Inspiration

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Post your inspiration messages on this board. It can be scriptures, bible verses, passages, poems, etc.

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Then Joab went to Geshur and brought Absalom back to Jerusalem. But the king said, "He must go to his own house; he must not see my face." So Absalom went to his own house and did not see the face of the king (2 Sam 14:23-24).
Many people hate conflict to the point they will never confront a wrong. Taking this path will only lead to later hardship. Such was the case for Absalom and his father King David.

Amnon, also a son of David, raped his sister Tamar. When this happened, David was furious but he did not punish Amnon for his actions. Absalom saw this as a terrible injustice for his sister. So, Absalom plotted to kill Amnon at the right time. He patiently waited for two years before he set up a situation to have him killed.

David was heartbroken over the death of Amnon and held Absalom responsible. At the same time, David still desired to have a relationship with Absalom, but because he failed to address the situation with Amnon when it happened, it led to more serious consequences in the family. Absalom was banished for three years because of David's anger towards him which allowed seeds of resentment to grown in his heart. Absalom then conspired to overthrow David's kingdom.

It is imperative to confront problems when they arise no matter how uncomfortable it might be. We are called to speak the truth in love. "Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ" (Eph 4:15-16). Failure to confront in love allows the enemy to sow greater seeds of conflict.

Is there someone in your life that you need to confront in love? Make plans now to get with this person and work through the issues that divide you.

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You know me inside and out, you know every bone in my body; You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit, how I was sculpted from nothing into something" (Psalm 139: 15). (Msg)
If you are going to discover how God wants to use your life and work, you must know why you were created. If you start trying to determine your purpose in life before understanding why you were created, you will inevitably get hung up on the things you do as the basis for fulfillment in your life, which will only lead to frustration and disappointment.

First and foremost, God created you to know Him and to have an intimate relationship with Him. In fact, God says that if a man is going to boast about anything in life, "boast about this: that he understands and knows me" (Jer. 9:24). Mankind's relationship with God was lost in the Garden when Adam and Eve sinned. Jesus' death on the cross, however, allows us to restore this relationship with God and to have an intimate fellowship with Him. The apostle Paul came to understand this when he said, "I gave up all that inferior stuff so I could know Christ personally, experience his resurrection power, be a partner in his suffering, and go all the way with him to death itself" (Phil. 3:10, THE MESSAGE).

Establishing this relationship with God is vital to understanding your purpose. If you don't have this relationship with God, you will seek to fulfill your purpose out of wrong motives; such as fear, insecurity, pride, money, relationships, guilt, or unresolved anger. God's desire is for you to be motivated out of love for Him and to desire to worship Him in all that you do. As you develop your relationship with God, He will begin to reveal His purpose for your life. "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord" (Jer. 29:11).

Today, ask God to help you discover your unique purpose.

Note: Marketplace Leaders.org provides a process to help every believer discover their unique purpose

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The Hut

The only survivor of a shipwreck was washed up on a small, uninhabited island.
He prayed feverishly for GOD to rescue him, and every day he scanned the horizon for help, but none seemed forthcoming. Exhausted, he eventually managed to build a little hut out of driftwood to protect himself from the elements, and to store his few possessions. One day, after scavenging for food, he arrived home to find his little hut in flames, with smoke rolling up to the sky. The worst had happened, and everything was lost. He was stunned with disbelief, grief, and anger."GOD, how could you do this to me?" he cried. Early the next day he was awakened by the sound of a ship that was approaching the island. It had come to rescue him. "How did you know I was here?" Asked the weary man of his rescuers.
"We saw your smoke signal," they replied.

It's easy to get discouraged when things are going bad, but we shouldn't lose heart, because GOD is at work in our lives, even in the midst of pain, and suffering. Remember that, the next time your little hut seems to be burning to the ground. It just may be a smoke signal that summons the grace of GOD. You May Want To Consider Passing This On, because You Never Know Who Feels Like Their Hut Is On Fire Today.

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TGIF Today God Is First Volume 2 by Os Hillman
Sunday, January 11 2009

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight (Prov. 3:5-6).
George Mueller was a pastor in England during the nineteenth century who knew what it meant to live a life that was focused on knowing and doing the will of God. God led him in a walk of faith that has become an incredible testimony to all who hear his story.

