Joseph had an awesome appearance courtesy of the artwork of God. Watching art can be enjoyable. God wants us to enjoy a wide variety of things knowing that everything has to be managed. No one and no thing is to be more important to us than God. 1 John 5:21 Amplified Bible says, "Little children, keep yourselves from idols (false gods)—[from anything and everything that would occupy the place in your heart due to God, from any sort of substitute for Him that would take first place in your life]. Amen (so let it be)."
Potiphar and his wife were at one time Joseph's employers (Genesis 39.) Potiphar's wife liked God's artwork expressed in Joseph but not God's authority. Instead of following God's plan for pursuing partner sexual fulfillment in marriage, she pestered Joseph for sex outside of marriage.
A Yoruba of Nigeria proverb says, "May my outer head not spoil my inner head." Joseph didn't idolize his beauty. He repeatedly loved and respected God and God's rules. God the Son Jesus Christ says in John 14:15 New Living Translation Bible, "If you love me, obey my commandments."
The Chinese invented the rudder. God does not give us rules without the power to steer our lives according to them. When we have a relationship with God, God comes to live inside creyentes (believers) giving us the power to do what He says.
Having God's power doesn't mean we will not struggle to use it. The struggle is easiest when we stay close to the Greatest Lover, God.
Showing posts with label Employment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Employment. Show all posts
Monday, July 22, 2013
Friday, February 22, 2013
Paid Leave Please
"For as many [of you] as were baptized into Christ [into a spiritual union and communion with Christ, the Anointed One, the Messiah] have put on (clothed yourselves with) Christ. There is [now no distinction] neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is not male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus," says Galatians 3:27-28 Amplified Bible.
When I became a single parent 20 years ago, a distinction between male and female certainly existed. I don't recall encountering full-time single dads, but I encountered many full-time single moms.
Although admittedly today most full-time single parents and most of the parenting is being done by women, I am encountering full-time single dads. One of the things that is good and different today is that a greater push for economic justice is not just being framed in terms of women's rights.
While we don't want to worship money, money matters. A Spanish word for "cash" is "efectivo." Money is a necessary tool for survival and for the advance of the Kingdom of God.
Many women say they have abortions because of concerns about the lack of money. Read my article "Thoughts About Abortion."
Proverbs 31:8 Complete Jewish Bible says, "Speak up for those who can’t speak for themselves, for the rights of all who need an advocate."
Americans and people of other societies need to reject abortion and to embrace life. One aspect of embracing life is to increase family friendliness in places of employment.
Family friendliness is more than a women's issue. Fathers are not helper-parents. Fathers are co-parents. Read my article "Do Fathers Have a Say in Abortion and Frozen Embryos?."
In the Old Testament God implemented many feasts and Sabbaths. Some of these holidays lasted for more than one day. God is for both work and rest both with generous, abundant economic provision.
It is critical that sick leave and other types of leave from work be paid leave, so that both men and women can meet the spiritual, relational and economic needs of their families. Unpaid leave is partial help. When Jesus connects truth to freedom and life, He doesn't give us a partial package. We must not remain content with unpaid leave. Paid leave is proper. Martin Luther King, Jr. says, "He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it."
Change for the better often takes longer than we would like because of misguided, deeply entrenched mindsets. "Pasos cortos, vista larga." ("Short steps, long view.")
Believers are not to worry when they are not working that they will lose income. God promises to give us more than we need, if we do what He says to do. In one of the Sabbaths, God says through Moses in Deuteronomy 15:1, 3-5 English Standard Version Bible, "At the end of every seven years you shall grant a release. . . . But there will be no poor among you; for the Lord will bless you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance to possess--if only you will strictly obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all this commandment that I command you today." Leviticus 25:3-7 New Living Translation says, "For six years you may plant your fields and prune your vineyards and harvest your crops, but during the seventh year the land must have a Sabbath year of complete rest. It is the Lord’s Sabbath. Do not plant your fields or prune your vineyards during that year. And don’t store away the crops that grow on their own or gather the grapes from your unpruned vines. The land must have a year of complete rest. But you may eat whatever the land produces on its own during its Sabbath. This applies to you, your male and female servants, your hired workers, and the temporary residents who live with you. Your livestock and the wild animals in your land will also be allowed to eat what the land produces."
A Chinese proverb says, "Pointing to a deer and calling it a horse." It means, "Right and wrong are deliberately mixed up." Good sounding arguments do not always produce good results. Stingy employment practices hurt business, families, other people and even animals some of whom need people to take the time to adopt them.
"Every violation of truth is not only a sort of suicide in the liar, but is a stab at the health of human society," said Ralph Waldo Emerson.
What are some creative and positive results of rest?
When I became a single parent 20 years ago, a distinction between male and female certainly existed. I don't recall encountering full-time single dads, but I encountered many full-time single moms.
