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Showing posts from September, 2005

Surfing on God’s Wave

“One of the next great moves of God is through the Christians in the workplace.” - Billy Graham. Surfers don’t create waves. They just ride on it. One of God’s waves in our times is through the marketplace. The question is, “Are we surfing on it?” Ed Silvoso, author of Anointed for Business, pointed out that God called the church to “make disciples of all nations ” (Matthew 28:19, NIV) and not just individuals. People change when their heart changes. To transform a nation, we must start with its heart. Other than the government, at the very heart of the nation is the workplace. Thus workers (both white and blue collars) play a major role in our country’s transformation. We influence the workplace not only through hosting Bible studies in our companies but also applying what we have learned from it. We reach out to our peers and associates by sharing the Gospel to them and doing business by the Book. We pay the right taxes. We apply sound business practices. We uphold the highest busi

Things We Christians Can Do To Help Our Country (Part 4)

“So love the LORD your God with all your heart, soul, and strength. Memorize his laws and tell them to your children over and over again. Talk about them all the time, whether you're at home or walking along the road or going to bed at night, or getting up in the morning.” Deuteronomy 6:4-7, Contemporary English Version In January 1999, Coach Ken Carter chained the doors of the gymnasium of Richmond High School in California. Why? Fifteen out of his 45 players were not doing well academically as part of their contract as student athletes. That controversial decision earned him both ire and praise. What’s the big deal? The team was undefeated. The record was 13-0 to be exact. The lockdown caused them to forfeit two league games. Despite that, Coach Carter declared, “No practice and no games until grades improve.” His efforts paid off. One of his players was Wayne Oliver. He was a straight-F student before playing for Carter. He ended up with Oklahoma’s Cameron University. In fact,

Things We Christians Can Do To Help Our Country (Part 3)

“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” (Philippians 4:8, NIV) We saw already that in order to help our country we need to obey traffic rules, throw our trash properly and pay our taxes. This checklist may sound trivial to you. But if we can’t be trusted with small things, we can’t be trusted with big things. In order to help, we must also speak positively about our country. The trend nowadays is to focus on the negative, to dwell on the bad things that are happening in our nation. The Bible commands us to “think about… whatever is true… noble… right… pure… lovely… admirable… excellent or praiseworthy.” I am not saying we ignore or deny our plight. But we are to keep thinking about “the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse.” (The Message) One way of doing that is to be pr

A Letter We Wouldn’t Like To Receive

Allow me to share an article that, depending on our point of view, would touch our hearts or step on our toes. [1] I read it from The Biblical Studies Foundation website ( http://www.bible.org ). Some time ago an 18-year-old woman attended a worship service. For the first time in her life she heard a gospel message. The following Tuesday the pastor of the church received a letter from her. It read: Dear Pastor, Last Sunday I went to your church. I heard you preach that all men have sinned and rebelled against God. Therefore, they all face eternal separation from God. But then you also said God so loved the world He sent His Son, Jesus Christ to die for our sins and that all those who believe in him would go to heaven. My parents recently died in rapid succession. I know they did not believe in Jesus. If what you preach is true, they are damned. You compel me to believe that either the message is true, or that you yourself don’t believe this message, or that you don’t care. We live only