Podcast appearances and mentions of Mike Henry

The world needs more metals, minerals, and natural resources to fuel the global economy, power the energy transition, and feed a growing population. As the CEO of the world's largest mining company, BHP's Mike Henry is redefining his business in a competitive industry which is projected to grow to $2.8 trillion by 2028. In today's episode, Clarke digs into Mike's leadership lessons and insights, including his career journey, his CEO transition in the midst of two major crises, and the advantages of being a global citizen living and working in multiple countries. Mike shares how he balances growth alongside risk, safety, and respecting communities in the company's mining efforts. He also talks about the BHP Operating System, which serves as the foundation for how BHP's 90,000 employees continuously improve and make decisions in the face of uncertainty on a day-to-day basis. Four things you'll learn from this episode: How BHP is decarbonizing and becoming more sustainable while meeting growing global demand How an Operating System can help ground company culture and drive continuous improvement across the organization How to balance growth with risk, safety, and working with local governments and communities How technology and an internal venture capital arm can power a culture innovation If you enjoyed this episode, you might also like these Redefiners episodes: Talking Transformational Leadership with RRA's CEO Constantine Alexandrakis AI or Die: A Conversation with Coveo Chairman and CEO Louis Têtu Leadership Lounge: How to develop your personal leadership brand Waste In, Shareholder Value Out: A Conversation with WM President and CEO Jim Fish Putting Sustainability Talk into Action with former Enel CEO Francesco Starace Leadership Lounge: What do top-performing teams have in common? How the Barely Possible Can Overcome the Barely Solvable with First Mode's Chris Voorhees

Show Notes for The Fortified Life Podcast with Jason Davis

BHP Group Ltd. CEO Mike Henry discusses metals, copper demand and the outlook for the mining industry amid the incoming Donald Trump administration. He is joined by Bloomberg's Francine Lacqua.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week Danielle and Kristine learn how to survive an electric eel and Mike Henry returns to share an exciting encounter with a very special board game player. Join our Patreon for extended episodes!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The Dow hits a fresh record high, splitting from the Nasdaq and S&P 500 which both plunge into the red on weakness in chip production. CNBC hears from former Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan who says he is expecting a 25 basis point cut from the central bank. Industrial profits in China grow at the fastest pace in 5 months, driven by the high-tech manufacturing sectors. Miner BHP beats earnings expectations and says it will be doubling down on its copper-related projects following its failed bid for rival Anglo American. CEO Mike Henry tells CNBC that Beijing's support could also benefit steel for the company. In France, President Emmanuel Macron rejects working with the left-wing NFP alliance choice for PM. And in entertainment news, Paramount is set to be snapped up by Skydance after media tycoon Edgar Bronfman Jr. drops his bid to buy the company.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

MID-SEGMENT GUESTS: Mike Henry  Organization: Follower of One Part 3 of the 3-Part Series Transitions This episode highlights personal experiences, noting the impact adult children's transitions can have on retirees. Bruce stresses the importance of prayer, support, and the complexities of modern family dynamics. Jim recounts his own challenges, including caring for a granddaughter after his son's health issues and his parents moving to stay close. Mike Henry of Follower of One joins the show to discuss his ministry and to encourage retirees to integrate faith into everyday life. He explains the five habits for living out faith: pray, appreciate others, know what you believe, serve others, and speak for yourself. Although focused on workplace missions, anyone can take part in Follower of One's Marketplace Mission Trips for spiritual growth and community support. Wrapping up, Bruce emphasizes the significance of being a trustworthy and loving presence in the lives of grandchildren, especially amidst family upheaval. We're reminded that we can find purpose in the transitions as long as we depend on God, finding strength and guidance in Him. www.RetirementReformation.orgSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Send us a Text Message.Our double-feature drive-in special continues with our first feature from 1977, Smokey and the Bandit. Sure this was a little before our time but we remember loving it as kids when it was rented or appeared on TV. How can this movie go wrong? It has Burt Reynolds, Sally Field, Jerry Reed, and of course, the most quotable Sheriff to ever grace the big screen, Buford T. Justice played by the late and great Jackie Gleason. Throw in a 70s Trans-AM, car chases, and stunts and we're sold. So please join us as we go back and watch the highest-grossing comedy of the 70s, Smokey and the Bandit. Do You Remember Liking This Movie?

Send us a Text Message.We look at Trivia from Smokey and the Bandit which includes improv lines, actors singing, and one or two wrecked Trans Ams.Do You Remember Liking This Movie?

In this episode of the EntrePastors Podcast we talk with Mike Henry, founder of Follower of One, a nonprofit that helps believers integrate their faith with their work in the marketplace.  Mike shares his story of coming to Christ years ago and feeling passionate about his new found faith, yet frustrated with the disconnect he often felt between the place where he worshiped (his church) and the place where he spent a significant part of his life (his work).  To Mike, it seemed like the only form of ministry that was offered and validated by his church was either ministry that happened within the four walls of the church building, or more intense ministry that required getting on a plane and traveling to an entirely different country on a mission trip.  Eventually this frustration led Mike to launch a movement of what has now become known as Follower of One that specializes in mobilizing believers on two-week “Marketplace Missions Trips.”  Through this initiative, Mike helps regular everyday church members recognize and engage one of the most important mission fields they encounter on a regular basis as they get up and go to work each day.  At EntrePastors, we often say that “business IS ministry,” and that often there are far more opportunities to minister to others through marketplace activities than from behind a pulpit.  We're excited to share this conversation with you and trust you'll be encouraged from it.Guest Info/Links:Website: https://followerofone.org/ Call to Action:Register for Dustin Heiner's upcoming webinar: Financial Freedom Through Real EstateAugust 21, 2024 - 11:00 am CSTmasterpassiveincome.com/entrepastorsworkshop 

Another big one for the record books! This should have happened a long time ago! I finally got my brother Doug Mecca up in the studio for some real talk. Doug is a pioneer in Austin hip hop and beyond. He and his Hip Hop Mecca Crew revolutionized the game back in the 90's when they started promoting hip hop shows on the regular with both national and local artists at a time when it was even harder to get stages for hip hop than it was in the 2000's. Austin has come a long way and Hip Hop Mecca and their work played a huge role in legitimizing hip hop within the Austin music scene. Trust, it was a lot of work. They also booked some of the coolest hip hop showcases at SXSW in the late 90's/early 2000's. They are the crew who brought crews like the Living Legends, Hieroglyphics, Rhymesayers, Project Blowed and way more to Austin and to SXSW. Their events were always fun and also always loaded with local artists. They built a ton of bridges and Doug has tons of stories. Word to Mike Henry (who also needs to come on the pod). Born in New York, he came to South Austin in the 3rd Grade and has seen it all. Catch him any night at the coolest club still standing on 6th Street, Flamingo Cantina. Enjoy this episode and as always Tell a Friend to Tell a Friend to tune into Talk So Real with Matt Sonzala! @douglasmecca

Another big one for the record books! This should have happened a long time ago! I finally got my brother Doug Mecca up in the studio for some real talk. Doug is a pioneer in Austin hip hop and beyond. He and his Hip Hop Mecca Crew revolutionized the game back in the 90's when they started promoting hip hop shows on the regular with both national and local artists at a time when it was even harder to get stages for hip hop than it was in the 2000's. Austin has come a long way and Hip Hop Mecca and their work played a huge role in legitimizing hip hop within the Austin music scene. Trust, it was a lot of work. They also booked some of the coolest hip hop showcases at SXSW in the late 90's/early 2000's. They are the crew who brought crews like the Living Legends, Hieroglyphics, Rhymesayers, Project Blowed and way more to Austin and to SXSW. Their events were always fun and also always loaded with local artists. They built a ton of bridges and Doug has tons of stories. Word to Mike Henry (who also needs to come on the pod). Born in New York, he came to South Austin in the 3rd Grade and has seen it all. Catch him any night at the coolest club still standing on 6th Street, Flamingo Cantina. Enjoy this episode and as always Tell a Friend to Tell a Friend to tune into Talk So Real with Matt Sonzala! @douglasmecca #talksoreal #podcast #mattsonzala #douglasmecca #dougmecca #music #interview #austintx #austin #ATX #texas #reggae #hiphop #flamingocantina #sxsw #livinglegends #hiphopmecca #rhymesayers #hieroglyphics #visionaries #projectblowed --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/pushermania/message

Discover the Power of Community for Marketplace Christians: Vision Cast #2 Welcome to Vision Cast #2! In this live stream, Mike Henry, Sr. invites you into the journey of Follower of One, an online community designed to help marketplace Christians integrate their faith and work on a full-time basis. Learn why community is essential for our Christian growth and how it can transform our daily lives. Reasons We Chose to Be a Community: We Need Each Other: Discover the biblical mandate for togetherness and why we thrive when we connect with others who share our faith. We're All Equal at the Foot of the Cross: Understand the significance of equality in God's eyes, transcending hierarchies and recognizing our shared purpose. We Become Like the People We Hang Around: Embrace the influence of our relationships and intentionally surround ourselves with individuals who inspire and encourage us in our faith journey. Join the community and explore marketplace mission trips, engaging reading plans, courses, and affinity groups that align with your interests. Find support, encouragement, and practical insights to infuse your faith into every aspect of your daily life. Remember, what we do because we follow Jesus matters forever. Together, let's make a difference and inspire others to draw closer to Him. Subscribe to Follower of One for more inspirational content!

Nicole Valance, Founder of Connected with Nicole, is a passionate leader driven by the Great Commission to reach people for Christ. Through her work as a keynote speaker, executive leadership coach, and consultant, Nicole empowers business organizations to achieve leadership growth and fulfillment. However, her ultimate goal is to facilitate encounters with Christ, particularly within the business community, helping individuals experience healing, deliverance, and a deeper connection with God. "In This Episode" Section: 00:00 - Intro: Nicole and Mike Henry, host of the Follower of One podcast, introduce themselves and discuss how they connected through LinkedIn. 01:24 - How Nicole got Connected with Mike: Nicole shares how she reached out to Mike after listening to his podcast and resonating with his mission to help Christians live out their faith in their everyday lives. 02:26 - Encounters Retreats: Nicole explains the purpose and format of her Encounters Retreats, which are designed to provide individuals with an opportunity to encounter God's presence, experience healing, and connect with others on a deeper level. 06:36 - How did Nicole get started: Nicole shares her journey from working in vocational ministry to becoming involved in organizational coaching and consulting. She emphasizes that her mission remains the same—to fulfill the Great Commission—but her methods have changed to accommodate the needs of the business community. 09:55 - How to live out your faith each day: Nicole offers practical advice for Christians who want to live out their faith in their daily lives. She encourages listeners to identify three people in their lives who don't know Christ and pray for them consistently. She also suggests inviting people to coffee or lunch to build relationships and share their faith in a natural and loving way. Summary: In this inspiring interview, Nicole Valance shares her passion for reaching the business community for Christ and facilitating encounters with God. She emphasizes the importance of personal experiences with God and provides practical tips for Christians on how to share their faith in a loving and authentic way. How to Connect with Nicole: You can connect with Nicole Valance and learn more about her work through her website, connectedwithnicole.com, or on LinkedIn. She also invites listeners to attend her upcoming Encounters Retreats, which are held throughout the year in various locations.

Aaron and Josh Sarnecky are here to talk about the 25th anniversary of Family Guy. Family Guy is an animated sitcom created by Seth MacFarlane. It premiered on FOX on January 31, 1999. Though FOX canceled the program in 2002, the network revived it in 2005 due to its success on DVD and Adult Swim. Since its debut, it has aired over 400 episodes. The show will move from Sundays to Wednesdays this March. Family Guy follows the Griffin family, who live in the fictional city of Quahog, Rhode Island. Creator Seth MacFarlane voices dim-witted father Peter, as well as talking dog Brian and evil baby genius Stewie. Alex Borstein plays housewife Lois, while Seth Green and Mila Kunis (originally Lacey Chabert) voice teenagers Chris and Meg. MacFarlane also voices the Griffins' neighbor Glenn Quagmire. Other neighbors include Joe Swanson, voiced by Patrick Warburton, and Cleveland Brown, voiced by Arif Zahir (originally Mike Henry). Prior to his death, Adam West played a fictional version of himself, Mayor Adam West. Family Guy has been a lightning rod of controversy since the beginning, with jokes about many taboo subjects. Critics have both praised and criticized its reliance on cutaway gags. MacFarlane and Borstein have won Emmys for their voicework, and the show was nominated for Outstanding Comedy Series in 2009. Aaron and Josh talk about their past with Family Guy, before discussing the first episode. They also go into the show's characters, animation, humor, and legacy. For another FOX staple, you can listen Aaron and Josh's podcast on 24. Family Guy is streaming on Hulu. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/popbreaktv/message

In this episode of the Eternal Leadership podcast, we delve into the unique concept of "Marketplace Mission Trips" with Mike Henry Sr., CEO and Lead Instigator of Follower of One. These innovative trips are designed to integrate faith into the workplace, offering both 2-week online and 6-week offline versions. Participants engage in daily devotionals, prayer, and evening calls to share experiences and encouragement. The program focuses on building spiritual strength, transforming mindsets, and experiencing God's work firsthand. Testimonies from diverse professionals like entrepreneurs, CEOs, nurses, and consultants highlight the profound impact on their work and faith.   Mike Henry Sr. is the CEO and Lead Instigator of Follower of One, deeply committed to helping individuals live out their faith in the marketplace. His mission is to mobilize believers to serve and inspire others, aiming to be a full-time minister in all aspects of life.   For more details, you can visit Follower of One. Follower Of One - Community for Marketplace Christians

In this episode of the Follower of One podcast, Mike Henry hosted Greg Frost, the driving force behind The Well Exchange. Their conversation unveiled the remarkable journey and mission of The Well Exchange, centered on fusing faith with organizational development. Greg Frost, in this compelling dialogue, shared the evolution of The Well Exchange, providing insights into the unique blend of faith and business strategies at the heart of their operations.   Greg Frost is the founder and guiding visionary behind The Well Exchange. His journey into establishing the organization stemmed from personal experiences, including rapid life changes such as marriage, relocation, and a series of transitions within a short span of time. His resilience and reliance on the support of a nurturing community, particularly older women engaged in intercession at their church, laid the foundation for The Well Exchange's inception six years ago.   It's not just about prayer – it's about investing time and unwavering commitment to foster a kingdom culture within businesses. Greg's narrative vividly showcased the pivotal role of intercession, coaching, inner healing, and prophetic revelation in transforming organizations. It's an approach that sparks curiosity and the desire to delve deeper into this captivating fusion of faith and business. In this Episode: Foundational Experiences: Rapid life changes led to the inception of The Well Exchange. Intercession and Business Fusion: The integration of faith into business strategies. Developing a Kingdom Culture: Nurturing an organizational environment centered on peace, joy, and righteousness. How to Get Connected: Visit The Well Exchange's Website: Explore their unique blend of services and free resources. Connect with Greg Frost: Engage with the visionary behind The Well Exchange. Podcast Resource: Access the episode to dive deeper into faith-centered business strategies.

