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My main goal is to help them come to a correct understanding of who they are and where they are, and then they, together with the Lord, can begin to participate in the right kinds of activities.
is a radical change in the understanding of what work is, what job is, what business is, and it can only be understood in the context of the kingdom of God.
Business is God’s arrangement. Human beings didn’t think it up. They put some variations on it, but it is a part of God’s arrangement, by which human beings love and serve one another.
Business is a fundamental structure of love in the kingdom of God.
point out in teaching about the kingdom of God is that our role in our present life is training for reigning. That applies to business.
Often, when we look at business and the fine details, especially religious business, it doesn’t look like God is in control. That’s because He has made space for us to learn to live under Him, and to love our neighbor as ourselves, while we are at the same time loving Him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength.
Today when we talk about loving someone, it often means that we must be prepared to approve of what they desire, and the decisions that they make, and to help them fulfill those goals. So in effect we are told, “If you love me, you will do what I want you to do.” Now that gives a whole new meaning to service. And that can even lead you, in the church situation, toward simply trying to do what people want in order to get them to come back.
If you look at it historically, if you look at the literature regarding business, you will see that the aim of business is to make provision for the needs of the people in an area.
The aim of business is not to make money. Just like the aim of churches is not to attract people. Is it important to make money? Yes it is. Is it important to attract people? Yes it is. But that’s not the mark of success. And that’s where we have to have a different place to stand.
The place of discipleship is wherever I am now. It’s wherever I am now, and whatever I am doing now.
Sometimes I’d prefer that the lessons would stop but they don’t, because life moves on, and students are different and colleagues change.
That’s why it’s important for me to understand that Jesus is, in fact, the smartest man in my field. He’s the smartest man in your field. It doesn’t matter what you’re doing. If you’re running a bank, or a mercantile company, or a manufacturing plant, or a government office, or whatever it is, He’s the smartest man on that job.
we’re constantly in school under Him.
if we are going to accept God in business, we need to be the kind of people who can be godly in business.
Al McDonald, the head of Jimmy Carter’s White House staff, once came to a seminar I gave. After my presentation, he came up to me and asked, “How do you get Christianity into the boardroom?” My answer was very simple: “Have a Christian walk in and sit down.” There isn’t any other way.
He has left a space where we have to make the choice to be His people in the midst of His world.
Understanding how to be a good person—that’s where the light has gone out in our culture.
It comes as a real shock to many young people to realize that you could be successful and not be a good person.
A morally good person is a person who is intent upon advancing the various goods of human life with which they are in effective contact.
discipleship is not just a matter of learning what He says, but learning to do everything that I do in the way that He would do it if He were I. So I have to have a pattern of discipline in my life that enables me to steadily feed and nourish my soul and my body with the things that will enable me to be God’s person where I am. I’m not talking about being the local Christian nag. I’m talking about being the kind of person in whom God shines so brightly that people wonder what’s going on. You remember Jesus’ words, “Let your light so shine before men, that they will see your good works and
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what a beautiful description of what it means to light in this world