Whenever he lacked for something, he prayed for the resources. During his ministry in Bristol, England, George built four orphan houses that cared for 2,000 children at the time. When he died at the age of 93, over 10,000 children had been provided for through his orphanages, and he had distributed over eight million dollars that had been given to him in answer to prayer.

How did he know and do the will of God?

"I never remember a period that I ever sincerely and patiently sought to know the will of God by the teaching of the Holy Ghost, through the instrumentality of the Word of God, but I have been always directed rightly." Here is how George summed up the way he entered into a "heart" relationship with God and learned to discern God's voice:


1) "I seek at the beginning to get my heart into such a state that it has no will of its own in regard to a given matter.
2) Having done this, I do not leave the result to feeling or simple impression. If so, I make myself liable to great delusions.

3) I seek the will of the Spirit of God through, or in connection with, the Word of God. The Spirit and the Word must be combined.

4) Next, I take into account providential circumstances. These often plainly indicate God's will in connection with His Word and Spirit.

5) I ask God in prayer to reveal His will to me aright.

Thus, (1) through prayer to God, (2) the study of the Word, and (3) reflection, I come to a deliberate judgment according to the best of my ability and knowledge, and if my mind is thus at peace, and continues so after two or three more petitions, I proceed accordingly."*

Consider these five steps when discerning God's voice in your life.

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Out of Your Comfort Zone
TGIF Today God Is First Volume 2 by Os Hillman
Monday, January 26 2009

"And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work" (2 Cor 9:8).
Have you ever been given an assignment at work that was beyond your perceived ability?

When I was in my late twenties I made a career change which necessitated a job change. I decided to apply for a job that involved selling advertising on golf score cards. Usually this meant going into small towns and making sales calls to small business owners in that community. Not an easy job for a rookie in his first sales job.

At first the two non-Christian owners refused to hire me because my answers to their questions led to me discussing my faith in Christ. They felt I should be in the ministry, not sales. However, they reluctantly decided to take a chance on me and sent me to small towns in Kentucky to sell golf scorecards in the middle of winter. Little did I know that they were trying to set me up for failure and did not think I had any chance of success.

I got into my Volkswagen bus and headed for the hills of Kentucky. As I took on my new job I told the Lord I was not qualified for this and He would have to help me to be successful. After a week of selling and sleeping in my car at night, I returned with a full inventory of sales from several cities. When I walked into the office and met with the owners, they looked at me with total surprise. They could not believe I had been successful. I would go on to work two years at this company, become an executive with them, and play a key role in leading one of the partners to Christ.

Do you have a major challenge in your work life? Ask God to help you be successful in your assignment. God delights in showing His children His power so you can abound in your good work.

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Forgiving Ourselves
TGIF Today God Is First Volume 2 by Os Hillman
Wednesday, January 28 2009

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)
The murderer was condemned to life in prison. Then one day something amazing happened. The guard came and opened the jail cell. "You are free to go. Someone else is taking your place," said the guard. "How can this be? I am still guilty!" said the prisoner. "Your debt has been paid. You are free to leave," said the guard once more. The prisoner decided not to leave. "I cannot allow another to pay my debt," said the prisoner. Because of his pride he chose to remain in bondage.

Imagine the guilt Peter must have felt when he betrayed the Son of God three times by saying he never knew him. Imagine what he must have felt the moment he reunited with Him after the resurrection.

The hardest person to forgive sometimes is ourselves. It is especially hard for high achievers to forgive themselves. We think we are above such failure. However, the Bible says we all sin and it is impossible to remedy that sin by ourselves.

"If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives?" (1 John 1:8,10). The question is not whether we will sin, the question is what we will do when we do sin.

There is only one thing for us to do. Go to the cross. Jesus paid for that sin by dying on the cross. Picture yourself writing your sin on a white piece of paper, then pinning it to the cross. Now, leave it there. The cross is for sinners. When Jesus looks at you, He no longer sees your sin. He cannot see the sin because He can only see the cross.

When you come to Jesus with your sin, there is nothing more you can do besides confessing and renouncing your sin. Sometimes it may require restitution with others. However, once you confess your sin and ask forgiveness, it is no longer on the ledger of debts.

Why not choose to walk free. The cell has been opened.

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Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some." - John 21:6a
The disciples were fishing. It was after Jesus had been crucified. Peter had gone through his most agonizing moment in which he had denied Jesus three times. He had lost a friend. No doubt he probably wondered whether the last three years were a dream. What now?