In this podcast, Mike Henry from Follower of One interviews Jason Davis  @thefortifiedlife  , the founder of Jericho Force Enterprises. Jason shares his journey of moving from a scarcity mindset to a mindset of stewardship and abundance, aligning his financial approach with God's principles. The conversation explores how faith can be integrated into the business world, the importance of taking the next step in sharing one's faith, and the impact of faith in various industries. Jason also discusses his upcoming projects and his podcast, "The Fortified Life," aimed at helping Christian professionals integrate their faith into their work. In this episode: (0:27)Starting Jericho Force Enterprises to provide financial coaching and assistance.  (8:10) Writing the book "Fortify: Being Rooted in God's Plan for Work and Business." (12:51)The Profit Blueprint ebook (15:03)Upcoming projects, including a devotional book and speaking engagements. (17:00)Jason's podcast, "The Fortified Life," helping Christian professionals integrate faith into work. (22:01)The role of Follower of One marketplace mission trips in empowering individuals to engage with their faith in the workplace. Jericho Force Enterprises: https://www.jerichoforce.com/ The Fortified Life Podcast: https://www.jerichoforce.com/podcast Jericho Force Enterprises Blog: https://www.jerichoforce.com/blog Jason Davis Linktree: https://linktr.ee/mrfortify

Mike Henry is most well known for being a voice actor on the Family Guy series and The Cleveland Show. He has voiced many characters and is an actor, comedian, writer and producer. Mike was born in Michigan, but grew up in the Richmond, VA area. He talked about his time and lessons learned at The Collegiate School and at Washington & Lee University as well as the unique nickname his class at W&L had being the last all male class to graduate from there. They discussed his one year at the Martin Agency and then how he took a chance and moved to California. They talked about his journey over the next eight or so years until he got the role on Family Guy. They finished by talking about his advice to young people, some other thoughts of his, current projects he's working on and his family … son Jack, daughter Josie and wife Sarah.

This is an Encore episode of the Follower of One podcast from our archives. We are on a short break. Welcome back to the Follower of One podcast. I'm your host, Mike Henry, Sr. Thanks so much for joining me today. I want to finish up this section of Galatians 6. We've been doing a series on this and today we want to do the last two verses of the section that I want to cover. And those are verses 9 and 10. I'm reading from the English Standard Version "And let us not grow weary of doing good for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. So then as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith." I love this section of Galatians because it's a great practical guide for how we can interact with the people that we come into contact with every day. And he's reminding us here not to grow weary. He just used this analogy, we talked about yesterday, or in the previous episode, he used this analogy of sewing, planting, and growing. And he's reminding us too, that it takes time. In due season, we will reap, if we do not give up. Many times, we do what the Spirit tells us to do, and we don't see any results, or we see results that appear to be negative. In my case, I struggled in my career. For many years, I would ask God to use me, to show me what to do, to get me out of the workplace that I was in and put me to work for him. And what he was doing was he was preparing me. I used to tell people that I was career challenged because I'd had so many jobs and I'd worked for so many different people. And I was almost never happy in my work. And the times when I was happy, those companies went out of business. I felt like I had the kiss of death from a career perspective. But this verse came back, “if we do not give up." Now after being a Christian for over 30 years, I'm experiencing great joy because I get to help you figure out how to integrate your faith into your daily life. That's my goal is to help believers integrate their faith, make their faith part of what they do every day. I begin that by praying. I punch in, I want to get on my eternal clock and say, "Here I am God." And then I want to do what I'm told. I don't need to grow weary in doing what I'm told by the Holy Spirit, because in due season, I will reap if I do not give up. Many days I reap right then. I experience the joy of walking with Jesus. I experience the satisfaction of knowing that, even what happened to me today does not end up resulting in negative things; that God uses it all and causes good to come from all of it. So then as we have opportunities, let's listen to the Holy Spirit and do what he says. We can do good to everyone, especially to those who are our brothers and sisters in Christ. Let's find a way today to share God's love with others through our actions. It begins with prayer. He will give you ideas. He will give you questions, and he will make suggestions that might sound a little crazy. But if you can do them, then he will give you more. Let's practice today following Jesus in our workplace. Because in due season, we will reap, if we do not give up. Look for a way to bless someone that you work with today, someone that you interact with today. Some little thing that pops into your head is an idea given to you by God, to bless someone else. Try it out and see what happens. Thank you for being a marketplace minister. Thank you for investing your life in trying to find Jesus and trying to reap the eternal life that he talks about. You will experience joy doing good and if you don't, reach out to me, I'd love to communicate with you. You can shoot me a note at mike@followerofone.org. Or you can check us out in our online community, https://community.followerofone.org. You can find all of that on our website at https://followerofone.org. Thanks so much for being a marketplace minister. And thank you. In advance I want to thank you for the difference that you're going to make at work today.

This is an Encore episode of the Follower of One podcast from our archives. We are on a short break. Welcome back to the Follower of One podcast. I'm your host, Mike Henry, Sr. Thanks for joining me today. I'd like to continue our conversation. in Galatians 6. Today I want to read verses 7 and 8 from the English Standard Version. "Do not be deceived: God is not mocked for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption. But the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life." I titled this podcast "Begin With the End in Mind."  And that's from Stephen Covey's book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. But the idea originates here in scripture, and I think it might even predate this. The apostle Paul though is reminding us that whatever we sow we also reap. This is a farming analogy. Our point is that if you put a seed in the ground, that's, what's going to grow whatever seed you put in there. That's what's going to grow. So, if you want a particular crop, you have to plant that crop. Well in our lives, we only have two choices. I don't know if you notice here, but this is very limiting. There are only two choices. Either we sow to the Spirit, or we sow to the flesh. Everything that's not us asking God for direction, everything that's not us looking to God for guidance, it's our flesh. It's what we want. There are only two gods on this planet, the God of the universe and me. And if I'm God, this whole thing doesn't work. But if he's God, then we get from the Spirit what we sow. We get eternal life. Also, the word's eternal life here in this translation and in others, remind me of a great book by John Ortberg Eternity Is Now In Session. We actually experience our eternal life. When we walk with Jesus when we go through our day with him. When we're sowing to the Spirit, we experience the eternal life now. Those of us who trust Jesus, we have the opportunity to live in our eternal life or to live in the temporal life. In 2 Corinthians 4:18, it says that the things that are unseen are eternal, but the things that are seen are temporal.  That's not an exact quote, but my point is, if I can see it, if it's something that's going on, it's not eternal. If it's all the things that we can see and touch and feel they'll burn up. But all the things that we do because we listened to the Spirit, those things last forever. So, what's the application for us today? Today, I want to challenge you as you go to work, whoever you interact with today, remember to pray for them before you start. Remember to ask God to show you how he would have you interact with them. Ask him to give you ideas for questions to ask. The Lord will give us questions. He will guide us to ask things that will cause other people to share information with us so that we might appreciate them more and express that appreciation and help them feel appreciated. And we may also find ways to serve them. Those are our action items. And then, because we practiced being able to explain that Jesus is the motive behind everything that we do, we can also speak when someone asks. These are our daily activities that we talk about in Follower of One. It all begins with prayer. We can't sow to the Spirit unless we know the Spirit, unless we're chasing after Jesus and listening to God. Today, let's sow to the Spirit and watch him transform our lives. We will reap eternal life, not at some point in the future, but even today, you may experience some.

