Eve & the Sacrifice of Work

“The money brought into the temple was not spent for making silver basins, wick trimmers, sprinkling bowls, trumpets or any other articles of gold or silver for the temple of the Lord; it was paid to the workmen, who used it to repair the temple.  They did not require any accounting from those to whom they gave the money to pay the workers, because they acted with complete honesty.”

2 Kings 12:13-15

I went to a performance of “Before: An Evening of Original Monologues”, produced by the Girls Educational and Mentoring Services (www.girls-gems.org).  They told the story of what happened before a 14 year old girl, Eve, became a commercially sexually exploited child.  It illustrated how circumstances can combine to put a young girl in danger of being recruited by a pimp.

The young female writers were quite thoughtful, explaining that while they didn’t want to make anyone the “bad guy”, they wanted to show that different professionals had a chance to go “above & beyond”  to help Eve – but didn’t.  The police officer who investigated domestic violence reports at Eve’s house was angry because Eve’s mom wouldn’t prosecute Eve’s dad.  She could have given Eve’s mom a referral, but didn’t.  Eve’s schoolteacher was concerned enough to call social services when Eve started skipping school, but never took Eve aside to ask her what was going on or offer help.  The social services caseworker who investigated Eve’s home closed the case prematurely because she was underpaid, overworked, had clients who were “worse.  Also, she didn’t think it was important to investigate further just because a straight-A student suddenly started missing days from school.  She could have done a more thorough investigation, but didn’t.  Eve & her mom were mandated to see a therapist, who had a gut feeling that Eve was raped; but the therapist was angry because Eve & her mom never returned for more services.  She thought they were uncooperative and didn’t want services.  She could have interviewed Eve separately to see if she would open up, but didn’t.

God convicted me through Before, because I work in human services.  I’m neither a therapist nor child abuse investigator, but I relate.  I saw Before at the end of a frustrating work-week that left me thinking about how disrespectful, indifferent, ungrateful and needy my clients are.  I was looking forward to formally closing their cases.  I was reminded that my job is not about me, but about honoring Him and serving His creation.  If I do my work as a sacrifice to the Lord, He’ll compensate me.

“Stay in that house,

eating and drinking whatever they give you,

for the worker deserves his wages.”

Luke 10:7

God is not Mocked

“Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear,

and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. 

Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you,

but likes slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. 

Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men,

because you know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does, whether he is slave or free.”

Ephesians 6:5-8

Most pastors now translate verses about slaves and masters in the context of the modern workplace.  Instead of slaves & masters, think workers & bosses.  One day it occurred to me that the boss is just one element of a work environment.  Some folks work without traditional benefits like sick pay, vacation pay, or even medical benefits.  Some people don’t get enough hours at work.  Some people are vastly underpaid for the work they do.  People have had delays in getting their paychecks or had payroll mistakes made with their paychecks.  There’s a growing trend of workers being paid via debit card, and having to pay fees for their paycheck (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/01/business/as-pay-cards-replace-paychecks-bank-fees-hurt-workers.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0).  There is also a whole class of people who work as interns, apprentices, and volunteers.  They are working for free in the hopes that one day they can be paid for their labor. 

Don’t be discouraged.  El-Roi is the God Who Sees (Gen. 16:13).  He also cannot be mocked (Gal. 6:7), and He believes that the worker deserves his wages (1 Timothy 5:18).  He can balance the scales of justice supernaturally.  He can also balance those scales through the authorities that He’s set in place.  For Americans, that authority is the United States Department of Labor, http://www.dol.gov/opa/aboutdol/lawsprog.htm

“And masters, treat you slaves in the same way. 

Do not threaten them, since your know that

He who is both their Master and yours is in heaven,

and there is no favoritism with Him”

Ephesians 6:9

David Danced

David, wearing a linen ephod,

danced before the Lord with all his might,

while he and the entire house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with

shouts and the sound of trumpets

2 Samuel 6:14-15

On Father’s Day, the men danced. 

Pastor was raised in church where all the men just sat there – arms crossed.  Celebrating God was a feminine thing.  So he thought being stoic was manly behavior in church.  He learned he was wrong.  He also said that when we look back at all the things God has done for us, we should dance.  We should do a new dance every Sunday.

He recounted the story of David’s bringing the ark back to Jerusalem.  The ark represented the presence of God.  Pastor said that David mishandled the ark, and that’s why people died while David was trying to do a good thing.  Finally, David realized that when God gives you something, you need to handle it with care.  We need to treat God’s gifts according the God’s instructions regarding the gift.  The ark wasn’t to be transported via cart, it was supposed to be carried on the shoulders of men.  (Joseph Prince says it symbolizes our lifting our champion on high.)

Finally, David figured it out.  Every 6 steps, David and the entire house of Israel stopped to build an altar and worship God.  Imagine how long it took them to get the ark to Jerusalem.  The quick way is not always the proper way.  It’s proper to glorify the Lord.  When he donned the linen ephod, David assumed leadership for the praise and worship.  God anointed David the King of Israel.  Aware of his blessings, he blessed others by giving “a loaf of bread, a cake of dates and a cake of raisins to each person in the whole crowd of Israelites, both men and women” (verse 19).

