Christian Business Builder

I was reading Psalm 23 this week. As I read I was struck by what I found to be an awesome Thanksgiving thought:

The beginning of the Psalm speaks of the blessings of the Lord afforded to the believer in the good times.

No want, green pastures, and still waters all sound wonderful ….

Everyone who is a believer wants to live in this picture of perfect bliss … but what happens when things turn dark?

David continues on and the picture turns from the beauty of the green pastures to the darkness of the valley of the shadow of death.

Yet even there David is thankful for God’s presence!

In the darkness God is David’s comfort (thy rod and thy staff they comfort me).

In the darkness God is David’s source (thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemy).

In the darkness God is David’s protector (thou anonitest my head with oil).

In the darkness God is David’s benefactor (my cup runneth over).

With God’s presence so easily sensed in these dark times David knows that God’s goodness and mercy will be with him in this life and that he will dwell with him for eternity (Surely goodness and mercy shall dwell with me all the days of my life: and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever).

With these truths known, we should make everyday (dark or light, comfort or struggle) a day of thanksgiving.

Our lives will be edified for it and our ability to edify our family, friends, and our team will be strengthened.

We also should seek to be there for those we love even as God is always there for us!

This will establish our place as leaders in our group and will testify of our faith in God through Christ.

Happy Thanksgiving to all, today and everyday of your life.

Dave

As the Pilgrims and their Indian friends sat down for the first thanksgiving feast in the new world, they had much to be thankful for.

They had survived their first full year in the new world.

They had found new friends among the natives of the land who helped them with understanding and knowledge of this new land.

Though many had died in the first winter, they were still alive as a group and had a real sense of optimism about the future.

In our day we should be thankful as well ….

We should be thankful because God has blessed us with another year.

It may have had its ups and downs, but we have made it through and that is worthy of our thanks.

We should be thankful for all the new knowledge and understanding we have gained this year (even if some of the knowledge came for lessons learned in failure.)

We should be thankful for new friends gained and old friends retained as we worked our ways through our daily endeavors.

But more than anything we ought to be thankful for the Lord’s continued goodness in our lives.

The Psalmist said it best when he said, ” Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands. Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing. Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations. ” (Psalm 100)

We can demonstrate the thankfulness that we have to the Lord by our glad service, the song in our hearts, and our attitudes of praise and thanksgiving.

Do our team members see this in us? Do they know that above all things we are joyful and thankful leaders? Do we demonstrate our thankfulness in all the aspects of our business as well as our life?

Have a great thanksgiving and may God bless you, your family, and your business in the year to come.

While pondering life over a cup of coffee this morning, God drew my attention to the book of Ecclesiastes chapter 3, in which Solomon was establishing the truth that “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:”

As I read on, I was stuck by the thought that now was the time that God’s people need to step up and step out to become successful in this world.

It is a time of great uncertainty and a time of great fear.

People are looking for stability in this world. Financial for sure …. but I believe also spiritual.

However, since most people have an unreasonable concept about God, Christ, and Bibllical Christianity, we may need to start with them were we have common ground.

That common ground might very well be in the area of their financial security.

So … in order to be “all things to all men” as Paul admonished, how can this be your time to succeed?

Consider 5 things:

1. Show up everyday - if you are going to lead ad build a strong and stable business, you need to show up everyday. Now that doesn’t mean “work” everyday (remember the sabbath rest was established by God) but it does mean that you need to engage life everyday. Don’t be a sideline sitter, be up, out, and active in  every phase of your life.
2. Live everyday as if it were your last - what I mean here is that if this were your last day to get things done, your intensity level would be through the roof. Whether you spent it working, witnessing, praying, or playing, you would do it like there was no tomorrow.
3. Live everyday like the success of everything you value depended on you alone - will you make that last call? Will you record that important video? Will you comfort a friend in need? Will you make life in your world as good as it can be?
4. Live everyday like you cannot do anything unless you are completely yielded to Christ - Jesus told us that without him we can do nothing. As believers our strength, wisdom, and energy all rest in our willingness to make Christ the Lord of our daily living.
5. Live everyday to the fulfillment of God’s will and his work - Jesus said in John 4 that he was sustained in this life by the doing of God’s will and the fulfillment of God’s work. This needs to be the over-reaching truth that drives us everyday. We need to know God’s will for our lives and we need to surrender to the fulfilling of it on a daily basis.

Is it your time to succeed? You and God are the only one that know the answer to that question.

If it is your time, put your hand to the plow and don’t look back!

If it is not your time, get alone with God and ask what it will take for your time to come.

When you are living in the times of success, you will have great opportunity to share your story and your faith with those looking to you for other answers as well.

Just my thoughts ….

Dave

I am on kind of a crusade these days. I see ads all the time that deal with the subject of sponsoring. These ads all tell us that if we just buy an ebook or learn social marketing that we can have an endless supply of leads and sponsor large quantities of new distributors (10, 15, even 20 per month).

We are then told to expect a 95% drop-out rate and to just keep sponsoring and the “cream will rise to the top.”

Then I look at the life of our Lord Jesus and see that when he built his team, that he did it with twelve (none of which could really be called the cream) rather than with the multitudes.

By building a smaller team, Jesus was able to teach them on a personal level. He could spend time with them and answer there questions, deal with their pride, correct their faltering faith, and just be there for them all the time.

It makes me wonder … should Christian networkers learn a lesson from our Master on this one?

I think so. I would rather work with a group of 12 close friends whose lives I can touch and who can touch mine than to sponsor so many people that I really don’t know who they are or what they are really looking for in life.

Could there be a Judas among my 12. Yes, but Jesus carried on and the gospel was still preached in spite of him.

I just don’t want to get to the end of my life and know that most of the people I told about my great business opportunity knowing that 95% of the people I sold on business ownership failed to be successful.

I know many will say, “I gave them a chance and their success is up to them.”

I am glad Jesus never determined that my spiritual success was to be left up to me!

Even as a believer, I can still know great success if I will just walk with the greatest teacher and mentor ever given. (The Holy Spirit)

My opinion is in the manority in the industry but I still hold to it.

If you wan to know more about why I think this way just email me and let’s get together and talk!

Dave

Proverbs 6:6-11

Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise:
Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler,
Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest.
How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep?
Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep:
So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth, and thy want as an armed man.

Have you ever wondered what this ant thought of the sluggard as he looked at him from the anthill?

He must have thought about the waste of potential that the sluggard was born with.

Maybe he worried about the sluggard’s family with winter fast approaching.

He could have been considering all that he could teach the sluggard if he would just take time to listen.

Mostly though, I think the ant was sad. You see, it is sad to think that anyone created by the Author of all that was, is and ever will be would settle in life for what can come to him by just existing. God placed within the ant a desire to do the best he could within the wisdom, power, and resources made available to her.

So, for her to peer out of her anthill and see someone with much greater potential than hers just sitting on the sidelines of life with no amtitions to be all that God made them to be must have indeed been a sad thing.

You might be wondering what such a story as this has to do with Network Marketing as a Christian business builder? Well, in this story, three things come to my mind:

1. If I believe God wants me in this industry, am I serving him to the best of my ability?
2. Am I learning all that I can so that I can be the best coach and mentor that my team can have?
3. Am I inspiring others to take up the cause so that we can multiply our efforts and change our world?

The ant in this story was just doing what came naturally. She was preparing for the winter which would surely come. Are we, who believe that God has given us the desire to build strong and successful network marketing groups, following in the footsteps of the ant or are we just waiting for whatever happens our way?

Just a thought!