Joseph: The Person God Uses

 Have you ever wondered what type of person God would use for the most important job on earth? I believe that the job under this description would have to be the job of raising Jesus, the Son of God. Much has been said about Mary and, rightly so, Jesus. But, not much has been said about Joseph. Maybe that is because there is not much said about him in the Gospels. But if we read with our spiritual eyes with an open heart, we will see the kind of person God uses.

In Matthew 13:55, Joseph was called a carpenter and he passed it down to Jesus, in His youth. (Mark 6:3). According to, “Harper’s Bible Dictionary”, a carpenter in those days was more than a furniture maker. He worked on buildings, farm implements, and other construction jobs.  It was hard work from failing trees for lumber to mason work on buildings. They had to be rugged people. Joseph was rugged but not vulgar. According to Matthew 1:19, Joseph was a “just” and upright man.

Joseph had a reputation in life and business. People knew they got their money’s worth when they hired him. But more importantly, with this justness he had compassion. When he learned of Mary’s pregnancy, he forgave her and sought to conceal her shame and return her to her parents without making a big scene. He had every right to accuse her and have her stoned. But, he chooses forgiveness. Doesn’t this remind you of someone else? In John 8:3, we read about Jesus forgiving the woman caught in the act of adultery. Compassion is a trait of the person God uses.

When Joseph was told by an angel that Mary was pregnant by the Holy Spirit, he took Mary as his wife and obeyed the instructions delivered to him from God. (Matthew 19:20-25) He stayed in Nazareth until ordered by the government to leave and go to Bethlehem for the census. He obeyed the law as long as it did not contradict God’s Word. As it turned out it was God at work through a pagan government. Joseph left his home with faith in God to take care of them. I do not believe Joseph packed up all his tools and took them on the long trip to Judah. (Luke 2:1-5) Obedience to the governing authorities is also a trait of the person God chooses. Faith in God when we obey and don’t know the future is a trait of the usable person. If we can’t obey the authorities we see, how can we obey the Lord we don’t?

After Jesus was born Joseph kept the little family in Bethlehem for up to two years. He supplied them with a house to live in. He had to buy more tools and go to work to take care of the family. In doing his job I am sure he had to follow the instructions from his employers or clients. Maybe he was out working when the wise men came knocking. Matthew 2:11, states that only Mary and the baby were home when they came. But, when this little visit put them in danger and it was time to move, Joseph stayed until he got more instructions from God. (Matthew 2:13-15) They moved to Egypt as instructed until he received another word to return to Israel. And again was warned about danger and was instructed to go back to Nazareth, not Jerusalem where a king should be raised. Here we see that a person must be able to hear God’s voice. God may not speak to them through an angel or with an audible voice, but they must be able to obey the guiding of God in their spirit and from the Word of God.

In conclusion, a person God will use in his work here on earth must be:

·          Compassionate

·         Obedient to earthly government

·         Faith in God when in obedience to people

·         Be responsible for what God has given you

·         Able to hear from God through His Word and in your spirit

·         Able to follow instructions from God and it is important to follow instructions from those over you.

That Faith Thing

Quite a few years ago, I attended a lecture by the Publisher and Editor-n-Chief of “Skeptic” magazine, Michael Shermer. He is also the author of the book, “The Believing Brain”. It was held at the College my daughter was attending at the time, Troy State University in Dothan, Alabama. I decided to go because I had read Skeptic magazine and I wanted to hear what evidence he was going to present.
Well, without speaking negatively of Mr. Shermer, I soon knew that no evidence was going to be presented. I only heard jokes, put-downs and ideas that where not backed up with science. I looked at the program and saw that he had two degrees in Philosophy and one degree in something called “Science Methods” (I could stand corrected on this; I have long lost the program by putting it in a book in my library). So he was not a scientist; he studied philosophy. This made the remarks even more insulting. I took notes in my mind for the Q&A at the end of the lecture, but behold I froze up and was intimidated by the man’s cleverness, and I did not want to look foolish. Then after the Q&A, he said it—I could not believe he did. He said, “I believe science has all the answers and if it doesn't it will eventually.” I was floored; this man was talking about his faith. I tucked this memory away in the back of my mind. I filed it under Amazing Faith.
But what is faith? We have all heard the definitions. I believe I knew where Mr. Shermer was coming from, he believes he has seen enough questions answered by science to have confidence that science will continue to do so. And if science fails, there will be a logical answer. What I cannot understand is why these people do not allow us to have the same faith in what we see as our creator answering all of our questions, and if He doesn't, we’ll wait patiently until He does. I have not read of any scientific result that has proven beyond doubt the theory of evolution. the results only show me a wonder working God. But back to faith, does Mr. Shermer have faith because he has seen answers in his view, as being answered? Doesn't that remove ‘believing’ from the equation?
Philosophically speaking, the same can be said to us Christians, if we have seen Christ work and believe because of those workings, does it cease to be faith. Are we missing the deepest kind of faith, choosing to believe God when we don’t see the evidence that He is able or willing? That is the faith I believe the Lord is looking for in us all. What joy does He have in Angels that see His face daily: They are knowers, not believers? Hebrews 11:6 (King James 2000 Bible) states: “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” Faith is a requirement for pleasing God. Nothing else will do except putting your trust in His finished work at the Cross, no matter what any other “evidence may show”.
This may sound closed-minded and narrow, but I quote again Mr. Shermer, “I believe science (in my case God/Jesus) has all the answers and if it doesn't it (He) will eventually.” In order to turn me from the God who has so loved me (John 3:16), you must show me non-life coming to life, on its on, naturally (without the help in a lab). And in accordance with scientific method, do it twice. Show me undeniable evidence of one species becoming another, alliterating their DNA on its own naturally. Until then, I put my full trust in a loving God who seeks those who will believe and will come back in His own time.

