Tag: profession

Professions and Businesses That An Earnest Christian Should Avoid

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God’s People, Do Not Choose the Wrong Career – Part 2

The second part of a message that will provide some deep insights to every young man and young woman pondering their career path, and may even bring a new perspective to people who are already well-established in a profession.


 

Every profession and every business in this world has been infiltrated by Satan. I do not mean taken over by Satan or run by Satan, but affected and tainted by the devil to a greater or lesser extent. There is deception and evil influence – again to a greater or lesser extent – in every sphere of human endeavor. Listen to these declarations in the Scriptures:

that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world.   Rev 12:9

Then the devil, taking Him up on a high mountain, showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said to Him, “All this authority I will give You, and their glory; for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. Therefore, if You will worship before me, all will be Yours.”   Lk 4:5-7

I suppose not everyone who reads these verses pays close attention to some keywords in them. Some of the keywords are, ‘Devil, kingdoms, world, authority, glory, worship’. But the keywords that tend to be glossed over make, literally, a whole world of difference. These words are, ‘whole, all, whomever’.

First, the Devil deceives the whole world. Second, he has been given all authority and glory of all the kingdoms of the world and he can give it to whomever he wishes to give.

While every profession and business on earth has been tainted and influenced by Satan to a greater or lesser degree, there are some that Christians should avoid at any cost. I am, of course, not referring to occupations involved in illegal business, such as smuggling or dealing in pirated or pornographic goods, and the like, which are obvious to any Godfearing person as downright sinful occupations.

Professions which are not that obvious include those in a nation’s armed forces and in the glamor industry such as acting and modeling (unless one can join them in some aspect that doesn’t involve compromising with God’s law), about which I wrote in part 1 and 2 of this message series. In this message I will mention a few other professions that God would not approve your entering – professions which are even less obvious to many Christians in their intrinsic sinfulness than military service or an acting career.

Moneylending Business

God’s people can certainly lend money to whomever they want to. It is when they make it a business that it turns to an unrighteous way of earning an income. No man or woman of God should lend money to anyone in need and then exact interest on repayment. To do so is a direct violation of God’s law. Even working in an organization whose business is making money by charging interest is not a good choice of employment because you are contributing your time and effort to perpetuating an evil scheme in human life.

Whoever increases wealth by taking interest or profit from the poor amasses it for another, who will be kind to the poor.   Pr 28:8

Suppose there is a righteous man who does what is just and right…He does not lend to them at interest or take a profit from them…He follows my decrees and faithfully keeps my laws. That man is righteous; he will surely live, declares the Sovereign Lord.   Eze 18:5,8-9

I consider moneylending such an accursed profession that I will have nothing to do with even the people associated with it. Some years ago a marriage proposal came for my daughter. It was brought to us by some relatives who knew the boy’s family well. The parents were extremely wealthy and highly respected in my community, and their son was a good looker and well mannered. It would have been the dream proposal for many a parent looking for an ideal husband for their daughter. But the moment I heard the name of the boy’s family, I said sternly to the ones who brought me the proposal that they should not mention this subject to me ever again. The boy’s parents were the founders of one of the largest moneylending institutions in the country. Numerous are the suffering poor who have been left poorer and suffering more because they could never redeem what they had pawned in their dire need, which was then usurped by this family of usury takers. But the relatives who brought the proposal could never understand my stance, and could only shake their heads in disbelief.

Have nothing to do with the usury profession and do not even associate closely with usury takers, and God will delight in you and he will bless you for your faithfulness in keeping all his decrees and laws.

Debt Collection Agency

Now what’s wrong in being employed by an honest-working debt collection agency? There’s nothing wrong with an organization itself that is founded to help other organizations redeem their hard-earned money from elusive clients. The wrong is in the way that an agency uses to collect the debts.

