iWork4Him PowerThought

A pastor is a shepherd, and as a shepherd, a pastor guides his sheep to green pastures. What does that look like in your workplace? Often, we have conversations with those we work with and they are not hanging out in Green pastures. They're hanging out in mud pits or sewer pits or drainage ditches. Many of them don't know anything different. They grew up in a drainage ditch, a mud puddle, or a sew...

This week, we're going to focus on the role of Pastor in the marketplace. I believe that many of you have been given the gift of being a pastor/Shepherd, and that role is critical in your workplace. Pastors are guides, leaders, protectors, intercessors, and teachers. So often, we're unaware of the gifting that we've been given. For those of you who naturally Shepherd people, loving people right wh...

When the internet was created, the goal was the free-flowing of shared information for the good of humanity; what resulted was much more sinister than that .  How do you love the Lord your God with all your strength if you spend too much time on the internet looking and experiencing things that sap your strength ?  That fills you with filth, that plagues you with guilt and shame .  Living in this...

When the internet was created, the goal was the free-flowing of shared information for the good of humanity; what resulted was much more sinister than that .  We are called to love the Lord our God with all our soul .  What's creeping around in your soul ?  Is it scripture, or is it what you watched on TV last night ?  Is it the latest sermon you read or the pornographic videos you ingested over l...

When the internet was created, the goal was the free-flowing of shared information for the good of humanity; what resulted was much more sinister than that .  We are called to love the Lord our God with all our mind .  Are you ?  What do you fill your mind with ?  It is so easy with the internet everywhere, both in public and private, to fill our minds with EVERYTHING but God and His Love .  We st...

When the internet was created, the goal was the free-flowing of shared information for the good of humanity; what resulted was much more sinister than that .  We are called to love the Lord our God with our hearts, but when our hearts are distracted by the evils of the internet, God can't find a place .  Do you know if your heart is safe whenever you surf the web ?  What about your kids, your spou...

When the internet was created, the goal was the free-flowing of shared information for the good of humanity; what resulted was much more sinister than that .  Every day, we use the internet to do our jobs, complete our shopping, and study our bible .  However, if we are not careful, the internet can lead us to pornography, inappropriate relationships, gambling addictions, and more .  We think we h...

What does a normal Thanksgiving dinner look like for you and your family? Does it have all the fixings and smell just like grandma's house when you were growing up? Is it always exclusive to family ? There are people you work with and people you live around that will be alone this year; why don't you mess up your normal Thanksgiving and invite some of them to join you? Jim and I would like to chal...

This whole idea of practicing the power of neighboring at Thanksgiving can cause some strife at home. Not everyone wants to open up their Thanksgiving table to strangers, or people that just aren't family. I know in my family growing up we never had anybody who wasn't family over for Thanksgiving. It just wasn't done. But at Martha's house, her parents were great at inviting people who would be al...

What does loneliness look like? Does it have a face? Does it always look the same? You and I have the ability to solve someone's loneliness problem at Thanksgiving this year. All around us are people, our neighbors, who don't have anywhere to go for Thanksgiving. They are either too far away from family or don't have family or they've been alienated. Can you imagine being alone at Thanksgiving? It...

The power of neighboring at Thanksgiving looks like this. It begins with compassion, and it continues with intentionality. We all have neighbors, whether they are at work or in our neighborhood. They could even be in the pews sitting near us at church. But how many of those neighbors will be alone at Thanksgiving time? In my opinion, there is nothing worse than being alone during the holidays. My...

One day, a religious leader approached Jesus and asked him who's my neighbor? Jesus responded with the parable of the Good Samaritan. Now we know who the neighbor was in this parable. The Good Samaritan was a powerful neighbor in the wounded man's life. The power of neighboring lies within each of us—the power to transform somebody's life by loving them as we love ourselves. The power of neighbori...

