imonlywood.com

It’s interesting to take notice of the fact that the enemy often tries to duplicate the things of God. This, in itself, is an entirely different study that could easily stand on its own and take a fair amount of time to cover. For the moment, if you will, simply consider this: God gave Adam dominion over the earth and everything in it. A perfect creation for a perfect creation! At the same time, God gave Adam another great gift…the gift of work. It wasn’t a tiresome thing. It wasn’t tedious or burdensome. It was a blessing.

When Adam fell, he passed on his God-given right to dominion over the earth to the devil. Whether he intended to do so or not, when Adam took the bite of the forbidden fruit, he also gave over his “birthright” to Satan, much like Esau gave over his birthright to Jacob (Gen. 25:29-34). At that point in time, a new “system” was born. We might call it the “world system”. Again, this is a tremendous study all on its own, so for the sake of keeping on the subject at hand, that’s all I’ll say about it for now! 

What it comes down to is this…God gave us the earth…and the enemy created upon the earth, a “world system”. While God gave us WORK, the enemy gave us, as a part of his system, this thing we call “business”… which is simply the work God gave us, with a twist!

“Business” is not necessarily a bad thing by itself. God allowed it to come to pass, and even uses it to fulfill His purpose. At the same time, it is NOT the WORK He gave us! It’s a substitute…an imitation of the blessing! Look at the word, itself…BUSIness. Busy-ness. It’s meant to keep us busy. Too busy for God, too busy for family and too busy for self. If the enemy can keep us too busy to do God’s work…

Wow!

Our problem is that we make business our work, instead of making our work our business. We forget that business is just something that we do to pass time while we’re here on earth. Once we leave here, our business will be forgotten. It’s our WORK that will stand the test of time.

I realize that some of the things you’ve read in these posts might seem a little strange or new to you. It may even sound a little crazy. But consider this:

“…my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge.” (Hosea 4:6)

And even more so…

“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” (1 Cor. 3:18)

You see, this is simply one aspect of “the message of the cross”, because it was on the cross that we were redeemed from the curse of Adam and set free! This is the POWER OF GOD for us who are being saved!

We have each been given gifts and talents…desires and passions…each a gift from God to use in the performance of our work! The problem is that we’ve been brought up in a world that teaches us that “business” is to be our work. That’s why we’re tired, and stressed out. That’s why we don’t have time for God, our families or ourselves! That’s why we’re not being fulfilled! Because we’re chasing our “business”, rather than doing our work!

“…for God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable.” (Rom. 11:29)

His gifts and his call are IRREVOCABLE! You will NEVER be satisified or truly free until you use His gifts to follow His call on your life, whatever that may be!

Next time we’ll look at why this happens, and then we’ll move on to where this is all leading. Believe it or not, these lessons have actually been your introduction to overcoming debt in your life….   

Ok…back to the subject! As we learned in our last post, Adam was created to work. Just as a reminder, Adam was created to work BEFORE the taking the plunge with the forbidden fruit. It was a gift from God to Adam. A blessing!

Once Adam ate the forbidden fruit, it did a complete 360…it was no longer a blessing, but became a curse:

“By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”  (Gen. 3:19)

Together with Paul’s statement, that if one doesn’t work, one shouldn’t eat (2 Thes. 3:10), one gets the impression that we must “earn a living”. Sounds great! Just one problem. It’s not Biblical. What IS Biblical is that God will provide all our needs! It WAS Biblical for around 4000 years, but when Jesus came and died on the cross for us, he redeemed us from the curse! The WHOLE curse…not just the part about sin! Folks, we have been set free by the redeeming work of Jesus!

“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.” (Gal. 3:13)

Now, this isn’t to say that we aren’t to WORK. Once again, there is a GREAT difference between “working” and “earning a living”. But we no longer have to “earn a living”! If we are faithful in performing our “work”, then the Lord will see to it that we are provided for!

Here are a few examples of what I mean:

The elderly Walmart greeter I already told you about. He wasn’t earning a living…he was performing his work! Alan Jackson is a great example. I heard him on an awards ceremony once make the following statement: “I can’t believe I get paid to play music!”

I’ve heard athletes make similar statements: “I can’t believe I get paid to play football!”

If you can say that about YOUR job, you’re in the right place! If you can’t (which I would guess applies to most of us!) then you’re not doing what God put you here to do, my friend…and not only THAT, but YOU are robbing God, and you are robbing your brothers and sisters in Christ! Your “work” is a gift to you, and from you, that was meant to be a blessing to YOU, to God, and to your brothers and sisters in the Lord!

The thing is, most of us are so busy and wrapped up in “earning a living” and just getting by, that we’re too tired, too busy and too broke to do our WORK…and we end up cheating ourselves and each other out of the blessings God has intended for us! Our attitudes suck, our families suffer, we neglect God and each other…because we’re worn out from “earning a living” when we should be “creating wealth” so we’ll have the time, energy and resources to do our WORK!!

I’m getting ready to shift gears a little here, but before I do, I thought it might be a good idea to take a look at where all this began and how we got in this mess to start with. When Adam was in the garden of Eden, and he took a big bite of that forbidden fruit, God made this statement:

“By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”  (Gen. 3:19)

Because of that one statement, coupled with Paul’s statement that if a man isn’t willing to work, he won’t eat (2 Thes 3:10), mankind, in general, has fallen prey to the mistaken belief  that he has to “earn a living”. There are a couple of crucial things that the general population of mankind has overlooked.

