Tag: Christian witness

For the Lord

Colossians 3

Friday, August 26, 2022

My junior and senior years of high school were not the proudest moments as a student.  I failed my math class my junior year and was forced to take a remedial course. My senior year, I failed two more courses; one of them was service learning.  It’s embarrassing to admit as someone who had the tools to be exceptional and as someone who speaks daily into the lives of adolescents, but I was unmotivatable.  I had determined I was going to expend the least amount of effort possible to cross the finish line of high school graduation. However, that didn’t stop one teacher from trying to spur me forward.  My AP Biology Teacher, Mr. Amato, passed back another failed test to me somewhere at the close of winter of my senior year.  As he did so, he looked me in the eyes and said to me “Do everything as it’s for God.”  The statement hit like daggers. It came from a place outside of church in a very public school.  It momentarily pierced my impervious hardened heart towards my school work, and I felt truly ashamed of my effort. I wish I could continue the story and state that I aced my next test, or even, passed the class, but neither happened. However, my labor for the Lord, spurred by these words, has happened in a classroom further down the road.

There are some of us who will get the opportunity to share our faith stories with an audience of hundreds or even thousands. Our account will be spread far and wide of the miracle of Jesus Christ in our life, but our story is best told, not in quantity, but quality.  All of us will first and foremost have a ministry to our family, our friends, and for those we work for and alongside. How well do we listen to instructions? Follow through on our word? And present our absolute best in the work that exists in front of us? We may be more knowledgeable than the CEO, have more experience than our district manager, or could teach the class far better than our professor (quick note: definitely not the case in AP Bio), but who will ever know through our lack of focus, negligible efforts, and lack of compliance?  Whether you are the boss or the bondservant, you work for the gospel of Jesus Christ in your efforts.

Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to curry their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord. Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. Anyone who does wrong will be repaid for their wrongs, and there is no favoritism. – Colossians 3:22-25

God has placed you where he needs your testimony to shine. We are not ourselves saviors, but we do reflect the light of Jesus Christ when we work like him. It doesn’t mean that we are to be workaholics or slaves to our jobs.  We are to render to Little Caesars what is Little Caesars. Working 9 to 5 means we are on the clock. We don’t cut corners.  We work harder, not to get ahead, but to build the platform on which to share our testimony. Chances are if we don’t like our work, yet love the Lord and see it through completion, it will be noticed.  But what if it isn’t?  Your inheritance isn’t found in your work or your career. The promise of promotion isn’t the driving force behind your labor. There is ministry in the few hours spent at church for the Lord, but equally, or possibly more so, in the 40 hours working for the man.  You will infinitely be repaid for your efforts by the one for whom you slave, Jesus Christ. Be God’s vessel wherever you are. Do it for the Lord.

“ Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” – Colossians 3:16, 17

-Aaron Winner

Questions for Reflection and Discussion

  1. Whether you are a student, an employee, a boss and/or a family member, how can you do it today as working for the Lord?
  2. What negative work habits can you work on overcoming so you can be a positive witness to those around you?
  3. What positive role models have you seen in the workplace/school?
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Missing the Messiah – Still?

John 5 23 b

John 5

Welcome back for the last time this week!  Thanks for sticking with me this far… just one left before you get to hear from someone MUCH cooler than me!  Let’s take a look at John 5.

Thought #1 – Vs. 1-9: It’s weird to me how this story is glossed over so easily when I think of this chapter and all that it carries.  Jesus cured a man who had been unable to move for nearly 40 years!!  That is huge!  And yet it took me three times of reading this chapter before I decided I should even write about it!  That by itself got me thinking… as someone who grew up in the church, how many of the amazing things that Jesus has done or that the Bible tells us do we gloss over because we’ve heard it multiple times?  For me, that answer is uncomfortably high.  I want to always be amazed by the things Jesus has done, even if I’ve read the story more times than I can count.  I think a huge way of getting to that point is simply to pause.  If this story is familiar to you, take a moment and pause.  Read through it again and try to find something new to you.  If you haven’t read this story often, make sure not to rush through!  Take your time and think about the emotions that would have surrounded this story in an effort to get a deeper understanding of its message.

Thought #2 – Vs. 16-30: So, because Jesus was doing what he was sent to do… the persecution starts.  Because the people didn’t listen to prophets before him, because they were just a little too full of themselves and self-righteous, they missed out on the Messiah and all of the amazing things that he was about to do.  These weren’t even the people you’d expect to miss someone as important as the Messiah!  These were Jewish leaders, people who were intelligent and should have been the most aware of Jesus’ coming.  And yet they missed it, because they were too wrapped up in the law of how it was supposed to look on the Sabbath.  How often do you miss out on something greater, maybe even to the point of intentionally driving it away, because you’re too wrapped up in how it looks on the surface?  Now I am not saying that we should ignore the laws we have, but I am saying that we should be more focused on living a Godly life versus living a life that makes others think we’re living a Godly life.  It is so easy to get sucked into the social media craze that includes Bible verses, pictures in your Sunday best with a quote from the pastor, etc. or in a prayer group that is really a place to gossip about others in the church openly without shame.  None of those things by themselves are wrong necessarily, but more often than not, they can distract us from the true purpose of being a believer in today’s world.  We are called to spread the message of Jesus Christ, and social media can be a very useful tool in that.  We are called to pray for one another and help hold each other accountable.  But all of these things must be done in love, and accompanied by a genuine faith and following of Christ.  Have you gotten sucked in to the less-than-realistic believer mentality that keeps things focused on the surface level?  How can you work to move past that and create a deeper, more genuine faith in Jesus?

Thought #3 – Vs 39-40; 44-47: This is more a continuation of Thought #2 than an individual thought.  Here we see Jesus speaking about those who have put their faith in something or someone other than God.  It’s not that these people he is referring to have put their faith in something unholy, unclean, or sinful, and that is the toughest part for me!  These people are putting their time and effort into studying Scripture, and the words of prophets who speak truth.  And yet, Jesus says that they “refuse to come to [him] to have life.”  In my experience with the COG, we tend to have much smaller church bodies that are very close knit.  I love this!!  BUT, I have seen and heard where that can create problems.  People in authority start to hold more weight than what is being taught, and churches can struggle when certain “higher-ranked” members have opinions or do things differently than what the church is meant to do.  These members are good people, but they are not God.  As a church, as a believer, we must put more faith in God than we do in our own personal congregations and churches if we want to experience the life Jesus Christ can provide through the Father.

Well thank you all for finishing Romans and starting John with me!  I hope that something along the way was beneficial to you; I know I gained a lot from getting to write these 😊

~Sarah Blanchard