{"id":184,"date":"2014-11-13T04:01:00","date_gmt":"2014-11-13T04:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/marklandbenson.org\/wp\/?p=184"},"modified":"2014-11-13T04:01:00","modified_gmt":"2014-11-13T04:01:00","slug":"good-business-sense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marklandbenson.org\/wp\/?p=184","title":{"rendered":"Good business sense?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Have you ever done something\u00a0unethical<\/em>? Some that made good business sense? Something that was personally fulfilling? Something that just couldn’t hurt anybody, not really, not much.<\/p>\n

Stop and breathe deep a moment. Think again about what you just read. Wait… Still wait! Was it wrong? Give yourself and moment. Well, maybe. Possibly. A little.<\/p>\n

Let’s see what God says about good business sense in Exodus 34.<\/p>\n

Do not make a treaty with the inhabitants of the land.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Hmm…not very politically savvy. If I don’t appease them then I will have to be in conflict. A drain on resources, a distraction, a burden. \u00a0*But God knows that political alliances for personal gain may leave you compromised morally.<\/p>\n

How about some economics?<\/p>\n

You are to labor six days but you must rest on the seventh day; you must even rest during plowing and harvesting times<\/span>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Hold on, you mean I shouldn’t work weeks straight when I’m in the big project crunch to make my deadline? I’ll never make it! *But God knows how to provide and we need to learn to trust in His wisdom about resting in and relying on Him.<\/p>\n

It gets worse when He says<\/p>\n

Bring the best firstfruits of your land to the house of the LORD your God.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Let’s translate that into modern language, “Give to God first and give him your best stuff.” Like before you buy the big screen TV, or the car, or the nice dinner, or the new duds, or…pay your bills.<\/p>\n

Exasperated yet? How about homeland security?<\/p>\n

Three times a year all your males are to appear before the LORD GOD…No one will covet your land when you go up three times a year to appear before the LORD your God.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So, leave behind your families, your belongings, your land, your whatever–undefended! All my stuff, my kids, my wife, my stuff (oops, did I say that again?). *But God knows that He is the only real security we have.<\/p>\n

“Good” personal or business decisions have no place in God’s economy if “good” means compromising our relationship with the LORD God Almighty, those created in His image or the rest of His creation. This includes those blatant moral dilemmas that most of us avoid but also those more subtle areas. In your heart do you really believe God will keep you safe? Way down deep do you lust after material comforts or get yourself in too deep so that you cannot give like you’d like to? Do you trust that God will make sure money given in His Name will be put to good use? Do you believe that settling down with someone a while to hear their heart or just be is better than rushing about one more day in your quest for checking off the task list?<\/p>\n

I could go on but we know I don’t need to. I’m guilty–dreadfully guilty. How about we take a step in the right direction together today?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Have you ever done something\u00a0unethical? Some that made good business sense? Something that was personally fulfilling? Something that just couldn’t hurt anybody, not really, not much. Stop and breathe deep a moment. Think again about what you just read. Wait… Still wait! Was it wrong? Give yourself and moment. Well, maybe. Possibly. A little. Let’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marklandbenson.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marklandbenson.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marklandbenson.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marklandbenson.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marklandbenson.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=184"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/marklandbenson.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":186,"href":"https:\/\/marklandbenson.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184\/revisions\/186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marklandbenson.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marklandbenson.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marklandbenson.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}