{"id":5940,"date":"2018-09-13T21:59:30","date_gmt":"2018-09-13T19:59:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.irenebom.com\/prayer_matters\/?p=5940"},"modified":"2018-10-03T19:14:51","modified_gmt":"2018-10-03T17:14:51","slug":"who-do-you-work-for","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.irenebom.com\/prayer_matters\/2018\/09\/13\/who-do-you-work-for\/","title":{"rendered":"Who do you work for?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nCooking\/social event with my work colleagues  (Photo: Irene Bom)<\/span><\/p>\n

 
\nThis November I celebrate ten years as a Church of Scotland minister of word and sacrament. It’s a significant part of my life, but so is my work as a software developer.<\/p>\n

I’m following in the footsteps of the apostle Paul who supported himself and his team by earning his keep as a tentmaker.<\/p>\n

Not only did tentmaking provide an income, it also gave Paul a unique opportunity to interact with people at all levels of society: customers like the well-to-do and the military, his suppliers, other market stallholders as well as the general public. During his lunch break Paul would preach to whoever was willing to listen. Moving from city to city, marketplace to marketplace, the seeds of the gospel were sown and the church grew.
\n <\/p>\n\n

For reflection<\/h3>\n

In one of his letters Paul gives us a clue to his motivation when he writes, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.” (Col 3:23-24)<\/p>\n

How might God use us, with our gifts and connections, to serve him in the workplace? Or, to quote Nick Abraham<\/a>, how do we “grace” our workplace and “represent the gospel well”?
\n <\/p>\n\n

Digging deeper: God’s perspective on work<\/h3>\n

Website: https:\/\/www.theologyofwork.org<\/a>
\nBiblical reflections on work: Labor Day is …<\/a>
\nBlog post by Nick Abraham: 5 Ways to Grace Your Workplace<\/a>
\n <\/p>\n\n

23rd Psalm for the Workplace<\/h3>\n

The Lord is my boss, and I shall not want.<\/p>\n

He gives me peace, when chaos is all around me.
\nHe gently reminds me to pray
\nand do all things without murmuring and complaining.
\nHe reminds me that he is my source and not my job.<\/p>\n

He restores my sanity every day and guides my decisions,
\nthat I might honour him in all that I do.<\/p>\n

Even though I face absurd amounts of emails,
\nsystem crashes, unrealistic deadlines, budget cutbacks,
\ngossiping co-workers, discriminating supervisors,
\nand an aging body that doesn\u2019t cooperate every morning,
\nI still will not stop\u2026..for He is with me!
\nHis presence, His peace, and His power will see me through.<\/p>\n

He raises me up, even when they fail to promote me.
\nHe claims me as His own,
\neven when the company threatens to let me go.
\nHis faithfulness and love are better than any bonus check.
\nHis retirement plan beats every\u00a0401K* there is!<\/p>\n

And, when it\u2019s all said and done,
\nI\u2019ll be working for Him a whole lot longer\u2026..
\nand for that, I BLESS HIS NAME!!!<\/p>\n

from re-worship.blogspot.com<\/a><\/p>\n

* 401K: U.S. retirement savings plan<\/p>\n\n

From the blog || Psalm 23 in different guises<\/strong>
\nTheme: Spurred on by prayer<\/a> (PRAYER SHEET)
\nQuiet near a little stream<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cooking\/social event with my work colleagues  (Photo: Irene Bom)   This November I celebrate ten years as a Church of Scotland minister of word and sacrament. It’s a significant part of my life, but so is my work as a software developer. I’m following in the footsteps of the apostle Paul who supported himself and … Continue reading “Who do you work for?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7,13,99],"tags":[116,142],"class_list":["post-5940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","category-bible","category-psalms","tag-work","tag-work2018"],"yoast_head":"\nWho do you work for? - Prayer matters<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"How might God use us, with our gifts and connections, to serve him in the workplace ... 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Prayers of the People (based on Numbers 21:4-9, Psalm 107, Ephesians 2:1-10, John 3:14-21) Heavenly Father,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "prayer"","block_context":{"text":"prayer","link":"https:\/\/www.irenebom.com\/prayer_matters\/category\/prayer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.irenebom.com\/prayer_matters\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/hello_beautiful.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.irenebom.com\/prayer_matters\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/hello_beautiful.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.irenebom.com\/prayer_matters\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/hello_beautiful.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.irenebom.com\/prayer_matters\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/hello_beautiful.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"rttpg_featured_image_url":null,"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"Irene Bom","author_link":"https:\/\/www.irenebom.com\/prayer_matters\/author\/irenebom-com\/"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.irenebom.com\/prayer_matters\/category\/article\/\" rel=\"category tag\">article<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irenebom.com\/prayer_matters\/category\/bible\/\" rel=\"category tag\">bible<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irenebom.com\/prayer_matters\/category\/psalms\/\" rel=\"category tag\">psalms<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"Cooking\/social event with my work colleagues  (Photo: Irene Bom)   This November I celebrate ten years as a Church of Scotland minister of word and sacrament. It’s a significant part of my life, but so is my work as a software developer. I’m following in the footsteps of the apostle Paul who supported himself and…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irenebom.com\/prayer_matters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irenebom.com\/prayer_matters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irenebom.com\/prayer_matters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irenebom.com\/prayer_matters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irenebom.com\/prayer_matters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.irenebom.com\/prayer_matters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5940\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irenebom.com\/prayer_matters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irenebom.com\/prayer_matters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irenebom.com\/prayer_matters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}