Would you say you're devoted to others in brotherly love?

 

Hi, I'm Mike Henry Sr., with Follower of One. Thanks for joining me again today on the Follower of One podcast, I've often spoken about verses from Romans 11, and there's a section of verses in Romans 11 that I've not talked about before and that's verses 10 through 15.

 

So I want to do a few part series on these verses because they're right in the middle of a really cool section of this chapter where we are directed on how we interact with one another. And I believe it begins by talking to Christians about how we interact with other believers.

 

And that's what I think this verse is about. But I do believe that the apostle Paul applies this to our relationships with other people as well. And we'll talk about that in some of the later chapters and the later verses. Today's verse is "Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Give preference to one another in honor." That's Romans 12:10 and that was from the New American Standard. In the English Standard Version it says, "Love one another with brotherly affection outdo one another in showing honor."

 

We are called to love other people like they're are brothers, especially those inside the church. And do we do that? Do you catch yourself doing that? This one of the summary verses of this section. It actually talks about our humility and how we're to be humble in verse 16.

 

And I've spoken about that before in episode 33. It was a long time ago in our podcast, so it was one of the very early episodes. But humility's one of those things that I want to talk about every 10 years or so. Actually, no - I need to talk about it more than that. I have a problem with arrogance.

 

And so that's one of those things I'm constantly on myself about. That's part of the reason why I keep coming back to this section of scripture. When I can put others ahead of myself, when I can be devoted to them in brotherly love, when I can give preference to them in honor, I can try and outdo each other by showing honor to others.

 

When I am able to love them and out do them and showing honor to them, this is a challenge. It's a practical challenge for us as marketplace Christians. Every day as we go into our workplace, this one verse is plenty to do.

 

We can be devoted to one another in brotherly love. We can show mutual love, It says in the net Bible. Or brotherly affection as it says in the ESV, or brotherly love in the other chapters. It's talking about phileo. It's talking about this mutual affection that we have for others. It requires us to give it first. As Christ followers we give that love first. Almost always we respond to people loving us with love.

 

But almost never do we give it first. And Christians, I believe, are called to give that love first. That way we get to go into our workplaces today and look for opportunities to give away the love of Christ, to appreciate people and show them that we appreciate them. Help them feel appreciated. It's not how we act as much as it is how they feel.

 

And so that's our challenge for today. Today. I want to challenge us as marketplace Christians: Let's go into our workplaces today and if we know other Christ followers in the workplace, then let's especially be preferential towards them. Let's do things to show this honor and brotherly love towards believers. But, let's also do that with our coworkers.

 

These people are giving away their lives in their job at the same rate we are giving away our life in our jobs. So let's go invest our lives because our lives as Christ followers will last forever. So we can give away what we have now, so that these other people that we know might move a little closer to Jesus.

 

That's our goal. That's our ministry - to help other people move one notch closer to Jesus. So today please be devoted to one another in brotherly love and watch what God does in your workplace. Thank you for being a marketplace minister, and thank you for making a difference with your faith. Share this podcast with a friend and remember we're a donor supported podcast.

 

So you can go to follower of FollowerOfOne.org and make a contribution to help us grow this podcast. Thanks very much.

 

Connect With Follower Of One. 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. Join us on our next Marketplace Mission Trip.

 

