How To use Spiritual Laws to Impact Your Success

We all have a choice, whether or not to use our spiritual resources to enhance our business skills. Successful Christian businessmen have the discipline to practice biblical principals which harness the power of God to build their business.
If you plan to start your own business, identify situations where you can utilize spiritual tools to strengthen your company. There are spiritual laws at work (Rm 8:26-27) in today’s world as well as physical laws, for instance the law of gravity keeps us tethered to the ground. There are spiritual laws that govern what happens when Christians speak.

What Christians Should Know About These Important Laws

We have to carefully select the words that we say about our circumstances, because they have a causative effect on our life.

Have you ever noticed people who are constant complainers, cynical and depressed, always have plenty of problems to gripe about. When you are experiencing a bad day do you make it a point to tell everyone around you how bad things are going or do you encourage yourself with words and ideas to make things better?

I recently heard a story about a group of sales managers that met for lunch whose daily habit was to talk about how bad their salesman were doing. One manager decided that he would change what he was saying about his team. He started declaring, by faith, that his sales were getting better. It wasn’t long before his salesman started outselling his competition.

A Law That Will Improve Your Thoughts

Christians that have read James(3:3-6) know we should guard what we think and say, for the tongue sets the course of our lives. Philippians tell us that whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

If your words are shaping your life, what kind of future have you created for yourself today? Have you been thinking that you’re successful or saying that your company is going under? You have set in motion the laws that will make those words your destiny.

5 Signs of Low Self-Esteem Christian Men Should Know About

A traffic accident ended Joseph Benson’s career as a caterer and chef. He could no longer lift heavy pots, pans or reach items on the shelves, because the accident left him confined to a wheel chair.
Seeking an escape from the personal problems and financial woes that ensued he began to use illegal drugs. It wasn’t long before he was homeless, hanging-out with other addicts, under a bridge.

His story is not that different from the story in Luke 15 (11-31) of the prodigal son. Both men were in a struggle to improve their quality of life.

The Prodigal Son

The account in the Bible tells some of the bad choices that caused the prodigal son to find himself in need. Maybe it was the despair of hunger or the fact that his job was feeding pigs, that were eating better than him that made him realize he needed to make a change.
Many situations can affect a Christian’s emotional well being, but they don’t have to damage your self-esteem or mental health. That’s when we have to encourage ourselves and draw upon the strength that comes from having a personal relationship with God.

In his book “10 Secrets for Success and Inner Peace” best selling author and lecturer, Dr Wayne Dyer said “Any problem can be resolved with a spiritual solution.”


Beware of These Five Signs of Low Self-Esteem

Easily offended- If you are taking everything personal as if you are under attack and you resent constructive criticism?

Difficult to communicate with- Are you argumentative and unwilling to take corrective action to change bad habits or situations?

Blaming others- Do you accuse the people around you when things happen rather than take responsibility yourself?

Complaining- Are you constantly bothered by peoples mistakes and don’t hesitate to tell them how they should do things?

Nosiness- Do you find yourself helping other people solve their problems, even when they don’t want your help?

If friends or family members accuse you of two or more of these habits,you may be suffering from low self-esteem.

Using Faith to Encourage Yourself

The best way to overcome challenges in life is to have faith in what God said about us(Phil 4:13), not what man says about our circumstance. When your self-esteem is low it's harder to overcome problems. Never view these temporary setbacks as permanent roadblocks to a better life.

Alexander Graham Bell once said,

“When one door closes another door opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us.”

Joseph Benson started volunteering to help the kitchen staff at SEARCH, a private, nonprofit organization dedicated to helping the homeless in Houston TX. It was an uphill trek that he endured by encouraging himself and helping others.
Joseph, who now coordinates the volunteer services at SEARCH, is one of their success stories. He’s progressed from the bridge to serving as a board member of Health Care for the Homeless-Houston, an organization that addresses one of the issues surrounding homelessness.

10 Tips on Marketing your Product to Christians

A lot of consumers, teenagers, baby boomers, and African-Americans, consider themselves Christians. They cut across just about every demographic segment of the population. Selling to them is not as difficult as you may think. I’ve listed some pointers for targeting this niche.

First, let me tell you about a successful marketing attempt to reach Christians, I found at Target Market News.

