From Our Mission Director….
I read the sad story the other day of a 26 year old flight attendant who was fired from her job for posing for Playboy Magazine. What was interesting was the reason for doing something that would cost her job. She stated that she had a lung disease that would require surgery and that the outcome was not good. She decided to pose for the magazine so the world would remember her.
The world is filled with people who desperately wish to be remembered. Many are inclined to build monuments to themselves in one way or another. This is why the account of Babel, found in Genesis chapter 11, is so important for us. It exposes the underlying cause for building monuments.
And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.” Genesis 11:4
What lessons are in this story for us today?
1) Man’s plans will never thwart God’s purposes.
God had commanded mankind to “fill the earth.” Man preferred to cloister rather than to comply with God’s command to spread out. In spite of man’s greatest efforts, God’s purposes prevailed.
2) Unity is not the highest good, but purity and obedience to the Word of God.
At first glance, we may commend the people for wanting to be of one voice and to be together in one place. Unity is a great virtue. Psalm 133:1 states, “ BEHOLD, HOW good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity”
This is a good thing, but the Bible also says: in Amos 3:3, “Can two walk together, unless they are agreed?” Ecumenism is the watch word of religion today, but it is a unity at the cost of truth. Some regard unity as a goal worthy of any sacrifice. God does not.
3) The Word of God, and not the works of our hands, is the only thing worthy of our faith.
The men of Babel began to look at work as the cure rather than the curse. They believed that the work of their hands could assure them of some kind of immortality beyond the grave. Here, I suspect, is the driving force behind many a workaholic. He cannot ever rest because he (or she) is never certain that a large enough monument has been built. Human endeavor is never satisfying, never fulfilling. Only work which is done for the Lord and in His strength brings lasting satisfaction.
The work of missions and church planting is labor that can bring satisfaction to our hearts for we know it is the great burden of our Lord. When we give of ourselves to the cause of sharing the gospel with the world, we are content with making our Savior famous and the Kingdom of God larger.
by Danny Kirk
