Month: August 2024

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Labor Day Musings

I was asked for advice about work and career. What came to mind were principles I have tried to apply in my own work. I share them today, in no particular order, as Labor Day approaches.

Learn what is expected of you. You have a right to know how your work will be evaluated. Learn the written and unwritten expectations found in your formal job description and informal codes of company culture.

Help others succeed in their work. Be a good neighbor to your co-workers.

Try to enjoy your work.

Finish what you start.

Don’t procrastinate. Most of the time it is best to do the hard parts first.

Communicate. Ask questions. Initiate better ways of doing things.

Don’t love money. Use money. It is a useful servant but a terrible master. “Whoever loves money will never have enough” (Ecclesiastes 5:10).

Take a day off. The sabbath principle was built into the universe for our emotional and physical health.

Recognize that the opportunity to gain wealth is a gift from God. Thank him regularly. “Remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth” (Deuteronomy 8:18).

Do your work for the glory of God.

Pastor Randy Faulkner

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Called to Politics?

William Wilberforce was  a British politician whom God used to help end the Commonwealth’s involvement in the slave trade. After his conversion to faith in Jesus Christ, well-meaning people urged him to leave Parliament and become a pastor.

Historians tell us that it was a pastor, John Newton, who persuaded Wilberforce that God wanted him to stay in politics as his ministry. Newton wrote to him, “It is hoped and believed that the Lord has raised you up for the good of the nation.”

After much thought and prayer, Wilberforce concluded that Newton was right. God was calling him to champion the liberation of oppressed enslaved people, by working in the vocation of politics. “My walk,” he wrote in his journal in 1788, “is a public one. My business is in the world, I must mix with the assemblies of men, or quit the post to which Providence seems to have assigned me.”

If Wilberforce had not remained in politics, he most likely would not have influenced the massive social changes that led to the end of the wicked practice of slavery in the British Commonwealth.

Does God call people to serve in politics? There are members of Congress, senators and representatives, who would say that they have been definitely led by the Lord to serve in government. There are politicians and staff members who gather weekly in small groups, to pray for divine guidance.

We ought to be skeptical of the claims of some politicians who try to use religion and “God-talk” to gain the endorsement of the faith community. But we should also appreciate the fact that there are those who humbly seek the Lord’s wisdom for the important work they do in the service of our nation.

Whatever a Christian’s vocation, it should be considered a ministry for God. Jesus is Lord of every aspect of life. “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord . . .” (Colossians 3:23).

Pastor Randy Faulkner

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I Miss Singing Hymns

I really, really miss singing hymns in church. The church I attend now has discarded hymnals and the hymns they contain in favor of contemporary Christian music. Exclusively. All the time. Every Sunday.

Please don’t interpret this as an old guy’s fulmination against new music. I believe God accepts and approves of many different expressions of praise, including CCM. I really do believe we should be learning and singing new songs. So, I hope you will not dismiss this as merely an exercise in nostalgia or musical snobbery.

No, this is not an old granddad’s desire to return to the 1950s, Not at all. I think God likes guitars and drums as well as pianos and organs.

What I am trying to say is that I miss the theological richness and timeless beauty of such hymns as “Great is Thy Faithfulness,” “O God Our Help in Ages Past,” and “And Can it Be?” I deeply regret the fact that my grandchildren and their generation are not learning hymns like these and the truths they express so well. Something important is being lost.

What is being lost? For one thing, a theological education is being lost. We are supposed to be taught and edified through the singing of psalms and hymns and spiritual songs (Colossians 3:16). I appreciate singing biblical truths when I hear them in contemporary praise songs. Yet I am grieved and offended when I am exhorted to “sing a little louder” 18 times in one song, and I’m put off by a sentimental love song that could just as easily be sung to one’s girlfriend without changing the lyrics at all.

Another thing that is being lost is a valuable legacy of faith and faithfulness. Much contemporary music is temporary and falls into disuse after a few months. When this happens it is because the words do not have staying power and the poetry is trite. (It is a sin to be trite.) There is a reason that until recent years churches were enthusiastically singing hymns that were written in the 18th and 19th centuries. They have stood the test of time.

I regret the failure to sing the great hymns for the same reasons that I regret the failure to teach America’s founding principles to our schoolchildren. I regret the failure to sing hymns for the same reasons that I regret that the number of Americans who read their Bibles daily is declining. Something important is being lost.

Compare the superficial lyrics of some current praise choruses with these written in 1867 by Walter C. Smith.

“Immortal, invisible, God only wise, in light inaccessible hid from our eyes / Most blessed, most glorious, the Ancient of days / Almighty, victorious, Thy great name we praise.

“Unresting, unhasting, and silent as light, nor wanting, nor wasting, Thou rulest in might. / Thy justice like mountains high soaring above, Thy clouds which are fountains of goodness and love.

“To all life Thou givest, to all great and small; in all life Thou livest, the true life of all; / we blossom and flourish as leaves on the tree, and wither and perish, but naught changeth Thee!

“Great Father of glory, pure Father of light, Thine angels adore Thee all veiling their sight; / all praise we would render, O help us to see ’tis only the splendor of light hideth Thee.”

Those who read their Bibles will recognize that these words were inspired by 1 Timothy 1:17 — “Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.” This hymn was written to help Christians exalt the indescribable majesty and transcendence of God the Father. It does not say everything that could be said. But it says enough to give us a vocabulary of praise to Him, something we need today as much as ever.

So, let’s continue to compose and sing new songs to God that are as biblically faithful and theologically sound as this one. But why can’t we sing this one too?

Pastor Randy Faulkner

 

 

 

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Called to Servanthood

It is hard to account for the impact of Paul the apostle on world history. How does one explain the phenomenal influence of this single Jewish rabbi who became a Christian missionary? What motivated the man who wrote one-fourth of the NewTestament and who planted the Christian gospel on the European continent?

One answer might be that he considered himself to be the servant of Jesus. “Slave analogies are the background scenery that fills Paul’s imagination,” wrote Mark Fairchild and Jordan Monson. In a recent article in Christianity Today, they point out how Paul uses the language of slavery to describe his calling and mission.

“Paul is obsessed with the vocabulary of slavery. In his writings, he speaks constantly of it: Of bondage. Of freedom, Of shackles. Of exodus. Of citizenship. The two most common openings to Paul’s letters are, ‘Paul, an apostle of Christ’ and ‘Paul, a slave of Christ.'” They even call attention to an ancient theory that Paul may have  been born to parents who had been slaves and who had gained Roman citizenship through manumission.

Being a servant of Jesus Christ was not what Paul had originally planned to do with his life. He had begun as a promising young scholar studying theology in Jerusalem under Gamaliel, a leading teacher of Jewish law. His career as a zealous Pharisee was interrupted by an appearance of the resurrected Jesus on the road to Damascus. There he received his calling to be the slave of Christ.

He referred to this as “the commission God gave me” in Colossians 1:25. The word “commission” is a translation of a Greek word for household steward. In Roman culture, this word was used of a trusted slave who had been given an assignment as a household manager. It would have been an important  position of great responsibility.

He also called himself a servant of the gospel (Colossians 1:23) and of the church (Colossians 1:25). The Greek word for “servant” in this context was used broadly in the first century for a household slave who was responsible for a variety of domestic duties. The word was later applied to church officers (deacons) who assisted in the ministry of caring for the needs of the members.

This same word is used repeatedly in Paul’s letters as an admonition to all Christians to serve the Lord Jesus by serving one another in love. If we claim to believe in Jesus and to follow him, then we have been called, like Paul, to be servants. Paul’s life, as a servant of Jesus, is a pattern for us.

“Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ,” Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 11:1. “Imitate me,” he said in 1 Corinthians 4:16. “Join with others in following my example,” he wrote in Philippians 3:17. Who on earth says things like this? Only someone whose example is worth following: a servant of the Son of God.

The test of whether we are truly servants is how we react when we are treated as servants.

Pastor Randy Faulkner

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That Old Feeling


Connie and I were married on this date 56 years ago. On this anniversary, I must say that other than the gift of eternal life, she is the best gift God ever gave me. I am thankful for her and thankful to her. I am certain that marrying Connie was an important part of the will of God for my life.

She has, for 56 years, been a trusted confidant, a loving companion,  and a happy co-laborer in the service of Jesus Christ. She is a beautiful wife, mother and grandmother. Words are inadequate to express how I feel on this special day. Maybe the Hallmark card will help.

However, there was a time in the year 1967 that I came close to losing her. We were students in college. It was probably because of my uncertainty and immaturity that we decided to date other people. She was much more secure within herself than I was then.

During that year, every girl I dated was lovely and interesting. But I could not help comparing each one to Connie. I discovered before long that no one could measure up  to her beauty, her thoughtfulness, her strength, and the emotional hold she had on me.

At first, when I saw her with other guys it didn’t bother me. But the longer we were apart I began to realize that I could not imagine life without her. I still loved her. In the good providence of God, she took me back and we declared our love for each other.

A song that expressed that for me then was a ballad sung by Andy Williams: “I saw you last night and got that old feeling. / When you came in sight I got that old feeling. / The moment that you passed by, I felt a thrill. / and when you caught my eye my heart stood still. /  Suddenly I seemed to feel that old yearning. / Then I knew the flame of love was still burning. / There’ll be no new romance for me, It’s foolish to start / when that old, old feeling is still in my heart.”

We were married the next year, August 2, 1968.  We still love each other.

Pastor Randy Faulkner