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.

Luke 14.27 observes, whoever does not bear his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.

Whenever something difficult occurs in our lives we are fond of saying that we are bearing our cross. We associate hard things with our share in the burdens the world seems to give to everyone. This is not what God meant when He commanded us to carry our cross.

The cross is the ultimate icon of subjection to the will of God. It is the means by which God as man humbled Himself before God as Father by taking the punishment of all humanity for all time upon Himself in His death on a tree. Our cross is our death to our self in order to humble ourselves before God in order to do the will of God no matter the cost to ourselves.

The cross we bear is the burden we feel and experience when we deny what we want in order to do what God wants. The cross is the pursuit of the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven at the personal cost of our piece of heaven on earth.

As God the Son did not come to do His will but the will of God the Father, manifest most and greatest in the cross, so too we are not here on earth to do our will but the will of God, for the glory of God, manifest most and greatest in our service to humanity for their restoration to God at personal cost.

The cross we bear is the cost we pay to obey God’s will for us to go and make disciples of the nations, beginning with our friends and families in our communities.

His Opportunities

1. The next CBMC special luncheon, your best opportunity for obeying the Great Commission, is scheduled for March 21st. Our speaker will be O’Leary Paint CEO John O’Leary. We will be meeting at The View from 11.45am-1:00pm. Register HERE Sold Out
   
   a.     We are so pleased this event has sold out. Sponsorship is still available to help us underwrite this event. Please keep it in prayer for God to use it to win men into His kingdom 
   
   
2. CBMC Men’s Conference April 4-7. Be encouraged in your faith and in your faith at work with hundreds of Christian business and professional men from all over the eastern United States.  Register and get more information here. Let me know you are going so we can carpool together in CBMC 1! 
   
   
3. You can support CBMC today. https://give.cbmc.com/giving/?appealcode=winter 

CBMC Central Michigan 6011 W. St. Joseph Ste. 401 Lansing 48917  / 517 481 5996 www.lansing.cbmc.com 

MONDAY MANNA

A service to the business community

A Publication of CBMC International

March 4, 2019 

A Real Competitive Advantage

by Rick Boxx 

In the business and professional world, we are always looking for a competitive advantage. Fresh ideas; staff with exceptional skills and abilities; a unique niche for products, services and marketing. We are always exploring what assets we can utilize to give us a leg up on the competition. Not long ago I was reminded of one competitive advantage that most people never consider. 

Tom, a friend in the construction business, submitted a bid on a very large building project that he felt was critical for his company to win. He prayed and prayed some more, asking God that the project rights would be awarded to them. God, he reasoned, would understand how important it was to his business, so he trusted they would get the contract. He felt great dismay therefore to learn that one of his competitors had been selected instead. 

At first, Tom was very disappointed, even angry with God. Why had his prayers not been answered? Had they been ignored? Then one day, months later, he discovered the “why.” Through a friend in the industry, Tom was informed that the project had turned out to be a financial disaster for his competitor. 

What he had perceived as an unanswered prayer was in fact a very definitive answer. God knew, well in advance, how devastating it would have been if Tom’s company’s bid had been selected. The Lord had protected him from undertaking a project that likely would have bankrupted the business. As an old country-western song states, sometimes God’s greatest gifts are what we perceive as “unanswered” prayers. 

I suspect that many times you have felt convinced of the rightness of a certain plan or decision, only to find the outcome very different from what you expected. That has happened in my life and career more times than I could count. This is why experience has taught me to place my trust in God and not my own limited understanding of a particular situation. 

Psalm 24:1 teaches, “The earth is the Lord’s, and all it contains, the world, and those who dwell in it.” To me this speaks about more than ownership. It also reminds us that God is sovereign and directs all things, including our business interests, according to what He knows to be best. Sometimes in spite of our prayers and what we are asking Him to do. 

Living in extremely volatile, uncertain times, it seems more difficult than ever to evaluate what we should or should not do to achieve our goals and objectives. Trusting that God is all-knowing and ultimately in control of all circumstances can give us peace to entrust Him with whatever transpires in our lives – and in our work – on a day-to-day basis. Perhaps one of the greatest pieces of business advice I have ever encountered comes from Proverbs 3:5-6, which instructs us to, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.” 

Sometimes God answers our prayers the way we ask. At other times – as was the case with my friend Tom – His answers come very differently than what we had hoped. But invariably, as I have learned over many years in my spiritual journey, the Lord’s responses are just what we need. Even when we have no idea of what that might be. 

We need to remember, as another proverb reminds us, “In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determined his steps”(Proverbs 16:9). That is an incredible competitive advantage! 

Copyright 2019, Unconventional Business Network 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, visit www.unconventionalbusiness.org. His latest book, Unconventional Business,provides “Five Keys to Growing a Business God’s Way.” 

CBMC Central Michigan 6011 W. St. Joseph Ste. 401 Lansing 48917  / 517 481 5996  lansing.cbmc.com

 MONDAY MANNA

A service to the business community

A Publication of CBMC International

March 4, 2019 

Reflection/Discussion Questions 

1. What do you think is the greatest competitive advantage that you can access at your business or organization? 
2. What other strategies do you employ in trying to develop plans or make decisions in a business and professional world filled with so much uncertainty? 
3. Do you ever pray about decisions you must make at work, or you will succeed in acquiring new customers or contracts? If you do pray about those, how do you feel at those times when your prayers seem to be unanswered or things turn out differently? 
4. Do you regard being able to pray, asking God for wisdom and direction, as a “competitive advantage”? 

NOTE: If you have a Bible and would like to read more about this subject, consider the following passages:  Psalm 37:3-7,34; Proverbs 16:1,3, 21:2,30; Jeremiah 29:11-13 

CBMC Central Michigan 6011 W. St. Joseph Ste. 401 Lansing 48917  / 517 481 5996  lansing.cbmc.com