The Theology of Work!

My name is Glenn Packiam. I Pastor the downtown New Life Church. Pastor Brady sometimes refers to us as the Parish! We refer Pastor Brady as the Bishop! We are a Parish of fathers, mothers, sons and daughters and the family is our core DNA. This morning we are going to talk about the Theology of Work. Work is not a dirty word or something to be avoided. God is still at work! Sometimes we can postpone our work for Him in preparation to work for Him! This will only lead to keeping God out of our work place! This is a problem I faced in Theology School. If our goal is to serve God only after we reach a position in Church Ministry then we will miss the boat! Do not postpone your work for Him! If you do you will become deficient for Him! What is work? Why work? Let us go to the foundation of work. We do not work just to pay our bills! In Genesis 1:26, we learn that we were created in the Image of God! This gives us a clue to our purpose. To be like God. God worked and created us to be like Him. In Genesis 2:8, God planted a Garden and put man into it. In verse 15, we see God placed Adam and Eve into it to work the Garden. Work was not the result of the fall! Work is God’s idea! God started work in Creation and continues to work! Jesus right now is interceding in prayer for the Saints! We are to work to reflect God’s Image! In the ancient Near East the King would erect statues of himself throughout his Kingdom. It would send a message to the people that he is like his Image! Our creator reminds us of His Creation and His Rule! God has designated responsibilities to us! Remember God gave Adam the duty to name the animals. God’s Creation is perfect but not completed! God is asking you to join Him in His work. God’s Dominion is not an oppressive Rule and desires that we work with Him. God is wise and designed a Loving order. Work is collaborating with God to cultivate His world! Remember that old hymn, “This is my Father’s World?” We do not just work to rest and work for bread! Heaven should not start on Friday night! I am not sure about that old song, “I will fly away!” God will one day descend upon the world to create a New Heaven and a New Earth but until then work! There will be work after that too! God did not give up on you and this world! God called His work good! Do we work to have a cosmic week-end? We are to collaborate with God and to see ourselves working with God in common purpose. Our vocation is to be called to the calling! We need to keep in mind our occupation in this context. We live out our vocation in our occupation. My father and mother were from India and they both worked hard! My father was a Hindu and my mother was a Christian. My father was a hotel manager in Malaysia and my mother a school teacher. My mother started a school. She taught us as she talked to us. Your vocation is your calling! You do not just work a job. The Gifting God has placed in your life is only developed through work! Work is a vehicle where God gets you where He wants you to be! Work is the opposite of welfare! Work gives dignity and purpose to man! My father-in-law is a farmer in Iowa. Jesus said the fields are white unto the Harvest but the workers are few! You are either going to exploit or cultivate the world! Work or fraud! Even a farmer has a Holy occupation! He treats his land with respect and honor! We have recently hired a painter for our house. He loves his job and takes the time to do a perfect job! The word time means, “To Honor!” When our time is over here have we honored Him? Holy work is not just church work. Work as unto the Lord! A bank manager I know quit his job because fraudulent things were being done by his company! Jeremiah 29:4-7. When Israel went into captivity in Babylon God told them to build houses, take wives for you will be there awhile! No rapture planning here! Figure out how to live here now! Verse 7 goes on to say we are to seek the peace of the city. Seek the welfare of others! Work is simply making someone’s else life better! The more numbers of people you help the greater your reward! This is true in business of any occupation. Pray over your boss and co-workers. Do not be deceived by social media that everyone else is doing better than you? Have a positive attitude towards work! Faith without works is dead! What was the vocation of Israel? Jesus our Messiah is the true Israel! He was sent to a strange place! His bread was to do the Father’s will. Our Father works even now! He finished His work on the Cross but our work is not finished yet! He is the God of the Garden! Today God is at work in you! The Holy Spirit is active in you! God has begun a new work in you! As we take communion this morning remember the bread and wine is from the Garden and the harvest of the earth. His Creation has a redemptive work in you! The Tree of Life is to know Christ and Him Crucified and to make Him known to others! To experience Him and the power of His Resurrection! Serve Him and others as He is serving you! Source; Pastor Glenn Packiam, Downtown New Life Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado. Message June 22, 2014

Suggested Name Change For Washington Redskins!

