Had a friend who found working in the finance industry meaningless, and full of made up packages, made up numbers....
As one who works in the finance industry also, I share the same view. This friend was seeking to perhaps change his career to serve in full time ministry.
While that is admirable and a very courageous and encouraged road to walk, we the Christ followers might be tempted to the following misconception: That if we serve in full time ministry, we will always find life meaningful, since we are serving God!
I always sigh when I meet pastors who have spent their whole lives caught up in ministering a church but yet has been a long time since they actually worked on earth in a ‘real-world, full time job’. Before I go on any further, I would like to point out that being a pastor/ preacher/seminary lecturer etc are all valid full time jobs, and they are as real as any other job, but I guess the distinction I am pointing out by calling the other jobs ‘real-world’ is: a job whose master is and revolves around this world and the things of this world, as opposed one of the Kingdom Above.
Why do I sigh? It is because over time, these pastors who are supposed to advocate for the Kingdom Above, and the will of Him Who Was, Is and Is to Come, they get so disconnected with what is happening with the rest of the world, to the point where firstly, what they preach on the lecterns are no longer real-life & daily-life relevant to the audience; and secondly, instead of setting their focus on the Kingdom Above, they get tricked miserably by satan into building their own empire, down in the kingdom below which is earth. These pastors, elders, deacons, so-called respected church leaders then are next tricked into changing the Lord’s Prayer from:
For Thine is the Kingdom, the Power, the Glory, now and forever
-------- to-----------
For MINE is the Kingdom, the Power, the Glory, it’s gotta be NOW or never.
And in order to build their empire on earth, NOW, they are then next tricked into desiring for quantity-wise revival of ‘Christians’ – that is, they want the whole world to become Christians! NOW! As many as possible!! And will do ANYTHING, try ANYTHING to get that! And many times, this means they give in to lots of instant-noodle remedies – including seeking bulk healing of sicknesses, following the Charismatic church movement, seeking after speaking in tongues, seeking after every supernatural experience, including ones where you fall backwards when some false prophet ‘prays’ for you (many times rather, ‘pushes’ you?). For these phenomenal effects which are not God’s Word are flashy, seen by the eyesss, easy to be observed, and easily persuasive. The demon is a sly cunning snake, my brothers and sisters, do not be fooled. Instant noodles are quick and easy to cook and very cheap, but they are not good for you. You want ramen, where it takes time to hand-make, and takes longer to cook, but one full of life, one full of stretchiness and one that gives you satisfaction when you eat it – and much more costly than instant noodles.
When you are faithful to your wrong husband, Church, will you be looking for your real husband?? It is only when you realise that you have married the wrong husband, Church, that you will repent and return to your betrothed husband. (~Stephen Tong)
And in order to have numerical revival, they have just sold their souls, to the dark prince of this world. Satan told Jesus – bow before me, and I will give you the whole world --- including --- numerical revival. If Jesus did that, then the entire world will automatically become Christians, cuz the whole world’s people will automatically worship Christ. However, the whole world would be worshipping a Christ whom Himself knelt to the devil.
--- The wise and true Christ follower should see: the danger in this. For the road we are called to walk is, by very nature, the narrow road, that many are called to walk but few do tread on. The small door beside the large one that few end up finding and entering into. And thankfully for us, Jesus Christ threw the Bible at Satan in that duel, and told the fallen angel to worship his REAL God instead. Get-That-Order-Right. Christ chose the narrow road, one that is, by nature, filled with difficulties, and by that, He retained the assurance he gained from The Father when He was baptised on earth – The Assurance of His Sonship.
--- The wise Christ follower should heed: He/She shall count the cost. Count the cost very very very very very carefully – every single penny, every single cent as the smart business man does --- count the cost of following Christ and be prepared to sacrifice every single thing, even that one single breath that God breathed into you to give you life --- we must count the cost, and see that it is Worth it. This, Christians, means that you will not necessary gain the revival in numbers you hope for, and that in order to gain the true quality-based revival, you will need to shed many many tears. You will need to work under the heat of the bright noon sun till sweat drips from your neck onto the ground of the many hearts you are trying to work on and lead back to our Three-One God. Think about how long it took you to understand what you now do about Christ. Think about how many years and how many struggles and how many confessions of sin it took. My very dear brothers and sisters in Christ, you wise ones will see – that it is a very long process, filled with many pains and much effort, not because we Christians are crazy sorrow-bearing wishers, but rather, because God’s Word is, by nature, not easy. It is un-understandable to the population of this world.
As it said in HEBREWS??? “you should know, that the Word you now understand is something that is not usually understandable”, and it is only understandable to us because the Trinity is at work – 1) The Father wills that His people understand Him 2) His Christ came the full way from Heaven to Earth to reveal the Father and everything He heard from the Father to us 3)His Spirit who art ultimately Holy, who came out from both The Father and The Son now lives and works in us to help us understand everything that Father hath imparted and Christ hath revealed.
This process of progressive sanctification, i.e. this process of the continual baptism of the Holy Spirit, my friends, takes time. This process takes a lot of effort, and a lot of will to lay down one’s life for those whom you are trying to save. To shepherd these sheep, you need to walk with them – go through life with them and that means not just on a Sunday doing church things, but really living life as a community in communion together, helping each other with true needs, even down to helping each other with homework, cooking, flood relief, sorting out arguments they are having with their family... i.e. real stuff. Life takes time.
So we ask: where is meaning?
Dear friend, with a heavy heart I would like to put this out to you -- if you are not finding meaning in your daily, non-pastoral work, you will never find meaning in full time ministry either.
Why? Because meaning does not lie in investment banking, it does not lie in your every day work, nor does it lie in full time ministry. And meaning doesn’t “lie in God”, but rather, God IS meaning. Get-This-Order-Right.
You will come to see, since God IS meaning, that when you come to Him and uphold Him as Meaning, that every other part of life then becomes meaningful, including while you’re working in the meaningless 9am-5pm day job, because while you see the packagedness of the financial instruments (bonds, contracts etc) and how made up and fake the accounting numbers are, it brings you to your knees in reverence of how real and unfake God is. When you see unrighteous infect the church as if yeast in dough as a full time minister, it brings you to your knees in reverence of how righteous and uncompromisingly Holy your God is.
In conclusion I want to put this out to you, it’s something my mum came to understand as she read Ezekiel?????,
“The ultimate purpose of Salvation is not only to redeem the world of sin, but to bring people reverence before God.”
I AM; I AM the Way, that Truth, that Life; that Meaning; I AM That everything you need; I AM that He – the Alpha and the Omega, That Beginning, That End -- the only One with the power to throw your life in eternal separation from Me in hell, and the only One with the power to redeem you from all your inequities as far as the East is from the West. Apart from Me, I know not another who can do that.
Revere Me, my son, says the Lord.
