
The post The Christian Work Ethic: Are You a Worker-for-Hire or Are You Working the Family Farm? appeared first on The Stream.
GRACE BLOGS COLLECTION
by Dudley Hall
The post The Christian Work Ethic: Are You a Worker-for-Hire or Are You Working the Family Farm? appeared first on The Stream.
by Dudley Hall
My great grandfather moved his family from northern Georgia across the Chattahoochee River into southeastern Alabama and purchased a sizable piece of land they called a plantation. My grandfather had 13 children who worked the land until he retired. My father and one brother and sister bought portions of the land for themselves.
I grew up helping dad work our family farm. By the time I came into the family, it was mostly just dad and me working along with the tenant family that lived on the land. Though it was a relatively small farm, my mother would sometimes refer to it as part of the plantation. When asked where some of us might be, she would say, "I don't know exactly; somewhere on the plantation."
The children of the tenant family were my playmates and my working partners. We all did pretty much the same work, but the perspective was different. They were working on the plantation. I was working on the family farm.
The gospel not only transforms our inner lives, it affects our work ethic. We are heirs to his mission and adopted sons working on his family farm. Plantation ethic is mostly about working for hire. You do your job to be paid. You instinctively know that doing a good job brings job security and maybe better pay. But, there is no sense of ownership nor future dreams for development.
Sadly, many Christians have never made the transition. Believing that spirituality and work are in different categories, they spend most of their time involved with secular work, and less time with the spiritual business of worship, discipleship, and church activity. This duality is a great thief of joy. Work is seen as a necessity but not a vital part of being God's people on earth.
It is easy to see how people adopt different values systems for the business sphere since, in their minds it is not a part of the spiritual life. It also might answer why some feel so demeaned or even dirty because they are forced to do secular work. If work is dirty, then the pay must be dirty, so even the management of finances is extra-Christian activity. When wealth is the goal, materialism is the god.
People who work for money have made themselves slaves to it. It tells them which job, how to advance, and how to measure their worth. No wonder that feel shame when they come to church to worship the God of everything. They somehow must know that God has a competitor in their lives.
Working in the family business is much different. You get to be with the father and the other heirs as you work. You have a sense of sharing in ownership. You have a common vision and hope for development. Excellence is not based on pay but on appreciation and hope. You are expressing yourself and fulfilling your design to subdue as God's partner.
Knowing that the pay-master is also your father, you are confident that he will be more than fair. You are free to be creative in finding ways to help others and make the place better. Working with God as Father, we know that every assignment is backed by unlimited resources. He supplies everything we need to accomplish what he has commissioned us to do.
We are also delighted to be working on a project that is guaranteed to succeed. We don't have to compete for reward or recognition. We are working with God as a partner and the prospects are beyond comprehension.
The reconciliation and restoration accomplished by the gospel has made all our work spiritual and eternal in its worth. Everything we do is a good work if we do it as sons/daughters for the sake of the mission and to the glory of our Father.
Missionaries are not superior in their work if each of us is doing what we are assigned. Working on the staff of a religious organization is not better work than working on the staff of a plumber. We are each representing the mission of our Father to do good to all people and leaving the world a better place by reflecting the glory of God in every work of our hands.
Work is a privilege and God's way of sharing his nature and purpose with us. He still works and invites us to work as his son/partners.
Plantation or family business? Your choice.
Dudley Hall is a Senior Contributor to The Stream. He is the founder and President of Kerygma Ventures, a sought-after speaker, an engaging preacher, an effective consultant, and a trusted spiritual father. Dudley has authored several books including Grace Works, Incense & Thunder, Glad to be Left Behind, Men In Their Own Skin, Orphans No More, When Hard Times Come, Follow Me and his latest, a children's book laced with gospel truth: Shorty the Substitute Ram.
The post The Christian Work Ethic: Are You a Worker-for-Hire or Are You Working the Family Farm? appeared first on The Stream.
by Sandra
by Dudley Hall
Increasingly, young people answer the age-old question of "What do you want to be?" with the surprising answer: "Famous." It doesn't seem to matter all that much what we become famous for -- just famous. One can be famous for just being famous. It shouldn't surprise us. We are designed for honor. After all, we are made in God's image with the purpose of managing creation under his authority. There is honor in that.
After the fatal fall of Adam and Eve, our desire for honor got all messed up, but we still crave it. Celebrity status is the substitute.
I am struck by the text of Scripture in Hebrews 11. There is a long list of people who are famous for eternity. They are a great cloud of witnesses whose lives still speak to current generations. (Hebrews 12:1) A chapter earlier we are told why they are famous.
Through their faith, the people in days of old earned a good reputation. (Hebrews 11:2)
These people are famous both in heaven and on earth. Their names live on and their influence continues to make an impact. They won't be forgotten when this TV season is over. Millions of parents have named their children after them. Though the canon of Scripture is complete, the implication is that there is still room among that crowd of witnesses for new names. They all pointed toward one person in history: Jesus. Those who place their faith in him become part of that famous company.
Wanna be famous? For eternity? There is a sure-fire way.
We must note that the kind of faith they had made them radically different. In fact, many of them were so different from the cultural norm that they were cruelly persecuted and killed. Their witness was threatening to societies unaccustomed to sacrificial love and heaven-anchored faith.
It is still so today. Many Christians are being persecuted and executed in various places in the world for one reason, their faith in Jesus as Lord. They have been born again of the Spirit that rules heaven rather than being controlled by the spirit of the worldly systems. They have embraced the power of love rather than the love of power. They have seen the reality beyond the visible and embraced it.
By faith we understand that the entire universe was formed at God's command, that what we now see did not come from anything that can be seen. Hebrews 11:3
Of course, they were misunderstood. Their reality was not confined to the test tube or reasonable observation of physical phenomena. They saw what only faith can see. When they embraced the word from God, their imaginations were filled with new perspectives. They were changed all right, but not from moral exhortations. They were changed first in their imaginations by receiving a new revelation. This happened by hearing and embracing the word of God.
In other words. When they heard the word of God with obedient hearts, they saw what he was saying, and lived differently because of it.
For instance, Noah heard the word of God and though he had never seen rain, much less a flood, and he built a large boat. How strange. His neighbors made fun of him for 120 years. What kind of nonsense was he talking about? He had seen the future reality because he believed the word from God, and he prepared in view of what he saw.
Or look at Abraham. He heard God's command and believed. He somehow saw the reality beyond the visible to the extent that he was never settled in the physical land of promise. There was another realm that held his attention. He was looking for the eternal city. (Hebrews 11:10)
Wanna be famous? For eternity? There is a sure-fire way. Believe that there is a God who lives to bless his people. He has spoken. His word is authoritative and alive. Hear it and believe it. Your spiritual eyes will open and you can see the reality that surpasses the obvious. Live on that basis and you will be different. Probably mistreated. Surely misunderstood. But famous forever.