This is an Encore episode of the Follower of One podcast from our archives. We are on a short break. Welcome to the Follower of One podcast. I'm Mike Henry, Sr. and our mission at Follower of One is to help every marketplace Christian see themselves as a full-time minister, as someone who's available to serve the people around them. We're currently going through Galatians 6 and we're on verses 5 and 6 today. I'm reading from the New American Standard. "For each one will bear his own load. The one who is taught the word is to share all good things with the one who teaches him." I purposely put these two verses together. In your translation, I would be willing to bet there's a paragraph break in between verses 5 and 6, that 6 begins a new paragraph. But I'm not sure that it does. I wonder if Paul wasn't continuing his thought. The thought was, we begin 1 and 2 by bearing other's burdens. And then three, four, and five are about us not being prideful or arrogant about that, but being humble, not boasting in regard to anyone, but what we do ourselves. We can't compare ourselves to anyone else. And then five and six, I think tie together because Paul's reminding us that we are all taught. We are all students. We are all learning our faith and learning how to grow it and learning how to deliver it into the world. And then each one of us has to learn individually. This is not a contradiction about bearing one another's burdens in verse two. We bear our own load when it comes to how we learn the faith and how we live it out in the world. That's up to us. Much of what we learn though comes from others. And therefore, we should share all good things with the one who teaches us. Often, I learn some great lessons from people that I don't like or from people who are not believers. I've learned much about how to live my faith on a daily basis from challenging work environments. I was taught much by many people simply because I was looking and searching. I was also taught by pastors. I've sat at the feet of pastors. I've been in church for my entire career as a follower of Jesus. I'm regularly in a church on Sunday. And that's because we have to be taught the word of Christ. We don't get to learn this on our own. Our job is to be a learner, to follow Jesus, and to be open to input from other people. This is a command I believe to humility. To remembering that we didn't invent our faith and that we didn't just get it from God like Moses, we got it through the holy spirit, but through friends and people that were around or people that we're listening to. And so, the challenge for us today, I believe is to be humble. To remember that what we know about the faith and where we are in our spiritual walk, it all came to us from other people. Therefore, we should share all good things with the one who teaches us. Let's be humble today. Let's go into our workplace with an attitude of being a learner. God can teach us much through the people that we interact with, whether they're believers or not. And then we have a humble spirit, we will learn more and we will grow more. And Jesus will use us more. This humility, I think is part of us bearing our own load. You have a ministry in your workplace. Your ministry is how your faith becomes visible to every person that you interact with every day. We bear our own load and therefore we're in a position to share with others when we are taught. Let's be humble along those lines. Today, I want to challenge us. I can always hear another story or a lesson on humility. There's always more humility for me. And I expect there is for you. Let's ask God to show us where we can be humble, where we can be taught, what we can learn in our environments today. Let's be sharers, so that we make a difference, and our faith makes a difference in our daily life. Thank you for being a marketplace minister. Thank you for remembering that every action you take because you follow Jesus Christ matters. And how we show up in the lives of the people that we interact with daily, that matters too. Thanks very much for being a minister and for making a difference in your workplace.

This is an Encore episode of the Follower of One podcast from our archives. We are on a short break. Welcome back to the Follower of one podcast. I'm your host, Mike Henry. Thanks for joining us again today. We're in part two of Honest Self Evaluation from Galatians 6:3-5. And today I'd like to read that passage in the Christian Standard Bible. “For if anyone considers himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. Let each person examine his own work, and then he can take pride in himself alone, and not compare himself with someone else. For each person will have to carry his own load." Yesterday. I read this from the New American Standard, and you can tell there are differences in translation. We talked a little bit about not comparing ourselves to others or not thinking that we are something when we're nothing. So, we have to be careful what we compare ourselves to because in verse four, he says, we need to examine our own work. We need to be objective about how we live and then we can take pride in our self alone, but we can't compare ourselves to other people. Comparison is a trap. Comparison is what we use to make ourselves feel superior to others. Oftentimes I'll use comparison to make myself feel inferior to others. I feel like I don't measure up and I beat myself up about something. Then I always try and find someone who's better off than me to compare myself to. When I want to feel good about myself, then I try and find someone who's not as well off as me. In every case that's a lie. These feelings that we have when we compare ourselves to others, they're false. They're a lie.  It's us and Jesus. There's no one else to compare ourselves to. We're each on our own plan. And that's one of the things that we'd like to talk about here at Follower of One. I want to encourage you: our first daily activity is to pray. We try and remind ourselves about five daily activities on a regular basis. 1) Pray, 2) Appreciate others, 3) Know what you believe, 4) Serve others, and 5) Speak for yourself. Those are the five daily activities. Prayer is first because this is between us and Jesus. How you show up is a mix of who you are, what Jesus has called you to, all of your experiences and all of your history, and the environment that you're in, and the people that you're around. You shouldn't do exactly the same thing as any other believer, most of the time. Most of our time, my prayers will look a little different than yours. My actions will look a little different than yours. My calling and my relationship with the people that I work with will look different than your calling and your relationship and the people that you work with. So, let's not compare ourselves to one another. Rather let's compare ourselves, let's evaluate our relationship to Jesus. Are we doing what he said? If we're doing what he said, then we're examining our own work. We can take pride in what we've done, because we did what Jesus told us to do. Each person will have to carry his own load. I'm not going to win any awards for something someone else did. My job is to listen to Jesus and do what he says. And I'm blessed when I do that, I experienced the peace and the joy of trusting Jesus and walking with him. There've been many years when I really thought I was out in left field. And I might've been. I didn't seem to fit in the church. We've actually talked in our community about how many of us feel underutilized in the church. And it's because our gifting doesn't line up with many of the jobs that the church has for us. And that's, what's so cool about Follower of One. We want to invite you to talk with Jesus and let Jesus put you to work. And this way we will examine our own work, and not compare ourselves with others for each person will carry his own load. Jesus one day will ask you, "what did you do with what I gave you"? Today let's follow Jesus. Today, let's ask him what he would have us do. And then as long as it lines up with scripture and it isn't illegal, then let's try and figure out how to do it. Let's solve for how. Our goal is to make Jesus visible in our world. When we obey him, we start that process. We begin to make that happen. Let's trust Jesus and live like we follow him, and he will put us to work. And I promise you won't feel underutilized. Jesus will put you to work in your workplace and in a big way. Thank you for being a marketplace minister. And thank you for making a difference with your faith. Everything you do because you follow Jesus matters. So today let Jesus invade your workplace and put you to work.

