Borrowing from Bonhoeffer… Again! – Prayer & Work –
Purity 976
Purity 976 02/24/2023 Purity 976 Podcast
Purity 976 on YouTube:
Good morning,
Today’s photo of a cluster of trees, trimmed shrubbery, and manicure lawn beneath blue skies comes to us from yours truly as decide to document my stay at the Embassy Suites in North Baltimore by capturing the view from my suite’s balcony shortly after checking in. It’s nice for a view of a parking lot but we are a long way from the ocean front view we had in Myrtle Beach! Here's a video of Sunrise from the beach....
Well, It’s Saturday and my family and I will be
completing the final leg of our two part journey home later today as our
vacation road trip will come to a close.
It’s a 6 hour drive home so I intended to depart sometime after the
complimentary breakfast which will be served at 7 a.m. And because it is yet
another travel day, I am going to enlist the help of Biblegateway dot com and
Dietrich Bonhoeffer to provided the content of today’s message.
As I stated yesterday, I am doing the 40 Day Journey
with Dietrich Bonhoeffer for Lent and for yesterday’s post we shared from Day 3
of the 40 Day Journey with Bonhoeffer, so naturally today we will be sharing
Day 4 which is on Work and Prayer.
I won’t be sharing this resource again after today,
so I invite you to join me on the journey by signing up for the 40 Day Journey
with Dietrich Bonhoeffer on Biblegateway dot com by going to the link I am sharing
on the blog again today. (https://www.biblegateway.com/devotionals/40-day-journey-dietrich-bonhoeffer/2023/02/27).
Hey, I know this is sort of mailing
it in but I figured that even though I am a little road weary at least I am
attempting to encourage Christians in their faith walk, and besides today’s
entry not only keeps me faithful to the blog and podcast, it keeps me on track for
my intention for Lent!
SO without further ado, we present
Day 4 from the 40 Day Journey with Dietrich Bonhoeffer:
From – 40 Day Journey with Dietrich Bonhoeffer https://www.biblegateway.com/devotionals/40-day-journey-dietrich-bonhoeffer/2023/02/27
- go to Biblegateway dot com to sign up.
Day 4
Bonhoeffer writes:
"After the first morning hour [of prayer], the Christian’s
day until evening belongs to work.
“People go out to their work and to their labor until the
evening” (Ps. 104:23).
In most cases a community of Christians living together
will separate for the duration of the working hours. Praying and working are
two different things. Prayer should not be hindered by work, but neither should
work be hindered by prayer.
Just as it was God’s will that human beings should work
six days and rest and celebrate before the face of God on the seventh, so it is
also God’s will that every day should be marked for the Christian both by
prayer and work.
Prayer also requires its own time. But the longest part of
the day belongs to work.
The inseparable unity of both will become clear when work
and prayer each receives its own undivided due."
Biblical Wisdom
Whatever
your task, put yourselves into it, as done for the Lord and not for your
masters, since you know that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as
your reward; you serve the Lord Christ. Colossians 3:23
Questions to Ponder
- In what ways might prayer be hindered by
work?
M.T.
Clark: Prayer can be hindered by work in the following ways:
We may decide
we need our rest for work and decide not to pray at all, skip prayer when work
is demanding, or we could have a shallow prayer practice because we are
preoccupied and distracted with thoughts of work.
- In what ways might work be hindered by
prayer?
M.T.
Clark: Likewise, while I think this would be rare – prayer could hinder our
work. We could be so preoccupied with our prayer life , we could neglect our
work responsibilities or do shoddy work because we don’t consider it worthy of
our attention to detail or best efforts because it isn’t “spiritual” work.
- How are prayer and work related to each
other?
M.T.
Clark: As Bonhoeffer points out, work and prayer make up the content of the
Christian’s life. If we are able, Christians are expected to work and pray,
remembering that whatever we do, as representatives of God’s kingdom, we do for
the glory of the Lord.
Psalm Fragment
Let the
favor of the Lord our God be upon us,
and prosper for us the work of our hands․
O prosper the work of our hands! Psalm 90:17
Journal Reflections
- Reflect on the work you do. Is it
satisfying and meaningful? Is it work that reflects your values? Is it
work that reflects your faith? Explain.
M.T.
Clark: My day job is as a telecommunications field technician – a telephone
repair man. Is it satisfying and
meaningful? I suppose it is, I enjoy fixing
people’s problems and when I can do that I am satisfied, it’s meaningful because
I help people and receive compensation that provides for my family. Does it reflect my values? Yes, I perform the work to the best of my
abilities and am honest and forthcoming with the people I serve. Does it reflect my faith? The job itself? No,
anyone from any faith background could do the work I do with honesty and
integrity.