Would you say that you really understand your own motives?   Hi, I’m Mike Henry Sr. with Follower of One. Thanks for joining me again today on the Follower of One podcast. I’m grateful that you’re here today. We’re talking about how we have this tendency to misunderstand our own actions. Today. I want to read Romans 7:15 from the New American Standard Bible.   “I do not understand. So I’m not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate as a Christ follower.” I felt like this verse was the application and the practical working out of my faith in my life. For many years, I struggled with my own desires to be more Christlike, to do the things that he would have me do, to live in such a way that would glorify him. Yet my habits and behaviors and my moment-by-moment choices mess me up every time. One of those areas for me is in eating snacks. I always just kind of give myself a pass, and before I know it,I’ve eaten way too many snacks. I give myself this pass and what I would like to do, I don’t really do it. I do the things that deep down in my soul (my habits, and subconscious) I think I want to do, but they take me off. I believe the Bible gives us a great explanation that when I listen to my flesh, when I listen to the world around me, and when I listen to the nature tugging on my spirit, it pulls me away from God. What I am doing I do not understand. I misunderstand my own actions.   I don’t practice what I would really like to do, but I do the very thing I don’t want to do. I make choices in the short run to be lazy or to be selfish. Each of us, I believe, does this. Each of us have this capability to make a short-term temporary decision that takes us away from God, away from the opportunities to minister to other people.   It requires discipline and hope for us to turn from this challenge, and hope is a key word for me. I hope to talk about the word “hope” much more in the coming weeks because I’m reading a book called Hope Rising by Casey Gwinn and Chan Hellman. It’s an interesting book and they have a definition for hope in there. This is where I wanted to be for today. Instead of misunderstanding our actions, let’s focus on hope. Their definition for hope states (this is a quote), “hope is the belief that a thriving future is possible and you have the power to make it.” So I don’t read the book from a particularly Christian perspective.   I’m only four chapters into it, so I’m less than a third of the way in. But what I find in hope, and we find in the Bible,(I’ll talk about this in future days), is that hope is the belief that a thriving future is possible and God has the power to make it. So the Holy Spirit has the power to make it so, and to work through us.   He’s given us the opportunity to be agents in that process. That’s what Paul’s talking about here in Romans 7: Left to ourselves, we’re not capable of participating in God’s program. We’re not capable of taking part in that, but the Holy Spirit transforms us and is the down payment for that. Our sin has been paid for. We no longer have to make these choices as he goes about through the rest of Romans 7 and into Romans 8.   Rather than misunderstanding our motives and our beliefs, let’s enter our life every day with a biblical perspective. Today, that’s our challenge. Let’s remember that our flesh and our choices and our habits, they’re not necessarily what God would do. They might be, in fact, the very thing we would hate. But we can choose today to say “Here I am” to God and let him put us to work in our workplaces and in the lives of the people around us. We can go into any work situation and begin with the prayer, "Jesus. Here I am. What would you have me do today?” And then it’s God’s job to put us to work. Thank you for being a marketplace minister. Thanks for considering how you can make a difference by re-understanding your own motives and your own choices. And don’t forget to join us at www.community.followerofone.org.   You can check it out there at no cost, and you can see about becoming part of a community of people that are helping o

 

Does faith in Christ make a difference in your day to day?

Hi, I’m Mike Henry Sr. with Follower of One. Thanks for joining me again today on the Follower of One podcast. I’ve been thinking and talking about trust and hope and faith for the last couple of days. I came across this passage as a direct response to the two Psalms that I read in the previous two passages.

You can check the episodes out that were before this one. Today. I want to read Matthew 8:23-26: “As he got in the boat, his disciples followed him. Ssuddenly a violent storm arose on the sea so that the boat was being swamped by the waves. But Jesus kept sleeping. So the disciples came and woke him up saying, ‘Lord, save us. We’re going to die.’ He said to them, ‘Why are you afraid you of little faith?’ Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the sea and there was a great calm.” That’s again Matthew 8:23-26 from the Christian Standard Bible. Jesus is in the boat, and he’s so tired that he’s sleeping in the middle of this storm.

This storm is bad enough to scare men who are fishermen. These men lived on that sea and they’re afraid. So, this is a bad storm and yet Jesus is asleep. His question to them was, "Why are you afraid you of little faith?” We talked a little bit about how our fear needs to trigger us, to put our trust in the Lord.

Here Jesus is demonstrating this by having rested, having slept right through the storm. He ranks this reference to “you of little faith.” That phrase, that Greek word that’s translated, “little faith” is used six times in the new Testament; five of them are in Matthew. One of those is a restating of Matthew 6 in Luke.

And so we have Jesus. We have record of Jesus referencing the disciples as “those of little faith” five times by two different authors. I think Jesus said it a lot. I think this was a kind of a cautionary reminder teaching tool that he used. We are people of little faith. We don’t have much faith. We have to work out our salvation. I believe that means we strengthen our faith by trusting God more and more. Jesus is basically challenging the disciples to relax in him. They’re with the God of the universe in a boat on a sea. This storm is subject to him. And it’s clear in the next verse, you can tell they hadn’t even considered that the winds in the sea might obey him.

