S   “Essential: Finding Worth in Your Work During Uncertain Times” was released February 2 and is now available on Amazon and other sites as it gets distributed.  

• Here’s the announcement on ChristianPost.com
• Here’s the book landing page with a link to the YouVerion/Bible.com plan and some exclusive bonus material

First Light Devotional by Pastor Brian Biggers, Lamb's Chapel, Burlington, NC   Having to Have Your Way is Highly Overrated!  If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live at peace with all men. Romans 12:18  Do you know what is better than always having to have your own way? Always having peace on the inside! We now live in a day when people are hell bent on being right and having their own way in everything. The prevailing attitude is that if I can't have my way, I'll burn the place to the ground! Our nation has embraced the scorched earth attitude. The Bible warned that a day like this would come when men would be "demanding and irreconcilable". The result of this attitude is the loss of peace in people's lives and the public square. Is there anybody out there like myself that would like to return to "Mayberry days" when people were willing to bend in order to enjoy a life of peace and community? Even Otis was respected and shown some mercy! Scripture tells us that this selfishness that would prevail in the latter day would create "stressful times" to live in. Is not the root of all stress people valuing "their way" above peace? What does God call us to do in these trying days of "my way or the highway"? The answer is in today's verse. We are clearly commanded to pursue peace with all people as much as is possible with us. Before you will pursue peace above being right you have to begin to value peace above being right. Question; which would you rather do, win an argument or enjoy your day? If you win the argument, congratulations! You are miserable inside, you just lost a friend, but by grannies, you won! Personally, in this ripe old age I've decided that enjoying life, being at peace inside, keeping my friends and being a living testimony to the grace of God beats being right any day! As I told a man who was arguing with his wife once and wanted me to side in with him, "you can be right or you can be warm tonight, its your choice"! Its certainly not original with me but, "if mama ain't happy..."! No doubt there are times when conflict is unavoidable and we need to confront that which is evil, dangerous or unbiblical, but most of the things that divide us and make life miserable are not in that category. In the majority of cases we can choose peace over strive if we want to. Jesus did not say "blessed are the peacekeepers", He said "blessed are the peace makers". We are called to "make" peace. Do whatever is necessary to create peace in the heart, home and land. I hear it out there somewhere, "but I am right, and they are wrong"! Even if that is true, follow the example of our Master who was right when I was wrong (want to argue?), yet He took the initiative to "create peace between man and God". Do you want to live the abundant, satisfying, enjoyable life on this earth that Jesus promises? Start choosing peace over "right".   Dear Jesus, you were right, and I was wrong. Thank you for choosing peace over judgement! Please give me grace to do the same!   I totally agree with everything Pastor Brian has said and that we should be peacemakers in our families, with our friends, and at our work, and that needs to be intentional, because it goes against our flesh and sinful nature to do so.   I want to add my own thoughts to this and that is that being a peacemaker doesn't mean that we should continue to invest in everyone's lives and pursue everyone's approval.  Jesus clearly set priorities for who he invested in with his time and energy with his Disciples, and when he sent out the Disciples to share the Gospel, he added in Mark 6:11 NKJV "And whoever will not receive you nor hear you, when you depart from there, shake off the dust under your feet as a testimony against them. Assuredly, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city!”"   Matt 7:6 NKJV “Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces."    I don't claim to fully understand Matthew 7:6, and I've heard it taught and interpreted in different ways.  One interpretation is that we should not continue to invest ourselves and our time in those who are rejecting what we have to say.  Everyone needs to hear the Gospel, but we should not assume that we're totally responsible for someone receiving it.    Paul pointed out in 1 Corinthians 3:6 - NKJV that we don't know exactly how our actions will play a role in impacting someone but ultimately it's up to God not us.  Paul says "I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase."   After Paul preached a powerful message Acts 17:32-34  says "32 And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, while others said, “We will hear you again on this matter.” 33 So Paul departed from among them. 34 However, some men joined him and believed, among them Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and others with them."   Paul did what he was called to do, but he could not control who received the message and who did not, but what did he do?  He left them, he moved on.   How do we apply this in our lives?  Well, when it comes to our work, don't make someone your spiritual project.  Be obedient to what you believe the Holy Spirit is leading you to do and say, and move on.  Love everyone, be at peace at everyone to the extent we can, but find a core group of believers at work with whom you will invest most of your time and energy.   These principles ar true of acquaintances at work, it's true of our friends outside of work, and believe it or not, it's true of family members as well.   We may feel the need to be close to all our family members, our parents, our siblings, etc. and for them to agree with us or rather for us to agree with them, particularly about important matters of faith.   Proverbs 27:10b NKJV says "Better is a neighbor nearby than a brother far away."   In Mark 3:31-35 NKJV "31 Then His brothers and His mother came, and standing outside they sent to Him, calling Him. 32 And a multitude was sitting around Him; and they said to Him, “Look, Your mother and Your brothers [h]are outside seeking You.”