I don’t know if there is anywhere on earth a single collection agency that doesn’t use ungodly tactics to get their money. Companies, when all their reminders, pressures and threats finally exhaust, hand over the bad debt to a collection agency, even if they have to part with half the redeemed amount, which is the usual agency fees.

And how do debt collection agents attempt to get back the money? Would they go to a debtor, sit down with him, sincerely try to find out why he is defaulting, and then work out a solution satisfactory to both parties? Now a solution in most cases would mean either allowing the debtor to repay on a scheme that would not further compound the debtor’s financial misery, or keeping on giving him more time to repay. Is that how most debt collectors act towards the defaulters? They will use every legal, but ungodly, way to retrieve the money. And if they think they can get away with it, they will often use even illegal ways to get it. The degree of oppression they inflict upon the debtor varies from country to country – but the ways of intimidation are almost always those which no true Christian would resort to.

Gambling Industry

The gambling industry is one of the world’s largest sources of corporate and governmental revenue, and one of mankind’s greatest sources of addiction. So great is the revenue it generates to a nation’s exchequer that the government in several countries, including mine, has monopolized the lottery business.

Casinos and horse races are venues where daily millions of people around the world converge to bet their money away. Don’t put your money on the stakes, no, not even occasionally for fun. It is a tool of the devil to destroy God’s people, a tool that the enemy uses just as he uses alcohol, drug, pornography, and other addictions to destroy lives and tear families apart. No follower of Christ should work in an establishment that makes money by gambling in any direct or indirect form.

Even futures trading is a gambling business. This business involves speculating – actually gambling – on the price movement of commodities in the market. How can one conscientiously make money on trading that is based on future likelihoods in the market place when God’s Word states that no one can be sure of even what tomorrow will bring?

Some Other UnGodly Professions

You should be wary even of businesses that involve the ‘pyramid’ scheme of making money. It is not a right scheme for a believer to earn his livelihood.

Selling timeshare properties is another profession you should be wary of.

Research online about pyramid and timeshare businesses and you will see that in many, perhaps most, cases they end up with their customers dissatisfied and feeling cheated of their money. Not in all cases, but enough to dissuade a Godly person from entering these professions.

Under no circumstance should a person who considers himself a true Christian work in an abortion clinic.

Don’t be involved in industries manufacturing or dealing in products that cause human destruction or harm – such as armory and tobacco.

Sometimes a person may take up a noble profession such as teaching, but within that profession there may be aspects of work that promote unGodly beliefs. For example, a Bible believer may have to teach the devil’s lie about evolution to es students in biology class. By doing so, isn’t the believing teacher implanting a there’s-no-Creator teaching into young impressionable minds? But evolution is an essential part of all secular biology texts, and teaching it is mandatory in most public schools. So, should a conscientious Christian refuse to teach certain sections of the school curriculum that compromise es core beliefs? Now that would mean such a person is overrighteous and is not using wisdom. Such overrighteousness leads to the person losing his job and destroying his opportunity to be a good provider to his family.

Do not be overrighteous, neither be overwise – why destroy yourself?  Ecc 7:16

So should a person teach evolution and still remain a faithful Christian? In all such job conundrums, seeking wisdom from God is the only answer. Perhaps the biology teacher can skip this one subject in es teaching program. Or while teaching this subject, e can remind the students that this is only the opinion of people who do not believe in God’s creation and they are studying it only for the sake of the syllabus. This principle, along with deep pondering and prayer, can be applied to many other dubitable professions, or professions in which exist doubtable practices.

Let me conclude this series of messages with one profession that can be a controversial subject even among faithful people of God. I am mentioning it here only as my personal opinion, and if you disagree with me I am not going to say you are wrong. But I think I too have reasonable guidance of the Holy Spirit and what I say on this subject may not be far from the truth either.

Male Gynecologists and Obstetricians

You shall not uncover the nakedness of your brother’s wife; it is your brother’s nakedness.   Lev 18:16

Are male gynecologists exempted from this law of God? Or does it mean that they may uncover the nakedness of every woman who is not a brother’s wife in the course of their professional duty? And who, by the way, are the brothers and sisters of a Christian gynecologist?

