Wicked Vs Godly Businesses

Proverbs 11:10 The whole city celebrates when the godly succeeds, they shout for joy when the wicked die
Wicked: Morally bad in principle or practice, intensely or extremely bad or unpleasant in degree or quality
Godly: Emanating from God
James 1:17 (NIV) Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

We can categorize businesses into two “Wicked” businesses and “Godly” businesses, and for this post they’ll be defined thus:
Wicked business: A business which is morally bad in principle or practice and produces goods and services unpleasant in quality

Godly business: A business that provides good and perfect gifts (goods & Services) which do not vary in quality, both in principle and in the nature of their gifts.

These two business categories are observational; they are not self-attributed but are observed or perceived by the customers and beneficiaries of a business.

The reaction of those around us during our periods of success or failure serve as a great determinant of our worth.
If those who are meant to be the primary beneficiaries of your business rejoice or are apathetic when there is a rumor of a crash or an impending collapse of your business it is an indicator that the business is tending towards or is a “wicked business”. “Godly” businesses stir great emotion in the hearts of those around them, the people are usually empathetic towards its cause, rejoicing when it flourishes & apprehensive when it goes through tough times, often times causing the beneficiaries to stick out their necks to save the business.

Position your business towards “godliness” and the entire city would stand behind you and watch you succeed.

The weapon of Silence 2

Fair Speech

“Congress shall make no law respecting
an establishment of religion, or
prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”

The first part of the above amendment which reads
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion” is known as the Establishment Clause , while the second part (“or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”) is known as the
Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment. Though each of these clauses originally applied only to the
central US government , the Fourteenth Amendment extended the scope of the entire First Amendment to all levels of government, including the state level [1] — thus compelling states and their subject schools to adopt an equally detached approach to religion in
schools.
In two landmark decisions, Engel v.Vitale (1962) and Abington School District v. Schempp (1963), the US
Supreme Court established what is now the current prohibition on state sponsored prayer in schools. While the Engel decision held that the promulgation of an official state-school prayer stood in violation of the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause (thus overruling the New York Courts ’ decisions), Abington held that Bible readings and other (state) school- sponsored religious activities were prohibited.
Following these two cases came the Court’s decision in Lemon v. Kurtzman (1971), a ruling that established the Lemon test for religious activities within schools.
The Lemon test states that in order to be constitutional under the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment any practice sponsored within state run schools (or other public, state sponsored activities) must adhere to the following three criteria:
1. Have a secular purpose;
2. Must neither advance nor inhibit religion; and
3. Must not result in an excessive entanglement between government and religion.
(https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_prayer)
      
Can we really “not advance” religion without inhibiting it? When the very tenet of Christianity is based on proclamation.

Silence is the greatest weapon forged against Christianity. Keeping our mouths shut is letting the gospel slip away into oblivion.
SPEAK!

The weapon of Silence

Romans 10: 13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.14  How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?
 15  And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!

When we stop preaching, we give no other option but the absence of belief.
Without the gospel being preached and when other pointers to God like creation are attributed to evolution etc, the natural consequence is to become biased to the belief in the absence of God, because no other option is left.

Silence is greatest tool against Christianity.

Business Tuesday… Integrity

Proverbs 11:3 English Standard Version (ESV)
The integrity of the upright guides them,but the crookedness of the treacherous destroys them.

Integrity can be said to be the ability to constantly deliver on what you promise.

Trust is a by product of integrity and it is an  essential quality for every business and once it’s compromised it is hard to regain.
Never lose intergrity as a business even if your life/ business seems to depend on it and by doing so you’ll build a firm foundation for your business to be built upon.

Constantly deliver on what you promise.

Rumours of God

Job 42:5 (MSG) I admit I once lived by rumors of you; now I have it all firsthand – from my own eyes and ears!

Check the source of information you have of God, find out who God is for yourself. Study the word, cross check every thing you hear with the word and get your facts right.
Lest you become like Job and blare your ignorance before the Almighty.

Nature, God’s handwriting

Romans 1:20 New Living Translation (NLT)
For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.

It’s interesting how God placed markers in the world to reveal Himself to men. Any unbiased look at creation shows clearly God’s handiwork.

I recently came across a number of animal and plant facts and I’ll share two to buttress my point.

