Pastor Joshua Harris quoted my review of his book Dug Down Deep!
Check it out here.
My original review here.
Thank you Pastor Josh!
“Captivating Jewel”
Daily Archives: January 11, 2012
Secular Vs. Spiritual: How Do I Glorify God At My Desk Job? Part 1
A four part series on connecting Christ with your career, and how he owns it.
1) Restorative — 2) Creative — 3) Narrative — 4) Connective
In church, they’ll tell you that “giving glory to God” ultimately means becoming a super-pastor, a globe-trotting missionary, or a teacher of systematic theology in the leftover classroom behind the auditorium. We use the word bi-vocational like working for God is one thing and your job is something else. It’s the Sacred/Secular Divide, a myth propagated by greedy pastors looking for free staff, and it’s compartmentalized your everyday churchgoer into guilt-driven church mode.
Following Jesus also means following your calling — what you were individually put on earth to do — and we’ve driven a splinter the size of the church wall right into it. A talented choir singer pursues a singing career and the church scoffs: Why can’t she be a Christian singer? Why don’t she just sing here? A young guy is interested in surgery or cancer research or archaeology or molecular biology, and the church sneers: How can he do science and say he’s still a Christian? You got an artist who draws incredible art on his bulletin during the sermon, and the church has no idea what to do with him. You have future lawyers and military and authors and business owners and we hardly give them biblical patterns except for, “Evangelize when you get there.” And if someone wants to get into Hollywood, acting or directing or producing, you can forget it. Might as well call them a Satan-loving pagan.
In short: the church has done a lackluster job encouraging a generation of called believers to be in-and-not-of, instead burdening them with narrow church-centered shackles that are not one-size-fits-all. There’s this bizarre disconnect between faith and futures that not only misinforms, but simply ignores the specific purpose that God has appointed every single person. Maybe we forgot Bezalel and Oholiab in Exodus 31, who were filled with the Holy Spirit to craft God’s house. No small task. It was their God-given talent to ferociously swing a hammer in the awesome name of the Lord.
Here then, biblically, will be four principles derived from the Books of Nehemiah, Daniel, and other places that outline how our individual vocations honor God. The first of the four is Restorative. The rest will be in upcoming posts.
Like this:
Question: I’m A Show-Off and I Can’t Stop
Anonymous asked:
I show off all the time, I think thats what i’ve been living for. And now i dont know who I am. How do get out of this pattern?
I’ve had this problem and still struggle with it. We all love being the center of attention, and even shy people when given the spotlight for any amount of time begin to feed off it like crack.
It’s addicting, isn’t it? But you’ve made an incredible first step in realizing how much you’ve put on a front, and the even more amazing realization that you don’t know yourself. All well and good, and by itself will be a huge journey for you just to recognize those realities.
The “pattern” you’re talking about is not so easily broken because it’s probably how God uniquely wired you: to be a bit of the show-off fool. That doesn’t have to be a terrible thing, especially if you can channel your persona into glorifying God. The main problem is when “flexing to impress” controls your life, your thoughts, your decisions, and scares you into doing stupid things. You’ll need to clearly deconstruct your motives about why you say certain things, why you dress or walk or talk a certain way, and why you feel a “fear” to have a reputation. People are just people, you know. They’re not God.
Like this:
Quote: Face
Do you know how much you’re loved? Surely you don’t. The negative ways you see yourself would be impossible in the light of that love. The fear you feel over your sins would be impossible in the light of that love. While you were sinning, God sought you, bought you, and called you by your name. His love for you is beyond religion, rules, or rituals. Take your eyes off of your sin, and look into the face of pure love.