Jesus said that our unity would attract others to Christ because our unity would show that Jesus came from our heavenly father. In other words, when we walk as one in the marketplace, our neighborhoods, our communities, and our country, the message is loud and clear:  Jesus has transformed the lives of all these people, and they walk as one in love. It's so important that we, as workplace believer...

Almost 2000 years have passed since Jesus returned to heaven. In the last 500 years, denominational segregation has plagued the body of Christ. We all go to different churches on Sunday. We live in a town of about 2000 people with 15 different churches and 15 different denominations. Very little ministry is coordinated for the ministry to this small town by the leaders of those churches. There is...

Do you know what's great about believers? We all experience God differently. I know this because we're all different. Not one of us is the same. Jim and I got to sit down with some friends here in our small town in Missouri just the other day. We go to different churches on Sunday, yet we share a sweet fellowship in Christ. They shared some of their traditions surrounding the giving and taking of...

What has amazed me most in the last 11 years is the incredible unity in the body of Christ out in the marketplace. On Sunday, we are the most segregated, separated people on the planet. But on Monday morning, when we go to work, nobody cares about Denominations. All they care about is, "I want to hang out with and do business with people who love Jesus. I don't care that you may show your love for...

Have you ever wondered where all of the denominations in Christianity come from? I mean really, 2000 years ago, there were the Jews and the Gentiles. Today, we have 43,000 "Christian" denominations around the world. What happened? I'll tell you what happened. People. Instead of focusing on the unity Christ talked about in John 17, Christ followers throughout the centuries have focused on differenc...

We go to work so we have money. We need money to pay our bills and to buy things. Where I spend my money matters to God, especially if I know that those companies are supporting things that are actually anti- God. We work with Inspire Investing to ensure our investments are biblically responsible. We chose a mobile carrier, Patriot Mobile, because they are pro-God, pro-family, and pro-country. We...

In our family, I spend most of the money at retail stores. Jim spends most of the money online. When we have the choice, we choose retailers that we know are either pro-god, pro-family, pro-country, or at least neutral on these subjects. Finding neutral companies is very difficult . Our country is polarized even in our retail environment. Years ago, we took a bullseye to a certain retailer and sto...

Each one of you has a workplace that is your ministry place. A mission field full of lost and hopeless people who need to meet Jesus. The people you work with and for may be blinded to all of the destruction around them to the family and to our country. Yet they may be funding it inadvertently. Many companies support organizations whose sole aim is to destroy the family or our country because of p...

How do we know if our company is pro-Christianity, pro-God, pro-family, or pro-US of A? Is it even important for us to know these things? I think it is. Almost every organization has excess dollars that they are investing in other organizations with an agenda. What is the agenda that your company or organization is supporting? Are they supporting your values, neutral on them or working against the...

It's important to know who we work for. I don't mean the name of your boss or the name of your company. I mean, who is your company? What do they stand for? What do they support with their profits? We need to know everything about the company where we invest 40 to 50 hours weekly. I'm just saying you need to be aware of the company you're working for to make sure that they're not taking your hard-...

We've talked about it all week .  We love to work, period. It brings exhilaration to our lives .  We love the thrill of the kill .  The completion of a major project .  The landing of a major sale .  Work brings satisfaction and appreciation in ways that family life rarely can .  However, work is demanding .  If we let it, work can take control of our lives .  If left unchecked work can destroy th...

There have been times in the 37 years of our marriage when one or both of us needed to work a significant amount of extra time to meet a deadline to keep our jobs .  The issue comes when that short term becomes all the time .  Jim and I  started an insurance agency from scratch .  We knew that for the first three years, Jim would need to work three nights a week and 4 1/2 days a week to grow the a...

I can't tell you how many times Martha and I have heard this one phrase in a marriage mentoring session .  "I work hard so my family can have the things I didn't have when I was a kid."  That's all fine and dandy, but usually, we are given that excuse after the spouse feels neglected .  That usually spurns a conversation about not feeling appreciated for how hard one spouse works.  It creates an a...