Hey, it's Mike Henry with Follower of One. Let's continue our conversation from yesterday, where we were talking about how to get right with God, so we'll call this episode part two. Today our verse is Acts 16:31. They said: "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household." Yesterday we were quoting from the old Testament in Habakkuk, and it said that the righteous shall live by faith.   Sometimes, we think that all you have to do is believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved. That's exactly what this verse says, but this word believe, and sometimes what we translate, what we understand as “believe”, like “I believe that certain things will happen” or I believe this, or I believe that, the way that we hold our intellect and our beliefs in this country, in this culture, in this time, it's a little different than what Habakkuk and the author of Acts are saying.   I believe this word “believe” and this word “faith”, the faith that we live by in Habakkuk, and this belief that the Jews understood when they were being told “believe in the Lord, Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household”, it means the same thing. It means that we must translate our life. We must transform our life.   Maybe even the word “repent” fits in this, because as I believe in the Lord Jesus, I now bend my life to do what He says. Yesterday, or in the previous episode, we heard that as lining up behind Jesus; the righteous will live by faith. And here we're learning it as well. Turn your life, bend your life to follow the Lord Jesus. Believe in Him and do what He said.    Some of us, we filter, I filter, I do this. I filter my own choices sometimes through the lens of the Lord Jesus. There are times when I choose not to do what He says. There are times when I choose not to tell the absolute truth. That's a full confession. There are times when I want to cut corners on the truth, or make something sound better than it was, just so that I won't irritate someone else.   When I do those things, I'm not believing in the Lord Jesus at that moment, I'm actually trusting myself. I'm following my own instruction. I become an idolater, because I put something else in the place of God. I'm listening to me, instead of listening to Jesus. I want to challenge us as followers of Jesus Christ.   We want to live by our faith from Habakkuk 2 in the previous episode. And we want to bend our life to believe and to live like we know that everything that Jesus Christ said is absolutely true. When we point our lives after Jesus, we are saved, and that salvation, it's dependent upon Him, not us. So it doesn't turn on or off when we stop believing, but the salvation that we experience every day, the salvation that we experience comes because we follow Jesus Christ. Today, you can choose moment by moment, decision by decision, to follow Jesus Christ and do what He says. And you watch, you will make a difference in the lives of the people that you work with.   Don't believe me? Try it out. Try for 30 days, pray for your coworkers every day for the next 30 days, and watch what Jesus does. I hope that every person listening to this podcast can bend their lives and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. But that means that our lifestyle will change, because now, we'll be taking direction from Him.   Thank you for being a marketplace minister. Thank you for considering daily how you can transform your own life by following Jesus, and making a difference in the lives of your coworkers. Check out the tips that we have and the online community that we've created at followerofone.org, where you can connect with others of us who are trying to do the same thing on a daily basis.   We want to move our faith forward daily by trusting in Jesus and doing what He says. Thanks very much.

Hey, it's Mike Henry with Follower of One and today's passage, still in the Old Testament, Habakkuk 2:4, "Behold, as for the proud one, His soul is not right within him, but the righteous will live by his faith." I love the last phrase in that verse. I love an old Rich Mullins song that he wrote that was about this verse: The Just Shall Live.   And, I want to talk today about how we get right with God. I think it's interesting because I always thought that getting right with God meant that I had to live according to a bunch of rules. I had to check the boxes and do the right things. I had to be baptized and go to church and do this and do that.   And I love the way now that I think about this verse, because I think Jesus has flipped it in my mind. When I live by faith, I do what Jesus says. There are days when Jesus tells me I need to go to church, or I need to tell the truth, or I need not to eat that extra dessert. When I'm living by faith, I listen to Jesus. I follow him. I am a Follower of One.    When I'm living by faith, I'm righteous. I'm doing the things that Jesus would have me do. I'm following Him and I'm in line with Him. I'm in the Jesus groove, doing the things that Jesus would have me do. It's not that I'm trying to obey a certain set of rules. I'm trying to conform my life to the direction set for it by my Creator, by the person who gave me life and who put me here. And we're also told in Ephesians 2:10 that He gives each of us a job to do, that He created us for good works that He prepared beforehand, that we would walk in them. "Behold as for the proud one," the one who goes his own way, which is what I tend to do.   I can be one of the most arrogant, proud people I know, and when I do, my soul is not right within me. I'm wrong, I'm broken, I'm off track. I'm out of the groove. I'm not operating according to those things that I was created to do. But when I live by faith, when I put my trust in Jesus and I do what He tells me to do on a moment by moment basis, I'm righteous.That's how you get right with God. It's not about doing the things, the rules that other people cast on you, it's about following and obeying Jesus.    Today in our workplaces, I would like to challenge us. Today, let's listen to God, ask him what He would have us do. Remember, our first prayer is to punch in. Here I am lord, put me to work. Let's punch in and ask him to show us what He would have us do for the people that we will interact with today. And then when we hear a word from him, when we get an idea, if you pray and all of the sudden you get this wild idea, you can pretty much bet it was Jesus. If that wild idea lines up with scripture, find a way to do it, find a way to solve for that.   Whatever idea came into your brain, find a way to implement it. You can believe that you're following Jesus. You're living by faith, living by trusting Him. Listen also to other believers in your life, attend church and listen to the leadership of your church. Have other Christians who are involved, and read the scripture.   But when we talk to Jesus and He gives us ideas, let's find ways to do them. Today, give away a little bit of your life to the people that you work with. Ask Him, ask God to show you what to do, and then do it. Thanks for being a marketplace minister. And thank you for following Jesus at work for living by your faith.   That makes us righteous. Let's do that today so that Jesus will be visible in our world. Thanks very much.

