Message summary: What is your life's work today? "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving" (Colossians 3:23, 24).

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"Then Hiram king of Tyre sent messengers to David with cedar trees and carpenters and stonemasons; and they built a house for David" (2 Samuel 5:11). "Is not this the carpenter?" (Mark 6:3).

Yesterday I did some minor carpentry work in trying to repair an oak dining room chair that had broken. I am thankful for a dad who taught me to use tools and probably one of the earliest tools my dad showed me how to use is the hammer. In fact I probably had one of those colorful wooden hammer and peg kits such as the one to the left that's still available and popular with children.

Today's first text is the first in the Bible to reference a carpenter. "Then Hiram king of Tyre sent messengers to David with cedar trees and carpenters and stonemasons; and they built a house for David." The dictionary defines carpenter as "a person who builds or repairs wooden structures". All of us, in one way or another, have benefited from a carpenter's skills.

Perhaps you've seen the slogan often seen on a bumper sticker that says, "My boss is a Jewish carpenter." (Thought-provoking, but this slogan comes short of the honor the Lord is worthy of.) The Gospels reveal very little about Christ's life before He began His ministry. But the second daily text indicates that Jesus practiced the trade of carpentry until the time He began His ministry at about 30 years of age. "Is not this the carpenter?" Since Joseph was also a carpenter (Matthew 13:55) it is reasonable to assume they worked together as would have been the practice at that time. The Greek word τέκτων (tekton)- traditionally a carpenter but literally means any craftsman who worked with his hands. Traditionally, boys would follow in their father's occupation.

I'm sure the Lord was a very good carpenter; competent and diligent in His work and honest with His customers. I wonder if He ever cut twice because He measured only once? I wonder how He reacted when He banged His thumb or how he dealt with the sharp sting He felt from a deep splinter? Do you suppose He called out His own name in an irreverent, exasperated way as will take place millions of times today when people encounter pain or frustration. I hardly think so. Did He exclaim, "Good God Almighty?" If so, I am sure it was expressed in an entirely different tone than normally spoken today!

We also consider how Jesus might have enjoyed using some of the modern tools available to carpenters such as the chop saw, one of my favorite newer tools!

What is your life's work today? A few of you just might be carpenters. Readers of this daily encouragement series come from a host of different backgrounds and work in a vast array of different vocations. Of course some of you are students and a good number of our readers are retired.

No matter our vocational calling, craft, or life skill, we are all called to serve God. When Jesus worked as a carpenter surely He was serving God no less than when, at the appointed time, He began His preaching ministry. Jesus was in His Father's perfect will, working in accordance to His time line His entire earthly life. This goes back to when He informed his parents as a twelve year old, "I must be about my Father's business" (Luke 2:49 KJV).

Some of you sense that God has something different for you, some other form of service. And He very well may. Perhaps you sense a call to "ministry." But until that calling is fully realized, remember the skilled, diligent, honest Jewish carpenter who became our Lord and Savior. The Apostle Paul wrote, "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving" (Colossians 3:23, 24).


Be encouraged today,


Stephen & Brooksyne Weber

Daily prayer: Father, we offer up to You our lives as living sacrifices. May we be holy and pleasing to You. In whatever form of work we do may we do so with diligence as unto the Lord. We thank You for the variety of giftings and work skills You give us in regard to vocational work and how we are blessed and provided for. We honor you as we have a proper view toward work, as we live in a way that pleases You, and as we shine like lights in this dark world. Amen.


Brooksyne's note: As we wrote about those "called to ministry" I consider the many, many who may not be credentialed by a ministerial institution but are given to ministry wholeheartedly. In our view many are just as effective as those credentialed and in some cases even more so. Few of them receive financial compensation and they often invest their own resources expecting no reimbursement. It isn't the certificate, license, or title that counts but the giving of oneself to ministry and the yielding of one's giftings that pleases our Lord and gives testimony throughout the community.

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