Redeeming Work, Part VI

Perhaps you have seen someone who is struggling in life and heard the saying, “They were just dealt a bad hand.”

Figuratively speaking, we all hold cards in our hand—our background, stage of life, locale, job and financial resources, future hopes and dreams, etc. Some of these cards were dealt to us, some we have acquired, and others we have managed to get rid of. Whatever the case, we all hold a set of cards in our hand.

And the truth is, we all spend enormous amounts of time and energy trying to get the right cards, trying to get that winning hand. Sometimes we even feel we have made irreparable mistakes in the past that have ruined our chances of winning.

But what if God is less concerned with whether we have all the right cards and more concerned with how we play the cards that we do have?

In Luke 16, Jesus tells a parable about a man who is on the verge of losing it all. He is on the verge of becoming unemployed and homeless, all in the same day. He can’t afford to wait for better cards. This hand is the only hand he has left.

You can read the parable for yourself in Luke 16:1-9. What is the point that Jesus is making? Very simply, the dishonest manager acted shrewdly. He had only one hand left, and he played it well. He was careful and not careless.

In v. 9, Jesus draws his point of application. He gives the only imperative of this text. He says that we, too, ought to act shrewdly.

The dishonest manager considered what was to come and then acted accordingly. So, too, should we. We ought to live in light of what we know to be true about the age to come rather than living only in light of what we know to be true about this age (as if there were no age to come). This is the difference between being careful and being careless.

So we see that God is less concerned with whether you have all the right cards and more concerned with how you play the cards that you do have. The reality is, one day we will all have to give an account of how we played our cards (2 Corinthians 5:10; Hebrews 9:27). Therefore, we, like the dishonest manager, ought to consider what we know to be true about the age to come and act accordingly. In doing so, we will be acting shrewdly.

Specifically, Jesus says in v. 9 that we ought to act shrewdly in relation to our worldly wealth. Luke then uses this parable as a launching point for relaying other of Jesus’ sayings on the issue of how we relate to our worldly wealth. You can read these sayings in Luke 16:10-12.

Theologically, the “worldly wealth” that Jesus refers to is the wealth of this age. “True riches” are the wealth of the age to come, namely, sanctification of self, ministry to others, etc. These are the wealth of the future and in-breaking kingdom of God.

Practically, your job counts as part of your worldly wealth. Take a look at this article from a recent issue of TIME Magazine to see what I mean: Jobs Are The New Assets.

Here’s the point: God is less concerned with whether you have all the right cards and more concerned with how you play the cards that you do have. A big part of this is your worldly wealth, and that includes your job.

In these sayings (vv. 10-12), Jesus is talking about being faithful with what has been entrusted to you. Your worldly wealth is not your own. Your worldly wealth, including your job, is a stewardship.

If your job is a stewardship, this means that (1) it is temporary, and (2) you’re accountable. [HT: Andy Stanley] And given that our jobs are stewardships that have been entrusted to us, Jesus says we ought to be faithful in the little things.

With respect to our future, we ought to be faithful with even a little bit of worldly wealth (including our jobs) so that we can be entrusted with greater worldly wealth.

With respect to our eternity, we ought to be faithful with even a little bit of worldly wealth (including our jobs) so that we can be entrusted with true riches, i.e. opportunities for sanctification, opportunities for ministry, etc.

Indeed, God is less concerned with whether you have all the right cards and more concerned with how you play the cards that you do have. Therefore, we ought to be faithful in the little things, even (or especially) at work.

Being A Community Of Grace

Here is a good article from the folks over at The Resurgence:

Communities of Grace vs. Communities of Performance

By Tim Chester

I was recently asked to speak on communities of grace. So I got to thinking: What is the opposite of a community of grace? And I came to the conclusion that it's a community of performance. Communities of performance may talk a lot about grace, but they value performance—Christians who have it all figured out, churches that run smoothly, meetings that are accomplished. And so they communicate that what matters is that you perform well.

