#3131 (9/7) HAPPY LABOR DAY! "Labor or Service?"; "The Gift of Labor"

"LABOR OR SERVICE?"; "THE GIFT OF LABOR" Henry M.Moris,  Institute For Creation Research, September 7, 020; https://www.icr.org/article/12333

[AS I SEE IT: To be sure, there have been many moments in my job as a seafood clerk nearly four years now that are truly boring. (I estimate that I've scrubbed the same section of floor over 800 times now!) But what I always remind myself is that each day's job is a gift from God, and I am called to be a steward of that gift, to do the most excellent job I can, always remembering that JESUS is my employer and it is for HIS pleasure and honor that I serve in my job. (You would be amazed at how that perspective takes me through some of the most difficult nights, esp. with anything but courteous customers to serve. ) - Stan]

"LABOR OR SERVICE?" - “Six days thou shalt labour, and do all thy work.” (Deuteronomy 5:13)
   The term “labor” to many seems to connote drudgery or routine, repetitive, demeaning toil. As used here in the fourth of God’s Ten Commandments, however, the Hebrew word abad means rather to “serve” and is so translated 214 times in the King James. Only one other time is it translated “labor,” and that is in the first rendering of the commandments (Exodus 20:9). Thus, the command could well be read: “Six days shalt thou serve....”

   Furthermore, the word for “work” (Hebrew melakah) does not denote servile labor but “deputyship” or “stewardship.” The one whom we are to serve or act as deputy for, of course, is God Himself when we do our work. In the ultimate and very real sense, the Lord is our employer, and we serve Him, not man. Therefore, “whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men” (Colossians 3:23). Every honest occupation, if carried out for the Lord’s sake and to His glory, is “divine service,” and every Christian who holds this perspective on his or her work (be it preaching, or bookkeeping, or homemaking, or whatever) is in the Christian ministry—for “ministry” simply means “service.”
   Note also that God has ordained not a four-day or five-day workweek: “Six days thou shalt labour, and do all thy work,” He says, thus commemorating the six days in which He worked in the beginning, “for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth” (Exodus 31:17).

   One day, Lord willing, we shall hear Him say, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant:...enter thou into the joy of thy Lord” (Matthew 25:21). Then, throughout the ages to come, “his servants shall serve him” (Revelation 22:3) with everlasting joy. HMM

"THE GIFT OF LABOR" - “And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.” (Genesis 2:15)
    When God first created man, He gave him work to do. Although “the LORD God planted a garden” for man (Genesis 2:8), it was up to man to take care of it if he would continue to eat its fruits. Thus, having to labor for one’s living is not a divine punishment for man’s sin as people sometimes interpret it, but rather a divine benefit for man’s good.

   Similarly, even in the new earth, when sin and suffering will be gone forever, there will still be work to do. “There shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him” (Revelation 22:3). We don’t know yet what our assignments will be there, but they will somehow be commensurate with our faithfulness in serving the Lordhere. “My reward is with me,” says the Lord Jesus, “to give every man according as his work shall be” (Revelation 22:12). 

  It is, therefore, a God-given privilege to be able to do useful work, whether that work consists of preaching God’s Word or improving God’s world. “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do” (whether being paid for it or not), “do it with thy might; for there is no work . . . in the grave, whither thou goest” (Ecclesiastes 9:10). As Jesus said, “The night cometh, when no man can work” (John 9:4).

   No matter what the job may be that has been provided for us to do, it is important to remember and obey the admonition: “And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ” (Colossians 3:23-24) and “your labor is not in vain in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 15:58). HMM

[italics and colored emphasis mine]

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PRAYER MATTERS:

"To clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against 
the disorder of the world. -  Karl Barth

"Prayer is inviting God into a seemingly impossible situation and trusting/resting in His love and grace to accomplish His perfect will in His perfect time and for His greatest glory. Intercession is  one of the great privileges AND responsibilities for EVERY believer."- Stan

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World-Wide Prayer Requests:

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Praying Through the Open Doors World Watch List for persecuted believers:https://www.opendoorsusa.org/take-action/pray/monthly-prayer-calendar/

Hope for the MIDDLE EAST - Open Doors has a seven-year plan to pray for the church in the

Middle East as Christians heal and rebuild after civil war and ISIS decimated their villages. Join our multi-year Hope for the Middle East prayer campaign as we lift up requests from believers in Iraq and Syria. You can also visit ODUSA.org/Pray4ME to learn more.

September 7–8 - Pray for unity among the believers and churches in Iraq and Syria—and that “no weapon formed against them would prosper” (Isaiah 54:17)
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