by Phil Tolbert

“Isn’t this the carpenter? Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren’t his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him. Mark 6:3

Consider that in the New Testament of Jesus’ 132 public appearances, 122 were in the marketplace. Of 52 parables Jesus told, 45 had a workplace context. Of 40 miracles in the book of Acts, 39 were in the marketplace. Jesus spent his adult life as a carpenter until age 30 before he went into a preaching ministry in the workplace. And, 54% of Jesus’ reported teaching ministry arose out of issues posed by others in the scope of daily life experience.

Work, in its different forms, is mentioned more than 800 times in the Bible -more than all the words used to express worship, music, praise, and singing combined. God created work and He is a worker. “My father is always at his work to this very day, and I too, am working” (John 5:17).

Do not minimize your daily work as anything less than a holy calling; remember that Jesus represented God in the workplace as a carpenter. He has called you and I to represent God in our work as well. In fact not just represent Him but be His Ambassador. (2 Cor. 5:20)

BLE was founded on this principle. Today BLE continues to equip, encourage, and empower believers to be God’s Ambassadors.

As this new year and decade begin, may we all become more intentional in being the best Ambassador we can be.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 12th, 2010 at 1:57 pm and is filed under Here's a Thought. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.