So is your community a community of performance or a community of grace? Try these diagnostic tests:

Communities of Performance

• The leaders appear to have it all figured out
• The community appears respectable
• Meetings must be a polished performance
• Failure is devastating, because identity is found in ministry
• Actions are driven by duty
• Conflict is suppressed or ignored
• The focus is on orthodox behavior (letting people think they have it all figured out)

Communities of Grace

• The leaders are vulnerable
• The community is messy
• Meetings are just one part of community life
• Failure is disappointing but not devastating, because identity is found in Christ
• Actions are driven by joy
• Conflict is addressed in the open
• The focus is on the affections of the heart (with a strong view of sin and grace)

In performance-oriented churches, people pretend to be okay because their standing within the church depends on it. But this is the opposite of grace. Grace acknowledges that we're all sinners, all messed up, all struggling. And grace also affirms that in Christ we all belong, all make the grade, all are welcome.

Redeeming Work, Part IV

At work, we all have good days and bad days. On the good days, you’re productive, and you’re energized by your work. You go home feeling great.

On the bad days, it takes you (at minimum) a couple of hours to get focused and convince yourself that you should get something done today. But you’re not very productive, and you’re definitely not energized by your work. You fulfill your duties and responsibilities, but just enough to get by.

So there is this tension between how we actually work and how we ought to work. We know how we ought to work, but this knowledge just doesn’t seem to be motivating us. How we actually work seems to be more like the flip of a coin: maybe we’ll have a good day, maybe not. What does the Bible have to say about all of this?

In Colossians 3:22-25, Paul writes to some slaves who were serving in households set in a first-century Greco-Roman world. They were powerless to change their status in life. Yet they were also essential to the household, and the household was seen as essential to society. In light of all this, how ought they to work for their masters?

In v. 22a, we see that the slaves were tempted to do the same thing that we do on our bad days: just enough to get by. The natural work ethic was to work hard only when their master was looking, or to win his favor.

Over against this natural work ethic, Paul issues a call to seamless living, to a life where one’s actions and attitudes are in alignment. In v. 22b, Paul instructs the Christian slaves in Colosse to work for their earthly masters “with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord.” This is a call to be the same person when the master is watching as when he is not.

Godliness in the workplace is a call to seamless living. But you cannot expect to cultivate godliness in one area of your life (work) when it is absent from other areas of your life. Therefore, we must submit to the Holy Spirit’s work in sanctifying our whole person.

In v. 23, Paul goes on to say that we should do our work wholeheartedly, as unto the Lord and not unto men. Sometimes we are tempted to work as unto our boss or our co-workers or ourselves or Mammon (the personification of greed).

But consider this: if we do not work as unto the Lord, it is only because we do not see him as a worthy Master. So ask yourself: do you view Jesus as a worthy Master?

Godliness in the workplace is a call to seamless living. And why ought we to live a seamless life? Because we have one Lord (Jesus) who is Master over all of life.

In v. 24, Paul points to eternal rewards as evidence of (and motivation for) our sanctification. To be “holy” or “sanctified” means to be (1) set apart, (2) whole or complete, and (3) ordered according to God’s design. The work of the Holy Spirit is to make us whole. Only as we submit to the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives can we live our lives as unto one Master, the Lord Jesus.

Godliness in the workplace is a call to seamless living, to a life lived without the seams between work/play, public/private, sacred/secular, and all the other categories that we make up.

Imagine if we began to live this way. Imagine if we each began to submit more fully to the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, leading us to live more integral lives. What would this look like?

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Redeeming Work III: Choosing the Right Job

(Disclaimer: the podcast is probably better than this outline by the grace of God)

How do you choose the right job? This is a plaguing question these days since people are extremely mobile and most have a new career every 5 years. This is partially culture, but more so indicative of people trying to find the perfect job. Hardly the dream we all had as kids. We all wanted to be firefighters, astronauts, football player, actor or actress, etc. We want to be good at what we do. We want to do something of significance and some of us want to shoot for the stars.

But reality is a little different, remember this monster.com commercial?



1) Work is a part of your identity
Part of the struggle is that work is a such a large part of our identity. How we describe ourselves and how we evaluate ourselves. In the Bible, everyone had a job. Abraham was a rancher, Noah was a shipbuilder and a farmer, David was a shepherd, a king, and a general, Jesus was a carpenter, Peter was a fishermen, Paul made tents, Luke was a physician, etc, etc, etc. Apart from Aaron and his sons, no one was just a “full time ministry.” The truth is there is no division in scripture between one’s secular job and ministry! We Protestants have fallen into the same error of the medieval Catholic Church’s division between “laity and clergy.”

What should characterize your work? Not lazy, you should have a time of rest and not work seven days a week. It should be characterized by high quality and for the common good. Lastly, it should be guided by God.