Hey, it's Mike Henry with Follower of One, and today's episode, I want to talk about where our faith is based, or what is our faith based on, and I'm using a fragment of a sentence. 1 Corinthians 2:5, “so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.” That's from the New American Standard Bible.   What does your faith rest on? Does it rest on the wisdom of man, or does it rest on the power of God? I believe that our faith rests on the power of God, the more we can show that we make choices according to what we know Jesus would have us do. When we go above and beyond what is expected of us at work, because we trust Jesus, we demonstrate that our faith rests on the power of God.   When we can do the right thing and be bent towards serving others on a day in and day out basis, moment by moment, as opposed to trying to serve ourselves, we prove that our faith is based on the power of God. I want my faith to be based on the power of God, not just on the miracles that I see.   Not the flashy miracles. You know, it's a miracle to be- to stay married for a number of years. It's a miracle to avoid sin when sin is very tempting. It's a miracle to avoid shading the truth, or telling a white lie when you have the opportunity. Those things are miracles. We look past them often because they're common.   They're miracles that we're expected to do every day, and we look for the exceptional miracles. We look for the drama and the exceptions, but the miracle of God is that we can live based on His power on a daily basis for the rest of our lives. So we want to base our faith, and I want to base my faith, not on the wisdom of men, not even on my own wisdom or my own understanding, but on the power of God, the ability of God to make His word true in my life, even when I don't see it.    That's a challenging idea for us, but today I want to challenge you to put it to work. Today in your life, go outside of what's normally expected of you, and serve someone over and above what you might normally do.   Today, you might give a large tip to a waitperson at lunch or at dinner, or you may go out of your way to provide a gift for someone who's a service provider, like the people who clean your office or the people who deliver the mail, or your package delivery person. Let's get outside of our comfort zone and let's go and invest something - some money, some time, some energy - in our own faith. Let's go spend some money to make Jesus visible. When you do that, you're resting not on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God today. Let's do that.    Thank you for being a marketplace minister. I also would like to challenge you to consider building this into your life. Join us at followerofone.org. We have an online community there where we challenge one another to live this way, to live blessing other people so they might know Jesus, and we want to do that on a daily basis. I want my faith to make a difference in every day of my life. And I hope you do too, because then we get to experience the joy of walking with Jesus on a daily basis.   Check out followerofone.org, and also look at the marketplace mission trip. There's always another one about to happen. Sign up for the next marketplace mission trip, and join us as we practice this. Thanks very much.

Hey, it's Mike Henry with Follower of One, and today, I'm thinking about what makes things happen. What moves the needle in our world? I'm reading from Zechariah chapter 4, verse 6. “Then he said to me, this is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel saying, ‘Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit,’ says the Lord of hosts.”   God is reminding His prophet to go speak to the priest and the king - I think Zerubbabel is the king; I probably should have done a little more research - to say to him it's not might or power that makes things work. It's my spirit. The spirit of God makes things happen in our world. He's what moves the needle.   He's what makes things change. He is the one factor of all the factors. Often, I tend to believe that my actions or my power, my effort, or my energy, my money, or time, or resources are what's needed to make something happen. Often we tend to believe that the government is, or that some other person is supposed to be making something happen.   It's their fault that they didn't do something, or someone else is responsible. We might take responsibility among ourselves, or we might dump it on someone else, but here it's as clear as it is anywhere in scripture. God's saying it doesn't matter what you think you do. It doesn't matter what you think you're doing or how powerful you think you are. It's my spirit that makes things happen, and I wanna remember that today. This could be a short podcast.    Today God is the one who makes things happen in our world. He was then, and He is now, and we believe that is something else or that we might wring our hands, that something's outside of our control, but today I want to remind myself, and I hope I remind you, the holy spirit is what makes things happen in this world.   And He's working His plan. Nothing, nothing is going to thwart his plan. Nothing will stop Him. We get to relax in that, to trust Him, and to do what He says. Today, let's ask God to show us how we can relax in trust, and then just obey Him and do what He says. I pray that for you and for me. Let's relax in trusting Him and do what He says today, because He's the one who moves the needle. Thank you for listening to this podcast. Let me give you a minute back today. Also take a minute and check out followerofone.org. This is our community; it's a community of believers who come together to try and practice living our faith more on the six days between Sundays.   I hope that you will join us there. Go to followerofone.org, where you can check out more about our ministry, about the online community and join the online community and then you can take part in the next marketplace mission trip too. Thanks very much.

