Family Business Cutthroats

"The person who will not stand for something will fall for anything."

- Zig Ziglar

You can make your business a family affair.  Entering into business with family seems fun and exciting.  Just slow down a little first.  There's a lot more than you need to get clearer on before even going beyond the mere idea of it.

Going into business with family can be troubling.  It can be outright trouble, too.  You have to be certain about what you are getting into with whom.  Otherwise, blood or not, things can get real sticky for folks.

Jacob was a swindler.  He came out of the womb that way.  His name reveals his dominant character.  He swindled his way through his early life and found himself on the run from his brother for dear life with a stolen birthright.  He met his match when he met up with Laban, his uncle and soon-to-be father-in-law.

If Jacob was shrewd, Laban mas even more shrewder. If Jacob was a swindler, then Laban was a swindler of the utmost kind. If Jacob could work one on you, then Laban sure enough could lay one on you and leave you both broke and blind before you could catch your breath.

Without a doubt, once these two got together, the fireworks got lit and kept exploding.  Women, labor, sheep and goats, even idols, came between Jacob and Laban.  Jacob lost trust in Laban after his midnight switcheroo on Jacob's wedding night.  Laban surely lost trust in Jacob after he got bamboozled out of his flock by the younger man.  They mistreated each other in numerous ways and by various means.  The sad part was that they were related by both marriage and blood.  It still didn't make any difference.

Don't let this poor example of family business deter you from thoughts of going into business with family.  Let it serve as a lesson for you to truly look at a person's character (the revealed actions and interactions that reveal who people really are under all of the masks and facades that people sometimes tend to hide behind).  See them for who they are and what they are and leave it at that.  Discern about them and more about yourself.  See if you can't handle being in business with them.  After all, who has a better look at them than you? You've known them since they were in diapers.

Gaining by Giving

Give, and it will be given to you... - Luke 6:38 (NASB)

You may not be getting much because you are not giving much.  It may simply boil down to a simple survey of two major things:

• What you have done
• What you haven't done

Unfinished business is simply that; it is unfinished and incomplete.  You do not gain anything by starting and stopping.  In addition, you surely will not gain anything by never starting at all.

Look at it from another perspective.  What do you have to offer? If you offer of what you have, that is related to stewardship and sacrifice.  Stewardship requires some discernment as well as discretion.  Sacrifice requires you to commit and contribute.  Let your sacrifice be in order and through obedience to God.

Give where you can and give what you can. Wait and see what comes of it.  Don't expect your return on your blessing to come from the same source that you have blessed.  God may use some unconventional means to supply you.  The expectation of being "repaid" for what we give in the "same measure" does not mean it will be paid back to use in the same manner.  you may not receive money back for an offering or gift.  You may not receive the same thing back in the same way, but you may receive repeat business for sponsoring a Little League team.  You may receive new prospects for the volunteer work that you have done with social service agencies.  You may become connected to new business relationships for the table you bought for that gala fund-raising event for a worthy cause.

You just never know where your business blessing may come from next.  You just need to be sure to give and know that you should give freely.

Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.- 2 Cor. 9:7 (NIV)

Seek God for Success

Evangelical entrepreneurship isn't Easy Street.  Some will seek to sell you Solomon's secrets from the Scriptures or tout to possess the seven spiritual steps for success from the Savior.  You need to seek God directly and devotedly, even daily,  if you plan to succeed in any enterprise that is to honor the Lord. 



When seeking God, I believe that you must do three things prayerfully:

• Pray Purposefully: When the disciples ask the Lord to teach them how to pray, let us not believe that they were so "unlearned" that they had never been exposed to prayer.  Let us realize that these men desired to discover what would be acceptable prayer offered to the Lord. They sought a means for discovery.  They sought an avenue for going to another level in communication and communion with God the Father.  They wanted the Master, the Son of Man, the Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, to teach them how to pray.  If we are going to seek the Lord, we will need to be purposeful.

• Pray Persistently: Do not give up.  Before offering the parable of the persistent widow, the New Living Translation opens the 18th chapter of Luke with: "One day Jesus told his disciples a story to show that they should always pray and never give up" (verse 1). Can you hear Jesus whispering into your very soul by the Spirit? Always pray and don't give up.Can't you hear Him? Always pray. I think He's speaking to you. Don't give up.  Persist in your prayer, then persist in profits and productivity, even progress.  Persist in prayer.  Don't give up.

• Pray Patiently: David opens Psalm 13 with an agonizing question that asks: "How long, O Lord?" Yet, it is the same David at a different and time who is able to say: "I waited patiently for the LORD; he turned to me and heard my cry" (Ps. 40:1) or "Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him; do not fret when men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes" (Ps. 37:7).  Wait on Him.  His timing is way better than yours, just as His judgment is way keener than yours.  Remain patient and keep your hope and trust in Him.
  
  
  
  
Don't give and take aim at it with prayer.  Pray and don't lose heart.  Let His Spirit direct you on your next business move.