They were not thinking of him as God. They were thinking of him as a man. But when he tells the wind and the sea what to do, they’re blown away. I want my fear to run from Jesus because I have this faith. My faith doesn’t measure up as much as I would like it to. As a result, I become afraid; but what can I do today?

Rather than going all the way back to the beginning of this week, what can I do today? I can put my trust in God. I can remember that I only have a little faith. Let’s put one more weight on the bar. Let’s try and trust God a little more. We have to build up our faith muscles. And today I want to challenge us as marketplace Christians:Ask God to show you where you can add a couple of pounds and trust him a little more.

Maybe it’s in praying for your coworkers and then doing the idea that comes to mind. If you pray for a coworker and the next day you get an idea of doing something for them, figure out how to do it. That’s a ministry opportunity. Ministry is just service, and so we can serve our coworkers because we follow Jesus, because we’re growing our faith. Our faith should help us rest in the difficulties and the challenges and the things that scare us. Our faith makes us rest, and then we’re free to do the work that Jesus has for us. Thank you for being a marketplace minister.

Thank you for serving the people around you because you follow Jesus. That’s all ministry is. In fact, you can join a community of us who are trying to do that every.

Go to www.community.followerofone.org and join us. We have a new marketplace mission trip starting in just a couple of weeks. You can join our online community and sign up for that next marketplace mission trip. It’s a two-week practice exercise where we practice lifting a little more faith and trusting God a little more.

Check it out at www.community.followerofone.org . Thanks very much.

 

As we wrap up the summer of 2022. How’s your rest coming? Did you get to take a vacation this year?

Hi, I’m Mike Henry Sr. with Follower of One. Thanks for joining me again today on the Follower of One podcast. The last couple of days we’ve been talking about some different things. Yesterday we talked about trust and how we can put our trust in the Lord.

Today, I also want to read another Psalm, Psalm 62:5. "Rest in God alone, my soul. For my hope comes from him." That’s from the Christian Standard Bible. Our rest comes from God, and we can rest in God when our hope comes from him. Hope and trust and faith are words that I’ve been studying in the Bible. And rest is one of those outcomes of our hope and our peace.

We’ll talk about this a little bit more tomorrow, too. But as we rest in God, our hope comes from Him; or our hope comes from Him and it gives us this rest.

And I want to challenge us as marketplace Christians to remember that God gives our soul rest. If you took a vacation, did you get the rest you were looking for? Did your soul rest? Often our soul doesn’t rest on vacation. Our body rests, but our soul doesn’t rest as much. We maybe scheduled too many things or we’re concerned about what happens when we get back to work. We’re all covered up. I’ve had friends who took good summer vacations. But then when they came back to work, it was almost back to normal quickly, simply because they were buried when they got back and there was a bunch of other things going on.

Our circumstances steal our rest and our fears can cause us to be separated from God. They kind of take us off into our own plan. I talked about that too - that when I’m afraid, often I try to put together a plan. I don’t turn to God, but I want to put my trust in Him.

And the result of trusting in God is rest for my soul when I rest in God alone oh, soul or my soul. I mean, it’s like the Psalmist is talking to their own soul. Rest in God for my hope comes from Him.

I want to remind myself that hope and trust in the future, my promise of the future, all comes from God. It doesn’t come from our circumstances. It doesn’t come from our government. It doesn’t come from my financial situation. Everything in this world will burn up. It will be gone, or I’ll be separated from it. And this is a challenge for me. As I get older, I have certain goals that I want to achieve, and I catch myself pressuring myself to achieve these goals.

But when I can rest in God alone, my hope comes from Him. I want to remember that my eternal hope is in God. It’s in my relationship to Him. The single best thing that I can imagine is true if Jesus is who he says he is. It means that the God of the universe (the God who created everything) loves me and has provided for me forever. I can’t imagine anything better.

And so I want to join Jesus in for my eternal life and I want to rest and remember that my hope comes from God. It doesn’t come from my circumstances. Today, I want to challenge us. Let’s place our hope in God, not in our circumstances or our strategies or our resources. Our circumstances and our plans and our money won’t save us. Only the Lord saves us. Our hope comes from Him.

When we live with this peace, it transcends all comprehension. That’s what he talks about in Philippians 4. The peace of God transcends the comprehension of our friends, and it may cause them then to ask us, “Why are you different? Why are you doing this?”

