A New Devotion - Job Description

Here's a new devotion that I wrote. You can find a recording of this devotion at the bottom of the page.

Mark 4:21-34

He said to them, "Is a lamp brought in to be put under the bushel basket, or under the bed, and not on the lampstand? For there is nothing hidden, except to be disclosed; nor is anything secret, except to come to light. Let anyone with ears to hear listen!" And he said to them, "Pay attention to what you hear; the measure you give will be the measure you get, and still more will be given you. For to those who have, more will be given; and from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away."

He also said, "The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come."

He also said, "With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade."

With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it; he did not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything in private to his disciples.

Job Description

Before taking a new job, a wise person has a clear sense of the job description. I mean, if he doesn’t know what he’s expected to do, whether he does it or not is pretty much a crap shoot. In fact, there’s a better than even chance, he’ll spend a lot of time trying to do something that’s the responsibility of someone else while neglecting the very things he was hired to do. You see, when the description is a little hazy, the job is rarely accomplished.

And I think this is something we need to remember as we live as followers of Jesus Christ. You see, we often act as though we really don’t understand our job as Christians. And as a result, we spend a lot of time trying to do God’s job while neglected the very work we’ve been called and equipped to do. And what is our job? Well, according to Jesus, God wants us to bring in the harvest that he’s already prepared. That’s our job. It’s not to manipulate the soil or the seed so that the plant might grow better. And it’s not to come up with our own ways to fertilize the crop. And it sure isn’t going out and trying to weed the fields. That’s not our job. Instead, God has called us to pick up our sickles and to start bringing in the harvest, in other words, to help those whom he’s been drawing to himself understand the meaning of faith and service. You see, as Christians, that’s really our job description.