"For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good work, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them"
God tells us that we were put here on earth to accomplish something. We have a purpose. We are shaped and placed to accomplish a particular mission that God has for us. That mission unfolds before us in the course of time. But we must embrace the idea that we do have a mission in this world.
There is great tragedy when people do not believe that they have an assignment that they were created to accomplish. Why are you here on earth? God has allowed you to live and move and have your being; it must be for a reason. What is that reason? Get about the business that God has particularly pointed out even if there have been detours in the past.
for we are His workmanship
The Christian's life is the workmanship of God. He has prepared His tools and spins the turntable to create out of our lives a thing of beauty. God wants to put our lives on display for all the angels and others to see the kind of God that He is.
When a carpenter makes a tool or a chair or desk, he goes through many steps to bring about the final result. God is making us into something usable and significant. We are trophies and tools in the hand of the master. God will have to bend us and sand us and smooth us off so that we are prepared to accomplish the various good works that God has waiting for us as we live out our lives.
The word workmanship is the word poiema, which means the things that are made or the workmanship. We get our English word poem from this word -- the crafting of words into tight arrangements so that the power of the message is doubled and tripled.
Notice that there is an individual application of these ideas and a corporate application of these ideas. The Apostle says "we," which means that the gathering of people who make up the team of people called the church have assignments also.
Until tomorrow,
Gil Stieglitz