiency III – Institution

What’s happened to the church as an institution? What’s happened to good doctrine taught and practiced in the lives and in the worship gatherings of the congregants in this culture? These are the questions fueling this post, building towards the observations of the insufficiency of community within the body of Christ and its effects on those trying to follow the path of the cross. It’s within many communities of believers that these failures really show, leaving so many adrift and wanting more than an hour each Sunday to shut the world out, close the doors and sing praises to each other (but not finding it). I’ve been blessed with a great community, but it’s found not within the institution, rather it’s shown outside.

So what am I trying to say?

I believe that the church as an institution has become a lost and wayward child, somewhere along the way. I believe that in its anxiety to work towards the mission field ‘out there’ overseas or trans-culturally, it’s forsaken its roots, it doesn’t know its own heart, and it has not equipped itself to deal with the men, women and children who come through its doors cursed under Romans 1. I believe that central to this failure is the lack of conviction in preaching the Gospel, the lack of reflection and meditation in the lives of the hurried and anxious masses, and the lack of faith in the power of God to uphold His Word in the body of believers that call themselves ‘the church’.

Insufficient.

Forgetting what it means to be the ‘bride of Christ’ in church-ese as an institution leads, without fail, to the forgetting of the power and the importance of community. Just today I was listening to some teaching on prayer, and in it was mentioned Matthew 18-18-21

“Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”

Next post, I’ll get into some detail on the nature of a failed Christian community and the necessity for a regroup and redeployment of gospel truths, intentional lives and resting in His sufficiency, but for now I’m going to leave it.

Blessings;

Christ-bearer.

Determination

Ever kept saying to yourself ‘I need to do that’, ‘I will do that’, ‘I should do that’…But then stopped, didn’t act?

I have. Many, many…many…times. The trick is to do, rather than to say you will do. It’s something we all need to hear time and again, so that we’re spurred on to action, held accountable by friends or mentors. It seems, some days, that the will to do anything has left us; that we are apathetic, slothful, indolent, lazy.

That’s when we need to cry out the most. And cry out in conviction that we are heard, that our cries matter. We need to burn into our hearts the assurance of intercession, and that, my friends, is the hardest thing to do for many.

But the trick, as I say, is to do. Take hold of the things available to you. Wake up, as I need to wake up, and look and see that the Lord is present, and that he is Lord and Master. Get control of the things that enslave you, and become their master in Christ’s power. (I say this to convict myself as well as you). It’s a most liberating feeling, and it’s one of the things most worth fighting for.

Blessings;

Christ-bearer.

Resolutions

As I spin up for the new year, I want to take some time to examine a most pertinent devotion in Our Daily Bread. I was reading through the January 2 entry, and midway down caught a bit of the January 1 entry. It was a series of six resolutions of about 70 made by Jonathan Edwards, and I felt a necessity to make them my own as well. They say a lot about where I need to be focused:

* To do whatever is most to God’s glory.
* To do my duty, for the good of mankind in general.
* Never to do anything, which I should be afraid to do, if it were the last hour of my life.
* To study the Scriptures steadily, constantly and frequently.
* To ask myself at the end of every day, week, month, and year if I could possibly have done better.
* Until I die, not to act as if I were my own, but entirely and altogether God’s.

These are some of them very difficult things to do, because as soon as I ask myself if I could possibly have done better, the answer will inevitably be yes. As soon as I begin to act as if I were entirely God’s, I will end up being incredibly humbled, and humbled is not where I like to be. That’s why I’ve got to go there. Because, essentially, these things are true things, and serious things. As I look at all of these things, I see the common thread of humility running through them, and I realize that it’s one of the most important things I can learn. I am a proud person, and I need to be divorced from that; these are going to help me with that.

The other thing that came to me as I was reading that devotion is the commission to read through and seek to understand the Westminster Longer Catechism, a handbook of doctrine. I may bring pieces of that in, from time to time as the year goes on, but it’s pretty heavy stuff, and not what the vast majority need to hear in the early stages of Christ’s embrace. So keep steady on as the year unfolds.

Blessings;

Christ-bearer.