God uses all sorts. It does not matter if you are a butcher, a baker or a candlestick-maker. The question is what sort of butcher, baker or candlestick-maker will you be?
Lots of people seem to think they can only serve God effectively if they are doing it as a full-time occupation. Nothing could be further from the truth. Actually, people who serve full-time have a difficult time even connecting with a world in need in many cases. Unless you earn your living doing something that is just plain wrong, you can serve and glorify God right where you are. If you are in the pornography business or you are a drug dealer or you are a “hit man” then please find something else to do. The rest of us need to figure out how to most effectively be God’s hands and feet where we are. Like the bumper stickers say, “Bloom where you are planted.” Of course we also need to be concerned about and acting on behalf of those who are beyond where we are day-to-day, but that will be another blog entry…
1 Cor 7:19b-24
Keeping God’s commands is what counts. 20 Each one should remain in the situation which he was in when God called him. 21 Were you a slave when you were called? Don’t let it trouble you-although if you can gain your freedom, do so. 22 For he who was a slave when he was called by the Lord is the Lord’s freedman; similarly, he who was a free man when he was called is Christ’s slave. 23 You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of men. 24 Brothers, each man, as responsible to God, should remain in the situation God called him to.
Eph 6:5-9
5 Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. 6 Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but like slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. 7 Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men, 8 because you know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does, whether he is slave or free.
9 And masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him.
