Mark Jordan: "Marina Del Ray"

I'm sure all of us might have felt a twinge of jealousy for those folks fortunate enough to vacation in a tropical land during the winter months. Even so, those places aren't immune to being part of this cursed and fallen world. People who live there still need to work to survive.

Mark Jordan's song is all about the difference between those who are rich and those who must work in such resorts. Check it out here.

Even before the fall of humanity, Adam was given a job. Genesis 2:15 (Bible in Basic English) proves that work wasn't put on us as a curse. "And the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to do work in it and take care of it."

Furthermore, God blesses believers in their work. Psalms 28:1 and 2 (BBE) reads, "<A Song of the going up.> Happy is the worshipper of the Lord, who is walking in his ways. You will have the fruit of the work of your hands: happy will you be, and all will be well for you."

God also has given us the ability to work and receive its reward. As Ecclesiastes 2:24 (BBE) reminds us, "There is nothing better for a man than taking meat and drink, and having delight in his work. This again I saw was from the hand of God."

Now some folks might comment that we believers suffer unemployment and that jobs are sometimes scarce. Habakkuk 3:17 and 18 (BBE) is a good reminder of how we must respond to such challenges. "For though the fig-tree has no flowers, and there is no fruit on the vine, and work on the olive comes to nothing, and the fields give no food; and the flock is cut off from its resting-place, and there is no herd in the cattle-house:Still, I will be glad in the Lord, my joy will be in the God of my salvation."

Work also lets us give to help the gospel spread and to help the poor. As Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 16:1-3 (BBE), "Now about the giving of money for the saints, as I gave orders to the churches of Galatia, so do you. On the first day of the week, let every one of you put by him in store, in measure as he has done well in business, so that it may not be necessary to get money together when I come. And when I come, I will send the men of your selection with letters to take the money you have got together to Jerusalem."

In the event Christ hasn't returned by Thursday, I hope I can post about how rich folks can't understand poverty.