Ford goes after the Christian Market

Bishop T.D. Jakes, pastor of The Potters House, a Dallas mega-church with about 30,000 members, hosted a conference a couple of years ago, called MegaFest ,and Ford Motor Company signed on as co-sponsor. They were allowed to hold seminars and display products during the event, which drew 200,000 attendees.
Can you see the advantage of having a targeted captive audience to view your products and hear how wonderful their lives will be once they buy it?

If your interested in reaching a large number of consumers at once then displaying at trade shows and conferences are ideal places, to get the job done.

Ok. Every business can’t spend the amount of money Ford does to reach consumers, so here is an idea that entrepreneurs can adapt to Christians or any group.

Marketing thru Blogs

A small South African winery’s marketing strategy, used social media, focusing primarily on blogging. It’s first campaign started by giving away a bottle of wine to a select group of bloggers. Some of the bloggers wrote positive reviews about the wine and by the end of the year, sales had doubled. The results according to Search Engine Guide shows that before Stormhoek started involving bloggers in its marketing efforts, the winery sold around 40,000 cases of wine a year. Since then, their sales have climbed to 40,000 cases a week .

Could your company benefit from those kind of results! Well, here are some tips your company can apply.

10 Tips to Reach Christian Consumers


Identify and analyze your target market.
Develop goals for targeting individual segments of this group.
Research the market potential for your product.
Evaluate the performance of your marketing strategies.
Emphasis the benefits of your product.
Adapt your product promotions to take advantage of the power of social media.
Look for opportunities to partner with organizations that are familiar to the Christian market
Make it easy to do business with you.
Develop a marketing calendar.
Smart entrepreneurs will also look for a competitive edge.

Marketing to this $4 to $6 billion market niche makes good business sense and getting your company geared up to reach this group should be high on your company's radar.

Oh yeah……………
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5 Things Christians Can Do to Build Their Business

The Christian business man’s approach to success is a path that requires a mix of traditional techniques and outside the box thinking, that based on faith. This is not a new paradigm. In 1929 James Cash Penney employed this method(Pr 3:5-6)during the depression.
His belief in the Golden Rule, the biblical principles he followed, was so strong that he gave credit during the depression when it was nearly impossible for customers to repay him. This sent him into bankruptcy, but he continued to practice the Godly principals, and rebuilt the J.C. Penny empire.

Five business building tools

Build a network of contacts in your industry that are Christians who are willing to assist you. These can be members from your church, chamber of commerce, suppliers or any one in your industry that is knowledgeable about your field of interest.

Build a portfolio. This is not just for artist and writers. If you do landscaping or give seminars, you need some samples of your work to show that you are able to get the job done. This also can open the door for more opportunities and a chance to learn to use some of the special features on the software and digital cameras that you should already own.

Develop your leadership and management skills(Pr 10:14). Even when you are strapped for cash, you can find free classes. Small business development centers and community colleges are just a few of the places where you can find low cost business courses and other training.

Reach out to others in your field. You should be having fun and making friends whether you’re in line getting a permit, attending a retreat or a convention. They are ideal places to meet other positive, happy and creative people, in your field, to share ideas with.

Pray to meet people you can help and those who can help you over time(Pr 11:25).

Find a mentor. We all should seek help to shorten the learning curve. Mentors that are Christians can also tell you how to stay on track spiritually and help you find answers to those tough questions that come with business.

Using Faith to Succeed

I’ve detailed these 5 steps to help Christians in their business or career (Pr 16:3). They are practical things that everyone can use, but Christians experience an extra benefit by praying for God’s guidance and favor to maximize them.

Do you view your faith as a fork in the road to a profitable business, or do you feel it shouldn’t be considered as a tool for success.

Solving Business Problems Using Biblical Principles

If you had to eat an elephant how would you do it? With bar-b-cue sauce, replied a young girl to her father. Rather than worry how long it would take to eat the meal she found something to make her difficult job easier.
Daily problems that occur in business often seem like the task of eating an elephant, until you have learned how to use faith and practical business knowledge combined, to overcome any difficult situation.

In the new testament book, Luke (5:1-11)there were some experienced fishermen who worked all night without catching a single fish. They were told by Jesus to go back and try again. When they followed his instructions, of where to let down their nets, they caught so many fish it took two boats to bring them back to shore.