2) Knowing the Will of God
The primary passage for us to focus on is Rom 12:1-2. After previous 11 chapters of Romans Paul give an overview of Christian beliefs and from 12 on, he gives the ethical implications, beginning in verse 1.
(NIV) 1Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. 2Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

This brings up the question, what are the sources for knowing God's will?
I took this list from a chapter on "Vocational Counseling" in Collins, G. R. (2007). Christian counseling: A comprehensive guide (3rd ed.) Nashville, TN: Nelson.

i. Christian maturity and character (my addition in light of Rom 12:1-2)
ii. Family and Friends
iii. Interests
iv. Aptitudes/Talents – things you have a capacity to become good at
1. Career match tests rely on the assumption that what you are good at you enjoy.
2. God’s redemptive work in my life has made me realize I am good at things I didn’t used to enjoy.

v. Skills – things you have learned to do proficiently
vi. Values
vii. Circumstances, for many of us nothing is holding us back, but not so for many others who simply do not have the opportunities most of us have.
1. Luxury of western life to even think about this
2. some Minorities and the poor do not have opportunities that many in upper classes have. It is a tremendous blessing to even have such opportunities.

viii. Scripture (my addition)
ix. Prayer (my addition)
x. God – this brings up the issue of calling (thus, to the rest of the outline)

3) The Call of God
There are four components to how discerning calling is described (this too, is from Collins, but I have seen it in many other places).
Those four are: 1. Recognition of a Need, 2. Strong desire to meet the need, 3. Ability to fill the need (not your talent, but willingness to use gifts for his purposes), 4. Growing impression of one's life's work.

Os Guiness in his excellent book, The Call gives some helpful ways to understand calling properly.
1 - Corporate and Individual, your individual calling is subordinate to the corporate calling of God's people and his kingdom purposes.
2 - Special and ordinary, supernatural calling of some vs. the ordinary calling of us all. We all have one, but we all don't get a "writing on the wall" moment. For many, it is just a burning conviction within us providentially guided by God.
3 - Central and peripheral, there are some pieces of one's calling that are essential and other that are not. To find work that fits perfectly is a blessing not a right but do its central components fulfill your greatest desires.
4 - Clarity and Mystery, through living a Christian life "be transformed by the renewing of your mind", clarity will come slowly. Yet, as Os says, you shouldn't be able to describe your calling in a single sentence. there should be some mystery and vagueness to it, so you keep pursuing it.

5) Offer Your Whole Lives as Living Sacrifices
Your work as Os says, is to give your whole life of service, to play before an Audience of One. God alone is your audience. Remember the song, "Little Drummer Boy", you play your best all the time for Him, and him alone. God will give you the grace to play your best no matter your circumstances (1 Sam 10:6-7).

Be renewed by the transformation of you mind - this is analogous to seek first his kingdom and his righteousness (Matt 6:33). Erasmus had a great quote on this, “If we would bring the Turks to Christianity, we must first be Christians.” In seeking his kingdom, to be more like Jesus, in offering our whole lives to God in everything we do, we will know the will of God. We must not become prideful in this. If you have success it is the grace of God not your own talent. Chesterton has a great quote, “For if a man can say, ‘I like to find something greater than myself,’ he may be a fool or a madman, but he has the essential. But if a man says, “I like to find something smaller than myself,’ there is only one adequate answer – ‘You couldn’t.’”

6) Conclusion
God’s will for your life is to serve him with the whole of your life and to live it in a manner worthy of the Lord Jesus Christ. He has given you a wealth of resources to discover this, but mostly you need to be transformed to think biblically and theologically about the whole of your life! Your pursuit of fulfilling God’s call on your life is to live faithfully and carry out his redemptive plan. What you do is not nearly as important as how you do it. 1 Sam 10:7; Col 3:17

Os Guiness – “The problem with Western Christians is not that they aren’t where they should be but that they aren’t what they should be where they are.” The key to finding the right job is to live the Christian life faithfully.

You Are Invited To...

Be sure to join us for a night introducing Chris & Cassie's church planting movement! Here are the vital stats:

Day: Friday, March 20

Time: 6:30-8:00pm

Place: Bear Valley Church
10001 W Jewell Ave.
Lakewood, CO 80232

Check out the website for more information.

Reading Round-Up

First up, be sure to take some time and visit the website for Chris & Cassie’s church planting movement in San Jose!