- In what ways does prayer support you in
your work? In what ways does prayer help to shape your work and the way
you do it?
M.T.
Clark: I begin each day with prayers for the Lord to go before me and guide me
through the day. During the day at work I am in semi continuous conversation
with the Lord, and it helps me to do the best job I can , by the book, because I
represent God’s kingdom. I will also prayer for protection, guidance, courage,
and strength when I need it. I believe that my prayer life makes me a
better worker.
- Besides the work you do for income, what
other kinds of meaningful work do you do at home or in the community? How
does prayer relate to that work?
M.T.
Clark: Besides my day job, I do volunteer work for Freedom in Christ ministries
as an online discipleship leader. I am also on the prayer team at my local
church. Both of these activities are based in prayer and the word of God, so
prayer is directly related to the work I do in these areas and I have seen some
amazing victories and transformations happen through prayer.
Intercessions
Pray for your co-workers, that they
might find real satisfaction and meaning in their work. Pray for your workplace
relationships, particularly those where there may be conflict and tension. Pray
that you and your co-workers would be mutually supportive and encouraging.
M.T.
Clark:
Lord God
heavenly father,
I pray
for my coworkers that they might find real satisfaction and meaning in their
work. I also pray for my workplace
relationships, that I would be obedient and responsive to my manager’s directives
and that I would be supportive and helpful to the other technicians in the
garage. I pray that my coworkers and I
would be mutually supportive and encouraging of one another and that I would bold
enough to use every opportunity I have to represent you as a Christian where ever
possible at work.
In Jesus’
Name, I pray. Amen.
Prayer for Today
Lord, when I go out to work may I go
joyfully and with enthusiasm for the tasks at hand. May my work be good for me
and good for others.
M.T. Clark: IN Jesus’ Name Amen!
Okay, well now you
have yet another demonstration of how to go through a morning devotional for
Lent! I would like to thank the Lord, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and the folks at
BibleGateway dot com for providing this resource. If you would like to join the 40 Day Journey
with Dietrcih Bonhoeffer for Lent go to the link for Day 1 and sign up: (https://www.biblegateway.com/devotionals/40-day-journey-dietrich-bonhoeffer/2023/02/23)
Well, the devo
provided us with some food for thought, some encouragement, and some Bible
verses so because of that and because I am traveling today, I will skip the
Bible verse of the Day, but should resume sharing verses from “The NLT Bible Promise Book for Men” when I resume the blog on Monday.
Until then I ask
for your prayers for safe travels today and I pray that anyone reading or
hearing this message will use this season of Lent to grow closer to the Lord.
I also pray you
have a good weekend and use Sunday to worship the One who gave us life and who
welcomes us into His eternal kingdom through faith in Jesus Christ.
---------------------------------------------------------
As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.org where I
always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to
assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk.
Today we continue sharing from A.W. Pink’s “The
Sovereignty of God.”
As always, I share this information for educational
purposes and encourage all to purchase A.W. Pink’s books for your own
private study and to support his work. This resource is available on
many websites for less than $20.00.
THE
SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD
By ARTHUR W. PINK
CHAPTER EIGHT
SOVEREIGNTY AND HUMAN RESPONSIBILITY
“So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God”
(Rom. 14:12).
In our last chapter we considered at some
length the much debated and difficult question of the human will. We have shown
that the will of the natural man is neither sovereign nor free but, instead, a
servant and slave. We have argued that a right conception of the sinner’s
will—its servitude—is essential to a
just estimate of his depravity and ruin. The utter corruption and degradation
of human nature is something which man hates to acknowledge, and which he will
hotly and insistently deny until he is “taught of God.” Much, very much, of the
unsound doctrine which we now hear on every hand is the direct and logical
outcome of man’s repudiation of God’s expressed estimate of human depravity.
Men are claiming that they are “increased with goods, and have need of
nothing,” and know not that they are “wretched and miserable, and poor, and
blind, and naked” (Rev. 3:17). They prate about the ‘Ascent of Man,’ and deny
his Fall. They put darkness for light and light for darkness. They boast of the
‘free moral agency’ of man when, in fact, he is in bondage to sin and enslaved
by Satan—“taken captive by him at his
will” (2 Tim. 2:26). But if the natural man is not a ‘free moral agent,’ does it also follow that he is not accountable?
