What do you think… True OR False ANOTHER LOOK

1. My ministry is something I do at church separate from my job. False. Since our lives are lived within the presence of God, all of life becomes a platform for our worship. Part of the problem is that we think worship only happens in a certain building on a certain day. God desires that we see every aspect of our lives as dedicated to him.

2. My job allows (or someday may allow) me the financial freedom to pursue my ministry. False. Once you see that all of life is lived in the presence of God everything then becomes an avenue of ministry and worship. Your role as a mom will look entirely different from your role as an accountant or your role as a church deacon. But all/each of them are done in God's presence. In your work you are the way God brings his providential care to his creation. Thus, if you are an auto mechanic what you do as a mechanic helps people get from here to there in order to do the various things in their lives. So the work as a mechanic can be the means for God to visit his care on his creation. Even people who have no interest in God or who may be hostile to him are used by him to bring his care to his creation. 1 Corinthians 7:32-35 seems to make a distinction between "the Lord's affairs" and "the affairs of this world." But since God created marriage in Genesis 2, marriage must be a place-in-life that is honoring to the Lord. Paul's statement must be seen in light of the situation in Corinth. The city faced famines in the 40s AD and in AD 51. Tacitus called AD 51 an "ominous year." Earthquakes and shortages of food led to panics in the city. (See After Paul Left Corinth, p. 223-224.) It is likely these events led Paul to speak in 1 Corinthians 7:26 of a crisis facing the people in the church. Paul's point in speaking of "the Lord's affairs" verses "the affairs of this world" was the crisis that time placed stresses on a person's life such that one's focus would of necessity be pulled in several directions. To change one's life situation (getting married, raising a family) would add to the demands on a person's life in an already difficult time period for life in Corinth.

3. Spiritual gifts are given to help me minister in the church. My talents help me on my job. False. Our spiritual gifts are given to build up the body (1 Corinthians 12:7-13). But God calls us to love him with our entire being and to love our neighbor as we love ourselves (Matthew 22:37-40). Our gifts and talents are given to us so that we can obey God in loving our neighbor. And, as Jesus taught in the story of the good Samaritan, our neighbor is the person to whom we act neighborly (Luke 10:25-27; note in that story that Jesus change the focus of the question from "who is my neighbor" to "which man was a neighbor?") You see, obeying the great commandment to love our neighbor does not mean I search and search for a neighbor but rather the command is BEING a neighbor. The spiritual gifts we have and our talents are to enable us to obey the commandment to love our neighbor.

4. If I don't know my spiritual gifts I will be hampered in my ability to serve God. False. Even if you have no idea what your spiritual gifts are you can serve God by loving him with your entire being and loving your neighbor. If the family next door does not have a father around, you don't need to know your spiritual gifts to take the neighbor boy fishing.

5. A missionary has a call from God on his or her life that is different from my life. False. We all should seek God's calling on our lives regardless of our vocation. A nurse or a pipe fitter or a tool maker or a banker should sense God's call on his or her life just as a missionary or pastor does. A "call" is a sense of what God wired you to be and do. We have many callings in life - spouse, parent, single person, citizen, neighbor, worker, church member - and those callings will "come and go." In terms of a vocational calling, a calling is a vocational direction.

6. When I retire I will have more time to devote to ministry and service to the Lord than I do now. False. Your options will change when you retire but you ability to serve God will be the same.

7. I have a boring, dead-end job and there is very little about it that involves the Lord. False. The reality of a boring, mundane job does not mean God is absent from it. God uses your job to bring his care to his creation. One more thing - all jobs have some aspect to of frustration and that frustration a reflection of the curse God placed on the ground in Genesis 3:17. Work, which is good and a gift from God, became burdensome because of the curse God place on the ground. Consider this - when Jesus accepted an invitation to a wedding (John 2) his presence there tells us that the wedding and all that went with it was good in his eyes. He was there. He even provided wine when the wine ran out. He was involved. His attendance at that wedding means it was just as much a part of the fabric of worship in life as going to the local tabernacle.

8. Since miracles were such a part of Jesus' life and ministry I should expect to see them in my life and ministry too. I should expect a miracle from the Lord each day. To think otherwise would be to limit what God can do. False. You should expect to live your life the way people have lived it since creation. Normally. Sometimes God breaks through into life in a dramatic way. But to expect a miracle from God is to cheapen the life he has given us when there are no miracles forthcoming. When you had a heart attack and went to the doctor who then performed a multiple bypass on your heart so that you recovered and lived well, God healed you. He healed you through the talents he gave to the medical people who cared for you. When you were hungry the other day and got a burger at a drive-through, God fed you. He fed you through the talents he gave to everyone involved in the food chain. Somehow, in our world, we have been led to think that if God is going to heal me he needs to perform a miracle. Our penchant for a miracle ends up cheapening the normal day-to-day ways God cares for us.

9. What pastors and missionaries do for the kingdom is a notch above my ministry for the kingdom. False. What you do for the Lord in your life - your work, your family, coaching a ball team, having a cookout for your neighbors, teaching Sunday School - is kingdom work. I remember once talking with a family who had just moved into their first home. They were excited as it took them many years to arrive at that place. We were talking about their new home when the husband said to me, "We can't wait to host a Bible study in our home because we want to use it for the Lord." I said to him, "But aren't you using it for him in raising your family?" He looked at me and said he had not thought of it in that way. Remember, all of life is lived within the presence of the Lord and therefore is a platform for worship.

10. Where I am right now is not where I want to be and thus my ministry for the Lord is limited. False. Where you are right at this moment is your opportunity for worship - on your job, in your home, in your family, in your relationships, in your hobbies, and in your church. All are a platform for your worship.

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