How to Solve any Problem

The biblical principles that we can benefit from in this story is learning how to survey our problems Whether it is a lack of customers or tax problems, we need to understand what specific area of our business needs attention.

Another insight from this scripture is in solving the problem.

Many times Christian business men try and resolve challenging situations using their intelligence without applying faith.

These fisherman trusted Jesus’ word, even though he was a carpenter, leading to a miraculous catch of fish.

The Promises of God

God has promised that he will provide our needs, deliver us from our troubles,(Ps 37:23-24) and help us when we fail and more. We can always find verses or chapters from the Bible that can be applied to our challenges. Then use them, to light our own fires from their torches, enabling our challenges to become pleasant experiences.

Do you pray before you seek answers to problems or pray that your answer will solve the problem?

Should Christians Share Their Faith in the Workplace.

Should Christian business owners glorify God, the source of their wisdom and success in the workplace? This point of discussion has people on both sides of the issue who make good arguments, but it’s the guidance from the Bible,(Mark 8:38) that we must apply to this matter.

Most companies, for a variety of reasons, don’t use religious symbols as part of their business logos or corporate identity unless they’re marketing to Christians. This practice isn’t always based on research, but personal opinions.
Christians consumers spend about 4 to 6 billion dollars annually, no matter what product or service you’re offering attracting Christians makes good business sense.

There are plenty of businessmen that are hesitant to share their personal testimony. Their employees may not even know they’re Christians, other than a cross or bible neatly tucked away in their office, their role as an evangelist and disciple of Jesus escapes noticing.

Peter took this same approach during the crucifixion of Christ and distanced himself from the other disciples. The angel that appeared at Jesus's tomb(Mark 16:7) remarked, to the women looking for his body, tell the disciples and Peter to meet him in Galilee.

Here’s what a couple of well known business owners, who openly practice Christian discipleship have to say.

Zig Ziglar

His training organization’s value statement declares, they are a team embracing the Golden Rule and serving with integrity. In Don't Talk About Jesus? Zig Ziglar shares “When I first turned my life over to the Lord, some of my friends and associates cautioned me-"for my own good"-not to try to convert the world.

They suggested I had a good thing going and that I would upset others and offend a lot of people if I mentioned Jesus Christ in my talks.

Interesting, isn't it? One man can tell a dirty joke and use profanity, often without censure, and another is urged not to talk about Jesus Christ.”

Making Jesus a Big Name in NASCAR

Veteran driver Morgan Shepherd, has competed in more than 750 NASCAR races during his career and is the heart and soul behind the Faith Motorsports team.
A recent "Christian Business Daily" article by Steve Sorenson pointed out
“This racing professional knows his life serves a higher purpose than the excitement of racing, or a celebrity lifestyle, or even competitive success, because his success on the track is never more meaningful than when he uses it to point people to Jesus Christ.”


The Bible and prayer is being ushered out of schools and other public places and Christians must become more concerned with sharing their faith in the workplace, where most of us spend 40 to 60 hours a week.

What are your habits for sharing your faith in your workplace or neighborhood?


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Starting a Part-time business

Are you one of the many Christian men who would like to start your own business but just don’t know where to get started? Marvia from “Marvia’s Panama Journal” commented that she would use the “4 key qualities for success” if she had her own business.To help her and other Christians find ideas for starting a part-time business,I’m sharing some practical advice that has helped me.

If I have peaked your interest, you are probably thinking, where do I get started? How do I get started? Well, self discovery is the best place.

Proverbs 31:24 declares "noble women are gifted with a talent for business" and "

this scripture applies to Christian men too."

Let’s say that you just need to make some extra cash. A second job is one option, but a part-time business can add more than just a few dollars to your income. Lots of Christians build a business around their hobby or a special talent. That’s a good starting point, because you’re already doing something you love and cashing in on the time you spend enjoying it, is a smart choice.

There are plenty of places online that help you unlock and develop your business skills. Here are some I recommend to start a business.

Small Business Administration

The government has a vested interest in your success. Small businesses make up a large part of the economy in every country. The SBA has plenty of free advice and local offices in most states, where you can access marketing and population information to help you plan your way to success.

Start-up nation

One of the leading online content and community resources for entrepreneurs. The site features step by step advice and a start-up nation radio show with pod cast and community forums so that you can learn in an interactive environment.