Although admittedly today most full-time single parents and most of the parenting is being done by women, I am encountering full-time single dads. One of the things that is good and different today is that a greater push for economic justice is not just being framed in terms of women's rights.
While we don't want to worship money, money matters. A Spanish word for "cash" is "efectivo." Money is a necessary tool for survival and for the advance of the Kingdom of God.
Many women say they have abortions because of concerns about the lack of money. Read my article "Thoughts About Abortion."
Proverbs 31:8 Complete Jewish Bible says, "Speak up for those who can’t speak for themselves, for the rights of all who need an advocate."
Americans and people of other societies need to reject abortion and to embrace life. One aspect of embracing life is to increase family friendliness in places of employment.
Family friendliness is more than a women's issue. Fathers are not helper-parents. Fathers are co-parents. Read my article "Do Fathers Have a Say in Abortion and Frozen Embryos?."
In the Old Testament God implemented many feasts and Sabbaths. Some of these holidays lasted for more than one day. God is for both work and rest both with generous, abundant economic provision.
It is critical that sick leave and other types of leave from work be paid leave, so that both men and women can meet the spiritual, relational and economic needs of their families. Unpaid leave is partial help. When Jesus connects truth to freedom and life, He doesn't give us a partial package. We must not remain content with unpaid leave. Paid leave is proper. Martin Luther King, Jr. says, "He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it."
Change for the better often takes longer than we would like because of misguided, deeply entrenched mindsets. "Pasos cortos, vista larga." ("Short steps, long view.")
Believers are not to worry when they are not working that they will lose income. God promises to give us more than we need, if we do what He says to do. In one of the Sabbaths, God says through Moses in Deuteronomy 15:1, 3-5 English Standard Version Bible, "At the end of every seven years you shall grant a release. . . . But there will be no poor among you; for the Lord will bless you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance to possess--if only you will strictly obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all this commandment that I command you today." Leviticus 25:3-7 New Living Translation says, "For six years you may plant your fields and prune your vineyards and harvest your crops, but during the seventh year the land must have a Sabbath year of complete rest. It is the Lord’s Sabbath. Do not plant your fields or prune your vineyards during that year. And don’t store away the crops that grow on their own or gather the grapes from your unpruned vines. The land must have a year of complete rest. But you may eat whatever the land produces on its own during its Sabbath. This applies to you, your male and female servants, your hired workers, and the temporary residents who live with you. Your livestock and the wild animals in your land will also be allowed to eat what the land produces."
A Chinese proverb says, "Pointing to a deer and calling it a horse." It means, "Right and wrong are deliberately mixed up." Good sounding arguments do not always produce good results. Stingy employment practices hurt business, families, other people and even animals some of whom need people to take the time to adopt them.
"Every violation of truth is not only a sort of suicide in the liar, but is a stab at the health of human society," said Ralph Waldo Emerson.
What are some creative and positive results of rest?
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
Got Problems? No Worries Mate.
Sunday I was looking at a photo in the August 2012 edition of Enjoying Everyday Life, the magazine of Joyce Meyer Ministries. Joyce is reading a leather-bound Bible while sitting on a wooden chair on a wooden deck without guard rails above tranquil waters with a forest in the distance. Yellow/white sunlight hovers over the waters and everything else reminding me of Genesis 1:1-3 Amplified Bible: "In the beginning God (prepared, formed, fashioned, and) created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and an empty waste, and darkness was upon the face of the very great deep. The Spirit of God was moving (hovering, brooding) over the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light; and there was light."
Light reveals things. God describes Himself as light. John 1:4 Amplified Bible says, "In Him was Life, and the Life was the Light of men."
One of the things God wants to reveal is that God's best plan for us is loving, eternal, family relationships with God and people. John 1:12-13 Amplified Bible says, "But to as many as did receive and welcome Him, He gave the authority (power, privilege, right) to become the children of God, that is, to those who believe in (adhere to, trust in, and rely on) His name—Who owe their birth neither to bloods nor to the will of the flesh [that of physical impulse] nor to the will of man [that of a natural father], but to God. [They are born of God!]"
There was never a time when God didn't choose to be in relationship with each believer. Imagine the goodness if we always choose a relationship with God and each believer God connects us to.
God put Rafael and me together. Rafael is a believer who has autism. I am a believer who does not have autism. Rafael and I love each other. In loving each other we are celebrating God, people with autism and other different minds and abilities and people of multiple other characteristics.
God made Rafael with autism on purpose. Proverbs 16:33 Amplified Bible says, "The lot is cast into the lap, but the decision is wholly of the Lord [even the events that seem accidental are really ordered by Him]."
God made Nick Vujicic and Daniel Martinez without arms and legs. Nick and Daniel are not biologically related, but they are part of the family of believers; and God created them and had them meet for a purpose.
