Marketplace Ministry Success Mentors

Last week I had the experience of being called up for jury duty. It was my first time in my life that I have ever been in the states when summoned. I was surprised and shocked to be selected, for I was sitting on the back row and they had said that the twelve members would be selected starting at the begining rows. Even though I was only an alternate I had to sit through the whole week of testimony and deliberations.

While I can not go into details about the trial, I can say that it was a highly emotional, sad, and tragic criminal trial in which the defendant lost not only his family, but also his freedom for a long time to come. It was good to see our justice system in America in action, and to realize that our freedom is valuable only because of the system of checks and counterbalances which we have in place in our laws.

The minute those balances become overbalanced in any way - we risk losing more and more of our freedom. Think about it as we hear politicians vying for more and more power, and more and more government. Think about it as you go to the polls. Remember, in Texas, there are some important issues to vote on November 6. Early voting starts next week. While we will not be voting on any elected officials, there are some important Texas Constitutional changes that will be voted on. You can go to www.freemarket.org for a free non-partisan voter’s guide on these issues.

If you said “unholy” bzzzzz! Wrong Answer! One of my mentors, Craig Hill (http://www.familyfoundations.com/) has taught us that the opposite of “holy” is nothing less than “Common.” But God told Ezekiel that the priests must teach the people the difference between the holy and the common:They are to teach my people the difference between the holy and the common and show them how to distinguish between the unclean and the clean. Ezekiel 44:23 NIV

I suppose you and most people know that the literal meaning of “holy” is separated, set apart, dedicated, committed, etc. All these words are followed by a “to” or “unto”. We are “separated to” something, “dedicated to” something, “committed to” something. That “something” will really identify who we are. Craig uses a couple of illustrations:

• Some churches have a specially marked pew  seat for the pianist so that she or he can sit close to the piano or organ. That seat is “holy” unto the pianist. If anyone else uses that seat it becomes “common” because that person has usurped the “holiness” of the one who should be sitting there - the pianist.
• A husband is “holy” unto his wife, and a wife is “holy” unto her husband. If adultery occurs there is an “unholy” alliance with another. But the plan of God is for there to be a “holy” alliance, or covenant between spouses. The husband is wholly (homonym intended!) dedicated to his wife and vice versa. The “common” or unholy thing is for an adulterous affair to destroy that marriage.

 God commands us to “Be Holy just as I am Holy.” I was thinking about that one day. Usually we think of “holiness” as purity of thought and actions. I sometimes think of a “holy” man sitting in a monastery praying all day and not speaking to anyone else. Or you hear of so called “holy” men in India or the middle East who spout words of wisdom, and are very skinny. So what is the true God of the universe talking about here? If “Holy” means separated to, who is God “separated to”? As I thought about this, I came to the conclusion based upon my knowledge of the Word of God, that God is Holy unto me! Unto you, unto every lost soul.

So when or if we are “holy” what are we supposed to be “holy” unto? God, of course! If God is holy unto us then when we are holy unto God we will think twice before entering into any type of sinful activity. When we do we have just become common.

There is so much more on this topic, which I plan to write about in a future blog.

May God bless you and have a great day.

You may also subscribe to our other occasional email newsletter by clicking on the link below:

After listening to this radio broadcast you may want to check out your 60’s bomb shelter.

http://www.christianworldviewnetwork.com/radio-show-episode.php?EpisodeID=2184

Did you ever wonder why we have to put up with so much pain and suffering in this life? I can remember several times in my life when things looked so glum that they just had to get better. But the Bible is clear regarding adversity, trials, and tribulation: We Shall Have It!

Jesus said “In the world you shall have tribulation, but fear not, I have overcome the world.” Paul said, “Who can separate us from Christ’s love? Can trouble, distress, persecution, hunger, nakedness, danger, or a sword? As it is written, ‘For your sake we are being killed all day long. We are thought of as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through the one who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor anything above, nor anything below, nor anything else in all creation can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:35-39 ISV

“Just come to Jesus Christ and everything will be ALL RIGHT.” has been the message many well meaning evangelists have told us. But the message Jesus gave us was “You are blessed even when men persecute you.” Peter said “On that day you will be glad, even if you have to go through many hard trials for a while. Your faith will be like gold that has been tested in a fire. And these trials will prove that your faith is worth much more than gold that can be destroyed. They will show that you will be given praise and honor and glory when Jesus Christ returns. You have never seen Jesus, and you don’t see him now. But still you love him and have faith in him, and no words can tell how glad and happy you are to be saved. That’s why you have faith.” 1 Peter 1:6-9 CEV

One of the reasons we have such adversity is so that we will learn how to resist. We learn how to engage in warfare by engaging in warfare. There is a principle found in Judges 3 which I believe carries through to our spiritual battle: “And the LORD had another reason for letting these enemies stay. The Israelites needed to learn how to fight in war, just as their ancestors had done. Each new generation would have to learn by fighting the Philistines and their five rulers, as well as the Canaanites, the Sidonians, … Moses had told the Israelites what the LORD had commanded them to do, and now the LORD was using these nations to find out if Israel would obey.” Judges 3:1-4 CEV.

So faith is increased through our adversity; we learn to do battle (I am talking about spiritual battle in this context here, although it is just as true in the physical realm - just ask any soldier who has been through one or more battles.); also our hope grows. Romans 5 says it best: “But that’s not all! We gladly suffer, because we know that suffering helps us to endure. And endurance builds character, which gives us a hope that will never disappoint us. All of this happens because God has given us the Holy Spirit, who fills our hearts with his love.” Romans 5:3-5 CEV

So if you are a Christian and you are going through trials, just rejoice, and trust God’s infinite wisdom. You will be strengthened for the next trial may be even more difficult than the one before and you will need that strength. It will get better - eventually!