Hey, it's Mike Henry with Follower of One. Today, I want to jump into the Old Testament for a couple of days to get us to think a little bit more strategically and long-term about our faith at work in the practical attitude towards how we live our lives. In Psalms 78, verses 5 and 6 says   “For he established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should teach them to their children, that the generation to come might know, even the children yet to be born, that they may arise and tell them to their children.” Psalm 78:5-6   This part of the Psalmist is making a statement about how God has called us to pass down the things that we learn about him. To pass them to the next generation.   And part of how we do this- most of what we talk about in the marketplace mission world that Follower of One is involved in has to do with here and now, at work, how we live our lives today. We want to be very practical. There will be an application today at the end of this recording.    We have things to do today. But we're also challenged to pay attention to our children, and their children, and their children after them. What are we doing to make sure that we have a legacy that goes forward into the future? And I'm not talking about saving up money for retirement, or building a retirement fund or something that you can allow your children to inherit.   I'm talking about creating the kind of reputation and being the kind of person that makes a difference in the lives of the people around them. Set up a character for your family, for the people that bear your name and the people that are part of your family. We're the kind of people who do X.    Here, the Psalmist is talking about the people of Israel. He established a testimony in Jacob. He appointed this law in Israel, and he commanded the fathers to live a certain way. Basically, this is an identity statement. We are this kind of people, and you can't see me, but I'm using air quotes again. We are this kind of people.   We are the kind of people who minister to our coworkers, and who make a difference in the lives of every person that we meet. We are the kind of people who help everyone around us move one notch closer to Jesus. I want to challenge you today to begin asking God and praying about how you can live in such a way that the intentionality of your faith, the way that you are purposeful about living and serving others for the sake of making Jesus known.   The way that you live becomes something that even your kids and your grandkids and your great-grandkids pick up. That generations after this one know what kind of person you were, and they try to live up to that standard as well. This is not something that we're trying to project on other people, but it is something that we decide to be on the inside.    When we choose to be a minister, instead of just choosing to do ministry, we flip a switch. This choice to be a minister makes a difference. It says that we are the kind of person who does certain things, and our identity directs our actions. Today, ask God to show you how your identity in Him might need to transform some part of your life.   It might need to make a difference in the way that you do your work. It might need to make a difference in the way that you interact with your coworkers, or the way you teach your children and grandchildren about these types of beliefs. Let's live intentionally today, so that our faith is making a difference in the lives of our family for generations to come.    Set a goal now for what you'd like people to say about your family 150 years from now, and see if that doesn't change the way that you do your job. Thanks very much for being a marketplace minister. And thank you for making a difference in the lives of the people that you work with.   Your actions matter. Let's develop an identity that is based firmly in Jesus, and let that identity guide us as we take our faith into the workplace every day. Join us at followerofone.org as well to check out the online community that we have, the next marketplace mission trip, and to connect with others who will help you.   And you can help them as we move forward, being intentional with our faith in the workplace. Thanks very much.

How clever are you when it comes to using money?   And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny. And he called his disciples to him and said to them, “Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.” Mark 12:42-44 ESV   I don't know about you, but I like to think I'm pretty sharp with how I handle money. I am a pretty good shopper and I can make a good deal. I'm not the best I've seen, though. I've seen better.   We've been talking about how we use temporal resources in our world and we've called this series Eternally Shrewd. To be shrewd means that we are clever, resourceful. We may even be cunning, or a bit under-handed. We get the results we want.   In this passage 2 really extreme things are happening. First Jesus is noticing something and he makes a point of it. He sees something no one else sees and he points it out to the disciples. But the second thing is this poor lady gave away everything she had to live on.   I can't imagine the kind of guts that took. I want to be courageous, but I confess when it comes to money, I can be a coward. I want the courage of this lady, but I am afraid to ask for it. In one way, only having a penny would be a bad situation. But in another, Jesus makes a great point.   She put in all she had to live on. The next move is up to God. Jesus doesn't even discuss it. She is dependent on God. Jesus also said in Matthew 6, "Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? Matthew 6:26 NASB.   Can we trust Jesus like a bird, or like this widow? And what do we miss if the answer is "No?"   To be eternally shrewd it would mean to make choices and take actions that produce the best result. Everywhere in scripture, I see God challenging me to trust him more, to give more away, to go big.   Today, I want to live more like that. You can pray about that for me, and I will pray about that for both of us. I hope God's people live so radically different that every person notices. If you heard yesterday's podcast, ask me what I did. Head over to https://twitter.com/mikehenrysr and ask.   Let's work to be shrewd in the eyes of God. Let's do the things he says even when they sound a bit crazy. That may mean taking a marketplace mission trip. Or getting some friends together to take one. God to www.MarketplaceMissionTrip.com to learn more and step out.

