Wisdom Shouts in the Streets

I paid for university by working for a man in our church who owned a landscape company.  I worked for him in the summers between university terms.

Bill Davies mentored me.  Whether he was trying to or not, whether I realized it or not, he mentored me.  I learned from him valuable life lessons that have served me well.

I recently reconnected with him: we reminisced, we enjoyed each others’ company and we prayed together.  He sent me a text after our time together and offered me the following life lessons he has extracted from his decades of journeying with Jesus.  It is my pleasure to now offer them to you…

1. Sometimes God will have to knock the stuffing out of us before we learn that He desires us to humble ourselves under His mighty hand.
2. He who desires to live a life pleasing to God purifies himself because God is pure. Sanctification comes by a concerted effort of seeking God to deal with our personal sins. Unless you purpose to be holy, and consider righteousness a pearl of great price, it’s not going to happen.  Pursuit is the proof of desire.
3. My practice has been to wake up before dawn to spend an hour or so reading the scriptures and worshiping Him. It’s like a tithe of the first fruits of my day to Him. It’s the anchor of my day and without it God becomes distant. When we give God our best, he is no man’s debtor and we won’t be disappointed.
4.  I make it a habit to always be prepared to give account for the hope that lies within me. At any time I try to be prepared to give a sermon on a current word from God.  It seems that there’s always an opportunity to share it, as long as it’s a fresh word.
5. There are 3 people groups in the OT that are repeatedly mentioned as being important to God. If it’s important to God, I need to make it important to me. The “fatherless, the widow, and the sojourner”. To bless those is to incur God’s blessing. In business it’s a secret weapon for success, and a guarantee against insolvency.
6. In a race, second place is the first looser. Para-church will never substitute real church. Church is God’s plan A for the world, and He doesn’t have a plan B. This is the bride of Christ we’re talking about, so if I want to get along with God, I better be nice to His girl! Learn to love and serve His church and never bad mouth her.
7. Always own the property you conduct your business on. Any long term investment should always have property as a base. Implement “The magic of compounded interest” and you change from being the victim to being in the driver’s seat.
8. When you go to sell your business, if it rotates around you and your personality, you have nothing to sell. The size of your business is limited to your ability to delegate responsibility and to release the authority to accomplish it. A poor delegator is a poor businessman.
9. Risk taking is a godly characteristic and life style. Gambling is for fools. The degree of risk you take is a direct function of the degree of the potential profitability.
10. By far the most valuable asset you have as a businessman is your integrity. Your good reputation can be lost by a split second decision, and take years to regain.
11. If it doesn’t work at home, it doesn’t work. Many have shipwrecked their lives by not paying attention to their home base. At the end of our lives, no one regrets not spending more time in the office.
12. I’m a full time minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ through business. Being a Christian businessman is every bit as much a holy vocation and calling of God as being a pastor.
13. It’s not about me. It’s all about the lord Jesus. Deviation from that will get us into all sorts of trouble. The ditches are full of people who were deceived by man-centred versions of the truth.
14. A silent witness is for deaf people. For the rest of the population, we use words. Unless of course I’m ashamed of Jesus? We will be required to give account for the words we should have spoken, but didn’t. If we’re not pointing people to Jesus, just where are we pointing them?

Thank you Bill!

Proverbs 1:20-23

“Out in the open wisdom calls aloud, she raises her voice in the public square; on top of the wall she cries out, at the city gate she makes her speech: “How long will you who are simple love your simple ways? How long will mockers delight in mockery and fools hate knowledge? Repent at my rebuke! Then I will pour out my thoughts to you, I will make known to you my teachings.”