Today’s message is a guest entry from David G. Johnson, founder of Nourish The Dream

“…giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.” (Colossians 1:12 NKJV)

We’ve been talking about misinterpretations of Scripture that hold us back when we try to achieve something financially or in business.  Today I want to bring up something that can be very subtle, and therefore potentially more harmful.

Do you ever feel unworthy of success?

Regardless of your religious upbringing (or lack thereof, as the case may be), we were all born into a system that tends to convey this kind of message to us. We could probably trace it all the way back to Adam — the sense that we just don’t qualify for something good seems almost universal. Perhaps your parents raised you with a performance-oriented mentality. Certainly religious teachings that tell us, “you’re a worm,” or, “you’re just a sinner,” pour fuel onto this fire — even when they add, “saved by Grace,” to the end.

When we come from the perspective that we’re unworthy, going to God to ask for His help in accomplishing something doesn’t tend to yield much fruit. Why? Because we don’t expect Him to actually help us.  James refers to this as being, “double-minded,” and says that we’ll be easily moved when circumstances shift.

If you’re feeling unworthy, then allow this truth to connect with your heart. We know that if we’ve entered into relationship with God through His Son, then the sin problem has been dealt with. God know longer sees us as “sinners,” but instead calls us “saints.” We couldn’t have earned that status to begin with… so do we now think we can somehow qualify to keep it? Of course not!

When we rest in the fact that He has qualified us, we can actually, “…come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:16)

Take some time today to let this truth to become real to you. You’ll be glad you did!

Today’s message is a guest entry from David G. Johnson, founder of Nourish The Dream.

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. (1 Timothy 6:10 NKJV)

In our previous message, we talked about the inner struggle that some of us face — particularly those who have been around Christianity for awhile — where business and financial success are concerned. It isn’t too difficult to guess that one of the major contributors to this struggle is an abundance of erroneous teaching about the Bible and what it really says.

For example, here’s a direct quote from a recent Newsweek article:

“For one thing, Scripture is full of exhortations against accumulating wealth. The New Testament, especially, repeatedly reminds followers of Christ that earthly wealth means nothing in heaven. ‘It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God,’ says Jesus.”

These few sentences are so full of misunderstanding about Scripture that it’s almost infuriating. (Where does Newsweek get off interpreting Scripture anyway?!) But the tragedy is that many churches have actually taught — arguably with good intentions — fallacies like this.

Another great example is the, “root of all evil,” Scripture referred to in the title of today’s message. Not only is it frequently misquoted as, “money is the root of all evil,” but the entire passage that it comes from is (in my experience) usually preached from a fundamental place of misunderstanding.

If you’re hearing from those you look up to (spiritually speaking) that it’s wrong to accumulate wealth, doesn’t that directly work against you?  Isn’t business challenging enough without wondering if God is upset with us for doing well in it?  Is God so cruel as to require that we work to provide for our families and even call us into the business world only to tell us that we are only pleasing to Him when we fail?

It’s time that we take a hard look at some of these teachings and find out what the Scripture really says.

Today’s message is a guest entry from David G. Johnson, founder of Nourish The Dream

It was just about 2 years ago that I sat across from my good friend over a cup of coffee in a local restaurant. We had met early in the morning to talk about some of the challenges we faced in profitability in our businesses. He, the CEO of a software company servicing clients on multiple continents, and I, operating a marketing consultancy.

While we had been good friends for years, something developed out of that conversation that brought our friendship to an entirely new level of intimacy. I knew, for example, that he had been born overseas — the son of missionaries to some of the darkest parts of the world. I also knew — having met his father and mother — the level of devotion to Christ that had caused them to risk their very lives in service to the Call of God.

He knew that I had been born into a devoted Christian family here in the States — that my father had been a pastor when I was younger, and that my mother’s father had been in the ministry since shortly after World War II. He knew that our family was in church every time the doors were open.

What neither of us knew until that day, however, was that both of us dealt with an inner struggle with success. It seemed that we both had always reached a place where that “big breakthrough” had eluded us just when it seemed to be in our grasp. We learned that both of us were fighting against inner programming — instilled in us from childhood — that somehow there was something “wrong” with hitting a big win financially and in business. Both of us had come to understand that we were serving God in the marketplace in response to His call on our lives… and yet we both had run up against seemingly impenetrable barriers.

We began meeting on a regular basis to explore the roots and the nature of the battle between heart and head — between Biblical understanding and the traditions that seemed to be infused in our thinking. What we discovered and what God has shown us — individually and jointly — has been nothing short of amazing.

What about you? Do you struggle with whether God could really want you to accomplish what you’re working so hard to achieve?

More to come…

My fellow marketplace warriors…
Here is the invitation I promised you to join me for a meeting this week.  If you’ve been with us for a while, you’ll recall that we held a meeting with David (whose marketing thoughts you’ve probably been reading recently) just a few months ago and had an overwhelming response.

If you’re a newer subscriber, you may not yet be aware that our mission is to help believers worldwide build successful businesses so they can in turn (with their profits and influence) make a significant and lasting impact on the culture within which we live. How you make that difference is up to you. Helping you succeed in that calling is our privilege and our mission.

20-Fold Increase…
Recently, I was evaluating some statistical information related to our business.  It seems like it wasn’t all that long ago (in fact, it was just a couple of years ago) that I was getting excited about the 1,000 or 2,000 visitors coming to our website every month.  When I saw the more recent information, I found out that we’re averaging 10,000 visitors to our site every single week!  This has been due, in large part, to the efforts of David Johnson from Epiphany Marketing, who we retained just over a year ago to help us expand our reach.

Even more than multiplying the number of visitors, what has excited me is when I found out why they’re finding us… David showed me how to view the terms that people are typing into search engines like Google in order to find us.  Wow!  It’s amazing how well-targeted the results are.  We are connecting more than ever with the people who need what we have to offer.

David wants to share information with you…
…about how you can experience similar results.  And, more importantly, how to apply timeless marketing strategy to every facet of your business so that you’re best prepared to create relationships with the people you are reaching out to.  In fact, David would also like to introduce some of the people he’s been training for the last couple of months so you can hear directly from them about what they’ve been learning.

David and I have set aside several time slots Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday to discuss specific strategies to help you experience similar results. This is not for everyone, but if you want to grow your business using 21st-century strategies, you are welcome to join us. Register here now so you can be sure to reserve your spot on one of these conference calls. (As always, we are limited on the number of callers we can have on each conference call, so it’s a first-come, first-served basis.)

Warmest regards…

Michael Q. Pink

P.S. I know you probably checked your calendar previously, but I urge you to choose your best meeting time now… these calls will fill up quickly!