Do you serve God or money?   No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” Luke 16:13 ESV   If you're like me, you probably don't think of yourself as someone who serves money. I give money, but I'm also challenged by passages in scripture when Jesus is particularly challenging about money, too.   For example, in 2 chapters he will tell a wealthy man to sell everything and give it away. Are you ready to do that? I confess, I don't trust Jesus enough to do that. I want to be quick to give, but there are times when I pause. So am I serving money?   Fortunately, God allows me to grow. I want to do a better job of being willing to give. I wonder what I miss because I won't give. What do I miss out on because I'm not quick to give or share?   Today, I want to challenge us again. Do you have the guts to ask God where you need to give more or where you need to trust him more? I asked that as I wrote these notes, and as I record this. Lord, please help me be quicker to give and trust You, too.   What about you? Can you ask God to show you what to do with your money and then do whatever pops into your mind. I'm asking. It has been hard. Would you please follow up? Would you ask me what I did? If you have my contact info, shoot me a note. Or post a tweet to @mikehenrysr on Twitter (https://twitter.com/mikehenrysr and say, "I heard Eternally Shrewd, Mike. What did you do?"   Thanks for being a marketplace minister and for using your resources to make an eternal difference. What we do because we follow Jesus matters forever.

What are true riches?   If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own?" Luke 16:11-12 ESV   This passage and the ones yesterday and the day before were what Jesus said at the end of a unique parable. He talked about a dishonest manager. He made the point that the manager was shrewd, or clever, resourceful even if he was dishonest. He made a reference to our honesty, and how if we're dishonest or unfaithful in a small thing, then we will be in bigger things too.   Then, Jesus asks these 2 questions. These questions seem to guide us to conclude some other things about our next life. In our life after this temporal life, there will be true riches and they will be our own.   True riches must be those that never lose their value. And for them to be ours, we won't lose them either.   Does that idea cause you to think of any questions? it does for me. If there are "true" riches in heaven, and if they will be "my own." What must I do to get them? I go back to the parable. I need to use the wealth and resources I've been given in this world to make friends for eternity. I need to use temporal resources to make Jesus visible while I'm here on this planet, living this temporal life.   How are you doing? Do you often think much about true riches, or wealth that is truly yours?   Are these podcasts helpful to you? If so, please consider making a gift to our ministry. We have a matching grant that is going on right now. Money you give that is over what you've given to Follower of One in the past will be doubled, up to $25,000. Please head to https://followerofone.org and click the Donate button in the upper right hand corner.

What does it mean to be faithful to Jesus?   “One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much." Luke 16:10 ESV   I memorized this verse or made a mental note of this verse without considering its context. When I look at what Jesus said right before this and right after it, my eyes are opened a bit more.   He's been talking about a dishonest steward. The guy was clearly dishonest. In the ESV and many translations it uses the word dishonest. In the New American Standard strain of translations, it uses the word unrighteous. The guy was misusing the master's resources.   But as we'll see in the next verse, I believe Jesus is challenging us to use the wealth we've been given in this life to make an eternal difference. If we hold it for ourselves or if we fail to do with it what the master wanted, then we've become dishonest, unrighteous. Jesus isn't telling us to steal. He's telling us to do what our master wants us to do with what we have.   That's why I think it's helpful that the ESV contrasts the words faithful and dishonest. Are we doing what God wants us to do with his riches?   So what will you do today? Why not give something away. Ask God what he would have you do with the things he has given you. Then you'll get to watch him work. Please join us in our online community and share any ideas. Head over to https://community.followerofone.org and create a free profile.

Ed Brenegar, a storyteller, speaker, author, and coach, shares his insights on leadership and impact. He discusses the importance of personal initiative, determining values, and being intentional with impact. The Circle of Impact is introduced as a problem-solving tool. Planning for the 'third half' of life and making an impact are highlighted. Being intentional about impact in mid-career and overcoming unforeseen challenges are explored.