Entrepreneur

The companion website to the magazine with the same name, puts tons of pages of information at your fingertips. The site features new business ideas, franchise opportunities and guides for just about every niche.


Here is an Ezine article that you should read in addition to visiting these websites it details a few things you should know before starting a business.

Managing a Successful Business using the Bible

How to guide a business to a higher level of success, using knowledge found in the word of God, is something that I have studied and I want to share three principles I’ve learned, that every business should be using.

Identifying your foes, intensifying your focus and using intentional faith are tools that can be applied to increase your sales, to encourage employees or enhance any other business activity.

To see these three key functions at work revisit Judges (7:1-25). Gideon the son of Joash, was guided by God to eliminate from his army, men that he knew would tremble with fear or turn back in the heat of battle, and those that were not well trained. This cut his forces from 20,000 to only 300 soldiers. This small band of wiser, battle-ready men were able to defeat larger armies.

How to Manage a Business using 3 key Biblical Principles

Identifying foes, carefully assess things that hinder you. In business we have to know what barriers can halt or block our road to success.

Intensifying focus, mental preparation helps us to create strategies and adapt to specific challenges, that are part of today’s constantly changing global marketplace.

Intentional faith has to be developed and used along with planning, organizing, leading and controlling, to influence the outcome of day to day decisions.

Applying biblical principals in the workplace shouldn’t be limited to difficult moments. It’s more effective to apply these strategies daily to compliment your traditional management tools.

Characteristics of Successful Christian Businessmen

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., in his book “The Measure of A Man” observed that when John saw a new Jerusalem coming down from heaven, he noticed the city had length, breath and height and they were all equal. These equal dimension represent completeness. A Christian businessman should grow in four dimensions to be able to remain effective in their home their business and their spiritual growth.

Faith, favor, wisdom and works are four key areas where Christian entrepreneurs can make positive changes to enhance the possibility for success. Luke (2:52) says Jesus grew in wisdom, stature, favor with God and man. Each day we’re working toward developing our lives and their growth is important in making our lives complete.

Four Key Qualities for Success

Faith is the spiritual dimension, the foundation of our relationship with God. If you have faith and don’t doubt, when challenges arise you can tap into his power, a power that no resistance can defeat.

Favor. We need favor with God and man. This requires us to develop a vertical fellowship with the master and horizontal relationships with others. We should seek opportunities to share our testimonies, about how we overcame obstacles and problems through the word of God, with those who are lost and all of our friends and colleagues.

Wisdom is an intellectual dimension. Every successful businessman seeks knowledge about the markets he serves, the products he sells and should be able to explain their benefits to those who purchase them. Likewise, the man of God must increase his spiritual knowledge so he is equipped for every good work. He should have a Bible,a good concordance and bible dictionary to help him extract valuable truths from the scriptures.

Works represents our physical dimension. Christian businesses have a moral obligation to enrich the cities where we do operate and live. We have to hold ourselves to a higher standard. Toxic dumps, strip clubs and casinos can bring destructive consequences to communities. Paul told Timothy to remind Christians to be rich in good deeds and to be generous and willing to share.

We are all in business for ourselves, building our lives. You are the largest stockholder in your corporation and it is your responsibility to make sure that the company increases in value.

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How to Combine your Faith and Business

This month I’m discussing Christian businessmen and faith in the workplace because our faith (Pr 3:3-4) should affect our business decisions. We have to keep God first (Jer 10:23) in every area of our life. It’s not just the nightclub owner who has to address the issues of faith in his job. All Christian men whether they are a doctor, plumber or business manager will often face tough challenges in business that can compromise their Christian values.( 1Pe 2:11)

How to Build a Team of Christians Advisers

Christian business owners must fulfill God’s call on their lives and balance home, church, and a business. You don’t have to struggle to apply biblical principles in your work. You can seek advice from other businessmen that follow Christ to help solve difficult issues from a biblical perspective.
This is tough for some men, who have been taught to be independent until they realize that a prosperous man can’t be an island. Successful people all have mastered team building, (Pr 18:15 ) no one person can do everything.

Your team can be an informal group of your peers or a formal
mentor.

“Associate with people who have compassion, intelligence and virtue, people who will become sources of strength instead of wells of weakness”

advises Kirbyjon H Caldwell , a minister and graduate of Wharton School of Business, in his book “The Gospel of Good Success.”

