This is The Day

"This is the day, This is the day, That the Lord has made, That the Lord has made.  We will rejoice, We will rejoice, And be glad in it, And be glad in it!..."

Remember singing this song as a kid in Bible School?  Remember singing it so loud and proud?  I wouldn't be surprised if kids were singing that yesterday in Church.

This very short song has so much meaning and inspiration behind it. This song comes from Psalms 118:24, where King David is telling us that God has made this day for us, because He loves us so very much! Sadly, we forget about this and take His gift for granted.

How many times have we gotten into an argument in the morning before work with our significant other and it throws off our whole day where we are grumpy and we are not pleasant people to be around?  How many times has a deal gone south, and everyone in the office knows to not talk to us? Is this a good example of being a Christ Follower? No, its not, yet so many times we let things (sometimes very small) get in the way of showing Christ's love to others.

King David also tells us in Psalms 18:31-34  "For who is God except the Lord? Who but our God is a solid rock? God arms me with strength, and he makes my way perfect. He makes me as surefooted as a deer, enabling me to stand on mountain heights. He trains my hands for battle; He strengthens my arm to draw a bronze bow."   Here David is telling us that God will always be there for us, he is our foundation. If we will put all of our Trust in him and he will keep us strong and everything in the end will be ok.

My first year as an Account Executive I went to a Dale Carnegie class.  It was there basic 12 week class and the class instructor was a man by the name of Jim Bird and after class one day I told him that I was having some issues with sales because it is hard getting turned down some times. He told me "Austen, think about it this way, whenever someone says ‘No’ you are one step closer to someone saying ‘yes’.” That one statement drastically changed the way that I view my business. It helped me realize that hearing someone tell me "no" was not the worst thing in the world.

Alexander Graham Bell once said: "When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.”

So my question today to you is:

Will you rejoice and be glad in it?

Finding the Common Ground

In John 17:16-18 Christ tells us that "Christians should be in the world and not of the world" - NKJV

Have we ever thought about what this really means?

Here is how Paul is living out John 17:16-18 in 1 Corinthians 9:19  Though I am free and belong to no man, I have become a slave to all people to bring many to Christ...When I was with the Jews, I lived like a Jew to bring the Jews to Christ...Yes, I try to find common ground with everyone, doing everything I can to save some. I do everything to spread the Good News and share in its blessings" - NLT

If Paul lived in modern day society, I believe that he would be a servant that worked because he knows this is where the majority of the people are. By trade Paul was a tent maker and in today's market he would be a home builder or a construction worker working to spread the Good News just like he did 2,000 years ago.

A couple of years ago, I had the privilege of working for a company that was founded on these principles. While working there, I witnessed people that did not have a relationship with Christ when they came to work and left knowing that Christ was their Lord and Savior.

Every now and then I will come across people that I worked with there, and they will tell me:  Things are different were they work now, moral can be low and it can be hard to stay positive. Every time I here this I say "Look at it this way, God has placed you at your current company for a reason, so that you can make a positive influence on the people that you work with and to serve them. In such a way that whenever people think  of ______ ________, they think "you know, there is something different about ______."

My question to you today is:

What would it look like if we worked everyday to be a servant?

Live the Calling

What is your calling? Do you know what your calling is?

This is something that I pondered and wondered for so many years, until a couple of years ago. I had been working full time for a ministry that I helped start and I was working full time at a mortgage company as a traveling account executive .

Since I was working full time for both I was getting pulled in many different directions, and it got to the point that I was running late to meetings and not meeting my deadlines on projects.  I knew that something had to change because I couldn't keep doing both.

At the time, I was thinking that I had to choose between my ministry or my employer. Ultimately I was thinking,  I had to choose either ministry or a profession, I couldn't choose both.  Long story short, I was wrong. After seeking counseling with men (Christians with more life experience and also with men who have worked for the church), they asked me "Where do you feel like you are being called?" I told them that it was with the mortgage company but I couldn't have a calling in the work place. They told me that I was wrong and pointed me towards Scripture.

I now believe that I am being called to work.

Since then I have realized that what I believe now is not very common. I have met multiple people that believe that you can not mix ministry and work, and I used to be one of them.

1 Corinthians Chapter 7, verse 17 says" But as God has distributed to each one, as the Lord has called each one, so let him walk..." verse 19 continues on to say "...but keeping the commandments of God is what matters" -   In the Chapter 10:23-33 Paul instructs us to "Give all to the Glory of God" - NKJV

A couple of weeks ago, I met a woman who was working in the McDonald's drive through line. I knew right away that there was something different about her because she was so personal even when I was ordering my food. When I pulled around to the window, I thanked her for being so personal and having a great attitude. She responded by saying "God put me here for a reason, so I am going to make the best of it." I was astonished. I was in the car with my family and we talked about it the entire day. Just the the 30 second conversation that we had with her, made an ever lasting impression on our lives.

So my question to you today is:

Have you been the McDonald's drive through "lady" lately?

Fear No Evil

In Psalms 23, David is expressing how much God loves him, how He is going to take care of him and how God is the Sheppard of his life. David says, in verse 4... "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me." David is telling us that no matter where he is going and what he is doing he knows that his God is right by his side to watch over him.

As a Christian in the workplace how does this look for you? Why are we so afraid to express God and Christ in our everyday work? Are we afraid of rejection, that we might not close on the deal? In today's society, we are taught that we never talk about religion with our friends, our co-workers, and our clients in fear that it will offend someone!

What would the Christian faith be like if the Apostles didn't want to offend anyone? What would our Faith be like if Paul (formerly known as Saul) did not want to write half of the new testament because he was "afraid" that someone might see his letters to the Churches?

According to The Blue Letter Bible. Portraits of the Apostles "...Paul uses both he and Barnabas as an example of apostles who still maintain a working trade while serving in ministry..." - Blue Letter Bible. Portraits of the Apostles. Blue Letter Bible. 1 Jun 2002. 25 Aug 2010. http://blueletterbible.org/study/misc/apostles.cfm>.

So my question(s) to you today is:

Have you walked through the valley of shadow of death lately?

What if our work was our ministry?

The Real Everyday Christian

A wise old man once told me that as a Christian we should concentrate on being a Christian everyday of the week instead of being a Christian on Sunday and some times on Wednesday.

Later on he told me that Christians should practice being a Christian just like lawyers practice law, doctors practice medicine. He then asked me: "Would you want to have surgery by a surgeon who practices medicine once a week?" My response: "No, of course not" He then asked: "Would you want a lawyer to represent you when he occasionally practices law whenever he feels like it?" My response again was: "No..." "Exactly!" he said with a very enthusiastic voice because he knew by the tone in my voice that I was starting to understand where he was coming from. He then continued to say..."As Christians we should practice Christianity everyday of the week even if our profession is not behind the pulpit."

The late Kenneth Kantzer says that "Being in business itself is a divine call" He goes on to say that " Business is a legitimate part of undertaking the stewardship of creation to make a human imprint on the Earth." - Doing God's Business: Meaning and Motivation for the Marketplace By R. Paul Stevens

"As Christian Business Men and Women we are called to make a difference in the communities that we serve and make a profit along the way!" quoted on 4/26/09 by Matt Carter of Austin Stone Community Church sermon on Gifts

"What if Christians could change their attitudes towards business & what if Christians could begin to change the attitudes of the world toward Business? - Wayne Grudem quoted in Doing God's Business: Meaning and Motivation for the Marketplace By R. Paul Stevens

So my question to you is:

What would your work/business/job be like if God was your President/CEO