Prayer for My Work

Ken Boa is one of the smartest and yet most humble men I have been privileged to learn from. Check out Ken’s website for a host of great resources that will aid you in your spiritual development. In Ken Boa’s recent Reflections Teaching Letter he published a prayer for work entitled “Work as a Mode of Worship.” I pass it on for your consideration.

You have called me to participate in Your purposes through the work I have been given to do during my earthly sojourn. May I do my work with care and excellence in the desire to be pleasing to You. I realize that all things become spiritual when they are done in Your Name. May I honor You in my choices and activities and view the works of my hands as a mode of worship. I want whatever I do in thought, word and deed to be honoring to You and edifying to others. I ask for a clearer sense of purpose and calling and for the power to accomplish that for which You have placed me on this earth.

May it be true for all who bear the name of Jesus in our daily work.

What Is the Recession For?

My wife Kathy recently began blogging for AOL’s Parent Dish. She offers great information for Family Managers who want to make their home a great place to be. But, it’s not surprising that her editors ask her to give her blogs an economic twist. Not a bad idea at a time when everything else sounds trivial compared to the economic realities we experience daily.

The economy is even making it into the pulpit. And I say thankfully so. We need to hear what the Bible says about what we’re all thinking about. A friend send me a copy of John Piper’s sermon from February 1, 2009 entitled the same as this blog. I highly recommend it for anyone not wanting “to let a good crisis go the waste.” Here are “some” of reasons for this economic downturn according to Piper:

1. He intends for this recession to expose hidden sin and so bring us to repentance and cleansing.
2. He intends to wake us up to the constant and desperate condition of the developing world where there is always and only recession of the worst kind.
3. He intends to relocate the roots of our joy in his grace rather than in our goods, in his mercy rather than our money, in his worth rather than our wealth.
4. He intends to advance his saving mission in the world—the spread of the gospel and the growth of his church—precisely at a time when human resources are least able to support it. This is how he guards his glory.
5. He intends for the church to care for its hurting members and to grow in the gift of love.

What do you think?

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Pursuing Your Calling in a Down Economy

Job layoffs and an anemic economy are pushing many Christians to question the purpose of their lives, yet I meet very few who are thinking in terms of the “good works” God had in mind when he designed them. Each of us has a high calling we are obligated to follow, and when we do, this brings God great glory and us great joy.

The quest to discover our calling should begin with four facts we know for certain … To read more go to The High Calling.

Leadership Is Stewardship, Part 3

 This is the third of three articles I wrote on Leadership for The High Calling.

 To be faithful stewards, we must understand four important leadership principles.

3. The principle of accountability.  As we’ve learned, when a leader is given responsibility, he is accountable to the one who gave it. Paul reminds us “it is required of stewards that one be found trustworthy” (1 Cor. 4:2, NASB). Jesus told several parables in which he used stewardship as metaphor for how his kingdom operates. Each one ends with the steward giving account of what he had done with the master’s property. In the same way, we are stewards of everything we have been given, including our time, money, abilities, information, wisdom, relationships, and authority. And we will all give account to the rightful owner as to how well we managed the things he has entrusted to us.

Adam didn’t do so well when God called him to account for violating a direct command not to eat from a certain tree. True to form, those who want to avoid being held accountable blame others. She did it. Or even, God, it’s your fault. I don’t know about you, but this tendency toward blame runs pretty strong in me and many people I know. When something goes wrong, my default response is to look for someone else to point the finger at. Not that it’s always my fault, but that’s usually the last place I look. However, personal accountability must be a core value of leaders. Paul reminds us, like it or not, that we too will be held accountable.

For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. It is written: ” ‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord, ‘every knee will bow before me; every tongue will confess to God.’ ” So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God. (Rom. 14:10-12)

 

When we stand before God at his judgment seat, he won’t be interested in how difficult our spouses were to love, how uncooperative our children were to parent, how difficult our boss or employees were to deal with, how obstinate the people were at church, or how corrupt a culture we had to endure. We’ll give account for what we did with what he gave us. To read more click here to go to The High Calling

What’s on Your Balance Sheet?

At a recent workplace leaders breakfast a seasoned real estate developer spoke about how God had carried him through the real estate catastrophe in the late 1980s. He said, “I felt as if someone had torn out the asset page of my balance sheet, leaving me with only liabilities.” But then he reminded the group that as Christians we each have “hidden” assets to draw upon. Here are some of those assets that God adds to our balance sheet that can never be taken away from us:

• Scripture to remind us of the truth
• Prayer to call out to God and ask for help
• Abilities given by God to accomplish his purposes
• A God who cares about our work and is personally present
• Other Christians to encourage us
• The Holy Spirit to remind us of the truth when we forget it during the day

You may be feel the same way when you look at your net worth these days. But don’t forget to add in the multitude of deposits Christ has made into your personal account. What else can you add to this list?