‘Free moral agency’
is an expression of human invention and, as we have said before, to talk of the
freedom of the natural man is flatly to repudiate his spiritual ruin. Nowhere
does Scripture speak of the freedom or moral ability of the sinner, on the
contrary, it insists on his moral and spiritual inability.
This is, admittedly,
the most difficult branch of our subject. Those who have ever devoted much
study to this theme have uniformly recognized that the harmonizing of God’s
Sovereignty with Man’s Responsibility is the gordian knot of theology.
The main difficulty
encountered is to define the relationship
between God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility. Many have summarily
disposed of the difficulty by denying its existence. A certain class of
theologians, in their anxiety to maintain man’s responsibility, have magnified
it beyond all due proportions until God’s sovereignty has been lost sight of,
and in not a few instances flatly denied. Others have acknowledged that the
Scriptures present both the
sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man but affirm that in our present
finite condition and with our limited knowledge it is impossible to reconcile the two truths, though it is the bounden
duty of the believer to receive both. The present writer believes that it has
been too readily assumed that the
Scriptures themselves do not reveal the several points which show the
conciliation of God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility. While perhaps the
Word of God does not clear up all the mystery (and this is said with reserve),
it does throw much light upon the
problem, and it seems to us more honoring
to God and His Word to prayerfully search the Scriptures for the completer
solution of the difficulty, and even though others have thus far searched in
vain that ought only to drive us more
and more to our knees. God has been pleased to reveal many things out of His
Word during the last century which were hidden from earlier students. Who then
dare affirm that there is not much to be learned yet respecting our inquiry!
As we have said
above, our chief difficulty is to determine the
meeting-point of God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility. To many it has
seemed that for God to assert His
sovereignty, for Him to put forth His
power and exert a direct influence upon man, for Him to do anything more
than warn or invite, would be to interfere with man’s freedom, destroy his
responsibility, and reduce him to a machine. It is sad indeed to find one like
the late Dr. Pierson—whose writings are generally so scriptural and
helpful—saying, “It is a tremendous thought that even God Himself cannot
control my moral frame, or constrain my moral choice. He cannot prevent me
defying and denying Him, and would not exercise His power in such directions if
He could, and could not if He would” (“A Spiritual Clinique”). It is sadder
still to discover that many other respected and loved brethren are giving
expression to the same sentiments. Sad, because directly at variance with the
Holy Scriptures.
It is our desire to
face honestly the difficulties involved, and to examine them carefully in what
light God has been pleased to grant us. The chief difficulties might be
expressed thus: first, How is it possible for God to so bring His power to bear
upon men that they are prevented from
doing what they desire to do, and impelled
to do other things they do not desire to do, and yet to preserve their
responsibility? Second, How can the sinner be held responsible for the doing of what he is unable to do? And how can he be justly
condemned for not doing what he could not do? Third, How is it possible
for God to decree that men shall commit certain sins, hold them responsible in the committal of them,
and adjudge them guilty because they
committed them? Fourth, How can the sinner be held responsible to receive
Christ, and be damned for rejecting Him, when God had foreordained him to
condemnation? We shall now deal with these several problems in the above order.
May the Holy Spirit Himself be our Teacher so that in His light we may see light.[1]
---------------------------more
tomorrow------------------------
Join our “Victory over the Darkness”, “The Bondage
Breaker”, "Freedom in Christ" series of Discipleship Classes via the
mt4christ247 podcast!
at https://mt4christ247.podbean.com, You can also find it on Apple podcasts
(https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-mt4christ247s-podcast/id1551615154). The mt4christ247 podcast is also available
on Google Podcasts, Amazon Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartradio, and
Audible.com.
These teachings are also available on the
MT4Christ247 You Tube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@MT4Christ247
Email me at mt4christ247@gmail.com to receive the class materials, share your progress, and
to be encouraged.
My wife, TammyLyn, also offers Christian
encouragement via her Ask Seek Knock blog (https://tammylynask.blogspot.com/ ), her Facebook
Group: Ask, Seek, Knock (https://www.facebook.com/groups/529047851449098 ) and her podcast Ask, Seek, and Knock on
Podbean (https://feed.podbean.com/tammalyn78/feed.xml)
“The views, opinions, and commentary of this
publication are those of the author, M.T. Clark, only, and do not purport to
reflect the opinions or views of any of the photographers, artists, ministries,
or other authors of the other works that may be included in this publication,
and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities the
author may represent.”
Encouragement
for the Path of Christian Discipleship
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.