But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have one Teacher, and you are all brothers.   Mt 23:8

Of course, the verse in Leviticus refers specifically to uncovering in a sexual context, and not to the case of child delivery or medical care. But for those people who desire to keep God’s law to the utmost even in the least area, this law about uncovering also applies generally to uncovering a woman’s nakedness in any context.

Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.   Mt 5:19

Moreover, male gynecologists, even with Christian thought control, may not always be able to view and touch a naked lady, even with a bulging tummy, and not feel carnal sensations on occasion. If I am wrong in my perception of this profession, may the good Lord correct me; he hasn’t yet, even though I have been pondering this issue in my spirit for several decades.

If any man of God is pondering the medical profession as his career, and if gynecology is what he thinks is best suited for his aptitude, then I strongly urge him to take this matter to God in fasting and prayer before he decides to follow this course.

What I counsel men of God in this profession, I counsel women also. No woman, if she is a doctor or nurse, should behold a naked man, other than her husband, or probe his private parts for medical examination. Where you are constrained by your profession to do so, then take up the matter earnestly with your Father in heaven, and he will show you a way out that a human mind thinks impossible, so your life can be chaste and without blemish even in the least areas of your conduct.

And to all other Christians pondering their life path, I give the same final counsel. Take up your job preference to your Father in heaven in earnest prayer, and he will surely guide you to the right decision. It is to his glory to lead you to a profession that is pleasing to him and that will glorify him in all that you do in it.

Oh, before I bring this subject to a close, let me share this joke, which if you think beyond the funny aspect, has a most serious matter for everyone to think about deeply about male doctors and female patients.

Teacher, to her elementary grade student :  What do you want to become when you grow up?

Li’l Johny :  Doctor !!

Teacher :  Why?

Li’l Johny :  Coz it’s the only profession where u can tell a woman to take off her clothes and ask her husband to pay for it.

 

Pappa Joseph

 

 

Young Christian, Beware of the Glamor Industry

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God’s People, Do Not Choose the Wrong Career – Part 1
This is a 3-part message that will provide some deep insights to every young man and young woman pondering their career path, and may even bring a new perspective to people who are already well-established in a profession or business. Here is Part 1.

 

 

There is a saying in my native language Malayalam, stated when a person wants to send his milch cow to spend some time with a stud bull so it could conceive. He says, ‘I want to send her among the crowd’. Probably the saying originated from the fact that the cow is released among a herd of horny bulls waiting to pounce on any of their female kind straying into their midst.

Many parents, who have not yet received understanding of God’s laws relating to human morality, are unwittingly doing this to their daughters – sending them among ‘the crowd’. Of course, not with the same intention as the owner of the milch cow, but often with the same consequences at the end – pregnancy, or at least, pounced upon.

I am starting with the glamor industry because that’s where many young people, deprived of a firm Christian foundation, desire to enter, but on realizing they don’t have the opportunity to pursue this dream career settle for some other profession. But their initial career fantasies continue to have a firm place in their hearts as is evidenced by their keen interest in the lives of the celebrities in this industry.

Oh, how many young women, even faithfully married ones, have I personally seen swooning at the sight of some hunky actor, or describing their meeting with a male celebrity with an intense glaze of adoration in their eyes! How many young men today crave for a close encounter with the beautiful actresses over whom they fantasize lewdly in their imaginations!

Some years ago, my daughter took up, with my approval, some carefully screened modeling jobs. Until recently, if you happen to visit one of the world’s most popular tourist and business destinations in the Middle East, as soon as you emerged from the passport checkpoint in the airport, you will land in a huge lobby where the first thing you would notice was a giant poster with my daughter’s full-length picture – an ad promoting the telecom services of the government. She was winning national beauty contests as well, and there were suggestions that she be sent for global contests.