Here is something in the arts: Have you ever seen the piano played like this? Incredible.

Pastor Mark Driscoll in Seattle is doing a short series on people in church history who started their public ministry at a relatively young age. Check it out: Part I and Part II. In more contemporary times, Driscoll himself started Mars Hill Church when he was 25-years-old. Likewise, Pastor Rick Warren in California started Saddleback Church when he was just 25-years-old.

Smithsonian Magazine has a fascinating article about an archeological site that is being dated at roughly 6,000 years before Stonehenge, which is quite significant. The site is also thought by some to be located at or near the biblical location of the Garden of Eden. What do you think?

A recent survey shows that Denver non-profits are getting squeezed on both sides. “85 percent of Denver-area nonprofits are getting greater demand for their services, 44 percent are faced with declining donations, and 29 percent already have cut staff.” This is sad news, since non-profits are good for everyone. It also represents an opportunity for each of us to live more generous lives by giving sacrificially.

Beginning this year and expanding in 2010, Denver is taking part in “a new philosophy of going.” It should be interesting to see if this catches on.

Redeeming Work, Part I ... (better late than never!)

The top three activities that consume the time of Americans, in order, are (1) sleeping, (2) working, and (3) watching TV. (For more information, see the 2007 American Time Use Survey.) In fact, among working Americans, the average workweek is 53 hrs/wk.

Here at Regeneration, all of us fall into one of three categories: (1) You have a job, but it is not your dream job; (2) You have a job, and it is your dream job; or (3) You don’t have a job, but you would like to have one in the future.

Because work is such a big part of our lives, we are spending seven weeks looking at what the Bible has to say about this important subject. What is a good theology of work for God’s people?

The Bible begins with God working. Genesis 1:1 reads: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” In the beginning, God was productive. We are made in his image, and that includes working and being productive.

There are at least five things that we can produce: (1) commodities, (2) goods, (3) services, (4) experiences, and (5) transformations. (For more on this idea, check out this helpful presentation by Jim Gilmore.) Some of our jobs overlap and involve not just one of these products, but two or three of them.

The second thing that we see in the opening chapters of Genesis is that God has given us dominion over the earth. To understand this concept, notice that God does his work by first creating stuff (1:1-2), then fashioning what he has created into something with shape and form (days 1-3), then filling this creation with abundance (days 4-6), and finally ruling over creation as its sovereign.

So God creates-fashions-fills-rules his creation. Humanity, being made in God’s image, can follow this pattern. As discussed above, God’s creative work is roughly analogous to our productivity. The rest of the pattern (“fashion-fill-rule”) can then be outlined for us as follows:

1. “Fashion” - Stewarding God’s creation (the earth): We are called to steward, allocate, and maximize the earth’s resources wisely and not foolishly.

2. “Fill” - Developing God’s creation (the earth): Our job description is to bring God’s good creation to fruition. Our work should make the world better and more complete.

(Aside: This is one of our frustrations with work. Our work may not seem significant, i.e. it may not seem to make the world better and more complete. In this, it is helpful to consider that significance is not a simple thing (meaning made up of one part); it is a complex thing (meaning made up of many parts). There are at least three layers of significance: (1) That I do work, rather than being a lazy bum; (2) How I do work, i.e. attitude, excellence, integrity, and faithfulness; (3) What I do for work, i.e. how does my work make the world better and more complete?)

3. “Rule” - Ruling over God’s creation (the earth): We are called to rule over the earth in the same way that God rules and reigns over all of creation, by creating and preserving order not chaos.

But work is not just a thing of beginnings; it is a thing of eternity. One of Jesus’ teachings in the Gospels is that those who are faithful with little will be entrusted with more. It is possible that, on some level, this means those who are faithful with their resources and responsibilities in this life will be given greater resources and responsibilities in eternity. Elsewhere, Revelation 22:3 seems to indicate that we will have resources and responsibilities (re: jobs) in eternity. Think about it: if we had jobs in paradise before paradise was lost, why shouldn’t we have jobs in paradise when paradise is regained?

In summary, we were made for work. We were made to be productive and have dominion over the earth. And we will work serving God in eternity.

In conclusion, it is important to note that, although we were made for work, work is not the only thing we were made for. We were also made for worshipping God, loving our neighbors, etc. Being fully human (i.e. being sanctified) means learning by God’s grace to do each of these things well and in proper proportion to one another.

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