Follower of One : Missions For The Rest Of Us

Have you ever heard that we are what we repeatedly do? Jesus points out how we produce fruit based on what is inside us. Our character determines our output. 

Is Jesus saying we can never change? Certainly not. In many other places, Jesus tells us the Holy Spirit living in us changes us. We come alive from the dead when we trust Jesus. And as we cooperate with the Spirit, he transforms us. 

This comparison is for a point: the source determines the output. When we have a good source, out character and the Holy Spirit in us, our fruit will be good. It will point others to Jesus. 

Today, let's practice our 1st daily activity and Pray. Ask God to use you in the lives of others. He will. We know he will. Sometimes, he uses us as software developers, or machinists, or teachers. Sometimes he calls us outside of our job description. Let's follow Jesus wherever he leads us knowing that we will produce good fruit when we're focused on him.

Often, this takes practice. In 2 weeks, we begin our 14th Marketplace Mission Trip, a 2-week exercise to practice listening to and following Jesus at work, or whatever we do every day. Why not check it out and sign up at MarketplaceMissionTrip.com?

In this week's episode of the Follower of One podcast, Mike talks with Debrah Love Bradshaw. Deborah is a professional speaker, trainer, consultant, coach, and author. She has extensive communication, marketing, and training experience. Deborah's life goal is to help people unlock their potential and find value in themselves. Please welcome her to the community! 

Episode Breakdown

0:50 - Meet Deborah

2:05 - Deborah's TEDx talk

5:55 - Find Your Purpose

9:20 - Mindset within the Workplace

13:00 - Finding Value in your Strengths

17:05 - Training in a Pandemic World 

21:10 - High Context vs. Low Context

25:40 - Learning How to Listen

28:05 - Deborah's Advice for Workplace Christians 

Find Your Gift

You have been created, by God, to do something specific in this world. He has a plan for you and you can count on it. What were you created to do? Deborah talks with Mike about her purpose in her work. That purpose is helping others find their value, talents, aspirations, and bring them to the forefront. We fall into jobs, careers, and even lifestyles because they are convenient. Is that the path God chose for you? Do you feel fulfilled in your current role, relationship, or even life-track? If the answer is no, then we have work to do and Debrah can help! 

Seeing From a New Perspective

Most of the time and I am guilty of this too, we are so deep in the roots of our life that we fail to see what is right in front of us. It is only when someone else steps in and can objectively view our situations, that we find more clarity. Why is that? Deborah talks about how several of her lectures, teachings, and consultations start and end by allowing someone to show you solutions and opportunities that you have missed simply because you are used to seeing them. We overlook them because they are regular but sometimes, we need another brain to teach us that there is more than one way to look at a situation. Building a brighter future for yourself might start with gaining a new perspective on your current situation! 

Interview Quote

" If we believe the Holy Spirit lives within us, then we have to believe that God doesn't leave us when we go to work. We are still indwelling of the Holy Spirit!" 

Connect with Debrah

Deborah Love Bradshaw Website

Level Up To More Website

Deborah's LinkedIn

Connect With Follower Of One

Join us over in our Online Community, get social with us; Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn and subscribe to our YouTube channel. Listen to our podcast on your way to work and subscribe using your favorite podcast app. Be a part of our next Marketplace Mission Trip!

Do you know people who seem to exercise discipline or self-control better than others? Discipline and self-control come down to knowing what we want. Our world constantly tries to distract us. In fact, the world, our flesh and the devil all try to distract us. We think we want to gamble or eat an extra dessert. But we really want to save money for something more important or we really want to be healthy.

Paul reminds us we only live once. Like someone who competes in the games, we don't want to take our one chance for granted. When Mike was younger, he always thought he would get another shot. But now that he's north of 60, it's harder to learn discipline. He doesn't have the habits in place. He hasn't trained himself. As we get older, it's harder to create new habits. Our old ways are more set. 

Let's discipline ourselves a bit more today. Ask God to show you a tradeoff you can make simply because you follow him. Maybe you can invest some energy in helping a coworker. Or buy someone's lunch. Your stuff won't stick around anyway. Invest some of your resources in eternity, by serving others and showing appreciation for others. How you run your race matters. We don't want to finish the race and find we've been disqualified. When we pray and ask God to direct us, he will give us opportunities to do our job better, or to help others more. Both activities are important. How we live our life matters. Take some time today to practice walking with Jesus and letting him make a difference through you.