I hereby suggest the new name should be the Washington Pigskins! My only concern is Obama may still sue the team representing the Geico Pig! Obama is pushing Global Warming again? With the Middle East on fire and our southern border being invaded are there not more important issues? The political issue of Global warming can be simply defeated by looking at science! All the planets are heating up not just the earth! Our sun has an 11 year solar flare cycle where solar activity is at it’s highest. The earth also has cooling cycles! God has this figured out and we do not need another tax on us from Obama for another scheme! If our President would stop Iran from building their atomic bomb then our planet would not heat up so much! Thankyou. James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com

John Adams Letter to Thomas Jefferson 1813

Now I will avow, that I then believe that those general Principles of Christianity, are as eternal and immutable, as the Existence and Attributes of God; and that those principles of Liberty, are as unalterable as human Nature and our terrestrial, mundane System. President John Adams wrote this letter on June 28, 1813, excerpt from a letter to Thomas Jefferson.

Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Rush

To the corruption of Christianity I am indeed opposed; but not to the genuine precepts of Jesus himself. I am a Christian, in the only sense in which he wished anyone to be; sincerely attached to his doctrines, in preference to all others; ascribing to himself every human excellence; and believing he never claimed any other. April 21, 1803

Academic Athletics

Nebraska University was ready for the big playoff to go to the Orange Bowl for the National Championship game! However their two best players BuBa and Tiny Tim were on academic probation! BuBa made 10 tackles every game and Tiny Tim was the fastest guy on the team with 3 touchdowns every game! The coach knew the team could not win without these two guys! So he went to the Academic Dean of the University and asked the Dean if he could give them a make-up exam with one simple question so they could get an “A” grade and average the score in with the rest of their grades? The Dean said he would do anything to help the team out! He called the players into his office and gave them the one question exam. He instructed them that this was the honor system and he was going to leave the office and they were not to help each other! So about ten minutes into the exam BuBa asked Tiny what the answer is to the question, “Old McDonald had a ________?” Tiny said the answer was “Farm.” BuBa says, “How do you spell farm?” Tiny says,”You big idiot, E-I-E-I-O!” Source; Pastor Greg Laurie

Christian Martyrdom Doubled in 2013, Persecution Growing!

The number of Christians murdered for their faith almost doubled in 2013 over the previous year, according to an annual survey by Open Doors, a non-denominational ministry that monitors the persecution of believers and supports persecuted Christians worldwide. Hardline Islamist regimes and Islamic terrorists—many funded by the Obama administration and other western governments—were behind most of the slaughter. However, for the 12th year in a row, the autocracy lording over North Korea was ranked as the number one persecutor of Christians in the world. According to the organization’s findings in it’s open doors World Watch List, released last week. Christians are still by far the most persecuted demographic on earth–and the trends are getting worse. In 2012, the group’s annual report documented the martyrdom of more than 1200 Christian’s. Last year there were more than that martyred just in Syria, where the Obama administration and a coalition of it’s allies–mostly European governments and Sunni Arab dictators–have been arming and funding jihadist rebel groups. Overall, the report documented 2123 murders of Christians for their faith in 2013. An estimated 100 million believers in Christ, meanwhile, still suffer from ruthless persecution around the globe, Open Doors has found. Among the other atrocities carried out against Christians for their faith; imprisonment, torture, rape, execution, forced labor, and more. Christians are persecuted in more than 65 countries around the world, with a vast majority in Africa and Asia–and especially in the middle east, where Islamist rulers often purport to make faith in Christ a crime. Source; Alex Newman, January 16, 2014.

History Endorses The Bible! Genesis 16:11-12

God told Hagar one of the wives of Abraham that her son Ishmael would be a wild man with his hand against every man and every man’s hand against him! The Book of Genesis was written about 1450 BC by Moses during the wilderness wandering after leaving Egypt. Abraham lived about 420 years before Moses. Islam did not come along until about 650 AD. So this prophecy about Ishmael and the Arabs was given about 2100 years before Islam came along. This family feud between the Jews and the Arabs has gone on for thousands of years. All Islam did for the Arabs was legitimize their hatred towards Christians and Jews. There is no political solution for this problem and no military solution. This is a spiritual battle that wages on through the flesh! There can only be a spiritual solution for a spiritual problem! God reconciled Himself to man through His Son Jesus Christ. When we reject the Blood of Christ as the atonement then man’s blood will flow! Christ came to make us spiritual brothers and this peace is the only lasting peace man will ever know and experience! In Christ’s Love. James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com