Be Different!

Be different, stand out, let your light, your Christ-directed, Christ-exalting works, shine before men in such a way that your Father is glorified. 

"The tendency of these days is to break down the holy barrier, and make the distinction between the church and the world very nominal. ..be it your aim in heart in word, in dress, in action to maintain the broad wall, remembering that the friendship of this world is enmity against God." (Spurgeon).

Christian Employees

I was doing some reading online when I came across this very pointed paragraph.  Consider it carefully:

A secular writer recently pointed out that "work has increasingly come to be regarded as a distasteful means to the achievement of leisure, instead of leisure as a recuperative measure to refit us for work." That is a very mild way of saying that the present generation is pleasure mad and hates any kind of real work. Various explanations have been advanced to account for this: such as the ousting of craftsmanship by machinery, the fear of unemployment discouraging zeal, the doles, allowances and reliefs which are available for those who don’t and won’t work. Though each of those has been a contributing factor, yet there is a more fundamental and solemn cause of this social disease, namely, the loss of those moral convictions which formerly marked a large proportion of church-goers, who made conscience of serving the Lord while engaged in secular activities, and who were actuated by the principles of honesty and integrity, fidelity and loyalty.

What is amazing to me is that this all sounds very "present"; very much "now" - does it not?  Yet this was written prior to 1952 by A. W. Pink.  Things have not changed much in the past 60 years. All this reminds me of the "Preacher" who reminds us in Ecclesiastes 1:9:

That which has been is that which will be, and that which has been done is that which will be done. So there is nothing new under the sun. 

I cannot help but feel that if A.W. Pink were alive today, he would be even more dumbfounded by the reality of his statements.  Perhaps things have changed in the workplace, only not for the better.  I pray that we would not be found slack Christian Employees.  Consider Pink's further comments:

Nowhere has the hollowness of professing Christians been more apparent, during the last two or three generations, than at this point. Nowhere has more reproach been brought upon the cause of Christ than by the majority of those employees who bore His name. Whether it be in the factory, the mine, the office, or in the fields, one who claims to be a follower of the Lord Jesus should stand out unmistakably from his fellow employees who make no profession. His punctuality, his truthfulness, his conscientiousness, the quality of his work, his devotion to his employer’s interests, ought to be so apparent that there is no need for him to let others know by his lips that he is a disciple of Christ. There should be such a marked absence of that slackness, carelessness, selfishness, greed and insolence which mark the majority of the ungodly, that all may see he is motivated and regulated by higher principles than they are. But, if his conduct belies his profession, then his companions are confirmed in their opinion that "there is nothing in religion but talk."

Let us pray about our employment and seek to be bright testimonies of the reality of Jesus at work within us to the glory of God.

God First

"Wherever there are competing concerns in your life, be sure you always put your relationship to God first" - Oswald Chambers.

Or as Jesus has taught - "But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." (Matthew 6:33).

I can't believe what a propensity I have to think that food, clothing, money, or other concerns should take precedence over my relationship to the Lord.  "Oh Lord, grant me a heart that longs for You first!"

Active Christians

But prove yourselves doers of the word, 
and not merely hearers who delude themselves.
James 1:22

Let us be wary of being merely "intellectual" Christians rather than pursing the course of also being "active" Christians.  The more we come to know about Christ, the more our lives should be lived in Christlikeness.

Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, 
but in deed and truth.

1 John 3:18

Full of Christ

Those that are so full of Christ...are ready to think that others should be so too. (Matthew Henry)

Grace at Work

Ephesians 2:8-10
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

These are familiar verses, sometimes too familiar as we can be prone to neglect their significance for everyday living.  There is no doubt we are taught here that salvation is "by grace"; by God's undeserved, unmerited and most benevolent favor.  But we might forget to see that verse 10, being "His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works," is also then by grace.  We need God's enabling grace, His divine power at work in us to change us, to conform us and to cause us to live according to His ways of good and righteousness rather than in our ways of selfishness and pride.

Through the prophet Ezekiel, the Lord describes how it is His grace, His doing that we are now enabled to live for Him, to be "His workmanship", that is, His masterpiece saying in Ezekiel 36:26-27;
 

26 Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 I will put My Spirit within you and [I will] cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.

[emphasis mine]

Let us never forget that God's grace working in us is a both a delight [for we do not deserve it] but also a duty [as we then become responsible to see this grace at work in us].  As the apostle Paul said in Philippians 2:12-13;

12 So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; 13 for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. 

This is grace, God's working in us His will and good pleasure and our enabling by God to do those things that reveal His grace at work in us.  Bob Kauflin captures this idea in song;

Grace abounding, strong and true
That makes me long to be like You
That turns me from my selfish pride
To love the cross on which You died

Bob Kauflin / © 2005 Sovereign Grace Praise (BMI)

Grace "makes me long to be like" Jesus.  Grace "turns me form my selfish pride".  And grace causes me "to love the cross on which" Jesus died. 

I asked the youth group last night how they can know if this grace of God is at work in them.  We noted in singing the words above that one means is by noting how we are turned from our own selfish pride, turned from wanting our own ways, from reacting according to our own desires (which often results in anger, frustration, impatience, lust and the like) and by grace carefully considering how Jesus would have us give of ourselves.  I asked them to carefully take pause when they thought about something they wanted, good or bad, and then to prayerfully asked the Lord how they might turn that moment into an opportunity to do something for someone else to the glory of God.

How about you, will you take pause today and in your moment of reacting to something according to your desire, prayerfully ask the Lord to turn you from any selfish pride to respond to the good or benefit of another to the glory of God.? This is grace abounding.  This is grace at work in you and this is working out your salvation with fear and trembling.  I believe it was John MacArthur who wrote, "Grace that does not affect one's behavior is not the grace of God."  

Oh, Lord, may Your grace affect both our affections and our actions to live our lives wholly to You.

SDG,

Ed