In my last post, I mentioned an all-male choir.  They got the message.  Moved by the Holy Spirit, some men got up and were jogging around the stage, some were jumping up and down in praise to the Lord.  I’ve never seen Christian men do that on stage.  It was great to see.

I will celebrate before the Lord. 

I will become even more undignified than this,

 and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. 

But by these slave girls you spoke of,

I will be held in honor.

2 Samuel 6:21-22

Stalking in Sodom: A Prayer Request

The two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gateway of the city.  When he saw them, he got up to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground.  “My Lords”, he said, “please turn aside to your servant’s house.  You can wash your feet and spend the night and then go on your way early in the morning.”

“No”, the answered, “we will spend the night in the square.”

But he insisted so strongly that they did go with him and entered his house.  He prepared a meal for them, baking break without yeast, and they ate.  Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of Sodom – both young and old – surrounded the house.  They called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight?  Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them.”

Lot went outside to meet them and shut the door behind him and said, “No, my friends.  Don’t do this wicked thing.  Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man.  Let me bring them out to you, and you can do what you like with them.  But don’t do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof.”

“Get out of our way,” they replied.  And they said, “This fellow came here as an alien, and now he wants to play the judge!  We’ll treat you worse than them.”

They kept bringing pressure on Lot and moved forward to break down the door.

But the men inside reached out and pulled Lot back into the house and shut the door.  Then they struck the men who were at the door of the house, young and old, with blindness so that they could not find the door.

Genesis 19:1-11

The Initiative Against Sexual Trafficking (IAST) sent out the following article, “Stalkers use Online Sex Ads as a Weapon”.  I had to stop reading after the first couple of paragraphs because it made me so angry.  Genesis 19 was the first thing that popped into my head.  The activity described in the article is the same type of immorality that brought judgment against Sodom & Gomorrah.  Please pray that (1) the vulnerable are protected, (2) that the justice system responds quickly, (3) that online sites quickly remove false ads and that (4) the hearts of evil-doers be changed by the love and mercy of Christ.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/i-live-in-fear-of-anyone-coming-to-my-door/2013/07/14/26c11442-e359-11e2-aef3-339619eab080_story.html

We Have Come to Worship

They performed the service of their God and the service of purification,

as did also the singers and gatekeepers,

according to the commands of David and his son Solomon. 

For long ago, in the days of David and Asaph,

there had been directors for the singers and for the

songs of praise and thanksgiving to God.

Nehemiah 12:45-46

It was a blessing to attend Father’s Day service and see a choir of 21 men softly singing “We have come to worship”.  Before service started, I was overwhelmed with emotion, because I was reminded of the church I was raised in as a child.

The church I attended on Father’s Day was a powerful & beautiful “homecoming” for me.  Every man in the choir wore a white shirt and tie.  The women & children in the audience were dressed up, which I see as an expression of reverence for God and self-respect.  The clothes and, more importantly, what they represent, are God’s gifts to us.

I started to cry when the choir sang God Is, a song I haven’t heard since my childhood.  Here are some of the lyrics:

 God is my joy in time of sorrow.
God, God is my all in all.
God is my today and tomorrow.
God, my God is, my all in all.

God is the joy and
the strength of my life,
He moves all pain, misery, and strife.

He promised to keep me,
never to leave me.
He’s never ever come short of His word.

I’ve got to fast and pray,
stay in His narrow way,
I’ve got to keep my life clean everyday;
I want to go with Him when He comes back,
I’ve come this far and I’ll never turn back.

The Pastor took his sermon from 2 Samuel 6:14-23, where David danced before the Lord while escorting the ark back to Jerusalem.

Pastor told the men that church was the place for them to drop their stoicism, be transparent, and truly celebrate before the Lord, as David did.  So, on Father’s Day, the men danced.  We all did.

Power to Witness

“These women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how His body was laid in it.  Then they went home and prepared spices and perfumes.  But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment . . . . When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others.  It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the Apostles.  But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense.”

Luke 23:55 and 24:9-11

The woman preaching the Women’s Day sermon said the Holy Spirit empowered women to be witnesses.  She defined and listed the types of witnesses there are.

EYE-WITNESSES:  These witnesses are present at the event, and can tell people what happened.  Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and Susanna were all eye-witnesses of different events, because they followed Jesus closely.  They were eye-witnesses to an empty tomb.  You and I are not eye-witnesses to the life of Jesus while He walked the earth, but we are eye-witnesses to what He’s done in our lives.

EXPERT-WITNESSES:  These witnesses, by virtue of their education, profession, or experience, are believed to have better-than-average knowledge of situation.  They’re considered experts.  You and I might not have gone to seminary, however, we are the experts in our own lives.  You know what Jesus did for you.

CHARACTER-WITNESSES:  These witnesses are people who know the character, or personality & ways, of the person being spoken about.  We didn’t meet Jesus face-to-face when He walked this earth; but we all met Him.

 “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.”

Acts 1:8