2022

Friendship Trap

Dr. Mike 2022 , , ,

James 4:4

You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

Good friends are hard to find and maintain. If you have one, be thankful. If you are still looking for one, ask the Lord. He will provide. But you need to be careful in choosing your friends. They will either help you in your journey through life or they will pull you down. How do you know what type of friend you have?

First of all, your friends will care for your success. They will root for you and support you through all situations (Proverbs 17:17). They will not forsake you or deliberately injure you (Proverbs 17:9). They will have your back. In fact, you may find a friend who is closer than a brother (Proverbs 18:24).

You will appreciate their counsel. (Proverbs 27:9). Their words may hurt you at times (Proverbs 27:6) but when truth is spoken in love, the mature understand and change.

The trap is placing your friends in the position of a god. By this, I mean you worship them. You rely on them to feed your ego and make you feel important in the eyes of others. Instead of serving them for the glory of God, you use them to feed your insecurities. They become the god who you rely on for your protection, provision, and fulfillment.

Most troubling is also when your friends are in bed with the world’s culture. As the above Scripture reminds us, accepting the worldly morals and values of society’s norms is surrounding yourselves with bedfellows whose purpose and gate opposes the God you want to serve. How long can you play with fire before your house is burnt to the ground?

As iron sharpens iron (Proverbs 27:17), so one person improves another. The more you spend time together with each other, the more you become like each other. If you believe killing babies within the womb is acceptable, than you will think nothing of hanging out with others who think like you do. If your moral standards accept lying to get what you want, than you have no problem associating with others who live out the same value.

However, if God’s Kingdom is the governmental format which puts order into your life, than you will find difficultly hanging out with others who oppose God’s way.

You will eventually find out you become an enemy in their eyes because they oppose the Triune God, and you do not. As the Scripture states, those who desire to be a friend of this world’s culture makes themselves an enemy of God.

The bottom-line: Choose your friends as careful as you choose the God you worship.

Rooting For You in Christ!

Dr. Mike

Encourager & Author of e-Books 

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Copyright 2013-Present | Abbaco LLC | All Rights Reserved

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