2 Corinthians 8:9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.

Leadership is Stewardship, Part 2

This is the second of three articles I wrote on Leadership for The High Calling.

 To be faithful stewards, we must understand four important leadership principles.

1.  The principle of ownership.  A leader has privilege, responsibility, and authority because he has been given these by his master. A steward doesn’t own; he holds in trust and uses what he has been given for the one who owns it. Arrogance and pride don’t have any place in this equation. The title deed to our lives and the entire universe is in God’s name. He holds all the rights of ownership.

No organization—be it a family, company, or church—is created for the leader, nor is it created by the leader. Everything we have comes from God. The Bible is clear. He owns it all:

“The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.” (Ps. 24:1)

In response to this divine claim, Abraham Kuyper, prime minister of the Netherlands at the turn of the twentieth century, proclaimed: “There is not one square millimeter of this entire creation about which Jesus Christ does not cry out, ‘This is mine! It belongs to me!’ ” Everything in this world is God’s by right of creation and by right of preservation as well. All that we have added to Creation—the skills and abilities we’ve used and the things we’ve developed—are from God. We don’t even own the fruit of our own work. He reminded the Jews of this before they entered the Promised Land.

You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth (Deut. 8:17-18).

Every individual is also His by right of creation and by right of redemption.

Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.   (1 Cor. 6:19-20)

Nothing belongs to us, not even our lives. As much as I might like to define myself by the size of my home, the speed of my car, or my title at work, everything I am and everything I have is God’s. As leaders, we must be constantly aware that our time, skills, and energy, and every resource, person, and opportunity comes from God.  To read more click here to go to The High Calling.

Leadership is Stewardship, Part 1

This is the first of three articles I wrote on Leadership for The High Calling.

One of We live in the Age of Quantification. We want to know how many, how much, and for how long. When it comes to leadership, we like to grade skills, measure behaviors, and add up accomplishments. However, the essence of leadership is broader than possessing certain skills and expertise. It’s deeper than what any leadership assessment can reveal. And it’s much more profound than being accountable to shareholders to impart vision and reap financial results. Business consultant Peter Block suggests that leadership should be viewed more as stewardship.

If the term stewardship makes you think of sermons you’ve endured about church budgets and building programs, think again. In the ancient world, stewardship was not a religious term. Rather it was a key component of commerce.  To read more click here to go to The High Calling.

What Size Is Your Package?

Have you heard this old adage? “A person wrapped up in himself makes an pretty small package.” The same is not only true for persons, but for any organization as well, especially the church.

The day before the election Robert Geyer and David Ruper asked a jarring question. Robert is a business executive and David is a communication professional. They write about the intersection of faith and life at Red Letter Believers. Their question was simple:

“Is it possible that big government thrives because of a little church?”

I think they are onto something. It’s not little church size-wise though. It’s little church vision-wise that’s the problem. Could it be that as church leaders have gotten wrapped up in themselves, they have forgotten their mission to the world? Is it right to blame government when the church (we Christians) has neglected to do it’s job?

While those of us who mistrust “big government” contemplate what happened on November 4, it might be more productive to reconsider the impact of “little church,” and what we can do to be a little less wrapped up in ourselves for the next four years.

Read Red Letter Beleivers blog.

It Takes a Team

Recently I heard this behind-the-scenes story about a company that had enjoyed notable success and is now struggling to survive. A former employee told me that he and other high-performers had worked their tails off, adding millions to the company’s bottom line. Yet the company’s president couldn’t bring himself to acknowledge their contribution. Instead, in press interviews, he personally took all the credit for the company’s growth.

Needless to say, this didn’t go over well with the sales team, nor did the president’s regular habit of raising their sales goals without raising their compensation. One day they decided enough was enough and left en masse to work for a competitor.

Any leader on a pedestal, no matter how he got there, is in a dangerous position.

(To read more go to The High Calling.)

Fishing for Jesus

Okay, I knew there was something spiritual about fly fishing. Check out this video on Sermon Spice.

What can you learn about evangelism from fly fishing? There are so many principles. One thing we don’t do, however, is catch and release. This beauty to the left is still thrilling anglers fishing the Frying Pan River, I hope. When we “catch” a man or woman for Christ, we want to take them home and make them part of our family.