Thursday, September 21, 2006

The main thing


2Ti 2:15 Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.

A workman. I don't often think of myself this way- a workman.

I have friends who are wonderful woodworkers. They can take a piece of raw lumber and make beautiful furniture from it. I am so amazed by their abilities, but I know one thing- it didn't just happen. They have worked for years to become workmen who are not ashamed of their work. They have learned how to use the woodcrafters tools and are wonderful artisans. In fact, they are proud of what they make, and it's indeed amazing to see their work.

Paul calls us workman too.

What's our tool chest?

What's the project we are working on?

This little verse in 2 Timothy tells me that the word of God is the tool chest, and I'm the project. It's strange to be the workman AND the work of art all at the same time. As I let the word of God work in my life I'm made into a wonderful work of art to the glory of God, something I'm not ashamed to present to him.

I realize that this doesn't just happen. I must spend time in the word. I need to be in the word of God on a regular basis to become that workman who is not ashamed of his work, to be that work of art that honors God.

Fellow workman, get in the word, become artisans and present to the Lord a life that brings him glory. THAT'S the main thing.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is a really special verse to me. It's what really convicted me of my need to dig into the Word and become a student of the Scriptures. I realized I had spent so much of my life in "school" becoming "educated" but knew so little about something that really mattered and was life-changing. That was almost 10 years ago. I'm still not as "educated" in the Word as I'd like to be, but I can say, I've NEVER been bored.

Great post, Mike!

Schweers' Mom

Anonymous said...

Brandon said:

You know, I just finished "A Long Obedience in the Same Direction" by Peterson and he wrote an epilogue which spoke of our need to study scripture Slowly, Imaginatively, Prayerfully, and Obediently. On that last point he wrote, "This [Scripture] is an immense world of God's salvation that we are entering; we don't know enough to "apply" anything. Our task is to obey, believingly, trustingly obey. Simply obey."

Wow. What freeing simplicity.