Your 2013 story - Part 2 of 2

A couple of years ago, I was on a retreat and was asked, "what Bible character most reflects your life?"  I'm not sure I have ever been able to answer that question.  It is an interesting thought and I think it helps you identify what God has in store for your life.  What story is He writing for you?  Has He given you glimpses of it through another character in scripture?

Our Bible can be used to help us in so many ways in the business setting.  So many times we believe the stories are for church use and don't realize that most of the stories are in a marketplace setting.  Jesus focused on the marketplace.  According to Os Hillman, in The 9 to 5 Window, "Of His 132 public appearances in the New Testament, all but 10 of them were in the marketplace, and 45 of His 52 parables had a workplace context.  Forty divine encounters listed in Acts, 39 occurred in the workplace."

I've had two business owner friends in the past two months that have told me stories of God showing them that they had Jonah's in their business.  These were Christian employees that God was asking them to throw overboard.  While both of these were hard decisions, the Jonah story gave the picture of the sinking ship.  That if they did not remove these employees there would be serious ramifications to the business (their ship if you will).  Both situations while difficult to administer letting the employees go, resulted in a better situation for both the owner and the employee.  If we understand the truth that God doesn't take away from one to bless another, than we can walk in faith that throwing good people overboard when directed from God will be beneficial.  But the key is they both heard from God and they both clearly heard the story of Jonah.

God uses scripture to show us what is best for us.  We can also see the heart and character of God in all these multitude of situations.  Through this realization that God uses scripture to speak to us about business and not just me as a person or for my family, I feel like I have a brand new book to read in my Bible this year.