Work 4 (God's work in my life, Leviticus/Numbers)

(continuing my conversion story of how God worked in my life)

The counseling I had received the past 9 months ended in June. Ironically, I started to feel worse about my life. Due to my pride and the spiritual subculture in which I was participating, I was not open with anyone about how I really felt. Consequently, everyone continued to look to me as a leader and in September, the church ordained me as an “elder” at the ripe old age of 25.

The Connections group I helped create got on the radar of the Washington Conference, and they contacted me to participate on a committee to reach out to the young SDA adults in the Puget Sound. This turned out as another circumstance God used to save me! We didn’t know what to call this new group, so I emailed five or six people who fit the profile of those we wanted to reach, from those on the fringes of the SDA church to those who had left. I asked them for their input on what to call the group. Allison Tait made the list and actually provided the most useful and enthusiastic input of anyone (how about that, she was already a disciple!). In her response, she invited me to attend church.

I casually decided to take her up on the invitation (I didn’t appreciate how hard God had worked in my life to give me this opportunity!) I thought a change of scene might be good to help me connect with God rather than feeling so responsible and distracted as I set foot inside the church I was attending. I took the bus from UW to the Washington State Convention Center downtown for a 5pm Sunday service. I got there late, but asked the usher for Allison Tait, and he seated me on the third row from the front! The slick-looking minister dude (Scott Green) turned out NOT to be a tele-evangelist and I ended up taking notes from his meaty sermon as best I could on a scrap of paper. The people were the most friendly folks I’d ever met and I wished that my church was this friendly to visitors. While I wasn’t so sure how well-founded their zealous faith was in the Bible, I admired and desired a sincere and enthusiastic relationship with God like they had. And the rest is history, as they say. I studied the Bible with Alex Whitaker, Ben Sanders, and Johnny Grady and I was baptized into Christ about three months later on Dec. 15, 1999.

Back to the “work” scriptures…

Work scriptures in Leviticus are basically a repeat of Exodus. One observation is that the Jews had a ton of festivals where work was not allowed. On those days, however, they would typically bring an offering as an act of worship to God. This offering was only possible if they actually worked when they were supposed to! God does want us to work, and feels honored by our sacrifices to him. When I’m giving my contribution, I want to think more holistically about what was involved in generating that X% of income and how I am dedicating those hours to God through this act of worship.

The other interesting aspect is that these days of no work also involved a “sacred assembly.” Certainly church service on a weekend is a sacred assembly (if we treat it as such) and we take up our offering to God. I actually love “assemblies” and have very fond memories of my UW campus days where disciples got together in groups nearly every day. My work at Microsoft can involve many meetings, often involving more than five people. This constitutes an assembly, but one could never call it “sacred.” Scott Payne recently told me about his workplace in South Carolina where they literally have meal prayers and prayers before meetings begin at his workplace. Unbelievable from a Seattle perspective! He found that very refreshing… it would be awesome to participate in a company where everyone has both business and spiritual values in common!

Numbers 3-4: describes the work of the Levites in connection with the Tabernacle. There were a broad variety of responsibilities ranging from the burly dudes literally carrying the enter Tabernacle through the desert to the singers to those keeping things clean. God honors all these types of work. The Levites were counted and highly organized, not unlike what is going on at the new Westside SCOC building committee!

Numbers 7-8: a few scriptures illustrate how the Levites were equipped properly to do their work. At Microsoft, my equipment is basically a laptop and a few webcams. What they really pay me for is creativity, leadership, insight, experience, communication abilities, and good decisions. These are all gifts from God. 2 Tim 3:16 describes how the Bible will equip us for every good work. A good thought to meditate on today—how does God want to equip me spiritually?