You And Your Job by Bruce Larson

Bringing Your Faith To Work

How DO YOU SEE YOUR JOB? Weather you are a homemaker, a student, or a factory worker, the attitude you have about your work reveals a great deal about your faith. The Bible indicates that every Christian ought to feel a sense of vocation in his work. If you are miserable or bored in your work, or dread going to it, then God is speaking to you. He either wants to change the job you are in or-more likely-He wants to change you.
Remember the story about the blind man whom Jesus healed? When our Lord touched his eyes. He asked the man what he saw. He reported that he saw "men as trees walking." When he had received a second touch from the Master, he saw men clearly. I suspect that many of us need a "second touch" by Christ to see our jobs in their right perspective.
A friend in Illinois had joined a small group of seekers meeting for prayer and Bible study and the sharing of their faith each week. Although he had come a long way in his Christian commitment, each week he complained about the customers in his store-how unfair they were, how demanding, and how they took advantage of him. But one day this man received a "second touch" by God and began to see the people who came into his store, whether to buy a package of nails or a washing machine, as people sent by God. He anticipated each sale as an adventure in personal relationships. At Christmas time, with all the rush of increased sales, this man said to the group one night in ama7;ement (the translator messed up the last word ), ''You know, what surprises me is how the people in this town have changed. Last Christmas they were rude, pushy, and demanding, but this year I haven't had a difficult customer in my store! Everyone is understanding and trying his best to co-operate." They all laughed. They knew the change had not been in the town but in the storekeeper. But in a more profound way, perhaps the change was also in the town. As we see people through the eyes of faith, they actually do change. They respond to us almost directly in proportion to the amount of love we have for them as people.
Let me suggest five questions each of us should periodically ask ourselves about our job.
(1) Why am I here in this job? Do you feel you are in your present job because of an accident? Because you happened to answer an ad, or your brother-in-law got tired of having you sit around and found you a job? Because of ambition? These attitudes certainly undercut
any sense of Christian vocation. We should feel we are in our work because God has called us to it, in just as real a way as He has called any bishop, clergyman, or priest.
Several months ago a man asked me to call on him in his large office in New York City. He said, "A year ago I turned my life over to Jesus Christ. It happened in my church." He then described the change that had begun to happen in his home-new communication between him and his wife; deeper understanding of his teen-age daughter. There were many other evidences of his new commitment.
Then he said, "I find now, a year later, that I am still behind the same desk doing the same job in the same way, and I suspect something is wrong. If Christ has come in as Lord of my life, things ought to be very different in what I do eight or ten hours a day." He was right, of course. Now he is exploring, along with some other men, the opportunities and strategy for Christian ministry in daily work.
We must dispense with the myth that commitment to Christ means becoming a clergyman or that work done inside a church building or in a church organization is more holy, somehow, than work done in the market place. Christ came to give us a sense of calling in everyday work. This is where the world is changed, and where the Kingdom is built. Jesus Himself was a working man, and He called twelve working men to be His initial disciples. He could
have been born into a priestly family, but He was not. We must understand the really radical thing God has done in Jesus Christ, in wanting to build a new world and a new Kingdom primarily through committed working men.
(2) For whom am I working? Are you working for God, or for men? You cannot really serve both. When we are addicted to people's praise and thanks and rewards, we are in a real way under the tyranny of men and are working for them.
Often I feel terribly sorry for the wives and mothers in the world who work such long hours and never seem to be finished with their chores. If they are working for the appreciation and thanks of their families, they seldom or never get it. But when we work for God, we are free to serve others no matter how unreasonable or thankless they may be. Our reward is God Himself saying to us, "Well done, good and faithful servant." Daily chores take on new meaning when we work for God rather than men. One woman has this inscription Over her kitchen sink: "Divine services held here three times daily." What a marvelous freedom in washing greasy pots and pans, not for those who eat from them, but for a Lord who puts a woman into a home to serve a family for Him. We need continually to ask ourselves whether we are willing to risk our lobs and our financial security in obedience to Jesus Christ. When we really work for God, and know that it is He to whom we are responsible, and from whom we get our reward, we are then free to be His people in any given situation.