This is another podcast which I did today with Eric Standlee on podcasting. In it he explains how to get started. Just hit the “posts” button and scroll down to my interview with Eric. In order to place this podcast on your website, you can click on the  “get podcast” button on the right.

Have a listen to  this podcast from Eric Standlee - this is an amazing and exciting concept. When I heard of this recently I was shocked and mad that I did not know it sooner.

New Podcast with Eric Standlee and Tim Darnell

My daughter sold a horse a few months ago. The lady who bought it did not pay her, saying that she would give her the money within a few days. But the days extended to weeks, then months. Each time my daughter called her she had a varying list of excuses: “My father died and I had to spend 1000’s of dollars on the funeral.” “We had a foot of floodwaters in our house.” “My other horse almost died and the vet bill was astronomical - but I’ll pay you next week.” She gave all these excuses while driving a state of the art pickup truck with GPS and a fancy horse trailer.

My daughter finally decided yesterday to go repossess the horse (which was a former barrel racing champion.) I went along as the big tough guy! As we drove, she was praying like crazy that everything would go smoothly. The drive was about an hour away so we had a good time together.

When we arrived to a nice ranch out in the country, Krista commented “Hmmm, I wonder where the creek was that flooded their house.” It must have been a flood that covered several hundred square miles that we didn’t hear about because her house was on a rise! She was walking hurriedly to the paddock where the horse was grazing. Her husband and two  big dogs surrounded our car, and he looked like a motorcycle/car fanatic. We rolled open our window and asked if this was the right place. He said “Don’t worry about the dogs, their bark is worse than their bite, and so is mine! My wife just headed around the corner.”

We walked around the corner of his shop toward the paddock and there caught up with her. My daughter didn’t even have to tell her that we had come to pick up the horse. She immediately began making excuses: “My father in law died…” (notice the discrepancies!) “My other horse injured his hoof and I have spent all morning changing the bandage.” (The bandage hadn’t been changed in days it looked like.) etc. Meanwhile I went to talk to the husband who seemed like a nice guy. We talked about cars and he showed me his shop. And then after loading the horse we left.

As we were driving back we talked about integrity. I thought “where did it go?” It occurs to me that my baby boomer generation has totally lost the teaching of integrity to the next generation. It used to be that people thought highly of their word which was given. Nowadays it’s hard to find honesty and integrity.

Mirriam-Webster’s defines integrity thus:

Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English integrite, from Middle French & Latin; Middle French integrité, from Latin integritat-, integritas, from integr-, integer entire
1 : firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values : INCORRUPTIBILITY
2 : an unimpaired condition : SOUNDNESS
3 : the quality or state of being complete or undivided : COMPLETENESS
synonym see HONESTY

Integrity really is a by-product of faith. When you can trust God, for example, in your finances you don’t need to make excuses or tell lies in order to cover up or gloss over your weakness. The Bible says it this way:

Look here, you people who say, “Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.” How do you know what will happen tomorrow? For your life is like the morning fog – it’s here a little while, then it’s gone. What you ought to say is, “If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.” Otherwise you will be boasting about your own plans, and all such boasting is evil. Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it.

James 4:13-17 nlt
How do we get integrity back into our culture? A good start is to keep our promises, and not make promises that we won’t or can’t keep.

The Church in America has in the last hundred years been very stingy in its giving. The average “tithe” in the Church was at its highest during the Great Depression - over 2%. Now I’m not sure how one can call that a “tithe” since a “tithe” is literally 10%. It’s more a “tight” than a “tithe”! During the more prosperous decade of the 80’s I heard that the “tight” was below 2%. It is said by many that if the Church in America alone were to just “TITHE” (10%) it would liberate billions and maybe a trillion dollars into the kingdom of God. We could reach the last tribe, and the difficult areas of the world with the Gospel — if we did not spend that money on our own buildings and inflated salaries. One of the reasons we are not able to give with such liberality is that most of the church (the people) is enslaved to the credit card companies and banks. But that’s another topic I will write about in a future blog.

One bright light on the horizon is an uprising of wealthy, inspired entrepreneurs and businessmen with a vision for the Kingdom of God. They are able to give not just 10% but 90% or even more. Today I heard one such man explaining his vision to fund the building of 100 orphanages to the tune of over 3.5 million dollars. Not only that he is rapidly recruiting other businessmen to build 400 more. That comes to a total of 17.5 million at 35,000 each. He is already well over halfway to his goal, and I expect that he will not only reach that soon, but will surpass it.

Can you imagine what would happen if we all caught a vision for giving like that? For more stories about giving please contact me for a free copy of “Givers, the Magazine”. I only have a limited number available so its first come first served.

This week a dear friend lost his 30 year old son. Today I lost a dear friend. His wife reported his last words:
“Today, Bruce Ewing stepped over into glory at 1:25pm. His passing was graceful and peaceful. Before going into a coma yesterday, he spoke of our Lord. He said, “Take everything.” Then he said “He is holy” followed by “Holy” dozens of times! Shortly after that he said, “What a Christ” What a Christ.” It seemed like he was seeing Him. It was amazing to be there. Then, in a voice of authority, he opened his eyes and looked around asking, “Who questions, who questions?” As if to say, I am going to our Lord. Who questions the reality of our God and Father. His last word was “Wow!” ”
Both of these friends had a deep living relationship with Jesus Christ. That relationship is where there is hope. The passage from this life into eternity is faster than a snap of the finger. One day our suffering and pain will end and we will step in to eternity - either Heaven or Hell. What we do with Jesus while here determines what our eternity will be like.
When we have Jesus, we have hope. I hope you have that same hope too. If not, please contact me.