Peter had been prepared three years, but he was not going out to preach; he was going fishing. He had returned to his trade of days gone by. He had a level of experience with Jesus that no other human on earth can boast. This was the third encounter he was about to have with Jesus after His resurrection. Jesus looked to Peter and John in their boat and made a suggestion.

"Friends, haven't you any fish?"

"No," they answered.

He said, "Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some" (Jn. 21:6a).

Now, if you are as seasoned in your fishing as these guys were, wouldn't you be a bit irritated if a stranger suggested that you simply put your nets over the other side to catch some fish? Yet we find that they took this stranger's advice. Once they were obedient, the Lord revealed Himself.

When they followed Jesus' advice, the catch was enormous - 153 fish in total. In most cases such a haul would have broken the net. Jesus invited them to have breakfast with Him - fish and bread; He had already started the fire. I can only imagine that this scene would resemble some buddies going out and camping together.

There is so much that we are to learn in this passage about God's ways. As a workplace believer, we must understand that after we have spent years with Jesus, this does not always mean we must leave our professions in order to fully follow Jesus. Peter went back to his profession - fishing. It was here that Jesus asked him a simple question: Do you love Me and will you feed My sheep? He didn't say to Peter, "Fishing is a waste of time for you now, Peter." This recommissioning was in the area of his original calling - his work. We need not feel that we must go to the "mission field" to please Jesus. Our work is our mission field. We must, however, make a paradigm shift in our thinking about our place in the work world. We must have an overriding sense of mission and ministry that comes out of that work. This is what is meant when we say that we must all be circumcised before we can enter the Promised Land. When this happens, we can expect to see God fill the nets with His blessings. He wants to do this because He now owns the net, and He can trust us to manage it.

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Discerning the work of God

Remember Tobiah and Sanballat, O my God, because of what they have done; remember also the prophetess Noadiah and the rest of the prophets who have been trying to intimidate me." - Nehemiah 6:14
Nehemiah set out to rebuild the wall at Jerusalem that had been destroyed. Nehemiah held a position in the Persian Empire that would be comparable to Chief of Staff in our government. Nehemiah wept over the destruction of the city wall and repented for the sins of his generation and the generations before him that had led to the fall of Jerusalem. Nehemiah responded to the news by seeking approval from his superior to take time off to rebuild the wall. Tobiah and Sanballat met Nehemiah's action with resistance, as did Noadiah the prophetess and other prophets. These were the religious and political leaders of his day. They became distractions to his work and opposed him.

Whenever God does a new work, it is often met with resistance by those in the established religious community, and sometimes among those from whom we would expect support. Jesus met the same resistance when He began His public ministry. This same phenomenon happens today. When God begins a new work that cannot be easily explained based upon prior experiences, many make the mistake of assuming it not to be of God. The very people who should embrace and encourage the work become the source of skepticism and opposition. God tells us that His ways are not our ways. He does things in ways beyond our limited understanding.

Before you are tempted to criticize or oppose something that looks different from your past experience, ask God for wisdom and discernment. Examine why you might be tempted to oppose it. The Lord cannot be put in a box. He delights in doing things in ways that may not fit our former paradigms.

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Hanging out with sinners

When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, 'Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.' So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly. All the people saw this and began to mutter, 'He has gone to be the guest of a 'sinner'" (Luke 19:5-7).
Jesus modeled four things when He lived on the earth that allowed Him to impact other people's lives. I call them the Four B's of transformation.

First, he built a relationship with them. In the marketplace it is rare that you can impact a person without building a relationship first. The old saying, "People don't care what you know until they know that you care" is especially true in the workplace. Jesus modeled this in His life every day of his public ministry.

The second thing Jesus did was he blessed them. He tried to meet a physical need they had. Many times he healed them first, then told them to go and sin no more. He listened to their concerns.

The third thing Jesus did was He began praying for them. He often prayed for deliverance for a person that was demon possessed. He prayed they would know the Father. He prayed for Lazarus to come back from the dead.

Finally, the fourth thing Jesus did was He Brought the Kingdom of God into their lives. He invited people to believe in Him as the Savior of the world and to partake of eternal life.

I decided to test this model with an acquaintance. I intentionally refused to talk about Jesus to this person until I had accomplished the first three steps in my relationship with him. After I had fulfilled the first three steps, I presented Christ to my friend. He received Christ immediately because the soil was prepared and he was ready to receive.

