Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “Patience”
Our Bible verse for today: “… for they were tentmakers by trade.” Acts 18:3 (HCSB)
Our thought for today: “Be patient with your job.”
Aquila and Priscilla were Christians whom Paul encountered in the city of Corinth. Like Paul, they made their living as tentmakers. Since tents were needed everywhere, it was a trade that allowed them to travel from place to place while always being able to market their skills and make a living. That was a good thing because evidently the reason they were in Corinth was that they had been driven out of Rome because of their Christian faith.
So Paul, Aquila, and Priscilla joined forces in Corinth. Together they made tents, but they also used their tent making skills as a springboard from which they conducted their ministry. From their example we get our modern understanding of being a “tentmaker”. The term is usually applied to those who go to the mission field to perform a secular trade, such as medical doctor, or auto mechanic, or school teacher, but then use that secular skill as a springboard for their primary purpose of sharing the Good News of the Gospel. Most commonly we apply the term “tentmaker” to those who have the official title of “missionary”.
However, all Christians have been tasked by Christ to be missionaries wherever we happen to be. Since the overwhelming majority of Christians do not make their living in paid professional ministry that means they have secular jobs, just like Paul, and Aquila, and Priscilla, and like those missionaries we label “tentmakers”. So in a broader sense – since every Christian is on-mission with Jesus Christ everywhere you go, and since most Christians have secular jobs – that makes most Christians “tentmakers”. Your secular job should be a springboard from which you carry out your primary role of sharing Christ with a broken and bleeding world.
In her book “Tentmakers”, author Ruth Siemens wrote: “The secular job is not an inconvenience, but the God-given context in which tentmakers live out the gospel in a winsome, wholesome, nonjudgmental way, demonstrating personal integrity, doing quality work, and developing caring relationships.”
Your current occupation may not be your dream job. You might not even like it very much. But it does afford you the opportunity to be a “tentmaker”. I encourage you to not only be patient with your job, but to thank God for it and to then use it as a springboard to serve and bless others in the name of Jesus Christ.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 