33 But He answered them, saying, “Who is My mother, or My brothers?” 34 And He looked around in a circle at those who sat about Him, and said, “Here are My mother and My brothers! 35 For whoever does the will of God is My brother and My sister and mother.”

The Bible commands us to honor our father and mother, but it also says in Genesis 2:24 "Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh."   I'm not aware of any command in the Bible for us to be close to our siblings.   E   Harrel at Lowes.  Super helpful as we were looking at replacing our wrotten door going onto our back deck.  I don't know if he's a believer, but I shared with him this podcast, so if you're listening Harrel, thanks for doing such a great job.  One thing I liked was how he handled interruptions.  When someone came up to him for help, he immediately addressed them, which was considerate to them for not making them wait, and let them know that he would help them as soon as he was finished with my wife and I, which was considerate to us.  Even if we don't work in retail, I think we can all find ways to learn from how Harrel handled this.   L   He who is slothful in his work Is a brother to him who is a great destroyer. Proverbs 18:9 - NKVJ   A i went to tell you about something I'm really excited about that you may be interested in as well, and it's an opportunity to get involved with a company called Onpassive. I've been an engineer for the last 13 years, but as some of you may know who have heard my testimony this is not my first stint at being an engineer.  I worked full-time for 7 years as an engineer working for General Mills, helped launch products like Multi-Grain Cheerios and Frosted Cheerios and share a patent for unique way to make cracked grains in cereal flakes.  Well, in 2000 I quite my job as an engineer and spent the next 8 years flipping houses and buying, renting, and selling investment property.  There were a lot of promise made about getting rich quick.  That combined with me some poor decisions on my part resulted in that business failing. I made the right choice to go back to engineering, and I enjoy it, but I've never lost a bit entrepreneurship in my blood and I do believe in the power of passive income.  This side of my personality contributed toward me starting up and running this podcast but I've also kept my eye out for the right part-time business that could provide some added income for me and my wife, especially that would leverage the power of the internet and not demand much of my time. I believe I've found just that opportunity.  A friend of mine shared it with me, and I was skeptical as I always will be, both because of my experience going bankrupt as well as my nature is to be detail oriented and check things out thoroughly. A man named Ash Mufarah started this up a few years ago.  His vision was to have a portfolio of software applications that would work together and be an improvement over what's currently available.  He also set this up so that a maximum number of people can benefit from it without having to spend a lot of time on it. Here's what I like about this opportunity: 1. It requires only a small up front investment 2. It has a massive market - pretty much everyone needs these tools in one way or another 3. It offers an alternative to the Big Tech offerings currently available, and from what I've observed so far they are committed to not just created a me-too version but rather to have a point of difference and be significantly better than the competition 4. It gives you a chance to be a part of something before it launches. They're planning on launching like 50 products and have just started to release them for beta testing.  The first one, O-Cademy is so powerful.  It will allow children and adults to get the best training online and it will allow content creators and teachers to share their knowledge teaching others and make an income doing it.  I could go on about this one product, but my main point is that this one product is so powerful and has huge potential and it's just one product. If you think you might be interested, click here for more info or email me to discuss further at [email protected]   H

• Starting a series of Handy Tips on Time Management, taken from my interview with John Shirey CMAW 118
• This episode, I want share that we can't really manage time, but we can manage ourselves and what we do