Church 101: Slaves and masters / Workers and Employees.

Most of us have been exposed to bad workers. I could list off a number of bad work habits I've had to deal with.

First of all there is “always late Leroy” you can almost set your watch to five minutes after by the way he peals into the parking lot and runs to the time clock to punch in, only to stand around for a few minutes tucking in his shirt and putting his stuff in order so he can report to his workstation fifteen minutes after he should have. Then of course there is “Geraldine the gossip queen” you can always count on Geraldine to be neck deep in a conversation about all of the latest dirt while simultaneously managing to ignore her responsibilities. You get the feeling that if she put ½ the effort into her job as she did her jaws that she would outperform everyone else on the job. Don't forget “Long lunch Leonard”, “Early to Exit Edgar” and the closely related “Sometimes Sick Sylvia”. They've always got an excuse not to finish their task, or call off, quit early or just plain not come in. The list could go on but you get the point.

Now take any of those people – call them a Christian and call their boss an unbeliever. What happens then? A recipe for disaster, because there is more at stake than a bad performance review or a pink slip. That boss is going to look at the behavior of his “Christian” employee and have opportunity to curse God and to malign the gospel. And worse than that – a man may be kept out of the Lord's kingdom because someone calling themselves a Christian is lazy, mouthy and inconsiderate.

C. Michael Patton has written a wonderful summary regarding the martyrdom of the twelve apostles over at Parchment and Pen Titled What happened to the twelve apostles? I urge you to read the whole article but in summary:

Some see Jesus in a footstool.

"From a distance you can see a figure of what looks to me to be Christ the Lord."

Yeah, from a really long distance.  And of course he's considering a run on Ebay for the "holy" footstool with starting bids from $100,000 to $500,000.  Sure.   
(Ht: Christdot)

Some see Jesus still in a tomb.  While others turn around and publish papers debasing the idea. 

I recently read this on Theology and Biblical Studies: Sn

Christianity makes every Christian a theologian. We can't help it, we are fascinated by God's every quality.