Give - But Not Too Much

Giving is important and believe it or not, it helps you become more and more successful. But you must be careful not to give too much, because it'll have the opposite effect. Check out my article below to see why.

Give - But Not Too Much

The Platinum Rule

I wanted to write about what I call the Platinum Rule. Everyone has heard of the Golden Rule which basically says "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" or in normal language "treat others the way you would want to be treated." Well that is great advice and the world would be a much better place if all Christians actually followed this rule. Unfortunately many don't follow it. But that doesn't take anything away from the fact that it is still very good advice. But I think there is an even better rule that we could and should go by as Christians. That is what I call the Platinum Rule which is:

Treat others the way God would want you to treat them

I believe this is even better advice because we as humans make mistakes sometimes and during those times, the Golden Rule would fail to be the right thing to follow. For instance when a person is depressed, they usually want others to leave them alone. So if they are following the Golden Rule, they would leave other people alone (not talk to anyone and keep to themselves) and they would expect others not to talk to them because that's what they think they want. But as everyone knows, this is bad advice. When a person is depressed is when they need to be in the company of friends and loved ones even more, and I suspect that this is what God would want us to do. If we were the depressed person, God would want us to go talk to other people and spend time with people we care about and who care about us, or to go and help others who are less fortunate than we are so we can see that we really shouldn't be depressed. But even though we may know that's what we should do when we're depressed, that's not what we want to do. And if we're the one who knows of someone we care about who is depressed, most people would not want to bother them because they know how it is to be depressed and they know they didn't want to be disturbed by others when they were depressed. So if they were following the Golden Rule, they would leave that person alone. But if they were following the Platinum Rule, they would go spend time with that person, which is what God would want us to do.

I call this the Platinum Rule because platinum is more valuable than gold, and I believe this rule is more valuable than the Golden Rule. This is something I try to follow every day. It's difficult, more difficult than following the Golden Rule in fact. But it's also given me much more satisfaction in my life and confidence that I am living my life and behaving the way God wants me to. I encourage you to try to live by this rule yourself as well - that is if you agree of course.

So how about it - do you agree? What do you think of the Platinum Rule compared to the Golden Rule? I'd like to hear whether you agree with me and I'd like to hear from you even more if you don't agree with me and why. Post a comment and let me know! =)

Bread and Life

This idea was inspired by a sermon I heard last September and it's been in the back of my mind ever since. The idea is that our lives can be thought of as the bread talked about so often in the bible. I haven't quite worked out all of the references to bread in the bible that I could make use of for this idea, but keep reading and you'll get the idea.

There are many times where men come together for a meal, and bread is almost always one of the main foods they eat at that meal. In addition, during the last supper Jesus took bread blessed it, broke it, and shared it with his disciples. I believe this is what he does with us in our lives as well, over and over again. In fact, I think that we can relate our lives to one of these three phases of bread (either being blessed, being broken, or being distributed and shared with others). The greatest example I can think of that displays this idea is the life of Jesus himself. He was first blessed because he was the son of God, chosen to do God's work on earth and redeem mankind. Then he was broken by being crucified on the cross, which allowed Him to be shared with all of mankind. His perfection and salvation was/is shared with all who are willing to ask for and receive it. There are other examples too (the life of Joseph for example).

So when times are good is when you are in the blessing phase. When times are tough, you are in the breaking phase. And after the breaking phase always comes the sharing phase. To illustrate this, I will tell you about a recent example from my own life. In June of last year I was working as a manufacturing engineer at an automotive testing machinery manufacturing company and enjoying my job very much. I was engaged and abot to be married to a wonderful woman. I was making more money than I had been before, had developed some great new friendships, and was just generally enjoying life. I was in the blessing phase. In July, I was laid off from my job unexpectedly, my family was going through some hard times, and I was supposed to get married in a couple of weeks but didn't have all of the money saved up for it yet and wouldn't be able to get it since I had lost my job. I wasn't happy with the church I was at and was searching for another one that I did like and where I could feel like I belonged, and my life was generally quickly becoming a mess. This was the breaking phase. I soon got married, had a great honeymoon and continued my job search. During my job search, I met a lot of great people and have made some good contacts with recruiters, business people from many companies, and had a lot of time to spend with family and friends. This was the sharing phase. I then received a couple of good job offers (both of which offered a higher salary than I had ever had), and picked the one I thought was best. I found a church that I loved, still attend, and don't plan on going anywhere anytime soon. I also decided to continue my education by pursuing an MBA. This was another blessing phase. Then I got hit with a huge financial burden, received a less than favorable job review, and my grandfather passed away. Another breaking phase. And most recently I've begun my MBA program and met lots of new and interesting people, made a new good friend through my wife's sister, gotten to spend some time visiting with one of my best friends from high school, and have gained some popularity and esteem in my job. So now I'm in the sharing phase again, moving towards the blessing phase.

