Respect those who labour among you.

 

Monday, December 11, 2023


Psalms 10; 75

Isaiah 43:14-44:5

1 Thessalonians 5:12-28


Respect those who labour among you.


As your alarm wakes you up this morning and rouses you into action, take a moment to pray for your pastor.


Your mission in the army of Jesus is to serve the world. Their mission is to serve you. It is a Monday morning, the morning in which the weekly cycle of work starts again. For the pastor, it is their day off. And yet they will still wake up, dress their soul in repentance and faith in the blood of the Lamb, and go to the throne of heaven and bring your case before God.


As you go about your workday, in the office, on the road, on the worksite, in the home, or in the home of someone else, your pastor is standing before the Lord Jesus and bringing your name forward to His attention.


Through Paul, God the Holy Spirit has established various orders of ministry to serve the body of Christ. Your mission field, your area of ministry, is the world. The work you have been set is to battle the forces of evil on their own turf. You are a soldier of light, an agent of love bringing light to dark places. There will be temptations and attacks everywhere you turn. But you are protected under the blood of Jesus, and your pastor is praying for you. Those who labour among you are building a wall of protection around you in prayer, so that you may be assured that your day will be blessed.


We all have a job to do. All of us are required to get the job done. We can do our job in confidence that God is giving us the grace necessary to complete it. All of us are working together and working for each other. Go forth this week, confident that your place in the body of Christ is of great and sacred importance, and that the rest of the body is working hard to make sure you do a fantastic job of it. And don’t forget to pray for those who labour among you; for bishops, priests and deacons. They are praying for you.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Monday, September 12, 2022

  Monday, September 12, 2022 Psalm 33 Habakkuk 1:1-11 Ephesians 1:1-14 In Christ we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he lavished on us. The lectionary has taken us from the beloved disciple to one of the most beloved of Paul's epistles: Ephesians. Paul must have loved this church very much: we get a sense of his fondness for them and their shared sense of purpose and worship just from the introduction. In what is likely just an introduction to a letter in the style of the ancient Roman world, Paul has managed to squeeze in the entire, wondrous story of God's work of redemption. Paul has framed it the way it ought to be framed: in a pastoral, encouraging tone. He has three main points here (remember, Paul proceeds logically to build up an argument, unlike John who circles around his main point). First: God intended to save us before the world was formed. Think back to the first l
Read more

“Short time or long – I pray to God not only you but all who are listening become like I am, except for these chains.”

  Monday, September 11, 2023 Psalms 28; 29 1 Kings 7:51-8:21 Acts 26:19-32 Observance: Deiniol, bishop (d. 384) “ Short time or long – I pray to God not only you but all who are listening become like I am, except for these chains.” The great many blessings of being under the protection of the blood of the Lamb fill our hearts with joy and peace. To have the Almighty Creator of the universe, the One who sits above the flood, filling the temple of our being with the cloud of His presence is what it truly means to be human. Every day is filled with adventure; every night turns to the rest of the victor. Certainly there are chains: sometimes they are physical chains, the suffering of being a Christian among people who do not love the Lord. Sometimes they are spiritual; the attacks of the powers of the air who try to distract us from the One we love. But they always fall away. Our Rock of Ages always frees us; always brings us out of the pit of despair. A won
Read more

Monday, September 19

  Monday, September 19 Psalm 45 Nahum 1:15-2:9 Ephesians 4:17-28 ...be renewed in the spirit of your minds... It is far too easy to read some of these Pauline lists of virtues and vices and feel like we have gone back to the dark days before the Reformation. The idea that if we behave ourselves then we can call ourselves “good people” is pagan, not Christian. Paul feels very strongly about how Christians behave, he “affirms and insists” upon it. But it is because of what has already happened that we should mind our step, not because of where we are going. Christ's resurrection is many things, but one aspect relevant for Paul's teaching this morning is that it demonstrates to us the radical new reality in which we now live. We too have passed (spiritually) from death to life; therefore, we experience a “renewal of our minds”. Instead of treading water until we die, we live lives. Everything now makes sense: God has spoken, so we have logic. God made us in His im
Read more