Who Will Remember Your Name?
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 Thessalonians 2.4 describes, we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we declare it, not to please people but God, Who examines our hearts.
Christians have been commissioned by God to make Him known in the world. This is the purpose for the Church in this world. The Church’s foundation is the declaration of Who Jesus is; the Messiah, the Savior of the world. This declaration is to be the proclamation of all those who acknowledge Jesus as God, Savior and Judge.
God’s means of making Himself known is dependent in large part upon the obedience of His people faithfully going and making disciples as Jesus commanded prior to His return to the throne room of heaven. Honestly, not a very efficient means for accomplishing such a tremendous objective and one that has eternal ramifications for all people involved from all time in all places of the world. Seriously, if you had charge of all the angels in heaven don’t you believe sending them to every person on the planet would be far more effective than half-hearted, easily distracted, not too friendly adherents of His lordship?
Why are we so ineffective at communicating clearly, passionately and daily God’s love for the world as demonstrated through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ? Besides flagrant disobedience. Fear. We say our timidity is a result of our sensitivity to where people are ‘at’ and we are not looking to offend anyone. We are waiting until people are practically begging us to share with them the hope that we have within us, otherwise, we say nothing.
Notice from our verse today who we are to please in our exhortation to follow Jesus. It is not the recipient of our message but the Author of our message. We are trying to please God, Who will judge us for our actions. Instead of trying to please God we are trying to please people in order to keep them from being offended by the message that God loves us but we must change if we are to be reconciled to Him through Jesus the Savior.
What happens if we fail to reconcile ourselves to God? We spend eternity in hell. These people we are trying to please will not judge us eternally, they will judge us temporarily. We are more afraid of their temporal judgement which at worst causes us to lose our jobs but at best results in their salvation, than we are of God’s judgement Who has the power to send to hell for all eternity.
Maybe if we focused more on living to please God than we do on living to please our neighbor we would find more of our neighbors friendly to our message. Jesus promised His followers would be persecuted for His Name’s sake but He also promised those Who followed Him would bear much fruit proving to be His disciples.
To bear eternal fruit we must share the eternal message so that we may please the eternal God and receive His eternal reward.
His Opportunities
- Good Friday breakfast. CBMC has a table at the YMCA 80th Good Friday breakfast celebration this Friday. Tickets are $15 each. Time is 7.45am-9.30am at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. Reply to this email if you would like to attend
- Michigan Prayer Breakfast May 18th at the Lansing Center. CBMC has a table. Tickets are $30 each. Breakfast is 7.30-9am. Email if you would like to attend. Norm Miller, Chairman of Interstate Battery will be the speaker.
- Next CBMC Special Luncheon is June 8th. Eagle Eye GC. Brig Sorber, Executive Chairman of Two Men & A Truck International will be our speaker.
- CBMC needs your help to continue its ministry to men in the marketplace. Please support CBMC today. DONATE
MONDAY MANNA
A service to the business community
A Publication of CBMC International
April 10, 2017
Who Will Remember Your Name?
by Robert J. Tamasy
Patrick Morley, who wrote the best-selling book, The Man in the Mirror, and became a pioneer in the Christian men’s movement a few decades ago, is an astute observer of humankind. Recently he began a blog post by reflecting on “an enormously successful businessman and iconic philanthropist” in his city:
“His name was constantly in the press,” Morley wrote. “He was far more well-known than you or I will ever be, yet 10 years after the last time I heard his name, I cannot remember it. And there are many more just like him.” Then he asked his readers, “Who will remember your name 10 years after you die? What a great question by which to prioritize your life!”
Morley was right. Most of the people who make the headlines today, those whose names are heard almost daily in the business periodicals, news broadcasts, or entertainment media, will be long forgotten within a decade’s time, replaced by other more recently “famous” individuals. Think, for instance, of the “one-hit wonders” in the music industry. They recorded one or two popular songs that kept everyone humming for a while, then seemingly disappeared. Occasionally we might hear their songs again in the radio, but we are at a loss trying to remember who the recording artists were.
The same could be said about one-time “stars” in any field of endeavor, including the business and professional world. So the question is valid: Who will remember your name 10 years after you die – and if they do remember it, why?
In the Bible’s book of Proverbs, we find a number of thought-provoking references that underscore how fleeting fame can be. We also can learn how to establish a name that will be remembered – and for good reasons:
A good name is priceless. A solid reputation can be destroyed in a moment of bad judgment, but a lasting legacy fondly remembered requires an entire lifetime to establish. “A good name is more desirable than great riches; to be esteemed is better than silver or gold” (Proverbs 22:1).
Be someone people want to remember, not are eager to forget. There are good leaders and bad leaders; bad ones are not likely to be remembered for long. “The memory of the righteous will be a blessing, but the name of the wicked will rot” (Proverbs 10:7). “Do not fret because of evil men or be envious of the wicked, for the evil man has no future hope, and the lamp of the wicked will be snuffed out” (Proverbs 24:19-20).
Focus on what will last, not on things that can be lost or rapidly decay over time. Temporal things, those that cannot be kept forever or that decline in worth over time, are vain pursuits. This is why Jesus instructed His followers to focus on the eternal, rather than the temporary: Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:19-21).
© 2017. Robert J. Tamasy 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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