Additional State Protocol Officer Meripeni Zares Ezung (4th from left) with some of the CBCMHK Camp Officials on Saturday. (Morung Photo)
Need to think about God beyond the context of church
Morung Express News
Kohima | May 20
Additional State Protocol Officer, Government of Nagaland, Meripeni Zares Ezung on Saturday emphasised that “we need to realign and shift our thinking that God is interested only in our spiritual life” while asserting that our faith is not only what happens on Sundays.
“What really matters is how you carry your faith to work from Monday to Saturday. And through that, you show that God is very much alive and God is working. It's just showing up and doing what you are called to do and doing it excellently,” she articulated.
Meripeni Zares Ezung was speaking on the topic, “Work matters” at the 3-day Youth Camp 2023 from May 19 to 21 organised by the Chakhesang Baptist Church, Minister's Hill, Kohima at Perinuothou, BSF Camp Road, T.Khel, Kohima. The Youth Camp is being held under the theme ‘Exousia Worship.’
Emphasising that whatever work one does matters before God, she reiterated that “whatever you are doing, as a student, as a teacher, as a businessman, whatever you are doing, it matters before God” and the need to think about God beyond the context of the church.
She further pointed out that work matters because “work is an essential part of our humanity; work is how we love our neighbours; work is a visible sign of God's renewing work in the world; and work has eternal significance.”
Through our work irrespective of what we do, she said, “we are participating in God's mandate of work. She further highlighted that the Bible is one unified story wherein in the beginning, there was creation and in the beginning, there was work. Pointing out that one misunderstanding is that work is a result of curse she said, “work was before the fall; work preceded the fall” and emphasized that “work is God's gift to mankind.”
She further asserted that the story of redemption goes beyond saving our souls. “With Jesus dying on the cross, creation itself was redeemed,” she pointed out and added that “We are all participating in the renewal of the work through our work.”
She also highlighted that 75% of the Bible Heroes were employed in the workplace and much of the Bible teaching is workplace centered while “of the settings of Jesus’ 132 appearances, 122 were in the workplace.” Of the 37 different parables told, she said, “32 has a workplace context” and “of 40 divine interventions recorded in Acts, 39 were in the workplace.”
“Jesus called 12 workplace individuals, not clergy to build his church,” she added while reemphasising that “we are all called to be witnesses of God” and that, regardless of the work we do or the profession one is in, it is the same and it matters to God.
