When I graduated from college, a long time ago, I was pretty sure I knew just about everything. I figured everything I didn’t know didn’t matter. But I’ve managed to learn more, and the more I learn…
Continue Reading...Archives For November 30, 1999
While I love the topic of Leadership, there is One I follow. Posts in this section are about how my passion to follow Jesus more closely affects my life and legacy.
It’s been too long. Many of you even reached out to me to ask for an update before now.
Please don’t let the delay in my response communicate a lack of gratitude. We are grateful for your friendship and your prayers. We know they matter.
God provides strength for Vicky every day. Some days she needs less strength and some she needs more. She’s been seeing a doctor who’s not covered by our insurance simply because we’re willing to try different things. We’ve also spent some time trying to eat more naturally. And she has noticed that some of the foods we routinely eat do cause her some grief. That’s all been good.
So we continue and God continues and we are grateful for you if you continued. Please also feel free to let me know how we can pray for you. A cord of 3 strands is not easily broken. Thank you for your connection, friendship and prayers.
Would you do me a favor? I’m married to a great lady. To this day, I still wonder why she ever married me. Continue Reading…
Oswald Chambers in My Utmost for His Highest on November 16 says, “The tendency is to look for the marvelous in our experience; we mistake the sense of the heroic for being heroes.” Continue Reading…
As a Christian, when you think about your church, what do you think of? Do you think of the place, the people, the singing, the preaching? Do you think about the activities, or the classes, retreats, “ministries?” (What is a ministry anyway?)
Do you think about the overseas or cross-cultural activities that members of your church community participate in? Maybe you think about a ministry to people in another country or people in your local area who are in prisons or hospitals or homeless shelters?
Or do you think about the kids, Sunday school, lesson plans or youth events? Do you think about people getting baptized or making changes in their lives? Do you think about people who leave their jobs, temporarily or permanently to “go into mission work?”
Some questions have come to me over and over in the 10 and a half years since 9/11. On September 11, 2001, I was busy in the pursuit of worldly success in a company that was trying to capture the wealth and potential of the telecommunications industry at that time. I had been a believing Christian for almost 14 years, but that day the eternal became much more real. There was much more going on in the world than just my job and my pursuit of money.
September 11 woke me to the idea that I had subordinated my dream to make a difference to my desire to improve my circumstances. I rationalized it by thoughts like “I can make a much bigger difference when I’m wealthy or when I’m the boss.” But in the weeks after 9/11, I realized that my time was short and if I was going to make a difference, it would be in my circumstances, within my present limitations. No more delaying until the time is right. “Now” is and always will be the right time to make a positive difference.
In my community, it seems few think of our jobs as a place where we can make a difference for eternity. We don’t see our jobs as where we go to serve others and proclaim the glory of Christ (my simple definition of a mission field). In my community, everyone acts pretty much like a Christian, so all of the really important work to make an eternal impact must be somewhere else. Generally, in my community, if you haven’t killed anyone or been jailed for anything, you’re probably a Christian so I don’t have to worry about you at all. Nope, I have to plan my next trip to wherever or go to the bake sale or fireworks store at my church to give my money to “missions.” There’s no significant work for me to do, unless I can take some time off work and go someplace else.
When I think of church, I think of the rest of us that go to work every day. We listen to the Pastor and we sing the songs, and we do the things we’re asked. I think of what we could do if we were organized and mobilized in our jobs. What if we went to work every day intent on giving our lives away in service to our co-workers just so they might see the love of Christ? I wonder what our world would look like if that group of people in every church were mobilized and equipped to show off Jesus in the workplace.
I’m convicted too, that I don’t do this very well. If you’ve ever worked with me you know it. That won’t keep me from trying again today. How about you? Let me know if I can help you in your mission field too. Here’s to action!
Mowing my yard yesterday, I listened to my mix of 70’s rock and Christian music. My favorite songs speak volumes about my relationship with Christ. In one respect, I still hang on to and enjoy some of great music that predates my relationship with Christ. Christian music has awakened me to the power music has to take me out of my circumstances and refresh my relationship with Christ, but that familiar rock from my teens still makes my heart sing too.
Up comes the song Simple Man by Lynyrd Skynyrd. In with the great rhythm and guitar licks is this last verse
Forget your lust, for the rich man’s gold
All that you need, is in your soul,
And you can do this, oh baby, if you try,
All that I want for you my son,
Is to be satisfied.
True satisfaction can’t come from anything in this world. Many would agree when I say our world, and many of the people in it are broken. But, are we mostly good, with a little bad, or are we mostly bad with a little good? If people are basically good, we just need some help every now and again. We need a better government and a little more money. If we’re basically good, we need fewer obstacles. If I’m basically good, then it would be encouraging to remind me to find satisfaction in my soul.
But the Bible says that when Adam and Eve ate the apple, they died. And the world was placed under a curse. The good we see in people is the good created in us before the curse. But the bad is in our nature under the curse. It’s in every one of us.
“You can’t teach people to be lazy – either they have it, or they don’t.” ~ Dagwood Bumstead
I was created for a relationship with Christ. Part of that relationship is developed daily when I follow what Christ has for me to do. One of those things is glorifying Him, or showing Him off. When I act according to his commands, I show people that I think He is who He claimed to be. I live my life, sacrificing some temporary satisfaction for eternal satisfaction.
You see, the Simple Man’s Mom, wanted her son to be satisfied. I want my family and friends to be satisfied too. But I want them to be satisfied forever; not just for an hour or a year, or even for their whole life on this Earth. Pursuit of short-term satisfaction can prove eternally empty. I think the western church has lost much of its influence because we Christians pursue satisfaction the same way and at the same rate as our non-beliveing friends. We have to minister to people cross-culturally because the people in our culture don’t see our faith as having an impact or making a difference. Said another way, I have lost much of my eternal influence because I pursue satisfaction the same way my non-believing friends do. People can’t tell me from the rest of the world, although I believe differently. If I pursue satisfaction only in this world, I’ll fall short of showing my Savior to my friends and being satisfied for eternity.
The ability to be truly satisfied is in me, but it is because Christ put it there. I don’t want to take that to my grave, without sharing that with my friends. I want to make a difference right here. May God give me opportunities to sacrifice today in a way that will show Him off to my friends.
How about you? Are you energized or convicted by the thought of being different than the people around you? Do you live like you have a different value system, one that’s designed to work for eternity? How can I help you demonstrate your pursuit of eternal satisfaction this week?
Check out Ephesians 1:3-14. Paul goes into great detail about the riches God has bestowed on us. We have a wonderful inheritance in Christ and I totally disregard it, wanting the things of this world instead of the things God has already freely given.
Notice the tense. He:
v. 4 Chose us
v. 5 Predestined us to adoption
v. 6 freely bestowed His grace
v. 7 redeemed us
v. 8 lavished his grace on us
v. 9 made His will known to us
v. 11 gave us an inheritance (it appears here that Paul is saying that we were included in the family and plan of God. He has allowed us to be part of His plan.)
v. 14 gave us the down payment on our inheritance, the Holy Spirit.
Notice the interesting idea behind this passage? It’s ALL PAST TENSE.
Father may I today appreciate your gifts to me. May I remember Christ’s final words on the cross. “It is finished!” You have given me a great provision. May I not waste it!
How are you doing? Do you consider the way God has provided for each of us once we’re in Christ? What can you do today to live your life trusting the promises in this passage?
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Impact is defined as strking one thing with another; influence, effect, the force exerted by a new idea. Impact is difference.
Steve Jobs famously said, “We want to put a dent in the universe.”
As someone who believes that Jesus is who He claimed to be, it follows that I would believe the Bible. The Bible has quite a bit to say about our impact. Some of the verses that inform my idea of impact include:
Ephesians 2:10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
Matthew 5:16 Let your light shine in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in Heaven.
Matthew 28:18-20 All authority on heaven and earth has been granted to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all men baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit; teaching them to do all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.
So I’ve been wondering about my impact as a believer. How am I doing laying up treasure in heaven? When I get to heaven, will I have done the best I could? Certainly not. I’m aware of too many times when I could have made a more positive difference. I’m aware of more times I could have gone to the trouble to serve someone, or sacrifice something in the hope that I was doing something to glorify Christ.
So for the next few months on this blog, I’m going to share my thoughts on my relationship with Christ, what I learn about Him and what I think He’s telling me to do. At the core is my understanding of that Great Commandment from Matthew 28. Jesus has all authority. I’m to go, and make disciples. Where and to whom do I go? How do I make disciples? Must I look like a preacher? Must I be on staff with a church? Must I quit my job? Do I stand on the street corner and shout? Do I sell all of my possessions and move to some foreign country?
What type of impact am I to have? Do I make good use of the resources God’s provided? Or do I fall short?
My goal is to produce a series of articles that may become some shared learning on how at least one Christian in the workplace can make an eternal difference.
Note: Maybe you’re certain that my assumption that I’m going to heaven is arrogant. That thought is not based on my opinion, but on some clearly stated things in the Bible and I’d be happy to share that with you. Simply leave a comment below and I can explain further.
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Mike Henry Sr. 