Created for Work

Work is good. While the ease of work changed in the fall, man was made for work.

I have written how work is despised in our day, a day in which the ideal job for most has short hours, high pay, and little demand mentally or physically on the “worker”, who of course, has no need of taking any work home on “their time.” Is it any wonder when I speak to friends who have employees, they often complain about finding and keeping good employees?

As a dad of five boys and four girls, I consider it a duty to teach my children to work, not only to prepare them for life, but because work is a good gift from God. So when I needed firewood the other day, I brought my boys instead of trying to get my father-in-law's power splitter going. Those boys needed to learn to split and load wood and feel the tiredness involved. Peter (12) loaded the truck himself, neatly, tightly and with enough wood to make the truck squat down a bit. Jon was introduced to the work and art of splitting a log into sticks for the stove. I wish all young men had that privilege. I do pity the young men who live in town and have their heat come through a gas pipe or electric line.

As part of our children's schooling this year, we have been requiring them to read (or listen to) a devotional book written for older boys, called Created for Work by Bob Shultz. Now maybe l like the book because Mr. Shultz is a carpenter who cares a great deal about building the kingdom of God. Or maybe I like it because he combines practical illustrations of scriptural commands regarding work. Topics range from putting art in your work to not being afraid to get dirty in your work, to God's Word being the plumb line for our behavior.

The practical wisdom combined with the Biblical insight is a joy to think about. Published by Great Expectations Books Co. this volume is a wonderful tool to help teach your sons and daughters about God's gift of work.

Book Review: Spiritual Leadership

Spiritual Leadership by J. Oswald Sanders

“No one need aspire to leadership in the work of God who is not prepared to pay a price greater than his contemporaries and colleagues are willing to pay. True leadership always exacts a heavy toll on the whole man and the more effective the leadership is, the higher the price to be paid.” J. Oswald Sanders.

One of the advantages of getting older is you get to go back and reread books that have shaped your life in the past. Spiritual Leadership, by J. Oswald Sanders, was required reading for Operation Mobilization, a mission group I worked with years ago. So at twenty years old, with that volume in my hand, I took up and read. Sanders clear and hard hitting words laid out for me then much of what is involved in being a leader.

The book is a series of messages given at OMF (Overseas Missionary Fellowship, formerly China Inland Mission) leadership conferences in 1964 and 1966. In it he examines what makes a leader, the biblical requirements of a leader, disciplines of a leader, the cost involved in being a leader, and training leaders. As I recently reread this book, I found myself continually challenged and called beyond where I am now. I have found myself rereading chapters as I try to internalize what he writes to help me order my life and priorities.

In his chapter on prayer Sanders writes, “In nothing should the leader be ahead of his followers more than in the realm of prayer… If you wished to humble anyone, I should question him about his prayers. I know of nothing to compare to this topic for its sorrowful self confessions.”
I cannot emphasize enough that this is a book that you should read.

A major warning though: Do NOT buy the new Moody Press revision. The editors at Moody Press took it upon themselves to defile Sander’s excellent work by making it gender neutral. They explicitly deny biblical directives for male leadership and have changed the book accordingly. To say this is a sad commentary on the state of the evangelical church and evangelical publishing, is understatement. Instead, look up the book on ABE books and get an older edition, there is a good supply.