Ashland Avenue Baptist Church is served by a pastoral team that is made up of three pastors. David Prince is the Pastor of Preaching and Vision. Nate BeVier is the Pastor of Music and Community. Jeremy Haskins is the Pastor of Administration and The Mission. These three men have an amazing unity in the gospel and are committed to knowing nothing but Christ and Him crucified.
The three Pastors a complimented by an wonderful support staff.
The Prince family rang in the second day of the New Year with a lunch of vienna sausages, sliced cheese, and chips. While certainly not the most upscale lunch cuisine it was quite functional for a quick lunch amid a day of household labor.
Actually it was just a small fraction of the Prince’s who gathered to enjoy this quick feast. Some friends had taken our four youngest for an afternoon of play. This development left our 12 and 10 year old boys home to tackle some long delayed domestic projects.
The conversation at the lunch table bounced around and then drifted to the topic of work and the use of time. Some of the most important parental conversations occur over vienna sausages or PB&J’s and this was one of those moments. My wife and I were pointing out to our sons that work is given by God for our good and helps form our character (Gen 2:15).
We wanted them to understand that there is a reason they poke around and piddle at their work unless it is the only thing keeping them from some sort of play. The problem we explained was that they failed to see the inherent value of work and viewed it is a necessary evil that hopefully will at least lead to something far better.
We explained that this was why diligence in the use of time during work only became important to them if the carrot of play was dangled before them as sufficient motivation (TV, going outside, games, reading). There is a good, old-fashioned word for this-selfishness. The problem with this kind of selfishness is not just that we do not get the attic storage cleaned up before the little ones get back home it is that it is anti-Christ and satanic (Phil 2:3-8).
In explaining to my sons that Satan is pleased with them working as long as they see it as drudgery and despise it, something was happening to me and it is another good, old-fashioned word-conviction. I was reminding my sons that their problem had as its root the false assumption that time existed for them. They often act as though the only issue in the use of time and labor is personal benefit or convenience. I wanted to be clear to them that there is a grave danger in acting as though time was created simply for us and serves no greater purpose. I concluded that work and the use of time are not neutral issues they are spiritual ones that have to do with biblical theology, morality and wisdom (Prov 6:6-11; 26:13-16; 1 Cor 10:31; Col 3:23; 4:5; Phil 2:14).
As I was driving the truth home I was beginning to wonder whether or not I was instructing them or myself at this point. My thoughts began to race with how easily I slip into begrudging God’s gift of work and the fact that He ordained that work would chiefly characterize our lives. It is not just my boys who often think their lives would be better if they just could play more and work less. How can I fall prey to such foolishness when history is littered with the destructiveness of the lives of people who worked only to gain and not to give?
Play and rest are certainly God’s good gifts as well but they are not the enemy of work, or its competitor, they are works compliment. In fact, play and rest lose meaning and value and become the spiritual weapons of Satan apart from a life characterized by diligent work. Constant verbal complaints and computer status updates about how we begrudge work and the time it takes, are not cute, they are demonic.
People who recognize the hand of God in the created order realize that He does not do any of His work grudgingly or minimally. Those who have experienced the abundance of His gracious work in the gospel of Jesus Christ are to respond to everything in life with abundant effort “as for the Lord” (Col 3:23).
I think that lunch of vienna sausages, sliced cheese, and chips may prove to be one of the most important that I enjoy all year. I will spend the majority of 2009 working and so will you. Therefore it is not hard to define one of your primary spiritual battlefields. Whether we are studying, washing dishes, changing diapers, teaching school, dusting furniture or digging ditches let’s battle the Evil One and our own selfishness with the blessing of diligent work in 2009.
The gospel is about a person saving a people. Yet, for many of us, the Christianity we know and experience consists only of statements, lists, concepts, and propositions. At the same time, others, not appreciating the necessity of a word-driven Christianity, are tempted to run to some sort of mystical feelings-centered, version of the gospel.
There is no denying that Christianity is word-centered. The Bible is made up of words, statements, lists, concepts, and propositions that define the story God is telling in the world. Central to the Bible is a word, a message about a promise that all who believe in Jesus can be saved from their sins and rule with Him in His Kingdom forever. However, we must remember the Word, the message, the promise, became flesh and dwelt among us as a real-life person. Therefore, Christianity being word-centered is person-centered.
Furthermore, it’s centered on a person who lived in the real world and experienced real life. Jesus ate meals, went to weddings, and wept at funerals. He did not spend his days leaping tall buildings and zapping the enemies with some unique superhuman strength. He chose to participate in the same sort of activities we are involved in on a daily basis. He understood that Christianity takes place in homes, grocery stores, classrooms, and parks.
Such an understanding is what we will be after each Wednesday evening at 6:30p.m. during our Equipped Wednesday Community Bible Study. Join us as we examine the Word of God with Pastor Jeremy Haskins in a study called the Jesus-Centered Life.