That’s our opportunity to make a difference in the life of someone else. Thank you for being a marketplace minister. Thank you for considering how you can take your faith with you 24/7. Let’s rest in God today. Remember that our hope comes from Him and be available to be a difference maker in the lives of every person that we meet.

Thanks very much.

 

What do you do when you're afraid? 

Hi, I'm Mike Henry Sr. with Follower of One. Thanks for joining me again today on the Follower of One podcast. I'm grateful that you enjoy these little 5 minute daily devotionals to challenge ourselves to be difference makers in our workplaces and wherever we are, wherever we go every day today. Today, I'm preaching a little bit to myself.

I'm reading Psalm 56:3 from the English Standard Version. “When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.” What do you do when you're afraid? I've often said that I don't like me when I'm afraid. When I'm scared or worried, I sense those knots in my stomach, I sense this anxiety building in my spirit and I get tense about things, and one of the things that I tend to do is I tend to try and make new plans. I tend to grab all the resources that I have and come up with a new plan for how I'm gonna react to this fear. 

But the Psalmist doesn't give us that option here. The Psalmist says “When I am afraid, I put my trust in you” and he's talking to God. The Psalmist is speaking openly to God here. He says “In God whose word I praise. In God I trust. I shall not be afraid. What can flesh do to me?” That's the next verse. 

And so we're talking to God and we're saying that we've created, or this Psalmist has created a relationship. “When I sense fear, I put my trust in you. I actively place it there.” 

I want to be the dictator of my own trust and confidence and peace. I want to rest in God, which we'll talk about in a future episode. But the way that I do that is by placing my trust in Him. 

How can we do that today? And how can that difference matter in the lives of the people that we interact with?

Well, if I can put my trust in God, then the things that happen to me aren't setbacks. They aren't disappointments. God is almighty, and when I put my trust in Him, my fear goes down a notch. My anxiety and my tension, and my tendency to react quickly to the things that happen to me also go down a notch. I want to trust God in such a way that I'm relaxed so that I can experience what He would have me experience in every interaction that I have with my coworkers or with customers or with vendors. 

My opportunities to be a difference maker appear because I'm confident and I'm trusting God. And I'm looking for those opportunities instead of obsessing over what might happen to me and the things that might go wrong according to my plan. All of these things are triggered by my own fear and so I want to create a new trigger for me today. I want my fear to trigger trust. 

Trust is – I think I've said before – my word for 2022. And I'm trying to put my trust in God more and more. And so I notice these uses of the word trust in scripture.

“When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.” 

Today, let's deny the fear that we have by putting our trust in God, God is almighty and He's aware of our circumstances and our situation. And He's called us. He's given us an opportunity to be a difference maker in the lives of the people that we interact with every day.

All we have to do, and it's not that easy, is put our trust in Him. Don't let the circumstances of your life knock you off, but put your trust in God and then do what He would have you do in every choice you make and in the lives of every person that you interact with today. 

Thank you for being a marketplace minister. Thank you for considering how God might use you in our world. It makes the world a better place. It also draws more people to him. Your actions matter. Trust God, punch in and do what He says and let's help the people around us move one notch closer to Jesus simply because we're trusting him today and we're not afraid.

And if you haven't done it yet, join us. We're a group of people who are trying to do this on a daily basis. You can join our online community at community.followerofone.org. Thanks very much.

 

Today on the Follower of One podcast, Mike Henry sits down with Chris Patton, a Disciple of Jesus, married for 27 years with 3 kids, and the Global CEO at His Way at Work. His Way at Work is a nonprofit dedicated to transforming company culture and implementing Christian principles into the workplace. In this episode, Chris and Mike talk about the creation of His Way at Work, going through the business world with an eternal perspective, navigating a Christian-based company with non-Christian coworkers, the global impact of His Way at Work, the calling of a Marketplace Missionary, and questions to ask so you can grow as a Marketplace Missionary.

