Romans 8:24b-26a:
“But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness.”
You Didn’t Build That Business – Guest Post – Daniel Diaddigo
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| “Unfinished Business…with God” – Daniel Diaddigo |
I just got Daniel Diaddigo’s email newsletter and I think you should, too. If you’re too lazy to click here, I’ve posted his latest – spot-on, might I add – edition below as a guest post, with permission. He’s planning to do some great things with the newsletter, so here’s your second chance to “click here” and subscribe.
Daniel is also the author of a very important book called “Unfinished Business with God”. He’s on point with that piece, too. Click here to take a closer look at this poignant book, or to order or share it with someone who takes your opinion seriously that has unfinished business with God.
-AP
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“Let everything that has breath
praise the Lord. (Psalm 105:6)”
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| Daniel Diaddigo is a husband, father, author, and thought leader in marketplace ministry. |
“If you’ve got a business… you didn’t build that, someone else made that happen.”
These words, arranged and dispersed by President Barak Obama and broadcast ad nauseam by talk radio, have become the epicenter of late for a national discussion around the role people play in achieving success.
Pundits on the political right, with whom I would normally agree, have seized upon the President’s comments as proof positive of his collectivist soul.
They would argue that the American Dream resides not upon dependence upon government but dependence upon self, that rugged individualism made this country great, and that achievement is the net result of a person’s hard work and ingenuity.
And they would be wrong.
Don’t hit delete yet. Hear me out. I’m writing from the vantage of an entrepreneur.
If you count the Jolly Rancher racket I ran in middle school, I have owned, managed and/or created about a dozen companies over the past thirty years.
I know what it is to navigate regulations, litigation, and innovation. Leadership development, employee benefits and incentives, marketing campaigns, personnel issues, price points and competition occupy my daily discourse. I am familiar with eighteen-hour days and “vacations” stalked by market volatility.
Simply put, I understand experientially what people mean when they say they “built this business”. I, too, would like to believe that I am responsible for my own success.
But I am not. Someone else made that happen.
If we could hear past the static of American discourse and think biblically for a moment, I believe we would agree that we are not owners and we are not creators.
We are stewards.
Our gifts and talents, relationships, upbringing and proximity to opportunity are ordained by God. It is true that we reap what we sow and there does exist a causal relationship between our achievement and our diligence. But even the spark that drives us to achieve does not self-ignite. No, someone else made that happen as well.
That someone is God.
We are shepherds of that which the Lord entrusts to us. To the extent we follow Him, we lead well. To the degree we trust Him, we manage well. And where we depend on Him, we decision well.
But when we yield to the belief that that business is our own – we substitute ourselves for God as the center of all things.
I’m not making a political statement here. Our friends on the left are equally wrong, for they would insert government in that same space.
Here is truth: anything that occupies the center of our hope that is not Jesus is a distraction and a lie.
We who believe we are the reason for our business should remember He Who provides the breath with which we boast.
What Would You Do with Three Free Sins?
While I disagree with Steve Brown’s use of “sinner”, (theNew Testament constantly refers to those in Christ as “saints”. Not because we don’t sin, rather because we
The Gay Thing – Is it Really that Simple?
In a recent article at Christianity today, Michael Horton places some perspective around some remarks recently made by Alan Chambers. Chambers is president of Exodus International, an organization ministering to “ex-gays”. As a man who dabbled in the homosexual (bisexual) lifestyle for close to two decades until I submitted to Christ as both my Savior and Lord, I was compelled to read up on the “controversy” as well as the reply.
The most important word I see God using throughout the entire catalog of scripture is the word “repent”. It’s from a Greek word “metanoia”. It essentially translates as “new mind” or “change of thought”. When I met Christ as He appears in scripture, the things He said caused me to change my mind about how I lived. First, that I am incapable of meeting God’s standards on my own – if I spent the rest of eternity doing good, I could never make up for the sins I’ve committed against a God who is both Holy and eternal. That was a game-changer. Further, when I realized that Christ raises the bar on sin – “You have heard it said… but I tell you… even think like this and you’re guilty of sin…” I had to make a decision – “Can I honestly serve two masters? Can I serve both porn and Christ? Can I truly serve Christ while still disobeying his call to sexual purity, whether bi or heterosexual?”
To repent is to turn away and run to Jesus. If I’m facing my sin and trying to face Jesus, I’m not really running, am I? So, I ran to Jesus. Only by His grace am I saved and does He continue to keep me from my “natural” propensities to habitually sin. Do I still cuss? Do I still burst out in anger? Do I still lie? Yep. Still imperfect. But, not as often, not as willfully, and not without remorse and continued repentance. I don’t go to those things to find life anymore.
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2012/julyweb-only/lets-not-cut-christ-to-pieces.html?paging=off
“our choices… reinforce or counter the specific sins toward which we are especially disposed.”
Michael Horton
“In a world that refuses to be healed, we must face the fact that we
are not the heroes of our stories. it teaches us to rely on something
bigger than ourselves and teaches the source of true compassion.” Jeff Goins Wrecked