We knew she was in safe hands, but soon things were getting a little out of those protective hands. She was attracting far greater offers – even to act in movies. And she was beginning to draw unwanted attention, from powerful people in the regal circles. My daughter, trained well in prudence, knew it was time to quit, and she did. She made a decision that unbelievers could never understand, and they could only shake their heads in disbelief. But we rejoiced that her Godly upbringing kept her safe, for she chose not to go among ‘the crowd’. Moreover, she had the benefit of inheriting the spiritual genes of her father who decades earlier had made a similar choice.

My heart breaks when I see parents, especially in the materially advanced countries, sending their daughters among the herds without the least prescience of the consequences. As a young man, I was accepted into the modeling industry and my pictures appeared prominently in newspapers and on posters all over the country for a while. I was quickly making it well into this industry. Once, a father and his daughter came to the agency that had hired me so that the young lady could audition for a modeling career. The father earnestly sought an opportunity for his daughter to enter this glittering profession, and was even ready to allow his daughter to appear skimpily in some bikini ad. As he talked to the agent, his innocent daughter stood coyly near him, like a heifer waiting obediently to be sent by her master in any direction. So what’s the big deal if the young woman takes some risks in entering this industry, the father might have reasoned…there’s money, there’s fame, there’s the fantastic celebrity lifestyle, there’s the whole world to gain if his daughter could get a good opening into the glamor world – even if such opportunity might come at the cost of losing a trifle bit of her soul, and perhaps a little bit of her skin, among the crowd.

I don’t know what happened after that, but I guess with a father like that, she might have been an easy prey to pounce on, unless she was an exceptional woman with a her own strong sense of morality. (By the way, if this is not a movie actor writing this, but a servant of God, then it is because my young prudent wife, on seeing me alongside a curvaceous model in the newspaper, stamped her foot down and put an immediate end to any lingering doubts I had about this profession. Since then, I never went for a single modeling session, although the agency people came running home to plead with me to reconsider, and if I did, they assured they would ease the way for me to act in movies. Thanks, but no thanks, praise God!)

That the glamor industry, especially filmworld, is not a good place for decent young ladies to seek a career is a fact acknowledged by even the more conscientious of parents in that industry. Dharmendra, one of India’s most successful actors ever, has gone on record saying he does not believe that the film industry is a place suitable for girls. He was unperturbed by his sons joining the industry, but was vocal about his displeasure when one of his daughters chose to follow her dad’s footsteps.1 Strangely, there’s no record of him ever being vocal about other’s daughters embracing him in the over 247 films he had acted in his career.

If you are, or will one day be, the parent of a blossoming lady or a burgeoning young man, or if you are a young lady or a young man yourself, remember that there are many professions in this age which your heavenly Father would not want you, or your child, to risk entering. Some are safe to a certain extent. Acting in films with themes that promote sound family values, in which actors do not have to lock mouths or be entwined around each other, or appear as a fully dressed model in some good advertisements, are ok. But there’s always an inherent danger even within the safe limits of these professions. The young person in any such profession is constantly exposed to tempting vibes coming from avenues of golden opportunities alluring them to the glamorous celebrity world, where there are too many avenues for one to sin and too much pressure on one to lay bare the skin.

Listen to prudent counsel, young man or young woman of God – it’s a wise and safe decision for you to steer away from all those professions where there is prevalent risk of compromising your morality and shipwrecking your future happiness. In return for your faithfulness, God will ensure you have a joyous and exciting life, both as a single now and later as a spouse, more than you could ever have as a successful professional in a morally risky industry. A marriage and family life blessed by God is something that even the most sought after and slobbered over celebrity can only dream of but can never attain.

 

Pappa Joseph

 

1 ‘People’ – BBC Asian Network

 

CLICK HERE TO GO TO PART 2:  ‘Can A Christian Join His Nation’s Armed Forces?’