Author: Jojo Agot

Pastor at Victory. Faculty and adviser at Every Nation Leadership Institute (ENLI). MA in Theology and Mission at Every Nation Seminary.

Why We Take Pride in Fixing Broken Cabinets

The gospel gives fresh meaning to our otherwise boring jobs. We don’t just work to make money. We work because God designed us to be creative. There’s a sense of pride every time we fix a broken cabinet. We feel happy when we accomplish our office tasks for the day. We look at our trimmed gardens and lawns with a sense of satisfaction. We get our salaries with a feeling that what we do matters to the world. Our work has meaning when we realize that our hands are doing exactly what God created them for: to be creative because our God is creative.

Reactions to the US Supreme Court’s Redefinition of Marriage

I have no appropriate words for the plight of American Christians this weekend as they face their first Sunday Service after the Supreme Court ruling on gay marriage. I will point you instead to what their church leaders said on the issue:

Russell Moore, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention:

“While this decision will ultimately hurt many people and families and civilization itself, the gospel doesn’t need “family values” to flourish. In fact, the church often thrives when it is in sharp contrast to the cultures around it. That was the case in Ephesus and Philippi and Corinth and Rome, which held to marriage views out of step with the Scriptures.”

Albert Mohler, president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary:

“The Supreme Court, like every human institution and individual, will eventually face two higher courts. The first is the court of history, which will render a judgment that I believe will embarrass this court and reveal its dangerous trajectory. This Court will find itself in a trap of its own making, and one that will bring great harm to this nation and its families. The second court we all must face is the court of divine judgment. For centuries, marriage ceremonies in the English-speaking world have included the admonition that what God has put together, no human being — or human court — should tear asunder. That is exactly what the Supreme Court of the United States has now done.”

John Piper, founder and teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary:

“My sense is that we do not realize what a calamity is happening around us. The new thing — new for America, and new for history — is not homosexuality. That brokenness has been here since we were all broken in the fall of man. What’s new is not even the celebration and approval of homosexual sin. Homosexual behavior has been exploited, and reveled in, and celebrated in art, for millennia. What’s new is normalization and institutionalization. This is the new calamity.”

Mark Galli, editor of Christianity Today:

“The temptation is to go off and sulk in our holy corner. Or to dig in our heels and fight harder. Or to lash out in anger. Or to despair. We can do better. Like taking to heart especially the Beatitudes.”

Changing the World by Doing Errands?

And Jesse said to David his son, “Take for your brothers an ephah of this parched grain, and these ten loaves, and carry them quickly to the camp to your brothers. Also take these ten cheeses to the commander of their thousand. See if your brothers are well, and bring some token from them.
(1 Samuel 17:17-18 ESV)

For David, greatness started by keeping their family’s flocks and delivering food to his siblings in the trenches of war. It didn’t start by coming up with a grand vision for success nor by acting like a big shot every chance he got. David’s rise to kingship started with faithfulness in doing simple, ordinary chores.

Many people would like to change the world; very few are willing to change diapers. Or wash the dishes. Or do laundry. But that’s exactly where world-changing begins– at home.