1
Business - with lots of activities
going on, courses to take and outings to go on.
2
Orientation towards the family
– with programmes catering to families, where its people
are closely-knit, connected and everyone seems to be related.
3
Fellowship
– where there always seems to be an abundance of good
food and fellowship within the community.
Regardless
of how we perceive our church, it is more important that we
think about what our reputation with God is. How will God measure
us when the time comes – personally and as a church? God
will give us His judgment one day. Will we be prepared for what
we will hear?
Our
Purpose and Mandate
In
the scripture text, the Psalmist calls God’s people “gods”
(v1 and v6). In what sense are we “gods”?
1
We are deputies commissioned
by God (v6). We are executors of His will. We serve as God does.
We are all sons in God’s work and mission.
2
We are instructed to be godlike
in our functions (v3 and v4). We are to defend the cause of
the weak, poor and oppressed. We are to deliver the weak and
needy from the hand of the wicked.
3
In our business and work, we
are to work with the intention to (i) further the blessings
of creation (Genesis 2:15) and (ii) counter the effects of sin
(Genesis 3:17-19,23).
God’s
Purposes Through Our Work
We
therefore need to check our work lives. Are we carrying out
God’s purposes and intentions through our work? Does our
work counter the effects of wickedness and sins in societies
and the world? Does our work:
1. result
in victims or celebrants?
2. bless people/ creation, or exploit/ diminish/ devalue them?
3. cause people to be impoverished, the land to be diminished
and society to be misled?
4. make the world a better or worse place?
How
will we, as individuals, and our work be remembered? There was
once a story about a man who was reported dead by mistake. Somebody
wrote his obituary and described him as the Dynamite King, a
merchant of death. He did not like what he read and resolved
to change his life. He changed and when he died, left a legacy
of goodwill and peace to all men known as the Nobel Prize.
It’s
never too late to turn our lives around. We must be honest with
ourselves, search our hearts, examine our lives and see if we
need to change certain areas or things in our lives that may
not be pleasing to God.