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.          

Galatians 1.10 asks, am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.

Why is it that man pleasers and God pleasers are not synonymous? How is it that pleasing men keeps us from serving Christ? Relational evangelism has led many Christians to believe they are at least closely related. In trying to win people to Christ we try to become friends with men. Indeed, Jesus was a friend of sinners! So it seems Paul’s words conflicts with Jesus’ work. Jesus remained loyal and obedient to His message, the message that God requires men to repent and to obey Him, even while befriending sinners. He spoke this message while serving men, not trying to please men. Therein lies the difference between Jesus and so many Christians. We try to please men in order to win men.

We try to please men as we try to please our children, by giving into them in order to win our children, hopefully and eventually, to our point of view. It doesn’t work. Bribing our children may temporarily earn their cooperation but the bribes will have to continue and increase if we are to retain their loyalty. Cooperation occurs with three-year-olds sometimes, but rarely wins the twenty-three-year-old to our worldview parenting this way. Jesus did not bribe people with good works in order to get them to serve Him or to listen to Him. Jesus served people out of genuine love for them but spoke truth to them leaving their response to Him their own responsibility. This resulted in many walking away from Him when He laid out the cost of following Him.

All those who were with Him were required to repent, to sin no more, to take up their cross, die to self, and follow Him, doing everything He commanded if they wanted to become one of His disciples. This is what Paul means in this passage. We must repent from our disregard for God and obey Jesus’s commands if we would truly love God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength. Serving Jesus means calling men out of darkness and calling men up to Christ likeness. Serving is giving oneself sacrificially expecting nothing in return and requiring those who would do likewise, serve Christ, to do so sacrificially as well. Pleasing God is giving away our lives in order to win men to Christ.

We cannot give God our life and please men for men naturally despise God and His ways of unconditional love, abject humility and sacrificial service. Yet this is to be the character of the God pleaser and the message he brings to all men everywhere. Some will receive it but many will reject it, despising the servant of God, finding him weak in a world that honors the survival of the fittest. We cannot be a God pleaser and a man pleaser and be a Christian.

Our Opportunities

1. Don’t let the Coronavirus keep you from giving. Help us win and disciple business men through your donations at: https://give.idonate.com/cbmc-inc/lansing
2. Step one to becoming an effective ambassador for Christ in the marketplace is to pray for unsaved men by name. The easiest place to gather for prayer is at your place of business. CBMC helps Christian men form prayer teams. Check out our program here then email Mike for helping getting one started at your company. 

MONDAY MANNA

A service to the business community

A Publication of CBMC International

September 28, 2020 

Lessons For Life And Work – From Noah’s Ark

by Ken Korkow 

Be honest: When 2020 started, did your list of goals include: “Things to do during the coronavirus pandemic”? If you did, I would like your advice on scheduling a trip to Mars. At the start of the year, none of us knew anything about COVID-19 or its global ramifications. 

However, in reflecting about these unprecedented circumstances and how we all have tried to cope with them, I was reminded of another global crisis – one that none of us was present to experience. 

Do you remember the story about Noah’s Ark? It is recounted in chapters 6-9 of the Old Testament book of Genesis. It begins, “The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth” (Genesis 6:5). God was so grieved by the evil of mankind at the time that he decided to remove all of mankind from the earth by causing a global flood. However, Noah was described as “a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time” and he “found favor in the eyes of God” (Genesis 6:8-9). 

Because of this, the Lord chose to spare Noah and his family. Noah was instructed to build a massive Ark and fill it with “representatives” from every kind of animal and bird to repopulate the earth. What does this have to do with the pandemic? I mention it because I have concluded that everything I need to know about life, whether dealing with everyday concerns or surviving a pandemic, I learned from Noah’s Ark. Here is a summary of those things: 

• Do not miss the boat. When opportunities present themselves to us, especially for avoiding a major problem, we need to respond – and quickly.
• Remember that we are all in the same boat. We have heard this repeated, especially by people from luxurious, well-stocked homes. But it is true – the pandemic has affected us all.
• Plan ahead. It wasn’t raining when Noah built the Ark.
Similarly, there was no pandemic that we were aware of when 2020 began. But wise people always have a plan B, or C, if needed.
• Stay fit. When you are 60 years old, someone may ask you to do
something really big. So be advised to take care of yourself for future demands. And if you are already 60 or older, keep fit!
• Do not listen to critics; just get on with the job that needs to be done. Noah had many detractors, wondering why he was building an Ark. But he persevered. When people question your well-considered preparations, just keep moving forward.
• Build your future on high ground. Whether it is a pandemic, an economic downturn, or unexpected personal crisis, position yourself to weather the storm.
• For safety’s sake, travel in pairs. Many of the animals God directed Noah to bring into the Ark came in twos. In the workplace, as well as the family, it is always advisable to team with others who can share the pressures as well as the actual work.
• Speed is not always an advantage. The snails were aboard the ark with the cheetahs. In doing a quality job, trying to complete it quickly is not always the best approach,
• When you are stressed, float for a while. Once the rains started, Noah could not do much more than wait for the storm to pass. In times of crisis, that is sometimes our only alternative, too.
• The Ark was built by amateurs; the Titanic by professionals. So-called “experts” do not always have all the answers. If you are called by God to do a job, do not worry if you feel unqualified.
• No matter the storm, when you are with God, there’s always a rainbow waiting. We are now in a great global storm. No one knows for how long. But we can trust God is with us, even to the end. 

Ken Korkow lives in Omaha, Nebraska, U.S.A., where he serves as an area director for CBMC. This is adapted from his “Fax of Life” column. Used with permission. 

CBMC Central Michigan 4407 W. St. Joe Hwy. Lansing 48917 / 517 481 5996  lansing.cbmc.com

 MONDAY MANNA

A service to the business community

A Publication of CBMC International

September 28, 2020 

Reflection/Discussion Questions 

1. How have you been dealing with the virus pandemic and restrictions that have followed? Have you at times felt overwhelmed by stress and worry? How have you dealt with that? 

1. What do you recall about the story of Noah and the Ark? 

1. As you read the list of things that can be learned from Noah’s Ark, which of them seem most important to you? Explain your answer. 

1. How can these “lessons” help you in the future, whether it is dealing with ongoing effects of the pandemic, the sagging economy and a disruption of “normal” life, or in confronting some other type of problem? 

NOTE: If you have a Bible and would like to read more, consider the following passages: Proverbs 3:5-6, 16:3, 27:17; Ecclesiastes 4:9-12; Romans 6:13-14; Hebrews 13:5 

CBMC Central Michigan 4407 W. St. Joe Hwy. Lansing 48917 / 517 481 5996  lansing.cbmc.com