Author: Dr. Mike

Kingdom Living

Dr. Mike 2022 , , ,

Romans 14:17

For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

Back in graduate school, I was challenged by our professor to find the means to motivate and create a winning culture within an organization. He spent 13 weeks discussing various concepts and theories of organizational leadership then currently being exercised within the workplace. His conclusion on the last week of class was none of them effectively work and laid out the challenge for those of us willing to accept to find out what does work. I accepted the challenge right then and there.

So, over the next thirty years, with six different corporate operations, I made business my ministry and began the journey of how best to implement God’s ways in the marketplace. I wasn’t perfect. I made mistakes. But I leaned on Christ and learned.

The conclusion of the matter: ownership always loved the results, but the majority of company leaders disapproved of bringing godliness into the workplace. Their response in many cases was “what does God have to do with business?”

The fact is – everything. One college study demonstrated that almost 50% of the profitability of an organization is the result of its culture. God’s ways when properly implemented produces the fruit of successful Kingdom living. The byproduct is both personal and communal freedom, flourishment, and fulfillment.

Personal freedom is found only in Jesus Christ. When one begins to recognize the foundation of identity comes from being made in God’s image, and when we reflect HIS glory, we are able to separate the temporary roles of life from the permanency of belonging as a child of HIS. Parenthood, Spouse, Executive, Electrician, Computer Programmer, Consultant, Teacher, etc. are simply roles we fulfill. They are not who we are but what we do. We are children of the Creator God who longs for a human family.  When we accept the fact we are included in Christ, then we begin to experience our true identity. We participate with HIM in daily work, knowing we are in union with HIM and are in fellowship with others who likewise belong to God. 

The result is practicing the means of flourishment which comes from strategically serving others. Jesus taught servant-leadership. Taught those who want to be great must prioritize serving others before themselves. His way is of mutual submissiveness with each other. An attitude of respecting and lifting up others. Throughout Scriptures, HIS teachings emphasize relationships and good work from a Godly mind/heart centered perspective.  

As one walks with the Lord, one grows in spiritual maturity and may accumulate physical wealth in the process. You know you are wealthy when you have more than you need to sustain one’s life. The amount isn’t necessary how one measures wealth, but how one uses the resources at their disposal. You may be financially wealthy, but bankrupt spiritually. For true Fulfillment comes by blessing others from your storage house. And hopefully your storage house includes a substantial amount of love, joy, and peace which comes from God’s Spirit living in you. After you had a taste of God’s character, and realize the more you share HIM with others, the more HE gives you, and the more you continual give others, the richer you become in finding fulfillment in the everyday routine of living life. Jesus stated that it is more blessed to give than receive. That is where real fulfillment comes from.

Yes, after you learn to live as an Ambassador of God’s Kingdom in a dark, secular world, and begin to show the love of God before you speak about HIS love, the more your actions and words will carry with those you live with, work with, and play with. And as God showers HIS grace upon you, and opens favorable doors for you, and directs your steps toward living out your micro purpose within HIS macro plans, HIS Kingdom becomes more real within the culture of your world. And like a little mustard seed, your world will grow through the influence of HIS Spirit within you and HIS Kingdom will be recognized by the people around you.

Living life within HIS Kingdom begins with Jesus as the central core of everything you do. He will lead you as you submit to HIM. He will open the doors for you and bring people into your world that you will enrich and they you. God’s Kingdom is what the world needs. One day our entire world will be encompassed by the ways of HIS Kingdom. Until then, we have the honor and privilege to live out HIS ways as we colonize the small pockets of humanity which we currently share space with on this third rock from the sun.   

Rooting For You in Christ!

Dr. Mike

Encourager & Author of e-Books 

Encourage a Friend…Share Today’s Message!

Copyright 2013-Present | Abbaco LLC | All Rights Reserved

Love Trap     

Dr. Mike 2022 , , ,

John 13:34

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.

1 John 3:18

Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

How can love be a trap? Isn’t love the most important attribute we desire?

And since God is Love, is God a trap?

You probably have also thought of other questions as your curiosity reads. But yes, love in all its supreme condition can be an illusion unless one is careful to build on the foundation of reality. Since God is real, and God is love (1 Jn. 4:8), than love is real. But lying to self is also a reality.

The love trap is falling into the crater of illusion confusing the attribute solely as an inner emotional feeling rather than an outward active response.

It is the young teenagers who love one another and want to quit school so they may marry and have a happy life. It is the infatuation taking the emotional control of a person without grasping at reality. It is typically narrowing love to a single event or person and forgetting everything else.

In addition, culture has cheapened love. Advertisers demonstrate that “love” is obtained through a product. Our toys, cars, and kitchen appliances are the articles that express our intense “love” as consumers.

Hollywood portrays sex as the ultimate expression of “love”. Two strangers meet in the hotel lobby and then find themselves passionately “making love” one hour later.

Culture may create illusions of love, but Jesus reminds us throughout his life that real love is sacrificial service for the sake of others. Love is action rather than a feeling. Love is outward concern for the other rather than self-rewarding.

Love is demonstrated by the strong helping the weak. The wealthy uplifting the poor. The educated teaching the illiterate. The mother or father sacrificing a career for the sake of raising children. Throughout history, those who have sacrificed for the sake of others have experienced real love without seeking it.