This is an Encore episode of the Follower of One podcast from our archives. We are on a short break. Welcome back to the Follower of One podcast. I'm your host, Mike Henry senior. And today I want to talk about Galatians 6:1-2. I'm reading from the English Standard Version. "Brothers. If anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself. Lest you are too. Be tempted, bear one another's burdens. And so, fulfill the law of Christ." This book and this verse, this passage, verses one and two of chapter six are aimed at believers. The "brothers" comment there translated in the CSB as "brothers and sisters,” in the New American Standard, it's translated as "brethren." It's basically saying "you who are believers in Jesus, you're our brothers and sisters. And then it says, "if anyone is caught in any transgression." When I was first taught this verse, my initial understanding, I'm not sure it was even the fault of the teachers, but my initial understanding was "if anyone" referred to those brothers, in other words, this passage applied to Christians interacting between Christians. Now studying the verse, a little more and praying about this, and I still may be wrong. I believe that "anyone" here, "brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression," I believe that anyone means anyone. I believe it's very general and it's not limited to just other believers. In other words, "brothers, if any brother is caught in any transgression," would be different than "brothers if anyone is caught in any transgression." I believe this is a command to us as believers to be peacemakers in the world, to be those who build one another up and who bear one another's burdens. We're challenged in this passage that for anyone who falls short, who has an error, "who's caught in any trespass," one translation says. Another one says, "is caught in any sin" or "is overtaken in any wrongdoing." Anybody screws up, we who are spiritual should restore that person in a spirit of gentleness. What does that mean? Well, it doesn't mean that we hold a grudge. Often in our workplaces, we keep score. We keep track of how other people have dropped the ball or how someone failed in the past. Here I believe he's challenging us to create restoration, to help put things back. To help things get back to being right. Not just being to where the damage is controlled but being as right as it can be. And we want to restore that person in a spirit of gentleness, which means that we don't do this complaining or sighing, which I'm famous for having done.  I would make faces or go, "Oh, whatever!" I don't think that was biblical. I don't think that was in accordance with this passage.  I need to have a spirit of gentleness. I want to bring a spirit of gentleness to the situation because I might be tempted. Now, I don't know exactly what temptation he's talking about here, but some of the temptations that I faced where I would be tempted to think better of myself than the other person, or I would be tempted to think that I was immune from the kind of mistake that they made. I want to challenge us. If anyone drops the ball, comes up short, fails in their work, let's be the people who restore that person with a spirit of gentleness. Let's keep watch over the others around us and ourselves so that we're not tempted to think better of ourselves. Today our challenge: watch for people around you. When people fumble or drop the ball, don't let them beat themselves up. Help restore them in a spirit of gentleness. This is what we try and do. We encourage one another through our online community, at Follower of One. And I want to encourage you with this podcast. These commands that were given all throughout scripture to be difference makers in our workplaces, these commands apply to every one of us. This is not just for the super spiritual. This is a choice that we can all make every day in our job to bring a spirit of gentleness and to look for people to restore. Thank you for being a marketplace minister. Thank you for making a difference in the lives of the people around you. Join us as we work to get better at this in the online community, https://community.followerofone.org. You can join us there and take part in the next Marketplace Mission Trip, where we practice these things on a daily basis. Thanks very much.

Mike Henry Senior-Making an impact on the work place. Follower of One. Make your work life count! Chief Instigator of Follower of One - He helps marketplace Christians integrate their faith & daily life.Coming soon, a new small group study titled the Marketplace Mission Trip: A Six-Week Mission Trip to Your Workplace. check out his website. https://followerofone.orgTranscript:Dr. Jeffery D. Skinner (00:00.407)Welcome in to Echoes Through Eternity. I am your host, Dr. Jeffrey D. Skinner. I am joined in the studio today by Mr. Mike Henry, Sr. He and I connected on LinkedIn and I saw his ministry follower of one. It's just, I love the story he has there which is essentially that you are a missionary and I'll let him talk all about that and tell you all about that. But welcome in, Mike. It's good to have you here today.Mike Henry Sr. (00:29.198)Thank you for having me, this is a blast.Dr. Jeffery D. Skinner (00:31.763)Yeah. So, so tell us a little bit about Father of One and what that does, what your ministry is there.Mike Henry Sr. (00:38.402)So the ministry basically is an online community designed to help marketplace Christians integrate their faith into what they do every day. And it kind of came out of this idea that several ideas that have happened in my career, but I became a Christian when I was already in the workforce and it seemed like almost everything the church wanted me to do was something that made me leave work.or I had to get away from work to do it. And I just, I felt like it seemed strange to save me and then put me in a position where I can't do anything. And so I started asking God for ideas about what I could do and realize that there are so many things that we can be doing, but we think if we're not doing the church things, then we're not doing the right things. And all that kind of led into a 30 year journey that resulted in follower of one.Dr. Jeffery D. Skinner (01:36.687)That's great. That's great. And you're right. I mean, we argue, I've got a, I told you before we started out of a church planting background. And so this podcast kind of serves kind of three purposes. I want to primarily echo the voices of people like yourself and, and you'll reverberate those and it's called Echoes Through Eternity in that. Marcus Aurelius was famous for saying, you know, what you do today will echo through eternity. And, andMike Henry Sr. (01:44.614)Mm-hmm. Yes.Dr. Jeffery D. Skinner (02:06.875)so often the message that we clergy give to the parishioner, to the laity, which by the way, is not a separation between professional clergy and the people. It just literally means the work of the people is what it's talking about there. And so, I hope that clergy are people. I hope I'm a person. Everybody is people. And so, when we're talking about laity, it wasn't designed to say, okay,Mike Henry Sr. (02:17.413)He's drawing. Yeah. No.Dr. Jeffery D. Skinner (02:34.615)Here's the people and your job is basically sit in a pew and receive. And then if there's anything to do, they want you to come to the church, and we want you to do it at the church or within the church. And so this idea of the church becoming the center of all ministry was not even what Jesus did. Jesus did not begin his work in the temple. In fact, very little of his ministry took place in the temple. It was the temple that rejected Jesus' work.Mike Henry Sr. (02:38.791)Mm-hmm. Yeah. Exactly. Mm-hmm.Dr. Jeffery D. Skinner (03:02.299)And Jesus' message, you know, the temple essentially that crucified Jesus, if you want to say it that way, not the people, you know. Now they had a little crowd there in the end that they'd whipped up into a frenzy and they could say it was the work of the people, so to speak. But you and I know, you know, how that goes, right? So I love, but that's why I invited you on. I love your message at Follower of One. It's not about you. You're not the hero of that story.Mike Henry Sr. (03:10.253)Yes. Yeah. Exactly.Dr. Jeffery D. Skinner (03:30.191)It's individuals. It's all about them finding their purpose and connecting that with God. And we spend more than 40 hours a week, at the very least, at work. And so, if everything centers around the church, it's going to be very little time for ministry for you. It's going to happen on a Saturday. You're probably already exhausted from, and we say 40 hours. If you're working in a job, we all know it's probably more than 40 hours.Mike Henry Sr. (03:41.273)Yes.Mike Henry Sr. (03:57.658)yeah that's right well so I almost felt like I was adversarial with many of my pastorsDr. Jeffery D. Skinner (03:58.023)I have a wife as a school teacher. She works a lot more than 40 hours a week. Uh, so anyway, I just, I love your message. I love what you're talking, what you're doing there. And so you're right. So tell us how you say it was born out of that conversation with God. How long after you were saved before, how long did it take you to kind of discern that call in your life?Mike Henry Sr. (04:26.678)during my 40-year career. It's been over 40 years since I exited college. But I didn't become a Christian until I was 30. And all of my early challenges were when I would ask my pastors about different ideas that I had or what I wanted to learn. The answer was, sure, come back out to the church, come back out to the suburbs.I traveled quite a distance to work. I worked in industrial businesses early in my career, and then in big office buildings later in my career. And nothing was ever close to where I lived. And I felt like, because I couldn't get back out to the suburbs, that my best case scenario was to just stay out of trouble until Sunday. And I would even.Dr. Jeffery D. Skinner (05:06.541)Yeah.Dr. Jeffery D. Skinner (05:19.493)HahahaMike Henry Sr. (05:22.606)because this dates me, but going back, often people would use the term called into full-time ministry. And it just basically told me that I was a part-timer, that Jesus saved me, but I was just supposed to stay on the bench until the coach put me in on some key player. If somebody walked into my office and grabbed me on the shirt and wanted to know about salvation, I could help them, but there wasn't anything else for me to do.Dr. Jeffery D. Skinner (05:30.019)Right.Dr. Jeffery D. Skinner (05:35.125)Yeah.Dr. Jeffery D. Skinner (05:40.06)Mmm.Dr. Jeffery D. Skinner (05:52.416)Yeah, let's...Mike Henry Sr. (05:52.71)And I discovered that there are plenty of things to do, but you have to kind of disassemble some of the baggage and the meanings that we put on words. Mm-hmm.Dr. Jeffery D. Skinner (06:02.375)Yeah, you're right. We do. I'll use the term, mercenary missionaries. And so we have essentially, and I don't think we did it on purpose, but just accidentally, we communicated to the parishioner, your job is essentially to fund the ministry. And so you pay us or pay othersto do the ministry for you. So it's a, you know, kind of a mercenary force, mercenary missionary force there. And if we're to do ministry, we're going to take a vacation. We're going to go somewhere overseas. You're going to go to Haiti or we're going to go to Dominican Republic or we're going to go to some other, you know, place that we perceive that needs Jesus, so to speak. And I'm telling you that there's a lot of folks here in America that need Jesus. And that's not to necessarily say mission trips are bad.Mike Henry Sr. (06:42.598)Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah.Dr. Jeffery D. Skinner (07:00.683)Um, you know, mission trips can be a very formative experience. The difficulty with that is that when we do that as with our children and our teens and we just, and even adults to a certain extent, as they begin to be the, the mentors and the chaperones for these trips is we accidentally communicate that missions happens somewhere else. Missions that's not happening here at home.Mike Henry Sr. (07:25.685)Yeah.Dr. Jeffery D. Skinner (07:26.279)A huge mission field, as you point out, is our workplace. So talk a little bit about what does that look like? I know you have it on your website and you also have a podcast. And we'll get to that in a few minutes. But it says you are a missionary. See how easy it is to follow Jesus at your place of work. So how does that work?Mike Henry Sr. (07:44.973)Well, and so we actually practice what we call five daily habits. And really there are six, I've since decided there are six. But the five that we talk about that we do every day are pray, appreciate others, know what we believe, serve others, and speak for ourselves.Dr. Jeffery D. Skinner (08:03.935)Yeah, that's good. And wow, what a powerful message there, because I think too often, at least today, in this divisive culture that we live in, it's almost like we are demanding that somehow people bow the knee to Jesus before they ever accept Jesus as their Savior, so to speak, you know? And then we've reduced that to saying a prayer.Mike Henry Sr. (08:25.948)Yeah.Dr. Jeffery D. Skinner (08:30.787)And so people say that prayer, Jesus come into my heart, whatever it looks like for them, pray the sinner's prayer, and or the ABC, accept, believe, and what was it, confess, accept, believe, confess. And so, we reduced salvation to that. So now I've got my get out of hell free card, and I'm a Christian, but there's nothing that connects us with that. So I love that, it starts with prayer.Mike Henry Sr. (08:49.681)Mm-hmm. Yeah.Dr. Jeffery D. Skinner (09:00.179)I love the idea of serving and, uh, you know, appreciating our neighbor. Loo

