the profitability series, part 4

PRODUCTIVITY

In our Calstumi Kids program we’ve been memorizing Ephesians 2:1-10 as a group effort, closing each night with an auditorium full of hand motions and gestures, reciting the passage together. It’s been fun to watch the kids’ enthusiasm taking the passage to heart and learning the verses. The paragraph ends with this familiar statement:

We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Ephesians 2:10 (ESV)

Good works. Christians are people who ought to excel in good works. In fact, history is littered with wonderful examples of Christians who put feet to their faith and change society for the greater good. Here are just a few:

The year is 1780 and the Industrial Revolution is firing up. Society is going to work, and including all ages. Child labor laws are yet to be created and the educational system is even less important. Through the success of his newspaper business, Robert Raikes turns his attention to a great need in society. Children around him are lacking the ability to read and write. He sees an opportunity to serve his community for the greater good, employing his Christian faith and teaching them to using the Bible as curriculum on Sunday mornings. Within a few short years, the “Sunday School movement” is a worldwide phenomenon that teaches countless children basics of reading and writing through the lens of Scripture and sees a society that is made better as a result.

Clara Barton is a nurse at the outbreak of the American Civil War. Her Christian upbringing instills in her a love for her fellow mankind and an attitude of serving those around her. As war breaks out between states and soldiers begin returning home wounded, she finds herself among them nurturing them back to health. Soon she is on the fields of battle serving the wounded of both Union and Confederate troops and earning the nickname “Angel of the Battlefield.” In 1881 she inaugurates the American Red Cross and leads it for 23 years, putting her faith into practice in the service of humanity.

The philanthropist and abolitionist, William Wilberforce is elected to Parliament in 1780. He will spend the next three decades preaching against the evils of the English slave trade. In February of 1807, Parliament votes to abolish the inhumane trading network. He would go on to lobby against slavery altogether, and finally in 1833 the House of Commons passes into Law the emancipation of all slaves across the British Empire. A life that is shaped by the preaching and teaching of John Newton, the Wesley brothers and George Whitfield, Wilberforce uses his influence to change the course of humanity for the greater good of society, putting his faith into practice.

These are only a few examples and from years past. You can read further about more recent movements or ministries spurred on by Christian faith like Meals on Wheels, W.A.R., Hands of Hope, Hemisphere Coffee, Mel Trotter Mission, Faith In Deeds and ODM-Denver . . . . just for starters.

Christians around this globe go to work every day for the greater good of humanity because the Gospel is at work in their hearts, shaping them to love and serve those around them. Join the movement! Put feet to your faith and display the profitability of Christianity in the arena of life wherever the Lord takes you.