Think about your own life and I bet you'll notice that you go through these three phases as well over and over again. The blessing phase is great, and the sharing phase is too. The only one we don't usually enjoy is the breaking phase. But it's a necessary one because just like a muscle, we must be broken down in order to be built back up stonger and better than we were before. This is an important thing to remember. And for those really tough times, it helps to remember one more thing...no matter how hard your life is or gets, it is just a phase and it will pass in time. There was a phase of sharing and blessing waiting for you at the end. And most importantly....no matter what phase your life is in, you are always in God's hands - which is the best place you could ever hope to be.

Playing Monopoly in Life

Yesterday in church, Pastor Sam Rijfkogel talked about how man people play the game of monopoly in their real lives. I have taken his basic message and expanded on it to what I believe, and here it is:

Life is like a game of Monopoly for people who are greedy. They want to get all they can, can all they get, and are nevery satisfied because they'll always want more until they have it all (which they never will). They think they will be happy when they have more stuff (money, possessions, power, etc.), but they never are - they will always want more. The problem is that they aren't thinking about what the game of life is really all about, and what happens when the game is over. See, for greedy people, life is like Monopoly because the game takes a while to finish playing, but when you are done, even if you win, all of the property you owned, all of the houses and hotels you had, and all of the money that was yours goes back in the box - and so do you (your game piece). Whatsmore, all of the stuff you use while you play the game is fake anyway!

This relates to real life because everything on this Earth that we regard as being worth so much whether it be possession, a property, or money is all fake in a sense too. The only thing that is real, that can and will last forever are the things that really matter like relationships, feelings, and your soul. Everything else just goes back in the box when the game is over.

Now you can play the game in a different way. You can play the game and not be greedy about it. You can play in a way where you make sure you do well for yourself and have properties to generate income for yourself. But you can also help others by making trades that will be beneficial for both of you. In fact, if you play in a way in which you try to do what's best for not only yourself but everyone else playing too, then everyone does better! You can help each other by making trades which will also make each other happy (improving your relationship), increase your properties and/or the amount of money you have (improving your finances), and the game (your life) will last longer and be happier. In fact, eventually if you keep playing the game like this, you will have all of the money from that bank distributed between the people playing and everyone will have more money than they would have if they just tried to win as fast as possible by screwing the other guy, being greedy, and only looking out for themselves! So everyone does better if you play the game this way! And the best part is that in real life, there is no limit to what is in the bank. God wants all of us to have an abundant life, and there is no limit to what He can provide for us! This is great news!

So how are you playing the game? If it's not the way you should be playing, what are you going to do in order to start playing a better way? Let's play the way where everyone works together and is happier, everyone gets more, and the game lasts longer!

Introduction

The purpose of this blog is to share my ideas about christianity and how to live a good christian life. I am privelaged to have found a great church with a pastor who is very good at explaining verses and scriptures from the bible in an easy to understand way and relate things that are said in the bible to our everyday lives in the current day and age. I take notes during church and discuss the things from the pastor's sermon with my wife and others sometimes, and I thought it would be interesting to find out what other people think about the things that I agree with or don't agree with concerning what I hear in my pastor's sermon. I figure this will be a good way to really cement in my mind what I believe and why, and that will help me to live the kind of christian life that I want to live. 

So I'll write a post once a week or so based mostly on what was preached in the sermon at my church, but also on things that I think of on my own whether those things were spurred from something in a sermon or from something else. I hope that you will post comments about what you think about what I write whether you agree or not, and tell me why. Together, we can expand and solidify our faith and beliefs and continually improve our lives.

=)