The Working Believer

  Read the following: James 4:13-16 / Psalm 3:5 / Psalm 68:19 The Lord sustained me from evening until morning (Psalm 3:5). The Lord bears me up daily (Psalm 68:19). I live today only because the Lord willed it to be so (James 4:16). Think about those statements. So much of our life is pulled into just a handful of basic thoughts or pursuits: commerce, leisure, and planning for the future. It's not an exhaustive set of categories, but most of the things I do throughout the day, or thoughts that enter my mind, typically fall within one of those three. Nothing wrong with any of them. We have to buy, sell and trade to get along in this world. We go to work, trading our time and effort for money which we will then, in turn, turn around and trade for the goods we need. It's just part of life the world over. We have things we enjoy doing, and enjoying things is not wrong! It's actually encouraged throughout the Bible ( See Ecclesiastes 2:24, 3:12-13, 3:22, 5:18, 8:15, 9:7-9, and ...

  Recently, my 8-year-old daughter asked me a question: "What was the first job in the Bible?" She's always been a very thoughtful girl. Always asking questions. Good questions. It took me a moment, but after years of Bible study, I have learned that when I am looking for the "first" of anything, I always go back to where any story begins: the Beginning. I remembered that in the Garden of Eden, and after God had made Adam, He placed him in the Garden "to cultivate it and keep it (Genesis 2:15)." This was the first task ever assigned to anyone. So I told her. "Cultivate" is not a common word today, so I used the phrase, "to care for," in its place. She understood what it means to care for something. She was given a puppy for her 8th birthday and was well acquainted with the tasks associated with caring for this tiny creature. She was responsible for helping to take the puppy outside so it could go potty, as well as entertaining the p...