For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:6)

This Christmas season, you’ll likely hear the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s Messiah in your church, mall, or on TV. Over the next four weeks, we’ll examine the four messianic titles sung in that glorious piece derived from Isaiah 9:6—Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace—and ask ourselves what it means for our work today that Jesus is all these things and more. 

We begin with Christ’s title of “Wonderful Counselor.” 

The best counselors have been where you’ve been—they feel your pain. That’s what makes Jesus a Wonderful Counselor: nobody understands your pain better than him. Hebrews 4:15 says, “we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not ...

Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Luke 12:33-34)

My daughter Ellison and I were at Universal Studios standing in line for a Minions ride that had a consistently low 5 minute wait. As the doors swung open for our turn, it was clear there were too many people in our row. Either us or the party behind would have to wait another round. Ellison offered to let the other family go ahead of us.

Then, to our surprise and delight, an employee gave us an Express Pass to cut to the front of the line on the best ride in the park (Hagrid's rollercoaster) which had a minimum wait of 120 minutes that day.

Needless to say, we were ecstatic about the ride. But I was even more excited for the opportunity to talk with Ellison about eternal rewards. I read her today’s passage and explained th...

…see that you also excel in this grace of giving. I am not commanding you, but I want to test the sincerity of your love by comparing it with the earnestness of others. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich. (2 Corinthians 8:7-9)

I wince whenever I hear pastors urge their congregations to “tithe.” Why? Because we Christians aren’t under the Mosaic Law that instituted the tithe (more here if you’re interested). Believers under Jesus’s New Covenant are not given a rule for giving. We are given an example: Christ himself.

That’s what Paul is getting at in today’s passage. He encourages us to “excel in this grace of giving,” and roots that call in “the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,” who “for your sake…became poor.” 

That brings us to the third biblical principle for stewarding the income we earn at work: We are called to give out of what Christ has given us. And beca...

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also….No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. (Matthew 6:21, 24)

In one of The Hunger Games novels, the characters are placed into a tropic arena where they are forced to survive and fight to the death. One of the warriors is tempted by the allure of her surroundings until she realizes that “everything in this pretty place — the luscious fruit dangling from the bushes, the water in the crystalline streams, even the scent of the flowers when inhaled too directly — is deadly poisonous” and designed to kill her.

That’s a pretty good picture of how God’s Word describes money: tantalizing but toxic. Which is why God calls us to surrender it to him. That brings us to the second biblical principle for stewarding the financial fruit of your labor: God doesn't need your money, but he wants your heart before mo...

 And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. (2 Corinthians 9:8)

Work and money are inextricably linked. So over the next four weeks, I’ll unpack four biblical principles for honoring God with your income—whether you’re barely making ends meet or enjoying far more than your “daily bread.” 

Here’s the first: We are free to enjoy the fruit of our labor—but the primary purpose of abundance is to bless others.

1 Timothy 6:17 makes the first half of that statement clear. After warning Timothy not to put his “hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God,” Paul says it is that same God “who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.”

But Paul is even clearer that the primary purpose of our abundance is to bless others. In 2 Corinthians 9:8, he implies that abundance is anything beyond what you “need” to “abound in every good work” God has called you to. 

With t...

Devote yourselves to prayer. (Colossians 4:2)

Ole Kirk Christiansen didn’t live long enough to see LEGO become the most successful toy company in history. But he did live long enough to see something even greater: a glimpse of how his work honored his Lord. 

Just a few months before his death, Christiansen attended a party to mark his company’s 25th year in the toy business. Christiansen’s son Godtfred, by then the day-to-day leader of LEGO, locked eyes with his father and said, “We all know that this company was born during a time of great struggle and adversity, and that its motto has always been ‘Pray and work.’...You have created something of genuine social benefit, Dad!...I can venture to say that all of us gathered here will continue to strive to do our best, and that our motto remains ‘Pray and work.’”

Ole Kirk Christiansen’s life reminds us that we glorify God by devoting ourselves to prayer. Because as Oswald Chambers said, “Prayer does not fit us for the greater work; pray...

Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people. (Ephesians 6:5-7)

Long before the LEGO brick, Ole Kirk Christiansen got into the toy business by selling wooden yo-yos, toy cars, and ducks-on-wheels. As the business grew, so did his family’s involvement.

Eager to please his father and boss, Christiansen’s son Godtfred tried to make the business more efficient. He thought they could save time and money by shipping ducks with only two coats of varnish instead of the three prescribed by his father.

After shipping an order of two-coat ducks, Godtfred proudly reported his savings. But his father was not pleased. To Godtfred’s embarrassment, Christiansen demanded that he fetch the entire order and give the ducks the third coat. Be...

We also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. (Romans 5:3-4)

A jumbled flurry of musical scales filled the front room of Ole Kirk Christiansen’s home. The LEGO founder’s son, Godtfred, was playing the family organ when he felt a heavy hand on his shoulder. He looked up to see his father staring into space, the usual gleam in his eyes veiled by shock.

Godtfred’s hands fell from the keys, the sudden silence somehow louder than the chaotic chords from moments before. Christiansen sat down, took a deep breath, and tried to do the impossible: explain to his son what he didn’t understand and console with a comfort he didn’t feel. His wife and nearly-born daughter were dead.

This was easily the most brutal trial of Ole Kirk Christiansen’s life, but it wasn’t the only one. The entrepreneur watched his LEGO factory go up in flames three times, he was constantly saddled with debt, and his home was commandee...

[Jesus said], I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me…Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me. (Matthew 25:35–36, 40)

On a spring day in 1917, a fourteen-year-old orphan named Viggo arrived in Billund, Denmark, carrying nearly everything he owned in a tiny suitcase. The founder of LEGO, Ole Kirk Christiansen, was there to pick him up at the train station for the start of his four-year apprenticeship.

But Viggo was treated as far more than just an employee. He soon became like an adopted son, sharing daily meals with Christiansen’s family.

As was customary in early 20th-century Denmark, Viggo wasn’t paid during his apprenticeship. But Christiansen went out of his way to teach him how to collect wood shavings...

[The angel] measured the [New Jerusalem] with the rod and found it to be 12,000 stadia [roughly 1,400 miles] in length, and as wide and high as it is long…The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone. (Revelation 21:15-16, 19)

In 1 Corinthians 11:1, Paul said, “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.” Similarly, we’d be wise to follow the examples of believers throughout history who followed Christ well in their seemingly secular but deeply sacred work. That’s exactly what this new series is designed to help you do, with LEGO’s founder, Ole Kirk Christiansen, as our guide.

Over the next five weeks, Christiansen will help us see five ways to glorify God in our own work today. Here’s the first: We glorify God by accepting his gift to play within our work.

It’s no coincidence that the creator of the world’s most popular plaything was himself playful. As a poor child in early 20th century Denmark, Christiansen tied a hollow rock to a s...