 

Outline of the Episode

• 0:29 – About Chris Patton
• 3;54 – How Chris came to know Christ
• 5:13 – How His Way at Work got started
• 5:42 – Going through the business world with an eternal perspective
• 7:20 – Navigating a Christian-based company with non-Christian coworkers
• 10:10 – An example on how His Way at Work has changed companies
• 14:32 – The global impact of His Way at Work
• 20:06 – The Calling of a Marketplace MIssionary
• 23:21 – Questions to ask so you can grow as a Marketplace Missionary

 

Going through the business world with an eternal perspective

The business world can be a difficult life. When we go into the business world with an eternal perspective, the office becomes a mission field. When we put God’s perspective over our own, His will becomes our will. 

 

The calling of a Marketplace Missionary 

What is the calling of a marketplace missionary? Our calling as marketplace missionaries is to show God in the way we work and with the people with which we interact. We want people to ask why we are different so that we can start a conversation about Jesus. 

 

Follow Chris Patton

• His Way At Work
• 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!

What time is it? How often do you ask yourself that question? 

Hi, I'm Mike Henry Sr. with Follower of One. Thanks for joining me again today on the Follower of One podcast. Yesterday, we talked about the word today and today I want to talk about now. 

I'm reading 2 Corinthians 6:1-2 from the English Standard Version. “Working together with Him then we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain – for He says ‘At a favorable time, I listen to you and on a day of salvation, I have helped you.’ Behold, now is ‘the favorable time’. Behold, now is ‘a day of salvation’.” That's 2 Corinthians 6:1-2 in the English Standard Version.

I actually spoke about 2 Corinthians 6:1 in episode 655 of our podcast. And I talked about not receiving the grace of God in vain, but now in verse 2, the apostle Paul is quoting Isaiah and he says “In a favorable time, I listened to you in a day of salvation, I have helped you. Behold, now is the favorable time. Behold now is the day of salvation.” The key word here is now, and that's what time it is for us as marketplace Christians. It's always now. 

Now is a favorable time for listening to the Lord and doing what he says. Now is a favorable time to be saved and to live as members of the Kingdom of God. Now is our called moment. We are called to now. 

The next thought that pops into my mind is “so what?”. Why is it important that now is the moment, now is the day of salvation? Now is our opportunity to make a difference in the lives of other people. We don't have opportunities in the future and the opportunities in the past are gone. We can't do anything about them. Focusing on now puts us in the moment we're available to trust God and to do what we believe He says we should do in the lives of the people around us. This is not about the future or the past. It's about now. 

Each interaction that we have, one moment at a time, one person at a time, one interaction at a time – in our workplaces – is the opportunity for us to make a difference in the lives of other people. It's the opportunity for us to live like we belong to the Kingdom of Heaven. Now is the favorable time. Now is our opportunity. And so in continuing from yesterday, today is the day. Now is the time. 

Let's take a look around, ask God what he would have you do in the lives of every person that you meet and immediately your life kind of goes to a new level. It goes to this level where we live with Jesus and we take direction from the Holy Spirit and He puts us to work in the lives of the people around us. We can each make a difference in the lives of a coworker or a customer or a vendor, family member, or friend today.

Now is the favorable time. So, I wanna challenge you today. Let's ask God to put us to work. Again today, we can ask God to put us to work. It's not work. I almost use the air quotes when I say that, because we have to deny the lie that tells us that doing what God wants is painful and doing what we want is painless.

What we want creates the pain and what God wants creates the joy and the peace and the grace for us. Let's step into that joy and peace and grace today. Here I am, Lord, put me to work. Show me what you would have me do today. Help me to be present in every conversation and in every activity so that I can remember that now is the favorable time.

Thank you so much for being a marketplace minister. Thanks for making a difference with your faith in the marketplace. You matter, and your actions following Jesus matter and what you do because you follow Him can matter forever. So let's step into that. If you want to join a community of people who are pursuing God, check out community.followerofone.org.

Thanks very much.

Do you catch yourself thinking about the future often? Hi, I'm Mike Henry Sr. with Follower of One. Thanks for joining me again today on the Follower of One podcast. “Today” is a key word. And I try and use “today” often in the podcast because our work is focused on today. Our ministry to our coworkers is a “today” ministry.

Today, I'm going to read a passage in Hebrews 3:7. “Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as when they provoked me as in the day of trial in the wilderness.” That's Hebrews 3:7-8 from the New American Standard. 