Why not make a commitment. Head over to MarketplaceMissionTrip.com and sign up for our next Marketplace Mission Trip. You'll have 2 weeks to practice the discipline. But it's not all work. Most who have taken this "trip" enjoy their relationship with Jesus more, and they commit to keep it going. Click the link and head over to check it out.

Don't blow your race. We're all in a race. YOLO means we only live once. Sometimes that becomes an excuse to do some stupid things. But if we really only live once, there is something special about this life. How we live this life matters. Paul took it very seriously. He wanted the Corinthians to consider this as race with only one winner. And he challenged them to compete in such a way that they might win. 

For most of my life, I've treated my spiritual life as something to be neglected. I would check into my spiritual life and walk with God when it mattered, on a retreat, or when I had time. Only in the last few years, when I started treating my eternal life as something that I live now, did I realize that I could punch-in any time. But I can't compete any time. I need to prepare. I need to read the Bible. I need to pray. I need to practice interacting with God, meditate on scripture, and think more. I need to prepare to compete. 

How do you treat your life? Do you consider that you're competing for a prize that won't ever fade away or deteriorate. Do you have some old high school trophies laying around? I don't even know what happened to mine. Our prize from God won't deteriorate, or become passed. 

Would you like to live valuing the prize better, check out tomorrow's podcast, but also go to MarketplaceMissionTrip.com and sign up for the next Marketplace Mission Trip. We will practice running the race for 2 weeks beginning January 31. Even if you're listening to this long after January 31, go to MarketplaceMissionTrip.com and sign up for the next trip.

SUBMIT YOUR PRAYER REQUEST OR PRAISE:

Go to https://CareyGreen.com/prayer to submit your prayer request or praise for us to include on a future episode.

BECOME A MORNING MINDSET PARTNER:

If you'd like to become a partner with us to keep the Morning MIndset going you can do so in one of two ways:

1) Become a monthly partner : For as little as $5/mo you can help us keep the work of the Morning Mindset going. Go to https://www.patreon.com/morningmindset

2) Give a one-time gift: We are grateful for anything you feel the LORD would have you donate. You can do so here: http://paypal.me/MorningMindset

What percentage of your work would you say consists of activities that are important to God? Most of us think that pastors and missionaries do the real, spiritual work. Our "secular" work doesn't really matter, does it?

Paul explains to the Corinthian believers that everything he does is designed "for the sake of the gospel." What do you think that means? What makes Paul different from you and me? Do you put him in a different class and give yourself a pass?

Today, I'd like to encourage you to run the race of your life so that you win. We will live forever. But we only have so many years on this planet. When we see walking with God as work, we listen to our enemy and we miss out on the joy of walking with God. I missed out on that joy for many years.

Now, I want to do all things for the sake of the gospel. What does that mean? For me, it means that I spend my time, no matter what my job is, doing it for God. Asking God the questions, "What do you want me to get out of this?" and "What are you saying though this effort, this activity?" I want to cooperate with God as he transforms my every action. How I balance the books matters. How I drive my truck matters. How I complete project paperwork matters. How timely I respond to a request matters. Each action tells me, if no one else, who I follow and that everything I do is for God. 

What about you? Would you like to begin to practice walking with God more at work? Go to MarketplaceMissionTrip.com and sign up for the next Marketplace Mission Trip. You'll take part in a 2-week exercise designed to help you integrate your faith and work. Check it out.

What would you say is the great effort of your life? The Jews were waiting for God to put things right. To this day, Jewish people wait for their nation to be justified. They're waiting on God to provide a Savior. Paul here uses promise language to describe how we wait for the hope of things being put right, too. We want to be made right. God is working to bring people to himself. And when we trust Jesus, he gives us a down-payment in the Holy Spirit who comes to live in us.

Paul contrasts our faith to that of some Galatians who wanted to continue to obey the Jewish laws. He reminds us that when we begin to live in the power of the Holy Spirit, we eagerly wait. Our waiting is not bored or passive, but eager. We wait to receive by faith the ideal, perfect, relationship with God that has been promised to us. We will experience that in perfection one day. And it will be sooner than we think.

This waiting expects. We expect God to make us right. We also know that today, we see God when we look for him. God is working, but we only see him working when we expectantly look for it. (See Jeremiah 29:13). Our expectations determine how much we see God. People who don't trust Jesus believe we are manufacturing this hope. But it is only when we expect, that we see God working. The faith to believe and the patience to trust produce this expectation. 