(3) What am I working for? Wages? Prestige? Or am I working to do the will of God? This has much to
say about our motives. .
Christ's own life gives us a key. When He found people abusing others in the temple, He came in and violently upset the status quo. But when people wished to destroy Him, He let them drive nails into His hands. Perhaps this is the kind of freedom Christian men and women need in their jobs; not to protect their own interests, but to look to the interests of others; to protest }When innocent people are being hurt, but not to protest for self-preservation. This freedom comes only when we can answer the question, "What am I working for?" with "To do the will of God."
Where is your security? Is it in the person who pays your salary or do you see him only as an agent whom God at this time has chosen to supply your needs? You cannot really love your boss or paymaster until you see
him as God's agent. If you see him as your provider, then you cannot be honest with him, and fear and resentment are bound to color your relationship.
I have a wonderful Chinese friend, Moses Chow. His father was one of two sons in a family in pre-communist China. He had become a Christian and was told by his father that if he persisted in following this "new god," he would be disinherited.
There was wealth in the family, but Moses' father could choose only where he had found life, and life abundant. So, in his determination to follow Jesus Christ, he was disinherited and left China. Moses Chow told us that his father went on to make a new home in a new country in the Far hast, and has' been quite successful as a Christian businessman. He left the security of the world and trusted God, who was able to provide. Meanwhile, Moses' grandfather and others fell victim to communism and lost everything. We don't follow God because He makes us secure, but our security is in God-even in economic matters.
( 4) With whom am I working? God wants us always
to be aware of the people next to us. It's not enough
just to work honestly and industriously, for Christ calls us to be a priesthood of believers who willingly take responsibility for those who are our neighbors.
A railroad engineer came to his minister and asked to be put to work as a new Christian. The minister told the engineer that there was no position in the church open at the present time, but that there was a job, and it involved the question, '1s your fireman a Christian?"
This is the concept of the priesthood of believers, when
we see that our primary job is not to be an elder, deacon, or vestryman in the church, but to be a priest to the man next to us in our daily work. This is where we need to recapture the marvelous vision God has for the priesthood of the laity.
God calls the laity to do a job the clergy cannot do in many instances. In a parish I once served, a close friend who was a doctor became quite ill. Though I visited him almost daily, I saw no improvement and no benefit from my visits. One day I went to see this Christian doctor and found him greatly improved and free from fear. t asked him what had happened, and he told me of a visit he had had a few hours before from one of the senior surgeons in the area who had prayed with him and given him a prescription. The prescription was to read Joshua 1 :9. My friend had been visibly touched by God, and not through a clergyman but through a brother physician.
(5) What kind of place am I in? Jesus Christ, by His very call to accept Him as Lord and Saviour, has brought us inside a revolutionary movement, so that the place We are in assumes tremendous importance.
No job is too menial to be of importance to a communist/ Shouldn't this same thing be true for any Christian trying to bui1d a worldwide Kingdom? Even a chambermaid making beds in a hotel can influence guests who go out and make decisions of worldwide importance. Christians should ask God to show them the nature of the place they are in. How important is the particular store, shop, industry, or service which is theirs? What could God do through that particular organization to change His world?
Recently I was speaking with a Congregational minister in New England. He told me of meeting with a group of high school students who wanted to know how: to live their faith more effectively. He asked them to think hypothetically what they would do in their school
if they were communists. They brainstormed for a time and came up with a number of things they could do to sabotage the school: cut classes, sow discord, obstruct education in all kinds of ways, from telling lies to smoking in the basement.
Suddenly, one of the boys said, "Wait a minute, isn't this just what we are doing now?" It was a wonderful eye-opener for these young people to begin to see their high school as a place where Christ could begin to change the world through them. Later on they began to discuss just what it meant to be Christ's people, building a Kingdom in their own school.
There is a revolution going on in the world. Jesus Christ Himself is the leader, and when we accept Him as our Lord, He calls us into it with Him. He needs us. He wants us to see our jobs with the eyes of faith and understanding as something far more than a means of earning a livelihood. Our jobs are places where, as revolutionaries, we help to accomplish His revolution in the hearts and lives of men everywhere.

From the book:
DARE To Live Now!
c.1965-1971
Zondervan Publishing House
65-28347