Now and Eternity

“And Peter said, “See, we have left our homes and followed you.” And he said to them, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not receive many times more in this time, and in the age to come eternal life.” (Luke 18:28-30)

The gospel is a call to completely forsake the world as it is and live for the radical hope of the world as Christ will one day make it. To give up the comfort and the priorities of this life, trusting that they are temporary and that the promise is true of a permanent future and of resurrection life in the new heavens and earth in the age to come when our bodies are given health and vitality that cannot be taken away and where we live forever as perfected men and women humbly in the presence of our great and glorious God. Truly believing this, truly trusting in this hope purchased for us by the suffering, death, and resurrection of our Lord changes everything. One simply cannot have faith that this is true and yet live as if this life is all there is, drinking in its pleasures because “you only live once,” checking worldly goals off our “bucket list” because you “have to experience this before you die.” No, the way of the world is simply not possible for those who believe in the grace of God in Christ Jesus and the glorious eternal kingdom at His future return. Believing in Jesus changes everything. The gospel is a call to forsake this life, and to live for the promised eternity.

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.” (Matthew 13:44-46)

Christ Himself left his heavenly glory and took on the form a servant, even faced death on the cross, to purchase the kingdom and display its glorious future hope in His bodily resurrection and ascension to the right hand of the Father. In this, Christ is not only our master and savior, but also our model (Philippians 2:4-11) He was born outside in a manger, in his ministry the Son of Man had no place to lay his head, and at His death He was naked, mocked, spat on, beaten, shamed, tortured, and murdered. He could have come as a king, and the crowds often wanted to make Him one. He could have multiplied food and turned water to wine for himself instead of only for the hungry crowds (but He would not even turn a stone to bread for Himself when He was at the brink of starvation). He could have called an army of angels to strike down the crowd who called for His crucifixion. Indeed, with a single word He could have snuffed out the lives of His enemies by His own divine power. He would have had every right, yet He did not. He forsook all to bear our sins and to purchase the sinners redemption, and He has called us to also forsake all to bear our brother’s burden and call the sinner to repentance and to faith in the redemption that Christ alone has purchased. We are to daily take up our own cross and follow Him. This will surely look different for different Christians in different situations. We are not all of the same gifts and ministries, but we are all of the same body and Spirit, and of the same gospel call that is simply not compatible with the pleasures and priorities of this life and of this world’s manner of thinking and living. Indeed, it is like forsaking all other women to take a wife. When we enter into to covenant with God by faith in the sacrificial blood of Jesus, we are giving up the world. To live like we haven’t is a great sin!

“You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” (James 4:4)

Abraham left his home for a promise he would not live to see fulfilled, but he trusted that God would be true to His word. Elisha left his family and his inheritance to live in the travails of a life as a prophet of God amidst a wicked generation, putting his hope in the LORD alone. The apostles left their nets, their parents, their offices, their lives. They lived without financial security and in constant threat of pain, prison, and death for the sake of the gospel and in hope of the kingdom to come. This is faith. This is the Christian life. Suffering now, glory later. A sojourner in a foreign land now, an heir to an eternal homeland in the age to come. 

“The earth will soon dissolve like snow, the sun forbear to shine. But God who called me here below will be forever mine” (John Newton, “Amazing Grace”)

So what are we to do? As I said, this looks different for each of us, but for all of us it looks radically different than the people around us. It definitely means that you need to boldly proclaim the gospel and live obediently to biblical standards, even if that costs you your job, your career path, your relationship with family and friends, your financial security, your comfort, even your freedom or your life. It means you might get fired from the job you worked and studied so long to obtain, and could even mean that because you got fired for your stand for biblical truth that you end up working a hard, dirty, lower wage job and just scraping by even though you are qualified for something more. It might never go that way for you, but it means Christ and the gospel being so central in your life and speech that it could go that way.  It means being willing.

But it also means more. A complete shift in priorities. For some of you maybe it means you relocate your business or transfer your work and your family to a place in the world, or even a region in the U.S., where the gospel is not often heard and to devote yourself to reaching the lost and helping the needy there. Maybe you are to stay right where you are, but to downsize your house, cancel your cable, eat out less (or even not at all), live like the poor and give all that money to support missions, or your local homeless shelter, or to fund adoptions, or to support a local pro-life ministry in rescuing children from death. Maybe you would even use some of your hours off work and your vacation days to participate in these things rather than merely pursuing the pleasures of personal leisure. Maybe you are young and married and ought to consider adopting or fostering children to show God’s special compassion to orphans. Maybe you need to quit your work and go into full time mission work, or use your skills in accounting or law or medicine or the like in the service of a ministry that needs such things (even though it will likely mean a pay cut, and even though behind the scenes work like this is not a very “glamorous” side of missions.) Or maybe it means stopping the advance of your career and “settling” for a lower position that will demand less of your time and focus because money and title are not as important as time with church and family and time to share the gospel in the street and to serve the poor. A quiet, simple, modest, hard working life that is devoted to the service of others is a radical thing in this materialistic and self centered world, even if it isn’t the kind of story you read Christian books about (as we previously discussed here). This is not an exhaustive list, only a few possible ideas out of many. Read your Bible, and apply what it says, even if what it says will make you look crazy to others around you. Read your Bible, and apply what it says, even if what it says will make you look mundane and boring to others around you. But in all things:

"Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you" (Matthew 6:33) 


Luke Wayne is a bi-vocational Baptist missionary in Utah and the chief editor for Perilous Trails. He holds an MDiv from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and an MA in Theological Studies from Midwestern Baptist College. He has served as a church planter in Olathe, KS and a Homeless Shelter Manager in Kansas City, MO. He is also a husband, father, fisher, hiker, security officer, and raiser of livestock.   

Unashamed workman

God grant me a disciplined mind, an awestruck heart, calloused hands, and a tamed tongue, for it is with such that men are to praise you!

I often hear Christians talking about careers, and it usually sounds something like, “We need more Christian politicians!” or “we need more Christian professors in our universities!” or “We need more Christian film makers!” or “We need more Christians in entertainment/media,” or “Christians need to  really need to take back the arts!” The reasoning always seems to be that these are the things that shape culture, and so if Christians are going to shape the culture we need to actively seek out places in the fields of influence so we can reach the culture and change the world.

These are all fine trades, and I am all for having more Christians in these trades, especially if it happens by us sharing the gospel with those already working in these fields and them coming to Christ! With certain moral boundaries, I would generally say that all work is good work and so these fields are no worse than any others and it would be great for people working in those fields to repent and believe in Christ and remain in those fields! That would be awesome! But biblically, I can’t find anywhere that says it’s more and more of our children to actively pursue positions in these fields. Heck, historically I can’t even find any evidence that it’s an especially good strategy! The world certainly honors and loves these fields, and God has seen fit from time to time to powerfully use His people in such roles, but by in large God has chosen to do things different than the world expects to draw attention to Himself rather than to the men.

“For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.” (1 Corinthians 1:26-29)

“Not many of you” of course means that some indeed were, and it is okay to be a Christian Governor, Senator, Professor, Scientist, Comedian, Musician, or CEO. If you are serving there while remaining faithful to God, to His commands, and to His people, that is great and there is no shame in that, and I pray He uses you there mightily to do great things! But generally speaking, more often than not, that isn’t how God has chosen to work in the new covenant kingdom of Jesus Christ. He chose to found it with a group of fisherman and tax collectors, house wives and healed beggars and shepherds who live in the fields with their sheep. The opposing authorities were amazed at the disciples boldness and clear biblical teaching, not because they were formally trained scholars, but because they weren’t! The early documents we have from shortly after the time of the New Testament show that the great scandal of early Christianity was that Christians were taught by butchers and tanners and weavers, and that many were coming to Christ on the bold testimony of common women. Sure, even in the early years Christians had their philosophical scholars like Justin and had politically influential converts even in the very household of Caesar, but by and large the faith was made up of people who “aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.” (1 Thessalonians 4:11-12) and who “do their work quietly and to earn their own living.” (2 Thessalonians 3:12b). The picture is simple, honest daily work, often at manual labor, paired with virtuous, humble, and generous lives. In fact, the simple generosity was key, as Paul elsewhere wrote:

“He who steals must steal no longer; but rather he must labor, performing with his own hands what is good, so that he will have something to share with one who has need." Ephesians 4:28

It is interesting that we are not only commanded NOT to steal, and instead to work for what we need. That much we might expect. But the command says something different than that. Instead of just the absence of stealing, it commands quite the opposite from stealing, actually. Even our honest work is not for ourselves, but SO THAT we will have something to freely give to others in need! Our labor is not for our own gain, but for the purpose of our brothers. Industry, simplicity, and generosity. It is the pattern to which all who are in Christ are called. Brothers and sisters, let's show the world this better way!

