Labor Day

Labor day 2012

As I sit this Labor Day morning, I am reminded of the great labor yet to be done for God's Kingdom. First lets address the word labor as translated from the greek. The word labor in Greek is kopiaw kopiao kop-ee-ah'-o It means to 1) to grow weary, tired, exhausted (with toil or burdens or grief) 2) to labour with wearisome effort, to toil.

I run into believer's that are very tired and weary but mostly not due to laboring for the Lord. We are getting tired and weary from worldly labors and have nothing left for our Saviour. How many times have I said," I would love to do this or that but i don't have time. " I need some rest" " I work hard all week, I deserve a break." I am not saying we don't need rest - God commanded it but it seems to me that rest is becoming the norm and labor or kopiao is unheard of.

I propose that the Lord will give us the strength. We are just lacking faith. Oh, Lord, I beg of you to give each of us the strength to forge ahead. Toil for You until we are exhausted. What is the worst that could happen? We get more tired! We are joy-filled because we have served Him with great burden! Am I willing to suffer for Christ? Oh, how short term the suffering is!

 I recently went on a mission trip to Cicero, ILL to visit a wonderful missionary, Ron Kooyman. We arrived to a 3rd floor apartment with no furniture, no a/c and no shower curtain ( I know, strange but with an apartment full of girls, that is a necessity). Our conditions in the modern world would be called suffering. However, with a group of 7 girls and my husband and I we attacked the situation with humor and glee. We "stole" a shower curtain from the boys and made the best of ceiling fans and blow up mattresses. The entire week, we labored in the heat from dawn to well past dusk. We had a blast. We studied God's Word throughout the day. We met a wonderful group of children eager to learn about God. And we witnessed the Power of a God in a man totally given over to serving God. No obstacles seemed to stop Ron from serving God and these people that the Lord has brought to Him.

My prayer is that my church can "catch fire" for serving the Lord in this way. That we can rethink every one of our excuses to not do the next thing God asks us to.  I believe that God keeps asking. It is amazing how persistent  He is.

1 Corinthians 15: 58  "Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain."