It Is Important To Take Time To Celebrate
Our Mission
To present Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord to business and professional men and to develop Christian business and professional men to carry out the Great Commission.
1 Corinthians 5.1-2 records, I also received a report of scandalous sex within your church family, a kind that wouldn’t be tolerated even outside the church: One of your men is sleeping with his stepmother. And you’re so above it all that it doesn’t even faze you! Shouldn’t this break your hearts? Shouldn’t it bring you to your knees in tears? Shouldn’t this person and his conduct be confronted and dealt with? MSG
Why was this activity wrong? Where did the Lord Jesus condemn such actions? We have to turn to Paul’s Bible, what we call the Old Testament, to find this behavior of a man sleeping with his stepmother immoral. But we are under the New Covenant, why should this apply to us?
God Who makes and defines all of the covenants is the same yesterday, today and forever. The holiness and the righteousness of God has never changed no matter what age of men are in existence. The means by which God chooses to deal with man’s rebellion against Him is defined by covenant but the responsibility man has to obey God has remained unchanged.
Covenant can define a level of our obedience, for example, we who are under the New Covenant are no longer required to offer sacrifices as prescribed under the Old Covenant, but the moral law, the character of God, not a dot or letter shall pass away until the Word of God lives among us as One of us again forever as King. Even then, the Living Word will not negate the written Word, rather He shall make the Word more alive and real, tangible and present, than we ever hoped or imagined.
With so many allowances in the Church today, we must be careful not to ignore or disobey the Word of God. Always, God is to be honored, God is to be obeyed. God is holy and so must His people be holy.
Our Opportunities
1. Our next special luncheon is scheduled for October 7 with MSUFCU chief legal counsel, Steve Owen. Download the flyer to invite your friends and register to attend HERE.
2. Business Owners, are you looking for a private group of fellow business owners for encouragement, support, and advice? CBMC offers such a group. CBMC Business Forums connect Christian business leaders by providing a confidential environment of accountability and mutual support where prayer and godly counsel result in business and personal growth. Contact Mike for more information
CBMC Central Michigan 4407 W. St. Joe Hwy. Lansing 48917 / 517 481 5996 www.lansing.cbmc.com
MONDAY MANNA
A service to the business community
A Publication of CBMC International
September 6, 2021
It Is Important To Take Time To Celebrate
By Robert J. Tamasy
In the business and professional world, we concentrate on goals, new products and services, sales quotas, and profits. We pursue these things with great energy, determined to hit our marks. But what happens when we succeed, when we achieve our intended results? More often than not, we simply establish new goals and objectives, sales quotas and bottom lines. Then we quickly move on.
Many organizations and leaders, consumed by their missions and objectives, sprint past major milestones and victories without pausing long enough to celebrate and appreciate what they have achieved. Imagine three mountain climbers scaling a huge peak who, just as they reach the summit, spot another lofty mountain in the distance. Rather than enjoying what they have just done, they rush back down Mt. Almost-Impossible and head toward the next challenging mountain.
This sounds foolish, doesn’t it? But this is often what we do. Rather than following the adage, “Take time to smell the roses,” we charge off toward the horizon in search of even greater accomplishments. When I was the editor of newspapers and magazines, I struggled with this temptation. We had worked hard to assemble the latest edition, overcoming many hurdles and obstacles along the way, but once it was off the press, our attention would soon turn to planning, writing, editing, and designing the next one.
That was why I always made an effort to hit the “pause” button, allowing our team to appreciate what we had accomplished before shifting our focus to the next set of deadlines. We needed time to celebrate.
As my friend Rick Boxx, also a regular contributor to “Monday Manna,” stated in one of his daily email messages, “Celebrations are an important part of the journey. They can rejuvenate staff, recognize star performers, and solidify a team.” Camaraderie can be built during the struggle, pooling our respective talents and skills to accomplish a common goal. But the same camaraderie – some people call it esprit de corps – is solidified and strengthened when we can jointly bask in the glow of a job well-done.
We see a good example of this in the Bible’s Old Testament book of Nehemiah. The Israelites had achieved their own “mission impossible,” working hard to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, as well as reconstruct and inhabit the homes in the city. Even though they had faced strong opposition, the rebuilding was finished in an incredible 52 days. It was definitely time to celebrate. Which they did.
