Friday Funny: Don’t Judge People
No matter who you are, it is hard not to judge people by their appearance.
We all have done it at some point. But the Word of God says in John 7:24 – “Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.” You see, God always looks on the heart. Man judges by the outward appearance. Joe shares a great story about his nephew with all of the piercings. Joe looked past all of that and saw that his nephew needed Jesus. Of course, Joe gets to the point in his usual “unconventional” manner. Listen as Joe shares the hilarious way he got to the kids attention!
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Are You Making a Living or Making a Life?
People in the 1950s wondered what we would do with all the free time new technology would allow us to have in this century.
Man, did they miss that like a barn door! Americans are working longer and more frantically than ever before. They have no time or energy left over for the things that really matter.
The problem has become how to balance making a living with making a life. Just because the world runs at break-neck speed, we don’t need to become workaholics. We need to work the right amount of time to get things done.
The Bible says, “Six days you work, one day you rest” (Exodus 23:12). There’s nothing in the Bible about a 40-hour work week. You ought to be able to go to your job every day, be happy to go there, accept your lot, and enjoy your wealth and possessions. Enjoying life is a gift of God (Ecclesiastes 5:19-20 NIV).
We ought to be able to come home at a decent hour and enjoy some quality family time. We have to learn to be in control of our time and not waste it or allow it to be stolen from us.
The Take Away:
God intended for us to work but not to become workaholics. We are supposed to be productive and use our gifts and talents, but still have time for our families, for God, and for our friends. It’s possible to work hard and have time to make a life, and not just make a living!
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Stop Fighting, Start Stewarding
It’s time to stop fighting over money with your spouse and start stewarding what you have.
There is a powerful biblical principle when you do this. When two or more get in agreement [Matthew 18:19] great things are possible.
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The Take Away:
Ignoring what God’s Word says about our money is a wrong step. Money (and its management) can be a point of contention in marriage, but when we follow God’s Word we can avoid the common pitfalls! Let’s stop complaining and start stewarding what we have. Stewarding what we have means getting a budget and knowing where things need to go.
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Friday Funny: Let’s Play Kissy-Face
Marriage is a team sport. It takes both parties to work together to be effective.
In today’s Friday Funny, Joe shares how he finally figured out that “Women do what they HAVE to do…. And Men do what they WANT.” Not that it should be that way…. But a lot of times it is.
Joe shares how he finally figured out that helping in the kitchen can go a long way towards a romantic marriage!
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How to Change Your Circumstances
The world is always lying to you.
You will hear how hopeless everything is. You will be told stories of people just like you who bit the dust and didn’t get up. But don’t feed on that!
Say what God’s Word says: “A thousand may fall on one side of us and ten thousand on the other side, but it won’t come near us! I don’t care what it looks like; God’s Word says that no evil shall come near our dwelling. ” (Author’s paraphrase, see Ps. 91:7,10)
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The Take Away:
Stop believing the lie that you won’t make it. Start believing God’s Word. In order to build your faith, you need to be reading His Word and asking for wisdom as you do. He’ll show you what you need to know.
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The Natural and Supernatural Side
There’s a common theme that runs through the Word of God—we do natural things, and God does supernatural things.
There’s a common theme that runs through the Word of God—we do natural things, and God does supernatural things. We walk around the walls of Jericho, and God knocks them down. We lay hands on the sick, and He does the healing. We preach the Gospel, and He does the saving.
When God placed man on this planet, man’s part was to do the natural side, and God’s part was to do the supernatural side. God told Adam, “I want you to take care of the Garden, have dominion over the earth and subdue it, and I want you to be fruitful and multiply.” Everything God asked Adam to do was natural. If we do the natural, He’ll do the supernatural.
The way we accelerate the supernatural in our lives is to make sure that we’re doing the natural. That means we must find out from the Word of God what we need to do in the natural so that God can do His part supernaturally on our behalf. It’s only then that we will walk in the blessing of God.
“If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands…all these blessings will come upon you….” (Deuteronomy 28:1-2 KJV).
The Take Away:
When it comes to walking in financial blessing, we can’t sit back and expect God to do everything. We must do the natural part that He instructs us to do so that He can then do His supernatural part to bring it to pass.
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Natural Steps Lead to Increase
It’s a spiritual principle in the kingdom of God that order precedes increase.
Natural steps lead to supernatural increase and blessing.
In 2 Kings 4, when the widow said to Elisha, “I’m in debt, Preacher. What am I going to do?” the prophet answered her with a question: “What can you do?”
God is always going to ask us to do something natural before He’ll do something supernatural. So if we’re going to see the supernatural in our financial lives, we’re going to have to prepare for it in the natural. Look at what God’s Word has to say about preparation.
“Do your planning and prepare your fields before building your house”(Proverbs 24:27 NLT).
“Ants are creatures of little strength, yet they store up their food in the summer”(Proverbs 30:25 NIV).
If we want to have the blessings of God in our homes, our relationships, and our finances, then we need to do what we can in the natural to plan, prepare, and get our lives in order.
The Take Away:
What can you do in the natural to plan and take natural steps toward increase? Do you need to take a class to develop and grow in a skillset? Do you need to get a budget in place to keep track of your spending? Pray and ask God for wisdom to show you what natural steps you can take to prepare for increase.
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Friday Funny: Six Kids Is Enough
Joe shares a great story about having five daughters.
Finally, years later, number 6 was the lucky number!
No longer surrounded by all women, Joe had the son he always wanted!
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How’s Work Going?
Has someone asked you this lately? How would you answer?
We’re going to have to work. We have to find out what we’re called and gifted to do and get busy using our gifts.
I can imagine the wheels turning as people are reading this. “Oh, it’s tough out there, Joe. It’s different than it was ten or twenty years ago.”
It certainly it is!
I was born in 1951. I’ve seen the workplace change. I’ve worked at three different secular companies. I’ve worked for two different churches. I’ve been on my own for over a 20 years in my own ministry.
I want you to know that I don’t have my head stuck in a barrel. I understand that things have changed in the workplace, but God has not changed. He is still our Provider. He understands what’s going on in this world, but He has given us a way to prosper, even in the midst of a perverse and wicked generation—even in the midst of an unstable economy.
If we’ll follow His plan, we won’t just survive, we will thrive.
The Take Away:
We won’t be able to follow God’s plan until we know it. You can find God’s plan for you, your finances, and your work by reading His Word. Don’t wait—start reading today. Ask God to show you how to get answers to your questions.
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Whose Are You Going to Listen To?
Here’s a quick reminder that you are going to believe either God or the devil when it comes to anything in your life — including your financial situation.
There is no middle ground. There’s the truth and there’s the lie. Make sure you are telling yourself the truth on a daily basis because you’ll be faced with thoughts that are contrary to God’s Word. That’s how the enemy works.
But God’s Word gives us some instructions:
Casting down arguments, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. 2 Corinthians 10:5 NKJV
That means it’s not a possibility, it’s a guarantee that you will have thoughts come at you that go against God’s Word. Your job is not to “try not to think that way,” but instead, to cast it down, to bring it into captivity. You do that by learning what God says and then speak, meditate, and act on it.
The Take Away:
Find out what God’s Word says about the situation you’re facing today and choose to believe the truth over the lie of the enemy. Practice taking every thought that makes itself bigger than the truth of God’s Word captive.
