My heart is filled with longing for your laws at all times (Psalm 119:20).

I remember a group exercise, probably some ice breaker, in which we were asked what we would like on our tombstone. How is that a good icebreaker? Probably, to get into a conversation about legacy. I didn't like it then and I still don't. A more interesting question to ask is "What do people say about me right now?" but not as an icebreaker.

David, the shepherd boy turned king, is introduced in the Bible not by name, but by what God says about him, 'a man after my own heart' or 'a man who is dear to my heart' (1 Samuel 13:14).

That's high honour. But no one defines what that means. So, let's consider what it might mean, beginning with what seems like the most obvious: obedience. As that famous phrase from Psalm 119 puts it, "I have hidden your word in my heart". In 2 Chronicles 16:9, we find this, "For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him." When David sings the glory of God displayed in both the creation and in God's law, he ends with this prayer, "May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight" (Psalm 19). That great psalm about God's powerful and tender presence concludes with a prayer that God remove wrong from David's heart (Psalm 139).

We see David's obedience clearly in the years before he becomes king. He does not grab the throne. God says, "You will be the next king." But David recognizes that God needs to remove the current king before he can take the throne. Even though Saul has been rejected because he disobeyed God, David continues to honour him as king.

David's obedience foreshadows a central characteristic of Jesus himself. He claimed to have come to do the Father's will (John 6:38). When on the cross he called out, "it is finished", he was declaring that he had been obedient to the end.

The pertinent question for us is, "How do we grow in obedience?" How do we become fully committed to God? Is it even possible to hum with the psalmist, "My heart is filled with longing for your laws at all times" (Psalm 119:20)?

When we get started on this path, we often look to ourselves to get there. I don't think that is what David did. In Psalm 19, David spends the bulk of the Psalm looking at what God has made and said. It is only when he has composed his praise, does he ask for a pure heart. We don't get a longing for obedience by looking to ourselves. When we see God and who he is, our heart's get stirred.

So, where does your gaze linger? Is it time to look up again? As the writer of Hebrews once wrote, "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus…" (12:2). See him on the cross. See him alive, emerging from the tomb. See him enthroned in heaven. Then obedience is not to gain favour with God but becomes an act of thanksgiving.

As you journey on, go with the blessing of God:

"May God himself, the God who makes everything holy and whole, make you holy and whole, put you together—spirit, soul, and body—and keep you fit for the coming of our Master, Jesus Christ. The One who called you is completely dependable. If he said it, he'll do it" (1 Thessalonians 5:23).

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light (1 Peter 2:9).

There is hymn that begins with: "The church is not a building; the church is not a steeple; the church is not a resting place; the church is a people." And the refrain: "I am the church! You are the church! We are the church together! All who follow Jesus, all around the world! Yes, we're the church together!"

Intuitively, many Christians recognize that these lyrics are true. But we struggle with putting them into practice. Let's reflect on this challenge from the perspective of God's mission of reconciling the world to himself.

Let's first think about the people who carry out God's mission. I suspect that at least a few listeners will immediately think of pastors and missionaries as the agents of this mission. After all, these are the folks the church has set aside for God's work. We send missionaries to the mission filed and appoint pastors to lead congregations. Its as if these people are the most important in the work of God. But this does not do justice to the Biblical story of God's mission.

We need to change are understanding. Anne Rowthron wrote, "Through its laity the church is present in every area of human activity. It is in offices, in schools and universities, in hospitals, in stores, in factories and hotels" (The Liberation of the Laity).

We are all part of the priesthood of all believers. As such we have all been set apart, called by God and given a priestly authority to intercede on behalf of others and the world before him. Faithful people are living sacrifices holy and pleasing to God. Our skillful and worn hands praise God. Our priestly bodies, both in the sanctuary and on the factory floor, glorify God.

We can be involved in God's mission when we speak up and advocate for truth and justice in our daily work. As people reconciled to Christ we can work towards reconciliation in our spheres of influence. This usually begins with prayers of intercession.

Our churches are often pastor centric, program centric, and building centric. This gives the impression that the focus of God's work is in the building we label a church. Somehow, we need to broaden our perception of the church and God's mission to include every Christian wherever they are. Not pastors, but the laity, are the primary agents of a church's mission in the community.