Merlet’s Scorpionfish

Merlet’s Scorpionfish ( Rhinopias Aphanes ) have a variety of other names, many of which include the word “lacy”. This is because they have a considerable amount of tentacles and skin flaps, as well as an unusual shape overall, which gives them their so-called lacy look. They use all of these factors to look like plant life, blending in with coral reefs. They will stay still for hours until they get an opportunity to jump out, and inhale their prey with their enormous mouths.

Plant ultraviolet

Most people agree that flowers are pretty. While they are mere adornments to us they are vital to the plants themselves and to the insects which feed from them. The flowers are there to encourage pollination by insects so it makes sense that they should stand out in some way to help insects find them. In the case of flowers pollinated by bees there is far more to their appearance than meets the (human) eye. Such flowers viewed in the ultraviolet spectrum often reveal patterns designed to draw in the bees. Bees do not see the world as we do they have a different range of visible light (blue and green) than we do and have a set of cells specifically for the detection of ultraviolet.
Articles obtained from listverse.com

Some people attribute these and more to evolution. I say it’s creative design.
The specificity of nature is there to reveal God’s majesty and if you look back and keep looking backwards you’ll get to a point that you must find God, because there’s always a point that you’ll be overwhelmed with the beauty of creation and the deeper you look into creation the more you see the signature of the Divine.

*[[Pro 11:2]] BBE* When pride comes, there comes shame, but wisdom is with the quiet in spirit.
An organization can never grow beyond the ego of its top management. Pride stalls innovation, the belief that you’re better than your competition to the point that you no longer need to improve kills a company faster than government policies.
Be humble enough to seek innovation.

I Believe in ABSOLUTES, Do you?

Are there really absolutes?

Is there really anything like right and wrong that’s not subjective?

Can anyone be truly good?

Christians often ask questions like these, and world philosophies give answers that point to the absence of absolutes. But in Christendom absolutes must exist because the very essence of our belief stands on an absolute The Lord Our God Is One (Deut 6:4) and there is only one way to God through Jesus (John 14:6).

We rest on the belief that God is good, absolutely good (James 1:17) and the devil is bad and absolutely bad (John 8:44). And there is no interconnection between light and darkness (1 John 1:5, John 1:5).

We believe that Light is pure and there is no darkness in it and there can be an existence of light without darkness (Rev 21:23, John 1:5). Which sort of puts us at loggerheads with the Chinese Yin-Yang.

We believe in Heaven, a place where no evil exists (Rev 21:4) and hell where no good or joy exist (Matt 13:41-42), we believe in these two because we believe that our God is just and He has the prerogative to choose in His Justice who goes  to heaven or hell.

We believe in Absolutes and have no apologies for it. For they that come to God must first believe that He is (the one and Only) and He is the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.(Heb 11:6)

The TRUTH is that in all the Worldviews and Religions ONE must be RIGHT, and we believe that we are those in the right. For Jesus said I am the way, the truth and the Life no one come to the Father except through Me (John 14:6). I don’t know of any other belief system that is founded upon a bold declaration of being the absolute such as this, and to us Christians this statement dispels every pluralistic argument and gives us an Absolute to believe in.

So therefore no matter how bigoted people many think we are, or what names they call us to refer to our “shallow-mindedness”, I believe in one God, the maker of Heaven and Earth, I believe in Jesus the only way to Him.

BUSINESS TUESDAY

Proverbs 11:1 The LORD detests dishonest scales, but accurate weights find favor with him.(NIV)

One of the major problems faced by businesses is dissatisfied customers and one dissatisfied customer can lead to a thousand dissatisfied customers due to the multiplicative power of referrals.

A major cause of dissatisfaction in customers is “under-delivery” when a customer gets less that what he/she anticipated when purchasing a good or service. Most goods and service providers over-promise in order to gain favor and a large share of their market. Although this works at the onset because people are generally attracted to larger than life deals , it  backfires when the customers realize that less than what they bargained for was given to them leading to loss of confidence which leads to loss of clientele.

In the Long run dishonest scales don’t pay, they may look profitable but they’ll sting you in the end.

Under-promise and over deliver  That way the customers always get more than they bargained for.

Business Tuesday

Coming soon