A husband who sacrifices his desires to please his wife and the wife who sacrifices her desires to please her husband demonstrates God’s love in action.

When leaders seek to serve their followers through deeds built upon the truth of reality rather than propaganda or market spin, exhibit God’s love in action. 

Love is not rhetoric nor an academic expression of feelings. Love is outward action built upon eternal values of reality.

We are thankful Jesus established a new standard to measure love: HIMSELF. His example of sacrificial service for others is the real standard of love.

Rooting For You in Christ!

Dr. Mike

Encourager & Author of e-Books 

Encourage a Friend…Share Today’s Message!

Copyright 2013-Present | Abbaco LLC | All Rights Reserved

Sexuality Trap

Dr. Mike 2022 , , , ,

Hebrews 13:4

Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.

Yes, God created sex. Not only did HE create the biological male and female, but also the physical and emotional pleasure and enjoyment of the act. Like everything else HE designed, sex also has a purpose within HIS plan. Now God is not prudish but understands human behavior and emotion since HE purposely designed us with the sexual desire in place.

Now many of us in the 21st century erroneously believe freedom means choosing and doing whatever we desire. Yes, freedom gives you the option to choose whatever you desire, but each choice also has consequences. A choice that leads you to your destruction stills allows you to exercise your freedom, but the end result may remove any further freedom you possess.

The Bible instructs us how sex without Godly boundaries leads to a self-imposed dark hole. But on the other hand, sex with healthy boundaries leads to freedom of expression, intimacy, and fulfillment. Our human mind often finds difficulty in understanding this concept between freedom and boundaries especially when it involves our personal satisfaction.

For example, God’s desire is to have a personal relationship with you. He has provided the means, historical evidence, and reward system to make us aware of HIS intentions. Yet, many choose to refrain from sharing life with HIM. He created the human procreation method for more people to have the opportunity to invest life with HIM. HE even designed sexual intimacy between a man and woman as an example of the love HE wants to share with each of us.

The Hebrew Bible over 900 times refers to this intimacy as Yada – intimately knowing. The Bible in Genesis uses this phrase when a couple are having sexual relations as Adam yada Eve. In Psalms, King David expresses this phrase multiple times as being in a state of yada with God. Yada typically expresses the covenant bond between two parties. This covenant bond is found within a Biblical Christian marriage. The marriage commitment between a man and woman creates the safe space for two people to experience the yada relationship between each other and the relationship God has for us.

The sexuality trap is separating God from sex. When God is left out of the relationship, so are the morals and boundaries of human expression. The trap is sprung when sex becomes a commodity only to satisfy one’s desire rather than an intimate time to share oneself authentically with another. When the sex act becomes an addiction of pleasing one’s emotional cravings, one has sold themselves to the slavery of sin. One has lost the freedom found in true love and buried themselves into the pornographic virtual world of make believe. Again, when one becomes chained in the prison of sin, their best hope is found in the grace of God and HIS teachings on eternal values.

God’s covenant love expressed through HIS relationship with the people of Israel and HIS church set’s us the important example of the sexual encounter. Through the sexual act we come to intimately know someone. God’s covenant with HIS people is HIM giving 100% of HIMSELF in relationship with us so we can come to know HIM better. Not 50%-50%; not 80%-20%, but 100%. HE is constantly giving 100% of HIMSELF into the relationship.

Many of us humans operate within marriage from a contractual viewpoint. If the other side doesn’t fulfill their part of the contract, we believe it gives us an out. So, we divorce and move on to the next relationship to repeat the process over again. But God’s covenant agreement is not contractual, but one sided. In a successful marriage, each side is giving 100% of themselves to the other.

God created us as sexual beings so we can have a taste of HIS desire for us. HE yearns for us to come and know HIM – to yada HIM as HE yada us. Likewise, our human sexual desire imitates HIS desire for us. To freely share the sexual experience solely with another person committed to the relationship until death do us part leads to coming to know more who God IS and HIS love for us.

Having multiple sexual encounters is like worshiping multiple gods. When you choose the one Triune God and only worship HIM, you embarked on an adventurous, joyous journey. However, when you chase after false idols, you experience the frustration and disappointment of never finding your one true love. 

Enjoying sex outside the committed relationship of marriage is falling into the trap of slavery to sin. Sin is living outside of God’s created order of real harmony where true freedom, flourishment, and fulfillment is found. Real abundant living includes a healthy expression of sexuality between two people in a committed relationship for life. There they learn and experience the joyous meaning of Yada.

The God-ordained institution of marriage when fully understood and practiced according to the covenant principal of yada leads to real freedom, flourishment, and fulfillment. The results are good for couples, children, and society as a whole. But when sex is extracted outside of marriage, and God is removed from the relationship, sex becomes a discounted-store commodity. What was designed for two people to experience life to the fullest becomes an uncontrollable addiction leading to pain and misery in the long-term.

This is why the writer of Hebrews emphasized that the marriage relationship is a higher honor and value than just having sexual encounters with uncommitted bedfellows. Don’t be fooled by the lies and traps of culture. Learn what God recommends. You will be pleasantly at awe by the outcome.

   

Rooting For You in Christ!

Dr. Mike

Encourager & Author of e-Books 

Encourage a Friend…Share Today’s Message!

Copyright 2013-Present | Abbaco LLC | All Rights Reserved