One day Nick was set to give a speech at Knott Avenue Christian Church in Anaheim, California. Up until the time Nick was a young adult he had not met a person like himself without arms and legs. Meeting Daniel was inspirational confirming for Nick that there are others like him and giving him the privilege to guide someone younger, Daniel was a toddler at the time they met, over the obstacles of not having arms and legs through a faith that with God there are no limits.
Some say I am unrealistic in seeking marriage for Rafael because he has autism. Growing up Nick wondered how he was going to have a job that would pay enough to financially support a family. Nick wondered how he was going to have girlfriends and eventually a wife without arms to hug them.
So many mysteries that can become worries. Do you have autism, no arms or legs or some other challenges? "I ain't goin' worry about things I can't control . . . . Hold up. Why? God's got it," sings African-American Gospel singer James Moss on his CD V 4 ...The Other Side track "God's Got It." For believers God is able and willing to work out our lives for good even when we can't see how.
Growing up Nick couldn't see that he would be a motivational speaker, run a nonprofit group called Life Without Limbs and marry, but God not only knew it all along, God also had a plan for Nick to get there. God's got a plan for all of us. Chase God, and He'll reveal the plan.
Clues to God's plan are everywhere. Rafael is very spiritual. He enjoys music, meditation and intimate relationships. Women love spirituality and intimate relationships. Ninety-four percent of women in a 2002 Gallup poll reported that a spouse should be a soul mate first and foremost.
Soul mates start out as friends. The Bible talks about sex as a husband and wife knowing each other. While God did not design for singles to engage in sex, God did design for both singles and married couples to have same-sex and opposite sex friendships. Begin and improve your friendships by joining Rafael's and my relationship group. To join contact us at email address michefrancesjackson@gmail.com.
Light reveals things. God describes Himself as light. John 1:4 Amplified Bible says, "In Him was Life, and the Life was the Light of men."
One of the things God wants to reveal is that God's best plan for us is loving, eternal, family relationships with God and people. John 1:12-13 Amplified Bible says, "But to as many as did receive and welcome Him, He gave the authority (power, privilege, right) to become the children of God, that is, to those who believe in (adhere to, trust in, and rely on) His name—Who owe their birth neither to bloods nor to the will of the flesh [that of physical impulse] nor to the will of man [that of a natural father], but to God. [They are born of God!]"
There was never a time when God didn't choose to be in relationship with each believer. Imagine the goodness if we always choose a relationship with God and each believer God connects us to.
God put Rafael and me together. Rafael is a believer who has autism. I am a believer who does not have autism. Rafael and I love each other. In loving each other we are celebrating God, people with autism and other different minds and abilities and people of multiple other characteristics.
God made Rafael with autism on purpose. Proverbs 16:33 Amplified Bible says, "The lot is cast into the lap, but the decision is wholly of the Lord [even the events that seem accidental are really ordered by Him]."
God made Nick Vujicic and Daniel Martinez without arms and legs. Nick and Daniel are not biologically related, but they are part of the family of believers; and God created them and had them meet for a purpose.
One day Nick was set to give a speech at Knott Avenue Christian Church in Anaheim, California. Up until the time Nick was a young adult he had not met a person like himself without arms and legs. Meeting Daniel was inspirational confirming for Nick that there are others like him and giving him the privilege to guide someone younger, Daniel was a toddler at the time they met, over the obstacles of not having arms and legs through a faith that with God there are no limits.
Some say I am unrealistic in seeking marriage for Rafael because he has autism. Growing up Nick wondered how he was going to have a job that would pay enough to financially support a family. Nick wondered how he was going to have girlfriends and eventually a wife without arms to hug them.
So many mysteries that can become worries. Do you have autism, no arms or legs or some other challenges? "I ain't goin' worry about things I can't control . . . . Hold up. Why? God's got it," sings African-American Gospel singer James Moss on his CD V 4 ...The Other Side track "God's Got It." For believers God is able and willing to work out our lives for good even when we can't see how.
Growing up Nick couldn't see that he would be a motivational speaker, run a nonprofit group called Life Without Limbs and marry, but God not only knew it all along, God also had a plan for Nick to get there. God's got a plan for all of us. Chase God, and He'll reveal the plan.
Clues to God's plan are everywhere. Rafael is very spiritual. He enjoys music, meditation and intimate relationships. Women love spirituality and intimate relationships. Ninety-four percent of women in a 2002 Gallup poll reported that a spouse should be a soul mate first and foremost.
Soul mates start out as friends. The Bible talks about sex as a husband and wife knowing each other. While God did not design for singles to engage in sex, God did design for both singles and married couples to have same-sex and opposite sex friendships. Begin and improve your friendships by joining Rafael's and my relationship group. To join contact us at email address michefrancesjackson@gmail.com.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)