In Nehemiah 12:27 we read, “At the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem, the Levites were sought out from where they lived and were brought to Jerusalem to celebrate joyfully the dedication with songs of thanksgiving and with the music of cymbals, harps and lyres.” The people of Israel would face many other difficulties in the days ahead, but they recognized the importance of celebrating what they had done.
King Solomon, reputed to be the wisest and most accomplished of ancient Israel’s kings, understood the value of celebrating: “Then I realized that it is good and proper for a man to eat and drink, and to find satisfaction in his toilsome labor under the sun during the few days of life God has given him – for this is his lot” (Ecclesiastes 5:18).
In your workplace, embrace opportunities for celebration. It will keep your team energized and motivated.
© 2021. Robert J. Tamasy has written Marketplace Ambassadors: CBMC’s Continuing Legacy of Evangelism and Discipleship; Business at Its Best: Timeless Wisdom from Proverbs for Today’s Workplace; Pursuing Life with a Shepherd’s Heart, coauthored with Ken Johnson; and The Heart of Mentoring, coauthored with David A. Stoddard. Bob’s biweekly blog is: www.bobtamasy.blogspot.com.
CBMC Central Michigan 4407 W. St. Joe Hwy. Lansing 48917 / 517 481 5996 www.lansing.cbmc.com
MONDAY MANNA
A service to the business community
A Publication of CBMC International
September 6, 2021
Reflection/Discussion Questions
- Is “celebration” part of your workplace vocabulary? When was the last time you were able to take the time to celebrate the completion of an important goal or project?
- How does it feel to be a part of such a celebration? If your organization is more like those that plunge into the next project rather than pausing to rejoice over what has been achieved, what do you think it would be like to be given the opportunity to celebrate work well-done?
- Why do you think it is difficult for some to hit the proverbial “pause button” so they can enjoy the excitement of the moment of victory? What kind of impact can it have for the people involved if they do not receive opportunities to celebrate significant achievements?
- What steps might you – or your team – take to ensure that they can indeed “stop to smell the roses” and celebrate, rather than quickly moving on to the next daunting challenge?
NOTE: If you have a Bible and would like to read more, consider the following passages:Ecclesiastes 9:10; Ephesians 2:10; Colossians 3:17, 23-24; 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
CBMC Central Michigan 4407 W. St. Joe Hwy. Lansing 48917 / 517 481 5996 lansing.cbmc.com
Our Mission
To present Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord to business and professional men and to develop Christian business and professional men to carry out the Great Commission.
1 Corinthians 5.1-2 records, I also received a report of scandalous sex within your church family, a kind that wouldn’t be tolerated even outside the church: One of your men is sleeping with his stepmother. And you’re so above it all that it doesn’t even faze you! Shouldn’t this break your hearts? Shouldn’t it bring you to your knees in tears? Shouldn’t this person and his conduct be confronted and dealt with? MSG
Why was this activity wrong? Where did the Lord Jesus condemn such actions? We have to turn to Paul’s Bible, what we call the Old Testament, to find this behavior of a man sleeping with his stepmother immoral. But we are under the New Covenant, why should this apply to us?
God Who makes and defines all of the covenants is the same yesterday, today and forever. The holiness and the righteousness of God has never changed no matter what age of men are in existence. The means by which God chooses to deal with man’s rebellion against Him is defined by covenant but the responsibility man has to obey God has remained unchanged.
Covenant can define a level of our obedience, for example, we who are under the New Covenant are no longer required to offer sacrifices as prescribed under the Old Covenant, but the moral law, the character of God, not a dot or letter shall pass away until the Word of God lives among us as One of us again forever as King. Even then, the Living Word will not negate the written Word, rather He shall make the Word more alive and real, tangible and present, than we ever hoped or imagined.
With so many allowances in the Church today, we must be careful not to ignore or disobey the Word of God. Always, God is to be honored, God is to be obeyed. God is holy and so must His people be holy.
Our Opportunities
1. Our next special luncheon is scheduled for October 7 with MSUFCU chief legal counsel, Steve Owen. Download the flyer to invite your friends and register to attend HERE.
2. Business Owners, are you looking for a private group of fellow business owners for encouragement, support, and advice? CBMC offers such a group. CBMC Business Forums connect Christian business leaders by providing a confidential environment of accountability and mutual support where prayer and godly counsel result in business and personal growth. Contact Mike for more information
CBMC Central Michigan 4407 W. St. Joe Hwy. Lansing 48917 / 517 481 5996 www.lansing.cbmc.com