Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life,
to mind your own business and to work
with your hands, just as we told you, so
that your daily life may win the respect
of outsiders and so that you will not be
dependent on anybody.
(I. Thessalonians 4.11 & 12).
HALLELUJAH! THANK YOU LORD JESUS FOREVERMORE!
Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind
your own business and to work with your hands,
just as we told you, so that your daily life may win
the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be
dependent on anybody.
(Thessalonians 4.11 & 12).
HALLELUJAH! THANK YOU LORD JESUS FOREVERMORE!
NEEDED
Concern, care and humility of a serving heart are needed for harmony in the
work environment.
St. Paul’s directives in this regard are very helpful especially in our time.
He talks to servants and masters. Today he might have referred to them
as employers and employees. He might have talked about management
teams, workforce, upper management, executives and labor.
However the principles are timeless.
Here is what he has to say:
“Servants, be obedient to those who are your physical masters, having
respect for them and eager concern to please them, in singleness of
motive and with all your heart, as service to Christ (Himself)-
Not in the way of eye-service (as if they were watching you) and only to
please men, but as servants of Christ, doing the will of God heartily and
with your whole soul;
Rendering service readily with goodwill, as to the Lord and not to men,
Knowing that for whatever good anyone does, he will receive his reward
from the Lord, whether he is slave or free.
You masters, act on the same principle toward them and give up threatening
and using violent and abusive words knowing that He Who is both their
Master and yours in heaven, and that there is no respect of persons or
partiality with Him.”
(Ephesians 6.5-9).
POINTS FOR MEDITATION AND PRAISE
1) Our Lord Jesus Christ came to serve and not be served. Though He is
all-powerful, He became the servant of humanity.
2) Our attitude should be His attitude.
3) Employees who do their work as unto the Lord will prosper and
will be promoted by the Lord.
4) Employers need to remember that they are the servants of the Most High.
5) Everyone can work cheerfully without resentment, since we are serving
the Lord when we serve one another.
6) Terms like ” respect, concern, eagerly, to please, in singleness of motive,
whole-hearted, heartily, with all your soul, readily, with goodwill”
describe the ideal work environment, enterprise, company, school,
factory, department, office, store, restaurant, business or project.
7) To succeed in all we endeavor we need to be strong in the Lord
and in the power of His might. This is what we will see tomorrow.
PRAISE THE LORD JESUS CHRIST FOR HIS MAGNIFICIENT GIFT
OF HIMSELF AS WE CELEBRATE HIS ADVENT! HALLELUJAH!
O GIVE THANKS
O Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for His
mercy and loving-kindness endure forever!
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom He has
delivered from the hand of the adversary,
And gathered them out of the lands, from the east
and from the west, from the north and from the sea
in the south.
Some wondered in the wilderness in a solitary desert
track, they found no city for habitation.
Hungry and thirsty, they fainted, their lives were near
to being extinguished.
then they cried to the Lord in their trouble and He
delivered them out of their distresses.
He led them forth by the straight and right way, that
they might go to a city where they could establish their
homes.
Oh, that men would praise the Lord for His goodness and
loving-kindness and His wonderful works to the children
of men!
For He satisfies the longing soul and fills the hungry soul with good.
Some sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in
affliction and in irons.
Because they had rebelled against the words of God and spurned
the counsel of the Most High.
Therefore He bowed down their hearts with hard labor, they
stumbled and fell down and there was no one to help.
Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble and He saved them
out of their distresses.
He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death and
broke apart the bonds that held them.
Oh, that men would praise the Lord for His goodness and loving-
kindness and His wonderful works to the children of men!
For He has broken the gates of brass and cut the bars of iron.
Some are fools because of the way of their transgressions and
are afflicted because of their iniquities.
They loath every kind of food and they draw near to the gates of death.
Then they cry to the Lord in their trouble and He delivers them out
of their distresses.
He sends forth His Word and rescues them from the pit and destruction.
Oh, that men would praise the Lord for His goodness and loving-kindness
and His wonderful works to the children of men!
And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving and rehearse His
deeds with shouts of joy and singing!
Some go down to the sea and travel over it in ships to do business
in great waters.
These see the works of the Lord and His wonders in the deep.
For he commands and raises up the stormy wind,which lifts
up the waves of the sea.
Those aboard mount up to the heavens, they go down again
to the deeps, their courage melts away because of their plight.
They reel to and fro and stagger like a drunken man and are
at their wits’ end, all their wisdom has come to nothing.
Then they cry to the Lord in their trouble and He brings them
out of their distresses.
He hushes the storm to a calm and to a gentle whisper, so that
the waves of the sea are still.
Then the men are glad because of the calm, and He brings them
to their desired haven.
Oh, that men would praise the Lord for His goodness and loving-
kindness and wonderful works to the children of men!
Let them exalt Him also in the congregation of the people and
praise Him in the company of the elders.
He turns rivers into a wilderness, water springs into a thirsty ground.
A fruitful land into a barren, salt waste, because of the wickedness of
those who dwell in it.
He turns a wilderness into a pool of water and a dry ground into water
springs.
And there He makes the hungry to dwell, that they may prepare a city
for habitation,
And sow fields and plant vineyads which yield fruits of increase.
He blesses them also, so that they are multiplied greatly, and
allows not their cattle to decrease.
When they are diminished and bowed down through oppression,
trouble and sorrow,
He pours contempt upon princes and causes them to wonder in
waste places where there is no road.
Yet He raises the poor and needy from affliction and makes their
families like a flock.
The upright shall see it and be glad, but all iniquity shall shut its mouth.
Whoso is wise will observe and heed these things and they will diligently
consider the mercy and loving-kindness of the Lord.
(Psalm107).
PRAISE THE LORD! THANK YOULORD JESUS FOREVERMORE!
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!