Work in the ‘Real World’: Part 2

REFLECTION QUOTES

“…he was also a man of large public spirit whom doing good to his fellow man was a pleasure—one almost might say a passion…”

~Said of Benjamin Lee Guinness (1795-1868), Guinness & Company



“In every deliberation, we must consider the impact on the seventh generation… even if it requires having skin as thick as the bark of a pine.”

~The Great Law of the Iroquois Confederacy

“The sluggard says, ‘There is a lion in the road!
A lion is in the open square!’
As the door turns on its hinges,
So does the sluggard on his bed.
The sluggard buries his hand in the dish;
He is weary of bringing it to his mouth again.
The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes
Than seven men who can give a discreet answer.”

~Proverbs 26:13-16



“The real difference between men is energy. A strong will, a settled purpose, and invincible determination, can accomplish almost anything; and in this lies the distinction between great men and little men.”

~Thomas Fuller (1608-1661), English preacher, historian, and author

“The difference between perseverance and obstinacy is, that one often comes from a strong will, and the other from a strong won’t.”

~Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887), American clergyman

“[Philip Seymour Hoffman] hated what he was good at. It tormented him. I think he wanted to be so good, but it was such a difficult place…to get to. It had to all come from the inside.”

~Anton Corbijn, Dutch photographer and film director,
on the lead actor of his latest film

“Same old song, just a drop of water in an endless sea
All we do crumbles to the ground, though we refuse to see
Dust in the wind, all we are is dust in the wind.”

~Kerry Livgren in “Dust in the Wind” (1977)

SERMON PASSAGE

Genesis 1:26-28, 31

26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

31 God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

Genesis 2:1-2:3, 5, 7-8, 15-17

1 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts. 2 By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.

5 Now no shrub of the field was yet in the earth, and no plant of the field had yet sprouted, for the Lord God had not sent rain upon the earth, and there was no man to cultivate the ground…. 7 Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. 8 The Lord God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden…. 15 Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. 16 The Lord God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; 17 but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.”

Genesis 3:16-19, 23-24

16 To the woman He said,
“I will greatly multiply
Your pain in childbirth,
In pain you will bring forth children….”
17 Then to Adam He said, “Because you…have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’;
Cursed is the ground because of you;
In toil you will eat of it
All the days of your life.
18 “Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you;
And you will eat the plants of the field;
19 By the sweat of your face
You will eat bread,
Till you return to the ground,
Because from it you were taken;
For you are dust,
And to dust you shall return.”

23 Therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken. 24 So He drove the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life.

Colossians 3:23-24

23 Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, 24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve.

1 Corinthians 15:58

58 So my dear brothers and sisters, stand strong. Do not let anything move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your toil in the Lord is never wasted.