Work

How should we treat it?
How should we carry out our jobs?
What should our motivations be when working?
When are our motives for working and getting promotions wrong?

These are all questions we ask with relation to our jobs and studies. Many of us see work as a "necessary evil", or that only our paid jobs are important. At Christian Union, during the second semester of 2000 we were led by Charlie (now a missionary in Mexico - pray for him) in two talks inteneded to put work into the perspective of everything else in our lives, and see how God wants us to view and carry out our work.

I took notes in these talks and have typed them up. The first talk was titled "Is Work Good?" In it Charlie went through four passages from the Old and New Testaments and evaluating five things which we often think about work (which he called'dumb ideas' as he then showed from the Bible that they were false).
These ideas which he evaluated were:

  1. Work is a necessary evil
  2. The work you get paid for is what counts
  3. Looking for the 'perfect job'
  4. The Lord's work is the best work
  5. Freedom from work is true humanity

The second talk was titled "Is Work God?" The purpose of this talk was to show us how we can carry out work with wrong, such as selfish, attitudes. It showed us what place the Bible tells us to put work in by going through four other passages in Scripture. The topics covered were:

  1. Work and Pride
  2. Work and Priorities
  3. Work and PLay
  4. Work in its Place

I recommend going through the studies in the order which Charlie did them. If you do so you may find it very interesting and informative - I certainly learned a few things from the talk. None of these are copyrighted - use them as you wish.

Is Work Good?

Is Work God?