Today at work, this expectation can bear fruit, but the real reward will come one of these days. We will be made right. Are you expectantly waiting? I want to live my life as one who expectantly waits. I believe that means that I lay up treasure, by being the kind of person Jesus wants me to be, and by loving his people the way he did. Ask God today how he would like you go to work, and how to interact with others. God will use your life to draw people to himself. Think about what we have to look forward to, and use that as motivation.

They asked Jeremiah to pray to God for direction. They said they would do whatever God told them to do through Jeremiah. Then everyone waited. Verses like this one take a second to read. But it took 10 days to live. 

How do you wait for God? Mike confessed that he doesn't wait well. What about you? Can you persist in waiting on God? Can you resist moving before you're clear? Can you wait 10 days or longer?

Often God makes us wait to show us what we already know, we're selfish and impatient. Today, let's give God some time. Whatever you are asking God about, promise to wait another day. And in an hour when you're thinking about it again, remind yourself that you're waiting a day. Let's develop a long view. Can you wait as long as it takes? And check out Draw the Circle by Mark Batterson which is where Mike first got the idea to wait as long as it takes. 

Finally, in just a few weeks, we begin our 14th Marketplace Mission Trip. Will you join us? There's no cost. Head over to MarketplaceMissionTrip.com to learn more and sign up.

In this week's episode of the Follower of One podcast, Mike talks with Tara Savedra. Tara is a speech pathologist in Edmond, OK, and serves God every day. Please welcome her to the community!

Episode Breakdown

1:00 - Meet Tara

1:30 - Tara's Story to Christ

2:55 - Tara's work in Speech Pathology

5:25 - Tara's Thoughts on the Marketplace Mission Trip

7:05 - Takeaways from the Mission Trip

9:25 - Tara's Why

13:20 - Pray for Teachers!

15:00 - Tara's Advice or Marketplace Christians

Shift Your Mindset

Tara talks with Mike about her recent Marketplace Mission Trip experience and how it helped her shift her mindset throughout the two weeks. One of the main things that the Marketplace Mission Trip gives our community is practical tools for being a better minister at your workplace. Tara gives some specific examples of how each day was started, and ended, in a call to God so that he can give us the path we need to take. We need to shift our mindset to start and end each day with him. Let God make the plan because as much as we followers love to plan, God might have a very different idea of how your day will go! 

Always Look to Scripture 

Every challenge we are faced with can be unique and just as cumbersome if given the chance. However, we have the great opportunity to have the "safety net" of God's word behind all of us. Tara speaks to this with Mike. She explains that in everything we do, looking toward scripture could be the difference we need in helping someone. When was the last time you used scripture to come to a better understanding with one another? Do you use scripture to preach, or to find common ground? This is a key aspect of workplace relationships and could be a useful tool in building deeper connections with your colleagues! 

Connect with Tara

Quote

"It is important, whenever we can, to use God's word as we are praying. To share that with the people you pray for!"

Tara's Email

Connect With Follower Of One

Join us over in our Online Community, get social with us; Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn and subscribe to our YouTube channel. Listen to our podcast on your way to work and subscribe using your favorite podcast app. Be a part of our next Marketplace Mission Trip!

Why do we criticize others for the small speck in their eye and we ignore the log in our own eye? Jesus talked about this a few times. In Matthew 7, he said this when talking about judging others. Luke records the Sermon on the Mount slightly differently. This speck and log comparison has to do with teaching. I wonder if this doesn't apply a bit to political arguments in our day.

What if we focused not on the words and actions of others, but on those of ourselves? Who do you disagree with? Do you focus on what they do that's wrong? Do you watch a particular flavor of news, focusing on the conflict between your way of thinking and that of someone else. Why would we watch one news channel and criticize all the others? Could it be that Jesus challenges us here with our own tendency to listen only to those with whom we agree?

Today, let's examine the logs in our eyes. Do we have the guts to ask God to convict us? He won't give you much of an answer unless your request is genuine. And even then, he won't answer you more than once if you don't act on his answer. Let's be a people who examine the log in our eyes.

Why not join us in the online community at community.followerofone.org and ask some friends to join, too. Let's create a community where we can help one another follow Jesus and listen to him.