In this passage in Hebrews, actually twice in chapter 3 and again in chapter 4, the author of Hebrews talks about the importance of today. We’re to encourage one another, as long as it's still called today. In Hebrews 4:7, it quotes this passage again, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.” (that's from Psalm 95).

The key of “today” I think is important for us because daily we have this opportunity to walk with Jesus as we live and demonstrate that we believe that Christ makes a difference, Christ has transformed us, The Holy Spirit is living in us, and as the Holy Spirit lives in us, He makes a difference in our lives. Each day, we get another shot at glorifying Him, of making Him visible, at living like we know He exists and He's there and He loves us. 

I'm fascinated at this because even if we screwed up yesterday, even if you've already screwed up today, you get another shot. We all get another shot. We can live like we follow Jesus any moment in time and that's why we use the word “today'' in our podcasts. I believe I've probably used that word in every single podcast because our goal is to encourage other believers today.  Today, we have a job to do. Today, you are powerful enough to change your own behavior and act in such a way that you believe that Jesus is Lord.

And when you do that, we join Him in His work in our world. He's busy drawing all people to himself and we join Him when we do that. And so, today, I want to challenge you. Begin with the prayer. “Okay. Jesus. Here I am. What would you have me do today?”, and then Jesus will put you to work. It's His job from that prayer on, He will put you to work in the lives of people.

Let's listen to His speaking to us through the Holy Spirit. Let's listen to His challenges. We will get opportunities to appreciate people and to serve people. We will have these chances. Here in Hebrews, we are reminded that today is the day. If we haven't followed Jesus yet, we can choose to follow him. If we make the choice to move one notch closer to Jesus today, we can help someone else move one notch closer to Jesus today.

And that's my challenge for us today. Let's help the people around us move one notch closer to Jesus. Thank you for being a marketplace minister. Thank you for sharing these podcasts. We're a donor supported ministry. If you are blessed by our podcasts or the Marketplace Mission Trips or anything that we do in our online community, consider making a donation to help support our ministry.

You can make a donation one time or a recurring donation using the donate button on our website. Go to FollowerofOne.org, make a donation, and check out our online community. Thanks very much.

How do you train yourself to make good choices? 

Hi, I'm Mike Henry Sr. with Follower of One. Thanks for joining me again today on the Follower of One podcast. For the last few episodes, we've been talking a little bit about compartmentalization and our choices are a function of that problem for our passage today, we're reading from the book of Joshua 24:15. Joshua was the person that took over for Moses, and led the people into the promised land, and this verse 15 reads and I'm reading from the New American Standard. "If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve. Whether the gods, which your father served, which were beyond the river or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. But as for me in my house, we will serve the Lord." 

You've probably heard parts of that verse in the past. That's a very famous claim that Joshua makes. "As for me in my house, we will serve the Lord." Our point today is about making choices, and so Joshua is challenging the people of Israel to choose for themselves today whom they will serve.

Bob Dylan even said famously in a song that we all serve somebody, their default choices. Our will is what we do. In the My utmost on July, the eighth Oswald Chambers talks about this topic. He says we can't help but make a choice. Being alive means we choose. Simply being alive means we operate according to our own will, even when we choose to obey or cooperate with someone else. Our will is engaged in our relationship with God, and so we must either choose to serve Him or not. But how do we train ourselves to serve Jesus? Well, it's one choice at a time, one decision at a time. When we give ourselves an excuse, which I often do. I often give myself an excuse "well, just this once." When we give ourselves this excuse, I think we miss out on the promises of God. We miss out on His joy. We miss out on the fellowship of doing what He would have us do and being what he would have us be. We miss out on this joy and pleasure of walking with Him because in my case, my body, my flesh, and my mind are telling me "oh, I don't want to do that. I want to do what I want." 

Compartmentalization is making Jesus or our faith one of the things we do, one of the choices. Sometimes I watch TV. Sometimes I work. Sometimes I golf. Other times I spend with Jesus, but I wonder what we miss because we don't spend our TV, our work, and our golf time with Jesus or whatever your hobby is.

Notice again today, I'm talking to me. This is my challenge. I wanna be challenged by what I miss out on when I'm not walking with the Lord. I want the Lord to help me to be less compartmentalized, but I must remember that my will is always engaged as long as I'm alive. So one of my prayers is to ask God to help train my will.