In Leviticus, God is described as breathing in the aromas of the sacrifices Israel offered (2:9; 3:5,16). God is still hovering over his priests breathing into his nostrils the pleasing aroma of their worshipful work. God does not simply mandate human work; God delights in human work. God accepts it with joy, not as mere obedience but as worship.

The spaces which Christians spend their time are the primary spaces of a church's mission. Where you spend your week is the mission field of God.

As you journey on, go with the blessing of God:

Wherever God takes you today, may He fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit and that you may live carefully—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity.

The Sovereign Lord declares—he who gathers the exiles of Israel: "I will gather still others to them besides those already gathered" (Isaiah 56:8).

In Deuteronomy, Moses prepares Israel to enter the land of promise. As they settle in, they will finally be able to develop the habits enabling them to be God's holy people. Part of the preparation is defining who is in and who is out. Access to this holy people, and consequently to their God, is quite limited. All folks with mutilated genitalia and many foreigners are excluded (cf. Deuteronomy 23:1-8). Interactions with non-Israelites were strongly regulated to minimize the temptation to worship other gods.

This history lies in the background of our text dealing with Israel settling back into the land after the Babylonian exile. Isaiah 56 has to do with who is in and who is out. It reads very differently than Deuteronomy.

Here are a few verses, "To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths…And foreigners who bind themselves to the Lord to minister to him…all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it and who hold fast to my covenant—these I will bring to my holy mountain" (4,6,7).

Wow. God specifically mentions those kept out in Deuteronomy. There is only one condition spelled out…keep Sabbath! This is the mark of membership, an act of generous incorporation that was previously unheard of. It allows the life of God's Israel to spill over among those who have been excluded but are now to be welcomed.

Sabbath becomes the requirement for membership because it represents a disengagement from the producer-consumer rat race of the empire, then and now. It demonstrates a visible trust in God rather than self. Members of any race or nation, any gender or social condition are welcomed so long as that person is defined by justice, mercy, and compassion, and not by competition, achievement, production or acquisition. Sabbath keeping is the link between loving God with our whole beings and loving our neighbours as ourselves.

Jesus' cousin, John, worked this out with those who thought they had an automatic in because of their heritage. He told them not to count on their lineage, instead they ought to concern themselves with fruit that comes from repentance (Matthew 3:8-10).

What kind of fences do we put around church membership? How far are we willing to invite people in? Do we keep certain people at arms length? How long do people need to show up before they are no longer newcomers? Isaiah 56 prompts these kinds of questions.

Further, John's comment about fruit leads us to Galatians 5 where Paul gives an extensive list of sour grapes. These things, wrath, violence, lusts, envy are the product of the rat race. This is what grows in those who refuse Sabbath.

In contrast, the fruit of the Spirit has room to grow in Sabbath keepers. What practices and habits do you have that enable you to step out of the rat race for the sake of Sabbath? There is great pressure to ignore Sabbath, even in the church. Isaiah calls us back to rest not as a burden but as a gift, as a means to joy in the Lord (7).

As you journey on, hear Jesus' invitation:

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls (Matthew 11:28-29).

Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse…Don't pay back evil with evil…Don't let evil overcome you. Overcome evil by doing good (Romans 12:14, 17, 21).

What do we do in the face of evil? This is the question that ends Romans 12. Its not theoretical; its personal. "How should Christians respond when evil is done to us"? The answer is: "Don't let evil overcome you. Overcome evil by doing good."

Evil is insidious. It begins small, a trickle, which, if not stopped, becomes a flood that fills us. In the end, it will overcome us. Evil works that way. It grows. It begins with a thought, a flash of anger and builds until it bursts out of us.

It will grow and poison everything it touches. It is said that Eric and Dylan, perpetrators of the Columbine High School massacre, were motivated by revenge. They felt mistreated, rejected, and abused, and this was a way of taking revenge and getting back—evil responding to evil, hate responding to hate. It was reported that, as they entered the building, they shouted, "This is for all the people who made fun of us all these years," and then they laughed and opened fire. They allowed hate to take root in their hearts, and it grew until the fruit of it erupted in violence.

This idea lies at the heart of the epic fantasies The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. Both stories also contain the Biblical antidote: love. How do we counter evil? By overcoming it with good.

Paul has written about love, the agape of God towards us. We don't deserve it, yet he gives it to us. God comes to us in the blood of Jesus and forgives all the evil we have done. He overcomes our evil with his goodness.