As you consider your ministry at work, consider these four stages of relationship building before you present Christ to others. You will find the fruit of this process will be great

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Thinking outside the Box

But this He said to test him, for He Himself knew what He would do" (John 6:6).
Jesus and the disciples had just crossed the Sea of Galilee and multitudes followed Him because of the miracles they saw Him do. He was about to speak to them when Jesus realized it was dinner time and the people would be hungry. There were more than 5,000 people who needed to be fed.

Jesus already knew what He was going to do in this situation. However, He was testing the disciples to see if they would think beyond themselves to find a God-solution to the problem. They failed the test. They immediately thought like most of us would think. The disciples looked in their pocketbooks and realized they did not have adequate resources to purchase enough food for the crowd.

It is when we come to the end of our resources that God comes in with His resources.

When I first published volume one of TGIF in book form, I was required to order 1,000 copies from my publisher. We had very little distribution and sales of materials at that time. So, after a few months, we still had boxes and boxes of inventory in our basement. "These books are doing us, nor anyone else, any good in our basement," I said to my wife Angie. "I think we need to go downstairs and lay hands on the books and command them to leave our basement based on Mark 11:23 which says we can speak to the mountain and have it removed." We walked downstairs and prayed, "In the name of Jesus get out of the basement and go be a blessing to someone who can benefit from these books!" Feeling very foolish, I walked upstairs. Two hours later we received a call from a Texas-based workplace ministry. They ordered 300 books! Until then, we had never sold more than a few copies in one day!

When a problem arises in your work life do you think only the logical thought? Perhaps God has created this problem as an opportunity to reveal His glory in the situation. Next time, go outside the box and see the glory of God manifested in your problem!

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Fulfilling your Purpose


O LORD, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O LORD" (Ps 139:1-4).
Your purpose in life is chosen by God. It is not negotiable. It is like calling water wet-there is no changing that fact, and there's no changing God's purpose for your life. While you may not fulfill the purpose for which you were made, you still have a purpose that God intends for you to fulfill. This is your blueprint from God. In the same way that He had a specific purpose in mind for Jesus when He sent Him to the earth, He has a specific purpose in mind for your life.

This doesn't mean, however, that there is one highly specific niche for you to fill and that if you miss it, too bad. It is my belief that you can achieve your purpose in many different and creative ways. This should take the pressure off. You won't throw your entire life off course by choosing the wrong college, job or mate. God is much bigger than any miscalculation or disobedience on your part. "The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me" (Ps. 138:8). Isn't that comforting to know?

Defining your purpose will help you to determine the activities that you should be involved in. Like Jesus, you should not involve yourself in activities that contradict His purpose for your existence. Jesus? purpose was to do the will of the Father and become the salvation for mankind.

Each of us must ask why we are involved in an activity. Is it a God-activity, or just a good activity? Remember, Jesus only did something if He saw the Father doing it, and He was able to see what His Father was doing because of His intimate relationship with Him.

Today, take steps to insure you are aligned with your purpose.

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Two Types of People

O LORD, by your hand save me from such men, from men of this world whose reward is in this life" (Ps 17:14).
There are two types of people in the world. There are those whose activities are designed to generate a reward in this lifetime. And there are those who live to generate a reward when they meet our Lord in Heaven.

Not every Christian models the latter. How does one judge whether they are living for the future reward versus the earthly reward? There are several key indicators.

Future reward people tend to be givers. They make their time and resources available to be channeled for Kingdom purposes. They realize their sowing will ultimately be rewarded at the Judgment Seat of Christ where what they have done on earth will be judged and rewarded by God (2 Corinthians 5:10).

Future reward people live a life based upon obedience-based decisions. They don't make decisions based on their perceived outcome. They realize a decision based on obedience alone may not result in an immediate outcome. Jesus was obedient to the cross, but the immediate outcome was His own death on the cross.

Future reward situations show up in daily life in a number of ways. Perhaps a person has wronged you and God calls you to forgive and even bless that person without expectation of their response. Perhaps God calls you to sow money into a ministry or another person's life without expectation of return from them. Perhaps you are called to serve another person without expectation of any earthly reward. The situations we might encounter are unlimited.

Are you living a life based on a future reward, or short term reward? Today, evaluate how you make decisions and how you allocate resources. This will reveal whether you are a future reward Christian