My Dad's Boy...or Am I?

"All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. 'Isn't this Joseph's son?' they asked" - Luke 4:22

I have been going through a series of “job” queries about my professional experience as of late. It intrigues me how someone will review my resume and come to certain conclusions. “You seem to have spent most of your time selling.” (Um, did you miss that whole 15 years of owning businesses and operations in those papers you are looking at?) “It seems like you haven’t had a great deal of experience managing people.” (No, that whole twenty-five plus years out of a fifty-six year life has just been a warm-up.)

Sorry, I’m sort of amused by it all. It makes me laugh (or think I need to re-write my resume)…

The intersection of our personal prejudices and the written word when we are relating to others is a curious thing isn’t it? We are often amazed how two people, reading the same material, come to decidedly different conclusions. Our national elections recently certainly validate this every time we have one!

Jesus was more qualified to be a carpenter than the Son of God in the view of lots of both religious leadership and the plain folk of his day. He was also becoming known as a rabbi who thought and did things "outside the box." I’m not sure how many carpenters’ boxes included raising the dead, turning water into wine and healing the sick but nonetheless it had a certain adverse response from his neighbors.

What we can glean from the above passage is the person of Jesus messed with their minds. He mixed vocation with ministry. His daily work was typical as anyone in Nazareth. So, when the public ministry side of his life began to surface, the first observations were, "Isn't this Joseph, the carpenter's son?"

One way that the enemy (Satan) attempts to keep us quiet and to shut down the ministry God has for us is to entreat a similar tactic. Our family, friends and neighbors will begin to toss into our faces and into the faces of those within our sphere of influence our history. "Isn't that Chuck and didn’t he toss the baseball through Mr. Evans window…twice.” “I know Bill he used to run that restaurant and didn’t they serve liquor?” Or, I know Linda, she worked at the bank right; just a teller?" The first question among our critics is "When did Chuck, Bill or Linda become religious?"

No one wants to listen to a “religious” nut. If Satan can assign the “religious” label to you it will prevent change and maintain the status quo in others. It was the primary force against Jesus designed to intimidate and turn His relationship with God into a set of rules and regulations and has others see him as nothing more than just “religious.” God, through who you are, in all your varying roles, desires you to bring His presence with you where you go every day. Do not let the enemy of your soul shame you into alienating your faith from your work nor limit you to just one dimension of life or another.

Today, ask Jesus to work in your and through you no matter your station, job, position. The two of you just might be the team to bring someone out of slavery and bondage. I am believing it! I remain…

InHISgrip,
~J~