The purpose of our work then is not first and foremost to gain audience and influence and change the world through the greatness of our reach, but to work hard, live simple, give extravagantly. God blesses with the increase. It is for us to honor needful labor that the world does not honor, to do it with commitment and integrity, and love our neighbor enough to meet his needs, be they physical or spiritual. Be about some every day trade, but with a godly diligence and character. As one of my favorite figures in American history, George Washington Carver, once put it “Learn to do common things uncommonly well; we must always keep in mind that anything that helps fill the dinner pail is valuable.” Jesus taught us that one who wishes to be great in the kingdom must be his neighbors servant, and that the first shall be last and the last first. It is the common tradesman and worker, who the world sees at the bottom, who often has the greatest potential for virtue and Christian greatness. Normally such greatness goes unseen by the eyes of men, but often God sees fit to draw from exactly such a pool some fisherman or tent maker to be a world renounced preacher of his word. John Bunyan was a man of little formal education who made his living mending pots and pans in 17th century England. He was also a devoted Christian pastor, evangelist & author who, though writing from prison for preaching without a government license, penned one of the most influential written works of all time. "The Pilgrim's Progress" has been translated in over 200 languages and has aided in the transformation of lives the world over for hundreds of years, including my own! God doesn’t work the way we would, and He does mighty things through simple means. 

I have known cattle ranchers who travel the world in their slow seasons strengthening missionaries and preaching the gospel. I have known water treatment plant managers who quietly reach and disciple their coworkers and support local outreach with their wages for decades whose impact the world may not see, but through whom untold lives are forever changed. I have known UPS drivers who open their homes to college students and teach them the bible while their wives prepare them meals, who freely work on people’s cars and in their homes just to be of help and to display and have opportunity to share and proclaim the word of God. I have seen programmers work out arrangements with their companies so they can work remotely while moving to Africa to help orphans, delivery men spending their time on street corners giving our tracts and bibles, concrete layers pastoring churches, and countless others whose hard work at common jobs coupled lives devoted to God, to their families, to the church, and to reaching the lost have had a greater cumulative impact than could possibly be fathomed. When we realize that it’s not about us, but about what God is doing through His people as a whole, a quiet life of diligent labor, generous giving, and sacrificial devotion to a local church community becomes an awesome thing that is sadly becoming all too rare as we far too often barrow the values of the world to calculate how we can “have the greatest impact” and with the best of intentions avoid being united together as the kind of radically different people that God desires to glorify His own name in using to make Himself and His gospel known

It’s not easy, and it simply can’t be a life lived in our own comforts and given to our own amusements. Theodore Roosevelt put it well when he said, “I wish to preach, not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but the doctrine of the strenuous life, the life of toil and effort, of labor and strife; to preach that highest form of success which comes, not to the man who desires mere easy peace, but to the man who does not shrink from danger, from hardship, or from bitter toil" The world won’t get it. The world shouldn’t get it. As Francis Chan says, "Something is wrong when our lives make sense to unbelievers." But in fact, God blesses such a people. God blesses such a life, and so such a life lived for Him is used by Him and accomplishes His goals, reaping great reward in the age to come, and THAT is where our rest is! Remember, we are people here in sojourn, as if resident aliens in a foreign land until our Lord comes again to consummate His kingdom, and only then does our Sabbath rest and our time of greatness come, for then we will reign with Him!

If you're still prior to the "deciding on a career" point in your life, you've got two good options. 1.) Find something productive that you particularly like doing and through sacrifice, hard work, discipline, and a willingness to put other things aside for it, get good enough at it that someone is willing to pay you to do it. 2.) Find something that people need and will pay for and through sacrifice, hard work, discipline, and a willingness to put other things aside for it, get good enough at it that you don't hate doing it anymore, can take a certain pride in it, and as a result will get paid a premium for doing it. The former sounds more pleasant than the latter, but is actually the harder road. Either way though, it requires hard work and sacrifice for something to finally "come naturally to you." Don’t spend your life trying to find some one special thing you’re great it, but rather pick some needful thing and get great enough at it to make an honest living, then live on less than make and give plenty away, and make sure to guard your time for family and the community of faith. 

If you’re already in a career, be content with it! Unless it is driving you to sin or harming your responsibilities to family or your connection to your church, work hard at it and start thinking about how to simplify your life and maximize you’re giving. Come up with ways for you and your family to serve your church family and reach out in local ministry. Maybe volunteer regularly at a homeless mission or pregnancy resource center, or go down town and hand out tracts, or mow the lawns and clean the yards of the elderly families near your home who can’t do it themselves any more. Use some of your vacation days to go on mission trips or join a disaster relief team. Read the bible to your kids daily and talk about what it means so they carry it with them when they get older. Realize that in so doing, you are joining the ranks of countless great saints of old, some whose names we know, many whom we never will, who did such things and through whom God changed the world, and is changing it still. Let’s show the world a better way.

Luke Wayne is a bi-vocational Baptist missionary in Utah and the chief editor for Perilous Trails. He holds an MDiv from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and an MA in Theological Studies from Midwestern Baptist College. He has served as a church planter in Olathe, KS and a Homeless Shelter Manager in Kansas City, MO. He is also a husband, father, fisher, hiker, security officer, and raiser of livestock.