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Tuesday, September 2, 2014

My Faith or My Works? by tim

A few weeks ago, my wife, Vicki, suggested, “For our next update, why don’t you be more specific about what you do?” She asked this because most of my updates to you have been either some aspect of church or mission philosophy or about what is going on with our churches in the valley. I liked her consideration and decided to go with it.

When not on the road, much of my time from Monday to Saturday, is between my office and workshop. I am either in my office preparing studies and sermons, reading and listening to messages, or in my shop, 20 yards away, welding steel trusses for another church in the bush, building boat trailers for newfound fishing buddies, working on the engine of a national pastor’s car or fixing a believer’s motorcycle.

I walk between my office and my shop many times throughout the day. Often, I am figuring out how to best apply a Bible passage to the congregation that God places before me on Sunday. And then, I wander over to the shop calculating if I should drill a 7/16 or a ½-inch hole in 2-inch steel bar stock for a certain project. Then quickly, before I forget it, I get back to my office to type out the message outline that just came to mind.

Hundreds of messages have been prepared in my office and hundreds of parts have been manufactured in my shop. Which is more important?

In my office, my faith is challenged, strengthened, and refined. In my shop, my works fix, help, and show that Christ’s mission is about people’s daily needs as well.

I love the way James 2:17 and 24 describe my office and my shop. “Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone…. Ye see then how by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.”

My faith in Christ is solidified in my study and my works are cut, drilled, and welded in my shop.

My ministry is not just my office or just my workshop. James says both are important. It’s not an option between the two.



The Office
    
The Shop
  

 





If  interested in supporting Tim & Vicki Reiner, please contact


Baptist Mid-Missions
P.O. Box 308011
Cleveland, OH 44130-8011 USA
(440)826-3930

Baptist Mid-Missions of Canada
110 Garnet St. North
Regina, SK S4R 3S5
(306)775-2001

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