Take on the Task

Go, assemble the elders of Israel and say to them, 'The LORD, the God of your fathers--the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob--appeared to me and said: I have watched over you and have seen what has been done to you in Egypt.- Exodus 3:16 (NIV)



Moses was to gather the people to garner the buy-in.  The burning bush encounter wouldn't be enough to convince the children of Israel that God had spoken through the former prince of Egypt who now returned as a self-proclaimed prophet of God for their deliverance.  God told Moses what He planned to do.  God told Moses how He planned to use him.  It still did not register as enough for Moses.  He even offered Moses the evidence of signs if the people would not hear his voice. 

God offered Moses His divine guidance and support.  God offered Moses signs before his very own eyes.  God gave Moses everything he needed.  How did Moses respond?

But he said, “Oh, my Lord, please send someone else.”- Ex. 4:16 (ESV)

God answered all of Moses' excuses, even his request for someone else to take on the task.  God asks about Aaron the Levite, the brother of Moses.  He tells Moses that He will use Aaron along with Moses to speak to the people and reveal what God's plan for them to them.  They would even work together with the elders to take their request before the king of Egypt. 

Moses got more than he asked for with this task.  God did not relieve him of the responsibility of the task.  He offered him relief for his fear and reassurance through Aaron his brother being his mouthpiece.  The task was still in the hands of Moses.  He was still to take on the task to lead God's people to deliverance.

28 And Moses told Aaron all the words of the Lord with which he had sent him to speak, and all the signs that he had commanded him to do. 29 Then Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the people of Israel.- Ex. 4: 28-29 (ESV)

Prayer Power

 "If you are too busy to pray then you are too busy." -W. E. Sangster

I got a copy of a book that truly changed my prayer life about 3 or 4 months ago.  W.E. Sangster's Teach Me to Pray spoke right into my personal life as well as my business life.  As a minister, it helped me to see how I need to assist others who need to organize prayer groups in the local Christian community.  As a businessman, it helped me see that I had done little to bring spiritual support and strength into secular interactions.  It helped me to see that prayer was something that could be done at lunch break and how prayer ministries could even meet after work and off site.  I realized that I wasn't putting my business matters in the hands of God with the same due diligence that I would approach my spiritual or church matters, even ministry matters.  I decided to commit to praying for my partners, vendors and clients as much as I have prayed for my fellow brethren, God's saintly sheep and the visitors and guests to our local church.

For those in business or in a business environment where you have identified other Christians:

• Partner Up:  Make the commitment to pray for and with someone else.  Pray for them and the needs of their family on your own during your morning and evening prayer time with God.  Pray with the person at lunch or a scheduled break, even right after work in the parking lot. 
  Commit to a prayer partnership.
• Pray Up: Lift your petitions to God. You can do so silently at your desk in your cubicle.  You can simply say a prayer under your breath in a short moment.  I like Spurgeon when he says: "Short prayers are long enough."  Keep it strong and spiritual but short.
• Power Up: Let your prayers power you and your prayer partner throughout the day at work. Have you ever prayed and felt the Holy Spirit keeping you uplifted longer than you ever imagined? I have been there.  It excites me to know that the same Spirit is seeking and searching souls that will fill the air with praises as He fills their hearts with joy.

Check out other books on prayer:

The Complete Works of E. M. Bounds: Power Through Prayer, E. M. Bounds

How to Pray- Best of John Wesley on Prayer, John Wesley

Spurgeon on Prayer & Spiritual Warfare, C.H. Spurgeon

On Protestants and Denominations

...And in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians- Acts 11:26 ESV

As Protestants, we came out of the Church.  The Church, at the time when Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses upon the door's of the house of God, was the Roman Catholic Church.  Maybe its the linguist in me, but it seems that protestants have the root word of "protest" in the name. 

Is it any wonder that those who broke away from the Church also had others break away from them? Anabaptists, the forefathers of our modern Baptist denomination, argued against infant baptist still practiced by Lutherans and their leader in the Reformation's early days.  Yet, the Church of God In Christ and the Church of God were both birthed by Baptist preachers who felt a different leading by the Holy Spirit.  Imagine that! Did John Calvin actually come up with the TULIP of "five point Calvinism?"

Are Wesleyans more Methodist than Methodists since they bear the name of the founder of the Methodists?

Read The Trail of Blood and discover how many other Christians were martyred and murdered for their faith, whether at the hands of governments and monarchs or the holy hands of archbishops, papacy and other so-called reformers.  Look at the sacrifices of those who have stood up and spoken out for their faith as "Jesus Freaks." 

I truly believe that we will learn that our real challenge isn't simply learning to love our neighbors and serve the Lord with gladness as we work out our salvation with fearand trembling.  I believe our greatest errors come out of how we process the Word and what we seem to create based upon our individual interpretations and ideas.  I pray that we don't get into a new heaven and new earth, seeking out the section for our particular denominational preference. I believe what we should discover is that there is one Lord, one baptism, one God, and truly one faith.  Truly, the rest is division.

4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. - Ephesians 4:4-6 (ESV)

That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another.- 1 Corinthians 12:25 (KJV)