Today's reading from the Chronological OT/NT Reading Plan is 1 Chronicles 28-29; 1 Corinthians 15:35-58.
In Chronicles today I came across a verse (or a portion of a verse) that I remember from last year. "Be strong and do the work." I think I might have to make a poster with that phrase on it and put it somewhere where I will see it all the time. In fact, it makes me think of another verse from Ecclesiastes - Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the grave, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.
Do it with all your might. Changing diapers, preparing meals, and folding laundry. Preparing children's stories or Sunday School lessons for church. Bringing snack to playgroup. "Whatever your hand finds to do" - also meaning to me "whatever God assigns you" or "whatever your part in the body of Christ" - do it with all your might. Be strong and do the work. While the work you see to be done in front of you may not seem as important or as noteworthy as, say, curing cancer or being a missionary in a foreign country, it is your work and it is the portion of the BIGGER PLAN that we don't know and can't see.
Moving over to Corinthians - Our passage today says "We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed -- in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed." Who else is REALLY CURIOUS about what our spiritual bodies will look like? I know I am. I don't remember this portion of Scripture. I don't pretend to know that much about the end of this world. It is most definitely something I need to learn more about. And preferably not from the end times movies from the 70s that scared the absolute you-know-what out of me when I was a teenager. But it gives me great comfort to know that Jesus has power over death and that we will be raised (or changed, as the case may be). Death is not the end. Christ rose from the dead and so we know that there is more than this earthly life and that we have the hope of eternity in Heaven. And then the last verses of the chapter - "But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain." And we're back again to doing the work.
Be strong, give yourselves fully, and do the work, whatever your hand finds to do, and know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
Happy Thursday!
Tomorrow's passage: 2 Chronicles 1-3; 1 Corinthians 16.
2 comments:
Sometimes it's hard to remember that even those jobs we procrastinate on and don't want to do - should be done in the name of the Lord. That is one quick thought to change my attitude about them! Thanks for a great post Miriam!
Great thoughts here Miriam! Love the tie in between the two passages too.
Just do it! Do the job God has called you to do. Don't worry about anyone else's calling and whether or not they're living it out. Live out your calling. Everything for the glory of God.
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