This is God's master plan of salvation. His purpose is to reclaim His creation from the control of evil, transform it, and bring it back under the sway of His righteousness. In other words, He will overcome the world's evil with His good. In following the command of Christ to "bless and not curse" (Matt. 5:44; Luke 6:28) and by returning good for evil, we do as God does, and we become active participants in His great plan for the world.

Jesus experienced all the hatred and injustice and violence that the leaders of this world could pour out on him. He was victim of the mindless hate and the violence of the crowd and the Roman soldiers, who used him as an excuse to vent the hatred in their hearts.

But Jesus did not take on and return their hate, and He did not let it change Him from His course of revealing the Father's love, His love even for God's enemies. Love is stronger than hate because hate enslaves, while love brings freedom. He forgave His enemies.

Christ, when he died by submitting himself to the hatred of his accusers, offered us a solution to the hatred and injustice of the world. Without him, it is eye for an eye and tooth for tooth. But now there is a new way. This does not mean that justice has been abolished. But it means that we are relieved of the burden of justice. We can leave that to God. And we can love our enemies because God loves us.

As you journey on, go with the blessing of God:

"May God himself, the God who makes everything holy and whole, make you holy and whole, put you together—spirit, soul, and body—and keep you fit for the coming of our Master, Jesus Christ. The One who called you is completely dependable. If he said it, he'll do it" (1 Thessalonians 5:23).

For in [Christ] all things were created…all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together…For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross (Colossians 1:16-17, 19-20)

Again, I want to address the question, "Why produce a weekly podcast on the subject of work?" Work must be understood here as more than what we do to earn a paycheck. It includes that, of course, but also other regular things we do to live in this world. Things like the laundry, the dishes, mowing the grass or shoveling snow. It includes driving our children or grandchildren to school or dance lessons. Often, we preachers make it sound like these are irrelevant to the mission of God in the world. That is wrong.

Dorothy Sayers once advised preachers,

When you find a [person] who is a Christian praising God by the excellence of their work—do not distract them and take them away from their proper vocation to address religious meetings... Let them serve God in the way to which God has called them... [Do] not take them away from it, so that they may do ecclesiastical work for you. But, if you have any power, see that [they] are set free to do their own work as well as it may be done. They are not there to serve you; they are there to serve God by serving their work (Creed or Chaos?).

In these weekly podcasts addressing work, I hope to "set you free to do your work as well as it may be done…to serve God by serving your work". I hope you come to understand more deeply that the mission of God includes your whole life.

This mission includes the Great commission to make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:18-20) and the Great Commandment to love God and neighbour (Matthew 22:36-40). But it also includes the Cultural Mandate to explore, name, develop and cultivate the creation (Genesis 1:28). Neither the arrival of sin, nor the arrival of Jesus to redeem creation nullified that mandate. The Great Commission and the Great Commandment do not lessen the value of our work.

What better way to participate in this mandate then to do our everyday, mundane, ordinary work well, offering it to God for his glory and for the good of humanity? When you are at work you are in a context where pastors and missionaries rarely if ever show up. It is in that place that God has called you to cultivate creation, love your neighbour and bear witness to the goodness of the gospel.

The mission of God includes the renewal, restoration, and reformation of all things. All Christian, in all industries, are invited to participate in this comprehensive mission. Our workplaces are the critical spaces where we will either learn to follow Christ faithfully or walk away from him. Our workspaces are integral to the mission of God, no sideshow. There, you are at the leading edge of God's reconciling work.

As you journey on, go with the blessing of God:

Wherever God takes you today, may He fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit and that you may live carefully—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity.

A Sunday Sermon edition of Wilderness Wanderings! The text is Galatians 5:1, 13-14. Dive In discussion questions are below for further reflection!

To see this sermon in the context of the worship service it comes from, find it here on YouTube. Or, head to our website to connect with the worshiping community of Immanuel CRC: immanuelministries.ca.

Dive In!

1. What does freedom mean to you? What kind of things would you like to be free from?
2. What does it mean to be human? How would you describe the best human? How can we become like that?
3. Give some examples of good laws (not the ones Pastor Michael mentioned). What laws are you afraid of breaking? Are you afraid of God? What does it mean to be under the 'curse of the law'?
4. How is the curse of the law broken? What do we have to do to help break it? What does it mean that Jesus set us free?
5. When we are free in Christ, how will we live? What will be our desire and goal? Where will the Spirit lead us?

