Living in a world full of morally dark hazardous waste can leave us feeling discouraged. At times, a sense of helplessness can overwhelm us. Is there any way we as Christians can even make a dent in all this disorder?

We see God's original ruling design in the first chapter of the Bible: “that they may rule.” And we see it again in the very last chapter. “they will reign (or rule) forever.” Is Jesus’s rule through us today our training program? Are we apprentices, learning how to rule in the age to come?

To discover our purpose, we need to look outside the normal sources for finding answers. Science is good at revealing “how,” “what,” “when,” and “where.” But science cannot tell us “why?”

Is it true, as so many T-shirts declare, that “Christians aren’t perfect, just forgiven”? That word JUST suggests that the only change our faith in Jesus brings about is forgiveness. Guilt gone.

Cars come to roundabouts. What about the Church? Has it reached a roundabout? Roundabouts always face us with choices. Turn right, continue on as before, head off to the left, or do a complete 360. Has the Church come to such a place?

Many Christians today are “dechurching,” Might one reason be that we sense God has made us to be more than passive spectators sitting in theater-like audiences?

According to World Bank Blogs, the public sector employs roughly one-third of the global workforce. That means that more than 1 billion people work for governments around the world. So if Christians were to shun government work, that would effectively deprive those 1 billion of the light of Christ in those arenas in which they spend a major part of their lives.

Jesus is scattering his people as kingdom seed into the soil of their workplaces. But they typically have not been made fully ready to serve as agents of his kingdom out there. Wasted potential. How, then, can their church leaders help them become fully ready for their work in the world?

For a fish, being “off the hook” means no frypan. For people, the idiom means being freed from some kind of responsibility. Bob, a Christian man, is off the hook in that sense. Although a follower of Jesus, he sees little need to seek God’s Kingdom first in every area of his life.

God’s Kingdom will come in fullness in the future. But is Jesus somehow exercising his kingdom authority today? In a world full of war . . . and homelessness . . . and greed and. . . bullying, it does not look as if God is in charge. How can God be ruling in the here and now?

Typically, a workplace will put us into relationships with non-Christians. Philippians 2:15 speaks specifically about our conduct among people who are not following Jesus. “Live clean, innocent lives as children of God, shining like bright lights in a world full of crooked and perverse people.”

Through his common grace, God supplies our physical needs. For example, “He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” As a result, “The land yields its harvest; God, our God, blesses us.” How does God get these common-grace blessings to us? Mainly through the work people do.

Your work—whatever it is—serves as a light stand. Are you a janitor? A graphic designer? A grocery checkout clerk? Each of those roles serves as a lampstand, because it positions you, the light, in a specific part of God’s world.

“In reality, the sacred-secular divide has had a devastating impact on two key areas of Christian life: our mission and our living.” —Mark Greene, The London Institute of Contemporary Christianity

Have you ever scratched your head over this puzzling question: Why are we here? Why did God put us in this world? What on earth did he have in mind?

Some say work started as God’s curse, his punishment for the sin of Adam and Eve. But did it?

How can you seek first the Kingdom of God while working in a regular job in the world?

In composing Creation, God wrote it with a seven-beat measure: work, work, work, work, work, work--rest. This means Creation carries within its own history this work-rest rhythm. God’s own work-rest rhythm set the pace for those made in his image.

We hear a lot about the need to bring people “under the sound of the gospel.” The sound is vitally important but is not enough by itself. People also need to be within the sight of the gospel--the sight of temple-bodies living it out. Demonstrating its reality day after day.

In some places the Bible seems pro-money. In other places it seems anti-money. What, then, should we do? Are paychecks a blight or a blessing?