Day 5
Devotional Point 4 today:
What an honor it is to partner with God in business…
Scripture 4 today:
“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.” Romans 12:1 NIV
Reflection 4 today:
Before Jesus came and died for us, sacrifices were offered to God by priests. Since then, we are to be the priests, and we are to be the sacrifices. Sacrifice is a bad word today, everyone wants everything the way they want it and now… But that is not God’s way either for us or for our businesses. Interestingly, Paul couches it in terms of understanding God’s mercy, which implies we understand how amazing it is based on the depth of our sin. Every day an in every minute of every day, it is about the sacrifice… I shall close this devotional with a thought for all of you: what is not transformed is transferred…
Question for the day: What is your sacrifice today? And how are you helping others with this?
Other Notes: Tomorrow we are going back to the 4th of Rick Warren’s devotionals on faith. he certainly wants to take us to the next stage in our faith, looking forward to diving into it…
Day 4
Devotional Point 4 today:
…change results from the transformation of heart and mind…
Scripture 4 today:
“You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” Ephesians 4:22-24 NIV
Reflection 4 today:
This concept of “putting off“ the old self is something that goes on day by day for as long as we live. Having the holy spirit inside us gives us unique power to make this happen. Try as you want, but with the old self, you have no hope of conquering sin. The core of it, is the issue of “choice“. When God created people, he didn’t create robots. He desires that we choose every day, and throughout each and everyone of those days. At the centre of all the choices we will make today will be the choices to put off the old and put on the new.
Question for the day: how can you slow things down today and see all of your actions as “putting off the old“ and “putting on the new“?
Day 3
Devotional Point 4 today:
…He will burn anything that is unlike Him…
Scripture 4 today:
“Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? The one who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not trust in an idol or swear by a false god.” Psalms 24:3-4 NIV
Reflection 4 today:
The concepts of purity and holiness are not something you see talked about much today, for all the obvious reasons. The clean hands part is the external manifestation, the pure heart is the integral part. Only when the internal part is straight are you about to get the external part straight. But the bigger issue is the understanding that God Himself is arranging for the external dross to be burned away from us. Burning is painful, we need to ensure that we don’t mislead people about that, it is going to be painful…
Question for the day: Are you ready for the pain of the burning away of the dross? How can we become better prepared for this???
Day 2
Devotional Point 4 today:
…to behold something remarkable with wide-open eyes…
Scripture 4 today:
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.”
Matthew 5:8 NIV
Reflection 4 today:
Interesting that it says pure in heart, and there is no modifier to that. Not pure morally or pure 24/7 time commitment, not pure with any object, just plain pure. God took Paul who started out as Saul who was pure in his devotion to the Jewish faith and the destruction of Christianity, and turned his “pure” focus to a new pure, Christianity. So, more than enything, God values pure, 100% all-in commitment to whatever we are doing…
Question for the day: how “pure” is your commitment and what do we need to do to import each it???
Day 1
So another short study on Wisdom and Business, starting with the important concept of the wisdom of the world we live in vs. The wisdom of God. The wisdom of the world we live in has resulted in “disorder and every evil thing”… My notes from today:
Devotional Point 4 today:
…The marketplace desperately needs to experience entrepreneurs with clean hands and pure hearts…
Scripture 4 today:
“But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.” James 3:17 NIV
Reflection 4 today:
In the verse before, James outlines the simple truth of the world we have today: envy and personal ambition, which leads to disorder and every evil thing. The world we live in is desperately seeking stable order, but wants to get it through the toleration of envy and personal ambition. God say it doesn’t work, man says I’ll make it work. The record? Nothing works. So, it starts with purity of intent, and then goes into the 6 things that are outward manifestations of the wisdom of God working through that intent. God needs people with single-threading intent.
Question for the day: What are your intents in your deepest soul? How are they purified?