For day after day, they seek me out; they seem eager to know my ways, as if they were a nation that does what is right and has not forsaken the commands of its God (Isaiah 58:2).

This is a difficult chapter to read. God is angry with is covenant people. Very angry. They show up for the appointed worship services and other religious festivals. They ask God for direction. They appear eager to come near to him. They love the Sabbath day. They do all the right things.

There is just one problem. A rather large one. When they return to non-Sabbath activities, its as if the Sabbath never happened. Its as if they did not hear God's direction. Its as if they never sought God or came near him.

Going back to non-Sabbath matters, they exploit their workers and fight with each other. Not just verbal sparring, also fist fights. They refuse to share their food with the hungry or their homes with the poor wanderer.

They think that God ought to be happy that they showed up for worship, that they took the day off to fast and pray. They cannot figure out why God is so unhappy with them.

They are doing all the right religious things, but their hearts are far from God. They do not really care about what he says. They have forgotten that they are God's light in the world. The way they are living is spreading darkness rather then light.

Here is the point: their Sabbath keeping has had no effect on their hearts, or their minds or their bodies. It has not changed how they live or interact with others. They are not bringing any good into the world. It is left full of evil.

So, what are your plans for this weekend? Party time, family time, alone time? None of these things are necessarily bad in and of themselves. Let me ask the question differently: when you have time off from the "work" of making a living, when you take time to rest in God, what is the point? Why do you do it?

Somewhere along the way, the prayer that ends Psalm 139, should play a role. "Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting" (23,24).

God wants to change the way we think, react, and act. Let the Spirit loose when you meet with God.

As you journey on, hear Jesus' invitation:

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls (Matthew 11:28-29).

Don't pay back evil with evil…My dear friends, don't try to get even. Leave room for God to show his anger…Scripture says, "If your enemies are hungry, give them food to eat. If they are thirsty, give them something to drink. By doing those things, you will pile up burning coals on their heads." Don't let evil overcome you. Overcome evil by doing good (17-21).

The Heidelberg Catechism teaches us that we have a natural tendency to hate God and our neighbor (A 5). That seems about right. To repay evil with good seems overly optimistic.

Getting even is our natural bent. Have you ever seen a three-year-old, when another child takes his toy, offer a second as well? Hardly. The child immediately works to retrieve said toy, often violently. Whether its children playing in the park or adults striving to get ahead, we do not tolerate others doing us harm. Our immediate reaction is to seek retaliation.

But God calls Christians to be different. This is one of the unique qualities of the followers of Jesus. Romans 12 begins with a view of God's mercy, we offer ourselves as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to him. This conclusion, "overcome evil by doing good", is where we keep crawling off the alter! God wants us to return good for evil and we say, 'fat chance', we want justice, in other words, vengeance.

In life, we encounter truly difficult people–individuals who wound us, wrong us, betray us, making us want to strike back. Justice, we think, demands that they know the harm they've caused and receive punishment. We believe that this is our right. Yet, as gospel people, a sincere, forgiving love should be our response.

This is how we embody the gospel of our God in Christ: "overcoming evil with good." This is what Jesus did in his ministry and, ultimately, in his death. Jesus met the evil of this world head on with love and grace, not balled-up fists and merciless judgment. Living in love and harmony with difficult and evil people is what it means to be caught up in the rhythms of the gospel.

That's who we are as Christian people. It's wrong to get the greatest gift of God's grace and then turn right around and take revenge on others. "My dear friends" could be translated, "my dear agape people". Agape is that special, divine love that we get by grace alone. People who have been graced with God's agape can't turn around and live vengeful lives.

Bad things happen. That is an unhappy fact of life in this world. The gospel calls us to absorb such evil, to show Christ to the world not just when doing that is easy but to display the grace of Jesus precisely when it is most difficult. Others will say we have a right to justice; to see the evil doer punished. The gospel demands something else.

The only way into this life is to keep God's mercy towards me clearly in view; to remain submitted to God's way instead of the world's system. We can't do this on our own. But that has been Paul's contention all along, "in view of God's mercy." We have received; therefore, we can give.

As you journey on, go with the blessing of God:

"May God himself, the God who makes everything holy and whole, make you holy and whole, put you together—spirit, soul, and body—and keep you fit for the coming of our Master, Jesus Christ. The One who called you is completely dependable. If he said it, he'll do it" (1 Thessalonians 5:23).