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.

Deuteronomy 18.18 promises, I will put my words in his mouth and he will speak to them whatever I command.

This promise has already been literally fulfilled. It is one of more than 300 promises Jesus fulfilled making Him the unequivocal option for Messiah the Jews have always longed for. However, what this promise communicates and what Jesus communicated, is that God is committed to using people for marketing His Personal reality and His ultimate destiny for humanity.

God has chosen to take a back seat, a not quite invisible but immensely subtle, role in making Himself known to the world. I’ve always thought God amiss with His plan to use people to make known to people the love of God, the holiness of God, the goodness of God and all the other character qualities of God.

Seriously, if you were God would you place your entire marketing effort on such poor users as we who believe in Him now or even the myriads of believers throughout history? Isn’t one of the primary knocks on Christianity the diversity of belief and lifestyle experienced among the vast followers of Jesus? Doesn’t it seem like it would be far more successful, far more perfect, for God to visit people Himself and tell them Who He is so that everyone could see and thus believe in Him?

At minimum, it seems like God would be further ahead to send some kind of strange creatures from heaven into the home of every person so that they can believe in God rather than use people who say they know God and love Him yet obey Him and or speak of Him in vastly different ways. Why is God committed to such a system?

First, it gives the people of God a reason for staying on earth rather than immediately going to heaven. The purpose of every follower of Jesus is to encourage other people to follow Jesus. While this mission is seldom embraced, it doesn’t mean the command hasn’t been given. It is truly amazing how much God does accomplish through people given how few people are committed to God accomplishing this work through them.

Second, God has declared that through the weakness of people He is made strong. That is, the poorer we are the richer God is seen to be. It is more obvious to doubting fans that God exists when one of them becomes a believer because the evidence of God changing their life becomes so profound. God’s riches, God’s strength, God’s wisdom, and God’s goodness are all on display most brightly when one of us turns from our poverty, ignorance, weakness and badness to Jesus and begin to live as He lived. Testimonies from such sinners turned saints is powerful and causes the world to take notice.

Third, God’s enemy has told God that humanity will never really love Him or obey Him unless He Himself forces Himself upon us. God’s humble, loving ways that are highly visible to the trained eye but so subtle to every eye, demonstrate His enemy’s lie when we finally see and believe.

God wins when we acknowledge Him by faith rather than by sight. Sight is given to those already seeing by faith, it almost never happens the other way. What is needed more than anything today is for the people of God to be willing to be the voice of God while sourcing their information from the Word of God. In this way people will come to see and hear Who God really is so that they too might become children of God.

His Opportunities

  1. Tuesday, June 20th at the City Rescue Mission from noon until 1pm is your next CBMC Rescue Luncheon. This is your opportunity to serve lunch to the men and women who depend upon the Mission for their meal. Commit Here

MONDAY MANNA
A service to the business community

A Publication of CBMC International
June 19, 2017

Resolving Business Conflicts and Disputes

by Rick Boxx

Over the years, I have the privilege – and challenge – of mediating in several disputes between business partners. In most cases, seeking to resolve them is not pretty nor easy, but very necessary. When someone begins to feel slighted by their partner in some way, the relationship can turn ugly quickly.

These disputes can result from many factors, but commonly they are spawned by breakdowns in communication. As accusations of “he said,” “she said, “they said” escalate, the threat of lawsuits can begin to soar. Partnerships formed with the best of intentions and greatest of expectations can be destroyed because of a single event – and often, unnecessarily.

This is why addressing and working through the problem with care is essential. In the mediation process, proving your position was right should not be the ultimate goal; instead, we need consider how to most effectively work toward a reasonable resolution, one that could be a “win-win” for everyone involved.

Speaking to His followers, Jesus made specific observations about interpersonal conflict and how it should be resolved. For instance, He admonished, “Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still together on the way, or your adversary may hand you over to the judge…” (Matthew 5:25).

There are two key principles cited here. First, recognize areas of conflict and resolve them before small problems escalate and turn into major causes of strife. Today we call this “making a mountain out of a molehill.” Jesus’ second point was to avoid, whenever possible, having to take a dispute to a judge and a courtroom to be settled. Reasons for this are many:

  • Legal disputes can be costly;
  • Decisions made by judges can seem arbitrary;
  • Courtroom outcomes usually fail to resolve the relational and emotional issues involved;
  • The great resources of God’s wisdom and healing power can be excluded from the process.

Admittedly, sometimes taking a matter to court is unavoidable. One or more parties may be unwilling to turn to a mediator, or an arbitrator, to allow them to work toward acceptable resolutions. However, that is unfortunate because while it may result in a legal judgment, the likelihood of injured feelings and inability to sustain once-enjoyable business relationships is extremely high. If you’re in a conflict with a partner, secure a wise and rational third party, whom you both trust, to help you settle the matter quickly.

The apostle Paul, writing to a group of contentious Christians in the ancient city of Corinth, urged, “If any of you has a dispute with another, do you dare to take it before the ungodly for judgment instead of before the Lord’s people? Or do you not know that the Lord’s people will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases? Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life! Therefore, if you have disputes about such matters, do you ask for a ruling from those whose way of life is scorned in the church? I say this to shame you. Is it possible that there is nobody among you wise enough to judge a dispute between believers?…” (1 Corinthians 6:1-5).

Copyright 2017, Integrity Resource Center, Inc. Adapted with permission from “Integrity Moments with Rick Boxx,” a commentary on issues of integrity in the workplace from a Christian perspective. To learn more about Integrity Resource Center or to sign up for Rick’s daily Integrity Moments, visit www.integrityresource.org (http://www.integrityresource.org/) . His new book, Unconventional Business, provides “Five Keys to Growing a Business God’s Way.”

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