This is an Encore episode of the Follower of One podcast from our archives. We are on a short break. Welcome back to the Follower of One podcast. I'm your host, Mike Henry. And I'm grateful that you've joined me. This is a challenging verse to explain for me, because I fail so badly in this area. James 5:9, "Do not complain, brethren, against one another, so that you yourselves may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing right at the door." I don't see any way around this command to not complain. And yet I complain a lot. Literally the   word is groan. In, the English Standard Version. It says, "do not grumble against one another brothers." I do believe that he's speaking to believers, but I'm not too sure it's constructive to complain about anything ever. When I look at my own life, I can't see anything constructive that came from a simple complaint. Often it was from a request to do something differently.  Often, I would need to ask someone else, "Hey, could we do this differently?" You can get into a situation where you're not comfortable or something doesn't seem right. But asking to make something better is not complaining. I think this word "complain" and more accurately "grumble" here in the English Standard means whining, complaining about what's going on without being able to offer a suggestion or a way to make things better. We all know there's a right way to request something be changed. And there are several bad ways.  Much of what happens in our world today, I think is people just complaining. They feel powerless to make a difference. And so, they just want to create some grief, or they just want to get applause from someone else who's complaining. Look at what you talk about in social media. Look at the way we interact with one another in our world. Look at the way that different things happen. I want to do a better job of identifying what it is that I'd like to be improved and then request that something be changed. "Could we do this a different way?" is much different than just whining about the way it's being done. Today, I want to challenge myself and I hope I challenge you. If you hear this, when it airs we're in the holiday season. It's easy to get tired and angry and frustrated with traffic and the things that are going on around us. I want to complain less. If you interact with me, ask me how I'm doing. Challenge me to complain less. Challenge me to have constructive, positive things to say, not to grumble so that I'll be judged, but rather to lift others up. To share and to offer a blessing and an encouragement, something that might motivate someone else. There's so many opportunities that we have to be a blessing to the people around us and in my mind, many of those opportunities begin by simply not complaining. So today I want to listen to James. I want to not complain. What about you? Are you willing to pray and ask God to help you not complain as well? Let's try it today and see how God makes a difference in our day. Thank you so much for being a marketplace minister. Thank you for helping other people move one notch closer to Jesus. I pray that you're actively considering following and practicing our five daily activities. I also would ask that you consider joining the Follower of One online community? It's at https://community.followerofone.org. And you can join for no cost. You can take part in our next Marketplace Mission Trip. We have a Marketplace Mission Trip coming up in about six weeks, and you can learn more about how to live your faith every day, integrate your faith into your daily life and experience the joy of following Jesus every day of the week. Check it out at https://community.followerofone.org. Thanks very much.

This is an Encore episode of the Follower of One podcast from our archives. We are on a short break. Hey, welcome back to the Follower of One podcast. I'm your host, Mike Henry. And I'm looking forward to today's message. Today. I want to talk about 2 Corinthians 5:14 "For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died." And that's from the English Standard Version of the Bible. I'm tempted to bring in the next verse two. And I may stumble over into that. This is a favorite passage of mine, as many of these are. So, I apologize about that, but I hope you hear the excitement. I want the love of Christ to control me. The love of Christ controls us. That could either be Christ's love for us or our love for him. It doesn't really say. Can you agree? It's just you talking to you now, does the love of Christ control you? Does it control me? I work often to be more controlled by the love of Jesus. I read my Bible and I work on these podcasts.  I go back to first Corinthians 9:27, even "to discipline my body and make it my slave." Maybe if I do that for long enough, I can say that the love of Christ controls me. Sometimes. I honestly don't believe the love of Christ controls me, but I would like his love to capture more my attention to be a bigger part of my daily life. I can give Jesus the ability to control me and step one of that is step one of our daily activities. It's to pray. "Jesus, here I am. Would you put me to work for you today? I want to ask you to take over my life, to let me be so absorbed with the love of Christ that I'm controlled." And I want to let go of the other things that might be controlling me. I want to achieve a goal, so I take an action and I believe that my actions contribute more to that goal than the love of Christ. But today I want Jesus to show me an action that I can sacrifice. This is not a job activity. I'm not talking about you sacrificing part of your job responsibilities. We still need to do what our managers and our leaders expect. We still need to do excellent work all the time. But what's something that we cannot do and trust Jesus? One of those things is worry. Another one of those things might be working extra to make something happen.  It's late in the year as I record this. Have you taken all of your vacation time, or do you need to take some vacation time and spend it with your family? I can pray and read my Bible instead of doing something else, instead of watching TV or playing a video game. I can trust a coworker rather than checking up on them or following up on them and nagging them. And for those of you that I've nagged, I apologize. I want the love of Christ to control me. So today, at least on this podcast, I choose to be controlled by the love of Christ. Then let's ask him, Jesus, control me today. Let's keep asking. "Please, may I, so concentrate on your love for me that I enjoy my relationship with you and trust you more than ever. What would you have me to do? Jesus, take my life over and do what you want with it. I want to listen to you today. Use me as a minister in this workplace to be a blessing to others for you." That's the way that I want the love of Christ to control my life. What about you?  Thank you for being a marketplace minister. Thank you if you have the courage to pray that prayer. Let's let God direct us on how we impact the lives of the people that we work with every day. The natural result is that we would no longer live for ourselves, but for him who died and rose again for us. Let's live for Christ because his love for us and our love for him controls us today. If you think about it, join the community, https://community.followerofone.org. Let's put people into our lives that are helping us be controlled by the love of Christ on a daily basis so that we can serve the people that we interact with every day. Thanks very much.

