Here's a snapshot of the kinds of questions many of us were left with last night after looking together at 1 Corinthians 15:50-58 (listen online here).
“I'm a full time parent working in the home – isn't raising my Kids to know and love Jesus and serving my family by managing my home the work of the Lord?”
“I work hard in my job as an engineer because I think this pleases the Lord, whether or not my colleagues start coming to church as a result – aren't I also doing the work of the Lord?”
“I am passionate about working for social justice and advocating on behalf of the disenfranchised – isn't this the work of the Lord?”
"With exams coming, my studies are all consuming - how do I give myself to the work of the Lord when I just don't have time for anything else?"
Last night I tried to
summarise what the Bible says Jesus is doing in His world like this
– He is gathering to himself a people who know and love Him.
I'm convinced that
giving yourself to this work has much more to do with your attitude
and approach to life, than it does with the specific activities you
spend your time in (though as I also said last night, there will be
some core activities that will be common ground for us all, such as growing in Godliness and meeting together).
Where has the Lord called you to work for him? (wherever you are right now – that's the answer!)
Now, could you do
whatever it is the Lord has put before you today, whether that's
parenting or accounting or cleaning or preaching, in pursuit of your
own agenda and goals? Of course you could. In which case you would
not be giving yourself to the work of the Lord.
But it would also be
possible to do exactly the same things, parenting or
accounting or cleaning or preaching, driven not by your own agenda or
ambitions, but pursuing the Lord's – motivated
in all you do by His agenda – striving to bring your day to day
activities, whatever they are, in to line with His. In which case,
you would be giving yourself to the work of the Lord.
The Lord does not want
us all to become church ministers. He has given you the gifts He has
given you so that scattered throughout His world, in all sorts of
walks of life, there will be people who know and love King Jesus and
by their words and deeds are busy pointing others to Him.
As long as that
is what we are always about, our labour in the Lord will never be in
vain.
