Digging Extraordinary Out of the Ordinary
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.
Acts 25.19 describes several points of disagreement with him about their own religion and about a man named Jesus who was dead, whom Paul claimed to be alive.
Herein lies the rub Christianity has with every other religion. The founders of every religion except Christianity are dead and their adherents agree those founders are dead. What separates Christianity from the rest is that it claims Jesus, its founder, is not dead but alive, having risen from the dead after being crucified by men.
Originally, the Jews had a problem with this claim because if it is true then the fulfillment of their faith exists and they need to become Christians. Today Jews still wait for a Messiah though they have a mere shell remaining of their original religion. Muslims believe Mohammad to be the greatest prophet but they all agree he’s dead. If Jesus is alive He is certainly greater than Mohammad making the teaching of Mohammad irrelevant and incorrect since it refutes much of what Jesus said Who preceded Mohammad.
Hindus at best add Jesus to their cadre of gods but since He claims to be the One and Only God and the only means to heaven His teaching is in direct conflict with the beliefs of the Hindus. Buddhists agree Buddha is dead but deny the existence of God altogether making Jesus’ claims that He is God impossible for them to accept.
Christianity is dependent upon Jesus being alive for its legitimacy. If Jesus has not been raised from the dead then the religion is a lie and worthless. Christianity depends upon the eye witness account of more than 500 who saw Him after His resurrection as well as the commitment of those followers who willingly surrendered their lives refusing to deny this claim.
Since that founding Christianity depends upon the Holy Spirit, God in Spirit, Who convinces the heart and mind of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection confirming Jesus’ teaching that one must be born of the Spirit to enter into eternal life. The resurrection shouldn’t seem too difficult for God if indeed Jesus’ claim as Deity is true. We all believe God can do anything and rising from the dead is just one of those impossible for men but possible for God tasks.
We all too hope there is more to life than just living on this earth. Are we not all hoping for a resurrection into another world? God gives hope to us of this world by becoming the first to rise from the dead for the One True God is not the God of the dead but of the living.
If you want to live forever Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life no other religion, and no other person, will take you there.
His Opportunities
2017’s first special luncheon is scheduled for February 9th. Mark your calendars and register HERE. Our speaker will be Hope College football coach and 9 year veteran of the Detroit Lions Tony Semple. Our venue will be new: Eagle Eye Golf Course.
- February 8th Ask Anything with special guests Ravi Zacharias and Abdu Murray as they discuss A Post-Mortem On Post-Truth Culture, followed by Q & A.
The event is free and is open to the public. No registration is necessary. The Breslin Center Doors open at 6:30pm, the event begins 7:30pm. Hope to see you February 8th with an unchurched friend.
Mark your calendar now and begin praying for men you will bring to this strategic event.
Please take a moment and give generously to Support CBMC
MONDAY MANNA
A service to the business community
A Publication of CBMC International
January 30, 2016
Digging Extraordinary Out of the Ordinary
by Robert J. Tamasy
Remember how excited you were the day you got your current job? Maybe it represented the realization of a dream. Or the end of a lengthy job search after being out of work. Or finally receiving an anticipated promotion. Or it offered the opportunity to pursue your passion, and utilize skills and gifts in ways you never could before.
However, now you – or someone you know – have become restless and discontent. The job you once cherished has lost its luster; it has become boring, ordinary, routine. You feel you can no longer tolerate such an uninspiring assignment. The time has come for a change. Isn’t it interesting how a job that once enthused you so much that you could not wait for the start of a new day can become mundane, tedious, even detestable? It is like “falling in love,” becoming so fascinated with someone you cannot think of anything else, and then weeks, months or years later finding yourself wondering, “What was so special about him (or her)?”
We can grow out of jobs, finding them no longer challenging or as rewarding as they once were. Perhaps we have developed new skills and are ready for greater responsibilities. Circumstances that seemed so appealing at first may have changed. However, sometimes this is simply a case of the newness, the novelty, having worn off, making a once very good job seem like a prison sentence.
A time-worn adage tells us, “Familiarity breeds contempt.” But sometimes, just because a job has become familiar, that does not mean it is time to leave. As the essayist and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “If the stars should appear but one night every thousand years how man would marvel and adore.” Just as we can lose our sense of wonderment in looking at the stars because they appear each night, we also can “fall out of love” with a job simply because we have become accustomed to it and its demands.
Even though the excitement may have worn off, we might rediscover the extraordinary in the ordinary. Perhaps God has you where you are for a reason. Here are some thoughts to consider from the Bible:
Maybe a new attitude, not a new job, is needed. If we could adopt a new perspective on our work, we might be able to approach it with more enthusiasm. “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me…. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me” (Psalm 51:10-12).
Sticking with it to the finish. We need to maintain a clear sense of our calling, recognizing God has placed us in our present job and may not be ready for us to move on. The apostle Paul wrote, “Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14).
Remembering the One we represent. As representatives of Jesus Christ, how we approach and perform our work – even to the very last day – reflects on Him and our faith in Him. “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God” (2 Corinthians 5:20).
© 2017. Robert J. Tamasy is vice president of communications for Leaders Legacy, Inc., a non-profit based in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.A. He has written Business at Its Best: Timeless Wisdom from Proverbs for Today’s Workplace; Tufting Legacies; and coauthored with David A. Stoddard, The Heart of Mentoring. His biweekly blog is: www.bobtamasy.blogspot.com.
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