Did Jesus Have a Job?

Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and brother of James, and Joses, and Judas, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended in him..                Mark 6:3 ASV

One fact that has constantly amazed me about the heroes and heroines of films is that most of them are rich but almost no one has a job. I have questions like: what does Batman do for a living or where did Mr. Darcy get the money to buy all that artwork? One of my professors in Bible College  used to say that if today were the day that Jesus was coming; he would still get his brief case ready and go to class. His point was that we all have a job God has given us to do and if we are doing our best; then that is good enough for Him.

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In the Bible we see that Moses was a shepherd, Amos a farmer and the Apostle Paul made tents. The only unemployed guy was John the Baptist who lived in the desert and he ate locusts and wore homemade clothes(Pretty sure there won’t be many takers for that!). In fact  most people overlook that even Jesus had a job! Yes; even the One who came to earth to give His life for our sins, worked from nine to five for most of His adult life. How strange to think that Jesus Christ worked hard to pay the bills and take care of His mother and younger brothers and sisters. So if it was good enough for Jesus then why not us? The most important job we could ever do is to serve others with whatever Jesus puts in our hands until the day He comes. What has he put in your hands today?

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Beginning Our Day With Worship

Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.”  He said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him. John 9:37-38 ESV

Discipleship begins by faith but it will only grow as we worship. One pitfall in our churches today is that we connect worship in our minds to a hushed mood, a moment in the worship team’s performance and a time to settle back into our comfortable seats. But in the Bible we see Moses worshiped bare foot in the desert by a burning bush. We see Elijah worshiping God at a stone altar even when the crowd was loving the 400 man worship team at the 1st church of Baal. David worshiped while he watched sheep and Daniel worshiped with only an audience of lions. All of these people were worshiping because they had met an awesome God and they wanted Him to get all the glory, no matter what their circumstances.

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Dial it forward to when Jesus met a blind man in John chapter nine. First, while the disciples were debating why he was blind, Jesus healed him. Later when he was rejected by the local religious leaders, Jesus became His friend. Last of all, when Jesus showed the man who He really was he began to worship. Before we can walk down the road with Jesus we must learn what it means to truly worship Him. No ministry can be more important, no goal more vital, no relationship too precious to stand in the way of our worship. When we see that He is so worthy of all we have to give and begin to uncover the truth of who He really is; what else can we do but worship?

Easy Listening

But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without variance, without hypocrisy.             James 3:17 ASV

If you asked our sons who they liked going hiking with, they would have pointed to me; but if you asked them who they talked to when they were in trouble; that would have been their mom. It’s not so much that Nancy went easy on them, but, she made them feel welcome to tell her their problems. She was easy to be entreated.

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James tells us that we need to ask God for wisdom and that among its qualities is being easy to be entreated. Maybe some of us struggle with making others feel welcome to share their troubles; because we don’t believe that God will listen to ours. But the amazing truth is that God welcomes us when we come with problems or even just small stuff that we struggle with.

 

Always remember that God never asks us to do anything that He hasn’t already done Himself. He is easy to be entreated; willing to listen and ready to teach us to listen to others, when we ask.