No doubt you’ve heard and sung the old familiar chorus: I have decided to follow Jesus; no turning back, no turning back. It’s a good song to sing to yourself throughout your day. It reminds you that you have made a choice to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, and keeping that in your mind at all times will help you remember who you are: a Christ-follower. For those of us who are Christ-followers, we need to be aware of what Jesus taught us concerning how we live our lives. Jesus gave us some clear principles as to how we live out our faith on our jobs. The parable of the talents, as given in Matt ..read more

Working by Jesus Rules—that’s what I’m examining. If you and I are truly Christ-followers, people who have accepted him as our Savior, then we need to understand Jesus gave us rules and guidelines for our attitudes and actions on our jobs. We need to know the Jesus rules. In Matthew 21, Jesus tells the parable of the two sons. The father told the first son to go work in the vineyard, and that son refused to go, but later he changed his mind and went. The second son agreed to go, but then he didn’t go. Jesus asked, “Which of the two did what his father wanted?” Obviously the first son did what ..read more

Jesus tells a parable in Matthew 20 that is a puzzle for us to understand. It’s the story of an employer who offers to hire workers for a certain amount, the workers agree to the pay, and they go to work in his vineyard. Some start work early in the morning and work all day; others are hired throughout the day; and finally at five o’clock this employer hires even more people to come and work in the vineyard. At the end of the workday, the employer pays them the exact same amount, even though some have worked twelve hours, some ten, and some just one hour. Well, as you can understand, those who ..read more

I remember as I was putting the finishing touches on one of my Bible studies, I asked several people to critique it for me. I had enough sense to know that I needed other eyes looking at it, seeing what I couldn’t see, if I really wanted that Bible study to be as good as it could be. But frankly, I didn’t want to hear the criticisms I had solicited. And I had to fight with everything in me to keep from being defensive as suggestions were made to improve the study. Now, if I feel that way about solicited criticisms, you can imagine how I react to unsolicited criticisms. It is a very hard thing ..read more

Do you know how to motivate people? The ability to motivate people and inspire them is absolutely essential if you want to be an effective leader. Even as leaders in our homes, we need to know how to motivate our children and even our mates. When I speak of motivation, I want to be clear I’m not speaking about manipulation. Trying to manipulate people to do what we want them to do is deceptive and wrong. But if we’re doing something worthwhile and we need others to come alongside, then we must learn how to motivate them so they will take ownership and want to succeed with us. We’ve looked at a ..read more

Do you know how to keep a secret? We are examining some principles from Nehemiah because he was a very successful leader and motivator, as well as a very godly man. And we can learn much from him. One of his secrets of success was he knew how to keep a secret. After asking for and receiving permission from his boss, King Artaxerxes, to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the walls, he arrives there to do this seemingly impossible task. In chapter two verse twelve we read, I had not told anyone what my God had put in my heart to do for Jerusalem (Nehemiah 2:12). Now why was it important for Nehemi ..read more

I wonder if you’ve read the book of Nehemiah lately. You’ll find it in the Old Testament between Ezra and Esther, a book of thirteen chapters, and filled with practical help for us today. I encourage you to read it again or for the first time. You will be blessed to see how this man of God, Nehemiah, tackled what looked like an impossible task, rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, and did it in record time. In chapter two, verse eight, Nehemiah says, Because the gracious hand of my God was upon me, the king granted my requests. Nehemiah had asked his boss, the king, for some time off to go bac ..read more

I am examining leadership principles from the life of Nehemiah. Now, maybe you’re thinking you’re not a leader, but all of us are, in some way or another. And these principles are relevant to everyone. Yesterday we saw a leader knows how to handle bad news. In the second chapter of Nehemiah, we find he was open and vulnerable. You see, he worked for King Artaxerxes, and nobody was allowed to look sad or unhappy in the king’s presence. In fact, the death penalty was the punishment for sad-looking servants. But with a heavy heart about his people and the condition of Jerusalem, Nehemiah looked s ..read more

I am examining some important leadership principles from the book of Nehemiah. You may wonder what an Old Testament saint could teach us about leadership today, but you’ll discover these truths are timeless. Nehemiah was both an outstanding spiritual leader and a very good business manager, and we can learn a great deal from him. One of the first principles we learn from Nehemiah is he knew how to handle bad news. We read in chapter one of Nehemiah that his brother brought him the bad news that Jerusalem’s wall was broken down, its gates had been burned, and those who survived were in great tr ..read more

Did you ever think about what kind of impression you make on people? We create these impressions through our communications with others. Basically, we communicate in three ways: verbally, the words we speak; vocally, the tone of our voice; and non-verbally, our body language, facial expressions, etc. Frequently we don’t even realize that what we’re doing is causing poor or negative impressions. As Christians working in a world that needs to know Christ, we should make the best impression we can. We are, after all, ambassadors for Jesus Christ; we represent him to our world. Since we are percei ..read more