This is an Encore episode of the Follower of One podcast from our archives. We are on a short break. Hey, it's Mike Henry with the Follower of One podcast. Welcome back. Thanks for joining us. Today, let's talk about Galatians 5:1 (ESV) "For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to yoke of slavery." I think it's interesting because I believe Jesus came to set us free. Sometimes I think we take that freedom for granted. We're created with the freedom to choose. God created us with this ability to choose. And all of the effort that I believe that Jesus has gone through to save us is designed to protect our freedom of choice. We choose wrongly before we even know, and we suffer the consequences of being separated from God. All of us choose some way of life other than Jesus. But then Jesus paid for our poor choices so that we could still have another chance. In our previous episode, I asked you to consider the question, "God, what do you want me to change today?" Jesus set us free to hear God's answer and then to choose to do it. Galatians 5:1 says it was for freedom, that Christ set us free. He got us back out of our yoke of slavery, our bondage to slavery. We go back into that mode when we choose to obey our own flesh. But we have the freedom to step out of that mode because Christ died on the cross for us and he gave us the opportunity to step out of this yoke, this chain, this slavery model. And we can stand firm, therefore, as it talks about here today, Jesus set us free to hear God's answer to that question and then choose to do it. We were set free for that very freedom. What was your choice? Jesus paid for your freedom. Did you take advantage of that payment by Jesus yesterday? Or will you today? If we want to be active with our faith every day, we begin by saying yes to God. We listen to the Holy Spirit, and we do what he says. This verse goes on to say that we can stand firm in our new life and not be a slave to sin any longer. Let's ask God the question again today. God, what would you have me change today? Then let's do what he says. Let's choose today to do whatever he challenges us to do. This is convicting to me, because there are things going on in my life, I know I ought to be doing. And so, I have to confront those as I speak to you about this, on this podcast. It's a challenging place to be, but let's be there. Let's challenge ourselves to follow Jesus, to step into the freedom that he paid for and not submit again to this yoke of slavery. Our habits and our environment are powerful things. If we can start the habit of saying yes to God, we strengthen our muscle. We may need to hang out with some other believers who have the guts to ask God this question over and over and over again, and then step into the answer. Don't underestimate the pull of our enemy, our flesh, and our habits. Let's get the help we need. You can join the online community of Follower of One. That's what it's designed to do. It's designed to create an opportunity for us to be able to connect with other believers who intentionally try and live their faith every day. Check it out at https://followerofone.org. You can take part in the Marketplace Mission Trips for free as well. We simply ask you if it's beneficial to you to pay it forward. Thanks for being a marketplace minister. And thank you for making a difference in the lives of the people that you're around every day. Let's ask God the question, "God, what would you have me change today?" And then do what he says. Thanks very much.

This is an Encore episode of the Follower of One podcast from our archives. We are on a short break. Hey, it's Mike Henry with Follower of One. Welcome back to the Follower of One podcast. Today, I want to talk about God being at work. If you hear this on the day that it airs, it's actually the Monday after the U.S. holiday of Thanksgiving and we're back at work. And so, I wanted to check out and just think a little bit about how God is always at work. In John 5:17 it says, "But Jesus answered them, 'My father is working until now and I am working.'" And that's from the English Standard Version. Where are you today? What's your situation? Are you at work or going to work? Are you working from home? Maybe you're retired or maybe your day is trying to get healthy from an illness or caring for someone else who's not healthy. You may be on vacation. Wherever you are, we are workers. God created us to work. The original mandate in the original story in Genesis, you will find that we were challenged to subdue the earth and be fruitful and multiply, to fill the earth. We have a working God who calls us to work. So even if we're on vacation, even if we're outside of the normal work world or we're in some situation as a volunteer, our job is to work, to make the earth better for everyone on it. Now, if God created us to work, who do we work for? Do we work for God? Or do we see ourselves as the boss? Or do we see someone else as our boss? What's our goal in our job? Do we work for a purpose? Do we work simply so we can spend time not working? Do we work only to get through Friday? If God has created us to work and God is always at work, what's he challenging us to do? The entire Trinity is working. Can we see our work as something that God has assigned to us? And since our original mandate is to work, do you think of yourself as an employee of God's? That was a big transition that I had to make many years ago. I had to realize that the people that I reported to at work, the people who signed my paycheck, they really weren't my boss. They were in charge of me. I was assigned there, but I was working for God. If God's working and Jesus is working, I want to work for them. Today at work, I want to focus my perspective. I want to point my brain to working for God. Colossians 3 23 and 24. We're challenged to do our work heartily as if we work for the Lord. As we get back into it and we get on our tasks at work, let's remember that we do them for God. That our job is to do excellent work and to do our work with quality and with energy and with passion so that we can glorify God. We can show other people that we worked for him. Today, if we focus our perspective on work, as if we work for God, how will that make us behave? Would we work differently? Will we take our assignments from him and do our work like we report to him? And if so, how will that change how we work today? That's my challenge to us. Today let's work as if we work for God. If that's something you normally do, go ahead and ask him for one additional assignment today. Ask him to give you something else that you can do today, just because you work for him. He will answer and he will call us out and he will challenge us if we let him. Today, let's remember we're marketplace ministers. We have an opportunity to make a difference in the world, right where we are, because we follow Jesus. Let's pray for the people around us and look for opportunities to follow Jesus with our whole life. If you want to practice this more, you can join the next Marketplace Mission Trip. There's not one coming up for another month or so, but you can find out more about that mission trip by joining our online community at https://community.followerofone.org. Thank you for being a marketplace minister and thank you for making a difference with your faith. What we do matters and your actions on behalf of Jesus, your actions as a Christ follower matter forever. Thank you very much.

