Tag: work

  • By the sweat of your face

    By the sweat of your face

    “By the sweat of your face
    you shall eat bread,
    till you return to the ground,
    for out of it you were taken;
    for you are dust,
    and to dust you shall return.” – 
    Genesis 3:19

    worker thirstHad a rough day at work? Or maybe you have had a tough time finding work. Do you find as many women and teens in the workplace sweating to win the bread of this world?

    It is the result of sin. Punishment. We are not just a caretaker in the pleasant garden anymore, but God has cursed the ground where we must make our living and sustain our wives and children.

    grill girlgrill cookYes, even the wife with the jobs of the household and mother of the children complains of her sweat of the job where two incomes will not even provide the bread that once only the husband would sacrifice his sweat for his loved ones.

    Even now some women will choose this curse over obedience to a husband and obedience to God.  Teens with cars and cell phones and money for entertainment compete with Godly and ungodly family men in the marketplace of jobs, while they boast that they are “in a relationship” with another teen (an evil sexual relationship outside of marriage and responsibility of a God-led family).

    We have wandered far from Paradise. Many have run far from obedience to God’s will.

    Where did the journey of sin begin after original sin?

    Genesis gives us an insight as we observe a conversation between God the Trinity. (We will not dwell on the Trinity, the plurality of the One God at this point; yet hear God’s motive to expel mankind from Paradise.)

    Genesis 3:22 Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil.

    Adam and Eve have become like Jehovah Elohim: like God the Father; like Jesus when He would later walk the earth as the second adam; like the Holy Spirit, the Life of the soul. yada`yada`yada` – Knowing, knowing, knowing good and evil.

    Gen. 3:22b Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” 23 therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. 24 He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.

    God IS.

    This is representation of eternal life with no beginning and no end.

    God created.

    This is representation of life with a beginning (man or animal, plant or mineral).

    Does the life of an animal have an end?

    Did God intend for man, created in His Image, to have a life that would end?

    The soul and life of Man is connected to God through God’s Fatherly act of creation.

    Hear God’s words to the Prophet Jeremiah [1:5]:

    “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
    and before you were born I consecrated you;
    I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

    We are sons and daughters of God! We have a beginning in Him. God intended for us to remain as faithful children of His heavenly family. For His children He created Paradise on Earth. Adam, before sin, could have remained in Eden.

    What is the concern of God at this point?

    It is that evil could live on. Evil could have life eternal.

    In the beginning, God created… and it was good.

    Evil must NOT have eternal life!

    How often does the Bible warn of a mortal man: “… and he did evil in the sight of the Lord?”

    Evil souls and evil men must be banished from the good of God!

    “Behold, the man has become like one of  Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”—

    Did the Lord God not caution: “or you will surely die?”

    So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life. – Genesis 3:24 KJV

    salinastodayTwentieth Century author, John Steinbeck, focuses on this in his (1952) novel about a family and their attitudes toward work in “East of Eden.” We have choices, knowing good and evil.

    Therefore God has guarded the gates of righteousness against the entry of evil men.

    The Cherubim, also creatures of God’s creation (but not for this earth), serve God. Angels (yet not all angels, for some rebelled to follow Satan) serve God.

    Mankind, but not all men and women, serves God (as best we can in this sinful mortal flesh).

    God had a relationship with man. Man had a relationship with God.

    God restored the relationship of righteousness, that we might once more have eternal life in relationship in the family of God our Father. He restored life to our souls by the Living Sacrifice of the Blood of Christ Jesus, Son of God, on the Cross.

    We have been banned in the nakedness of our many sins to a land east of Eden, dust beneath the feet of our descendants, and struggle of the sweat of our brow to remain in relationship with God and each other.

    The challenge of the grace of Christ is that it requires the harvest of our faith. Faith requires obedience.

    Jesus IS Lord.

    Do you believe this?

     

     

     

  • Rest for the wicked; hope for the weary

    Rest for the wicked; hope for the weary

    It so happens as the Lord had planned it that the launch of http://talkofJesus.com -+- CHRISTIAN SOCIAL WITNESS coincides with the American holiday: Labor Day.  We will have picnics, parades and some much-needed family time.  No school.  Post offices, banks and many not-so-greedy businesses closed to give their employees a rest from their labor – something all of us need at times.

    A prior post began with this same thought. It is about Sabbath rest – a related, but different reference to the word of God in the Bible.  We’ve likely heard the expression:

    ‘NO rest for the wicked and the good don’t need any.’

    NOT true; NOT Biblical.

    We ALL need rest and we all need work.

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    American’s inherited this Labor Day idea of rest though the long-standing culture of the King James Bibles so much apart of our Christian heritage.  The original call for rest comes from Jesus.

    “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.Matthew 11:28

    At one time Americans realized the importance to honor God through our labor and to honor labors as God’s own workers.  Sadly, in a 21st c. America (or Europe, Asia or any other place) we don’t get that, do we?  (Jesus tells us why – which I will reveal in a moment.) The world has two approaches to labor:

    Work hard for your SELF. (More work, more reward: right?) God doesn’t really need that “offering AND tithe” to honor Him — after all, the Government gets plenty of our required monetary support.  Our Country will take care of us.

    OR

    I don’t need to labor because Uncle Sam* takes care of me and will always help me.

    *  ‘Americanized’ personalization of our impersonal ‘representative’ Government.

    God never intended for ANY to have a rest from the work they will NOT do.  (We won’t go there today. That’s a different scripture.)

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    Getting back to talk of Jesus:

    The crowds had flocked to hear Jesus on the hillsides of the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.  Jesus traveled from city to city on His northern tour.  Everywhere Jesus traveled, He was expected.

    Matthew 11When Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and preach in their cities.

    Imagine the excitement of the promised Messiah of God coming to your city.  Jesus was predicted by the Prophets.  Jesus was proclaimed by the greatest prophet their contemporary, John the Baptist.

    John was a ‘hell-fire and damnation’ kind of preacher: popular with the people, but imprisoned by the religious establishment.

    REPENT! And be baptized (changed permanently). Cleanse your sins before you must stand before the HOLY ONE.

    Yet our Lord is also calling the people of the cities to hear Him and obey.

    20 Then he began to denounce the cities where most of his mighty works had been done, because they did not repent.

    Jesus? … Preaching ‘hell-fire and damnation’ like John?

    Read what He said comparing the disobedient to the people of Sodom.

    Come to Me, and I Will Give You Rest

    25 At that time Jesus declared, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; 26 yes, Father, for such was your gracious will…

    28 “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

    What is Jesus saying about our labor?

    Jesus is illustrating a picture of manual labor.  He doesn’t say to just give it all to Him and He will take care of it.  (I’m not saying this about prayer.  We are talking ‘labor’ here.)

    • Take my yoke upon you a picture of the collar of two doing the work of one.
    • learn from me – a direct reference to learning from the example of His life.
    • I am gentle and lowly in heart [Jesus is kind and humble. Have you learned this from His Perfect Example?]

    and [IF you will do this, according to our Lord]

    • you will find rest for your souls. 

    30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

    Jesus didn’t say ‘Take a break and I will do it all for you.”

    Jesus actually called out the people who refuse to repent and listen to Him for their wickedness.

    Our Lord knows how weary we become in this world.

    Do we remember: disobedience was punished in Eden.  Unpleasant work became part of our sinful heritage for having knowledge of good and evil.

    Jesus offers to share in our work in this world.

    Will you work with Him on that?

    Though we are wicked sinners

    Because of the Cross of Jesus 

    Weary laborers have hope.

    Come unto Him.

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