I want to give more of my will to Jesus every day. Every choice I make needs to have Jesus at the center. He's not necessarily on one side or the other, but I want to include him in every choice, and how will that change our lives? How would it change your life if you asked Jesus to take domain over more and more of your choices and to guide you to make more and better choices? 

Today, let's ask Jesus to help us choose to include Him in every choice that we make today in every decision that we make. I want to glorify Him, and I believe you do too because when we glorify Jesus, that's when we experience joy. We get to see Him work in our lives. We get to see Him work in our world. That's what we're here for.

I became a Christ follower because I believed it was true, but I remain a Christ follower because the Holy Spirit's living in me and I want to continue to make these choices over and over and over to grow my relationship with Jesus. Why not join us? This is a donor-supported ministry. 

Thank you for listening to our podcast. Please share it with someone else and share this content and what we talk about with others. Let's live like Jesus' followers in every relationship that we have so that he becomes visible in our world. 

Thanks very much.

 

Do you struggle with compartmentalization while living a segmented life? Or do you just kind of go along with it? 

Hey, this is Mike Henry Sr. with Follower of One. Thanks for joining me again today on the Follower of One podcast. Welcome to episode 741. We've been talking a little bit about com compartmentalization and today our verse is Deuteronomy 6:5, I'm reading from the New American Standard. "You shall love the Lord, your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might." 

This is a key verse and a key passage in the Old Testament law. Moses is reminding the people of Israel that we are to have God first in our lives, and Jesus quoted this passage when he was asked what is the greatest commandment.

The greatest commandment was two commandments in fact, "loving the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength, and loving your neighbor as yourself." When Jesus quoted this passage in Greek, in one of the gospels, it uses heart, mind, soul, and strength, and in another one of the passages, it uses heart and soul, and mind. So the words are slightly different, but the basic meaning is, is that we love God with everything we have and everything we are. 

In other words, Jesus isn't part of my life. He's all of it. Jesus created everything. He owns everything. So why do we then say we're too busy to do what he tells us to do? Integrity, you know, doesn't mean honesty. Integrity means that we're integrated, we're whole we're pure. We're not divided. I'm talking a little bit about the integrity of following Jesus today. To have integrity as a Jesus follower means there are not two of us. That was my struggle. I didn't want to live a different way at church than I lived at work, and yet when I went to my workplace, I battled regularly for a long time with my flesh and with the ways that I had done things. I became a Christian. I was already 30 years old, so I had 30 years of habits to break, but I've developed many new ones since then, too. I don't want to act like everything got better that day.

We all struggle, I believe a little bit, with being compartmentalized. With segmenting pieces of our lives and saying, well, I have to do what I have to do here, but then when I get back to church, God will forgive me. We know that God forgives us Christ paid for that forgiveness for us, and yet still what happens I believe when we compartmentalize is we miss out on the joy of walking with Jesus and doing everything that we do with Him. 

I wanted to be a good manager of software developers. I wanted to develop good software applications that were helpful and useful. I wanted to lead teams of people who ran, worked in shipping, and did other things. We did customer support and we did,  different kinds of work in my career. Each time when I could do those with God, I experienced more joy in what I was doing, and then when I got off on my thinking that I had to come up with my solutions, I experienced less joy and I had low points in my career.

I wanna challenge us today to think about being integrated and being whole. Today, let's remember the words all in this verse. "You show love the Lord, your God, with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might." All means all. Let's try and give God more and more of our life, and we need His help to do that, which is part of the reason why for each of this daily kinds of messages, I've suggested that we remember the prayer "here I am."

When we punch in and ask God to accomplish His will in and through us, we experienced that joy more. We are cooperating with God and asking Him to interrupt us. It's up to us to catch that split second in every action when we can choose to follow God and often catching that split second comes from being around people who do that as well, which is why we also encourage people to join our online community.

Follower of One is an online community for marketplace Christians who want to live their faith every day. Why not join us? You can go to https://community.followerofone.org and join us there. You can also simply join us by punching in and telling God here I am and letting God direct you through your day. Then you become part of the team of people that are working towards the same goal that we are, which is what Jesus is doing in our universe.

Thanks for being a Marketplace Minister, and thanks for following Jesus.