One of the first and most important is this:

“The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.” (Gen 2:15)

God put Adam in the Garden of Eden to WORK it and TAKE CARE of it BEFORE Adam took the condemning bite! It was God’s plan all along for Adam to WORK! That’s one of the reasons he was created…to WORK! Man was created to WORK! But here’s the thing…the work Adam was
given to do was given to him as a blessing…a gift!

(Just a little side-note here: Isn’t it interesting that God created Adam to be a GARDENER? Like Father, like son (John 15:1). (After all, who “planted” the Garden of Eden? Gen. 1:11,12) Isn’t it also interesting that the world as we know it began in a garden (Eden), entered the current fallen state in a garden, and was redeemed in a garden (Gethsemane) by another gardener (Jesus)? (I feel myself getting off on a tangent here, but I can’t help it cuz it’s SO FREAKIN AWESOME!) 

Just as our road to redemption led to the garden of Gethsemane, isn’t it interesting that after the crucifixion, Jesus was buried (or “planted”?) in a new tomb “IN THE GARDEN” (John 19:41)? Isn’t it also interesting that when Mary went to the tomb and found it empty, she began crying,  thinking someone had stolen the body of the Jesus, when, in fact, he was now risen? But that’s not the interesting part…THIS is:

“He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?” THINKING HE WAS THE GARDENER, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.” (John 20:15)

Now, why in the world would Mary have thought he was the gardener? BECAUSE HE WAS AND STILL IS THE GARDENER!

“It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his garden. It grew and became a tree, and the birds perched in its branches.” (Luke 13:19)

“Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” (John 12:24)

Folks, we serve the Master Gardener of all creation…THE seed of all we are or ever have been or ever will be…the Master gardener of ALL creation! But we’re afraid to rely on him to provide for our needs! And just as Adam was the “seed” of all mankind, Jesus is the “seed” for all the children of God!

“Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.”
(John 1:12,13)

I realize that a good part of this post has absolutely nothing to do with the subject at hand, but it needed saying, just because it’s so incredible! Can’t you see the PLAN? The DESIGN? None of it was a mistake! Not the creation of man, not the fall of man, not where it started or ended or even HOW it started or ended. It was all PLANNED! Gardener, garden (God, the Father). Gardener, garden (Adam in Eden). Gardener, garden (Jesus in Gethsemane). We are the fruit of the garden of the world, folks! We are the fruit of God, the fruit of Adam, and finally, the fruit of Jesus. We are the harvest that God has been waiting for to get ripe!

The Gardener is NOT going to do harm to His own fruit! He WILL provide the soil, the fertilizer, the water, the pruning, the Sonshine and whatever else we need in order to reach our time of harvest! Whew! WOW!!

“Let EVERYTHING that has breath praise the Lord!” WOW!! And why not? He is, after all, the gardener!

Well, I don’t apologize for getting off the subject, here…and I promise that the next post will pick up where I originally planned to go today…unless He changes my plans for me again… 

I think that all too often, we depend on ourselves and our own abilities to provide for ourselves and our families, rather than depending on God to provide. This, in itself, is a big part of the problem. The first question that comes to mind, is this: Would you rather recieve the benefits of the riches that you, yourself can create, or the benefits of the riches of God (Phil. 4:19)?

Before I go on too far, let me make one thing clear…there is nothing wrong with working at a “job”, if that’s what you were created to do! I read of an elderly man that passed away a few years ago, who spent his last years working as a greeter at Walmart (this story was in a national newspaper). When he left this world, there was a big article on how much he was loved and how he would be missed.

Again, this story of the “unknown” Walmart greeter was in a NATIONAL newspaper! Hundreds of customers reportedly attended his funeral. If you love your job the way this man obviously loved his, then you’re in the right place! If you don’t, then this is my second question: WHY ARE YOU THERE?

I don’t believe this man was depending on the riches of Walmart for his provision. I believe he was depending on the riches of God….and, true to His word, the Lord provided. I believe he was living out Colossians 3:23:

“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters…”

Most of us work to please our human masters (so we can retain our meager paychecks), rather than fulfilling our purpose and receiving from the riches of God’s storehouse. The purpose of the elderly Walmart greeter was not to work at Walmart…but to touch people’s lives. And that he did. He simply used Walmart as a tool to carry it out.

A famous theologian was once speaking on creation having the purpose of giving God glory. A skeptic asked, “How, for instance, would an earthworm give God glory?” The theologian replied, “By doing what God put it here to do.”

There are people that are fantastic artists that work in a factory. There are people that write great songs working in construction. There are people that have a gift for cooking or serving that work behind a desk.

It’s no wonder that so many are unhappy…we’re so consumed with “earning a living” that we aren’t fulfilling our purpose! There’s nothing wrong with factory work…IF THAT’S WHAT YOU WERE PUT HERE TO DO! There’s nothing wrong with construction or working behind a desk…IF THAT’S WHAT YOU WERE PUT HERE TO DO!

When you do what you were put here to do, there’s less stress in your life. You’re far happier. You’re likely to be just as successful, if not more so. What’s then is the problem? (This is another entire study in itself) It’s a lack of faith. We don’t think God will provide for us while we follow our dreams and passions, so we take matters into our own hands and try to make our own way. Instead of working for the Lord, we end up working a Just Over Broke, in misery. The thing is, who do you suppose put those dreams, passions and abilities in you to begin with?? If God gave you these abilities and desires, don’t you think He’ll stand behind you while you pursue them?

Before I leave you today, I’ve got something special coming for you with the next post! If you get the opportunity, PLEASE, PLEASE find a few minutes for it…I think it will be a tremendous blessing!