The President has a cabinet full of advisers, even surgeons use a highly skilled team to carry out difficult operations and the recent Super Bowl victory was achieved by a team of players led by a coaching staff. Many of them give God the credit for turning their team around and taking them to the championship game.

How Your Spirituality affects your Work, Family and Ministry


Getting support from other Christians from outside of your workplace will equip you to use your business and spiritual talents (Pr 16:3) to accomplish your personal and business objectives.

An effective business leader focused on developing their spiritual knowledge (Pr 15:24) will apply biblical principles in their work and fit their work in with family and ministry.
If you are a Christian businessman or considering marketing to the Christian
community, get some great tips from this free article on successful marketing to Christians.

(Photo credits:Red Letter Believers)

Should Christian Men Drink Alcohol

(photo courtesy Google Images)

Have you ever looked in the back of a Baptist Hymnal and read the Church Covenant. I did the other day and I couldn’t help but notice that there was a verse that said as members of the Church we should abstain from the sale and use of intoxicating beverages.

According to Christianpost.com, 3 percent of Southern Baptist senior pastors drink alcohol compared to 29 percent of lay people. Among non-Southern Baptists, 25 percent of clergy consume alcohol while 42 percent of laity do so.

Baptist and other Christian men alike fail to follow this piece of moral advice. In fact I heard of an incident at a Church, where a member of the deacon board was using the church’s money to buy liquor for his night club.

Standing near the door of the church, as the members were arriving for a meeting to vote her husband off the deacon board, was the deacon’s wife, with the slow precision of a gunslinger loading bullets one by one into her gun.
After the votes where counted, only the pastor and his wife had voted against the deacon.

What does The Bible say about Drinking Alcohol?

In John (Jn2:11), it mentions a miracle at Cana where Jesus turned water into wine. In Accordance with Jewish custom, they were drinking real wine. A
Feast is made for laughter, and wine makes merry” (Ecclesiastes 10:19)

Early Baptist drank moderate amounts of beer, wine and hard liquor. Elijah Craig, a Kentucky Baptist minister, founded the Baptist-related Georgetown College has been credited with inventing bourbon. The debate over whether the Last Supper drink was fermented, and whether churches observing the memorial meal should use wine or grape juice, has been a point of contention in the church for decades.

What The Bible says about Drunkenness.

Many Christian’s point to Romans (Ro 14: 21) “It’s not right to …drink wine or do anything that makes your brother stumble.” For Christians, drinking is a disgusting personal habit that destroys lives, families and your body that is supposed to be the temple of God. Only cancer and heart disease claim more lives than alcohol each year.

The sin of drunkenness wasn’t uncommon in the biblical times either, it is mentioned more than seventy times in The Bible. The consequences of drunkenness in the story about Noah (Gen 9:8-14) and Lot (Gen 19:30-38) were intended to serve as examples of the dangers from alcohol.

Galatians(5:19-21) declares that drunkenness will keep you from entering the pearly gates.

Principals for Succesful Prayer

(photo credits: Fulldeck/flickr)

While I’m on the subject of prayer let me tell you about a recent experience.

I could read the disappointment on the face of my friend as she held up a slip of paper that was included with her paycheck. After working only a couple of months at the meager paying job, the end of the month would be her last day of employment.
Later that evening we prayed together for God to give her guidance and favor to obtain another job.

Prayer moves the heart, the hand, the help of God on our behalf. To harness effective prayer, you must make praying as important as breathing by developing a prayer life. You should, stay on the main line, maintain frequent communication with God..

We should reach out to God throughout the day and not just make it a morning routine or nighttime ritual. Here are some other things about praying for Christian men to consider.

Harnessing the power of Prayer


Faith
We must trust that God loves us and will honor our request. Jesus told two blind men seeking healing, "According to your faith will it be done to you."

Intercession
Jesus taught his disciples, “This is how you should pray.” “ Our Father” we shouldn’t focus only on our needs without praying for our friends, family even our leaders.

Patience
Remain expecting until you hear from God. The Old Testament Prophet Daniel (Dan 10:12-14) described how answers to our prayers are sometimes delayed.

The answer to my friends prayer

God’s answer to her prayer was something that she never would have imagined. Today my friend works for herself, she only has a couple of customers, but that’s a start.

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