"It may be useful to remember that Christian faith is ultimately dependent upon what actually happened rather than upon the views of historians."
- I. Howard Marshall
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
My latest piece at SearchWarp:
The Sovereignty of God and the Washing of Dishes
An excerpt:
Jesus is Christ is lord over my heart, and he is lord over my hands, and he is lord over what I do with those hands, and he is lord over what I say in my heart while I'm doing it. In submitting to the lordship of Christ, then, I do not treat washing dishes as wasting time I could be spending doing something "meaningful," but rather as a service to those who eat in my home, as a service to those who would have to wash the dishes if I did not, as an offering of thanksgiving to God that I have food to eat, dishes to eat it on, and running water inside my home to clean with.
To paraphrase C.S. Lewis (I think), there is not a square inch of our lives that is not claimed by God and counterclaimed by ourselves. If we believe God is sovereign, however, we will see all of life as mission and be led to submit the square inches we otherwise hold so tightly to the Maker of inches and hands.
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Comments on "All of Life is Mission":
3. Les
- 10/14/2008 5:08 pm CDT
What a great attitude! Can you imagine what a Christian church would look like if EVERY believer inside saw every detail of their lives that way? What if the world perceived us that way? I wonder if anyone would even think of writing a movie like "Religulous." I'll bet it wouldn't cross Maher's mind.
I want to think that way. All the time.
Good one.
4. Roy
- 10/14/2008 8:43 pm CDT
Jared has proclaimed vocation. He follows in the track of someone who said the paraphrased words long before Lewis (who may have also later said something like them). On may read them in the Stone Lectures given at Princeton by Abraham Kuyper just before the turn of the last century, in 1898 IIRC. Kuyper said (roughly) "There is not one square inch of creation about which Jesus does not say, 'That is mine.'"
The 6 speeches, aka "Lectures on Calvinism", proclaimed the philosophical foundation and practical outworkings of sovereign grace. One of these focuses on the concept that every Christian has a calling, that no vocation is more 'spiritual' than the others.
5. Jared
- 10/15/2008 6:36 am CDT
Roy, I love that Kuyper quote. I actually do quote it in the post linked here.
The Lewis quote I reference in the excerpt above is, I believe, something like "there is no square inch that is not claimed by God and counterclaimed by Satan."
But it might have been someone else.
6. Anne
- 10/15/2008 7:32 am CDT
Martin Luther, upon leaving the monastic world, articulated the doctrine of calling very well, that the milkmaid not only at her prayers but also at her milking was doing the work of the kingdom of God, & he multiplied examples there also.
Then there's John the Baptist explaining to soldiers and tax collectors how to live their vocations in the world.
Per John the Baptist's example, the point of a "called worker" is not to be *the* one with a vocation, but to show all Christians how to live their vocations where they are.
Take care & God bless
WF
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That is really good, Jared.