In this podcast conversation between Mike Henry and Todd Melby, Todd shares insights about his work at Leadership Edge, a Christian nonprofit focused on leadership development through one-on-one mentoring. Here are the key points discussed: Introduction to Leadership Edge: [01:00] Todd introduces Leadership Edge as a 30-year-old nonprofit dedicated to developing leaders of integrity through personalized mentoring. The organization's focus is on helping young people understand and embody leadership integrity in all aspects of life. Getting Connected with Leadership Edge:[02:09] Todd shares how he became involved with Leadership Edge when he was seeking guidance on living a faithful life in various areas. A mentor suggested that Todd become a mentor himself, leading him to engage with the organization. Mentoring Range: [04:44] Todd explains that Leadership Edge mentors a wide range of individuals based on their readiness for intentional developmental relationships. While the typical age range is 20 to 35, mentees can be as young as 17 or as old as 55. Personal Faith Journey:[06:01] Todd reflects on his Christian journey, emphasizing that his faith developed over time rather than through a single moment. He describes the progression from a good family upbringing to a deeper understanding of walking with Jesus in his thirties. First Mentoring Experience: [21:35] Todd shares his initial mentoring experience, acknowledging that he didn't invest enough intentionality into the relationship. He later learned to approach mentoring more effectively, with success measured by the growth and positive decisions of his mentees. Continuous Friendships: A key aspect of Leadership Edge's approach is maintaining friendships even after formal mentoring relationships conclude. This ensures ongoing support and connection. Success Stories: [20:40]Todd highlights success stories where individuals faced challenges and turned to the principles learned through Leadership Edge for guidance. One example is overcoming marital difficulties through open communication and faith. Mentor Training: [26:47] Todd discusses the rigorous mentor training provided by Leadership Edge, covering theology of leadership and mentoring, helping mentors effectively guide their mentees. Impactful Stories: Todd shares a story of a young man who found faith in college and later grew into an influential leader with the support of Leadership Edge, showcasing the organization's positive impact. Future Plans:[26:47] Todd mentions Leadership Edge's plans to expand by working with executive leadership teams in churches. The organization aims to mentor youth pastors to establish leadership development programs and provide resources for effective mentoring. Encouragement for Difficult Times: Todd concludes by encouraging listeners to maintain their focus on the Lord even in chaotic times, emphasizing that God's control can lead to miraculous outcomes. Connect with Todd on Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddmelby/) Connect with Leadership Edge  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/leadership-edge-inc Website: https://lead-edge.com  Connect with Follower of One: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/followerofone1 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/followerofone  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/follower-of-one  Community: https://community.followerofone.org

Hey, welcome back to the Follower of One podcast. I'm Mike Henry, your host and the founder of Follower of One. I love doing the podcast and today I want to talk about Colossians 3:15. If you hear this on-air date, this is the day before Thanksgiving in the US. The verse that I chose for today is, "Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts to which indeed you were called in one body and be thankful. That's Colossians 3:15 from the New American Standard Bible.   In the U.S., as we celebrate Thanksgiving, which we will do tomorrow, many don't even understand, that the original thankfulness wasn't just to the Indians or just to each other, but it was to God for the provisions that he made. Thankfulness is worship. It's easy to be thankful to others and we need to be thankful to others.   It lubricates our relationships. When we're thankful to others. And when we appreciate others, they feel appreciated. And that feeling reduces the friction that typically happens when people interact. Friction is the force or the result of two objects coming into contact with each other. And friction causes heat.   When we interact with our fellow humans, we can cause friction. But a spirit of genuine appreciation, frees everything up. It's like it lubricates all the mechanisms. We look out for others, and we consider them more important than ourselves when we appreciate them. And it lubricates our relationships. So, thankfulness to others is key.   But also, thankfulness is to God. As Christ followers, all gratitude or thankfulness is aimed at him. We know he is in control. Our thankfulness reminds us, my thankfulness reminds me that I'm dependent upon God and not the other way around. It puts me in my proper place in the world.   So today and every day, I want to be thankful to God for the things that happen, even the good and the not so good things. We'll talk about that a little bit more tomorrow. Today, just thank God for what's going on today and tomorrow. Ask him to help you be thankful in everything that you do. We want thankful to be a word that others use to describe us.

Thanks for joining us on the Follower of One podcast again today. I'm Mike Henry, your host. And today I'm talking about 2 Timothy 2:2, "The things which you've heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also." This is a great verse about discipleship and that translation that I read was the New American Standard version.   This is a great passage about discipleship, as I said, because it's challenging us to think about four (4) generations. If you see it here, we see Paul passing this on to Timothy, who is to entrust these to faithful men, that's generation three, who will be able to teach others also generation four. So it's like four degrees of separation from the apostle Paul to people who are teaching others about the scripture.   We want to be people who ship grace. I mentioned this yesterday. He challenges us to be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. I believe we're all like little warehouses and God gives us his grace, not so that we would hang onto it, but so that we would distribute it to other people, to the people that we come in contact with.   I believe Jesus puts his people in every company, in every workplace situation, and in every life situation so that others can see what a Jesus follower does in that circumstance. And us having grace that's strong, that's available to be present and delivered to others that we can teach to others about the grace of Jesus Christ.   When we have that grace, we make a difference in the lives of the people that we interact with.  Today, let's ship the grace that we have received. What we have learned about Jesus Christ and his grace is what we pass along to others.   Yes, this is a verse about teaching, but it can also be a verse about showing. The things which we have heard from the people who taught us, let's trust those to faithful people. Let's deliver those things. We want to deliver those in speech to people who want to hear them, but we live them in action.   We put them to work. Let's put our faith to work by shipping this grace into the lives of the people around us today. We want to think about generation and generation and generation. Challenge a friend to be the kind of Christ follower that others might want to emulate. And let's pass that on to the people that we meet and the people that we know.   Yes, we're going to teach people that, but we need to teach with our lives too. So, let's not just be talkers. Let's entrust these things. Let's pass them along with our life, with our lifestyle and with the way that we speak and act. I'm guilty of this as much as anyone. There are times when I don't live like a good Christian, or I don't act like a good Christian.   So, I have to remind myself to be strong in the grace. That's the verse above this. To remember my relationship with Jesus Christ and the grace that he's given me, and then live according to that grace. Join us in this marketplace ministry that you have by taking the grace that you've been given and delivering that to the people around you. The faithful ones will be able to learn and teach others also.   Let's pass this along. Let's think about the four degrees of connection that we each have and take our faith and make a difference with it in our world today. Thank you for being a marketplace minister. Thank you for sharing this podcast with your friends. Invite people to join us at https://community.followerofone.org, where you can join other marketplace Christians and take place in the next Marketplace Mission Trip. Thanks very much.

Hey, it's Mike Henry with Follower of One, and today's devotional is a continuation a little bit of the previous episode. We're talking about Psalm 78. I want to read verses five through seven. We're talking about verse seven today. If you have questions, you can go back and catch the episode that I did on verses five and six.   For he established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should teach them to their children, that the generation to come might know even the children yet to be born, that they may arise and tell them to their children, that they should put their confidence in God and not forget the works of God but keep his commandment.   Verse seven says that they should put their confidence in God and not forget the works of God but keep his commandments. How do we put our confidence in God? We don't forget what he's done, both in what we've learned in the Bible and in our own lives. And we obey him, and we want to remind our children and remind them to remind their children.   About these things of God, how he has done great things in our lives. And when we obey him, we get to see him work. We get to see what he's doing and the difference that he makes, and we get to experience the joy of following him. He's he gives us great joy when we obey him, and we see him accomplish cool things in our lives and in the lives of the people that we work with.   I want to challenge us. To live with confidence in God, that confidence in God is what gives us the ability to be calm and to make a difference in the lives of the people that we work with confidence in God is what challenges us to pray for others. Appreciate them, know what we believe, serve others and speak for ourselves.   That's our five daily activities with follower of one. We want to exercise those practices so that we can remain engaged with our faith on a daily basis, in the middle of our tasks. Even if things are crazy in your workplace today, you can be confident in God. You can remember what he has done and obey him.   That confidence makes a difference in everything that you do at work. In the ways that you relate to your coworkers, and it also can make a difference in the lives of your children and your grandchildren and your great-grandchildren, and maybe even in the lives of the children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren of your coworkers and your peers.   Imagine that for a moment, set a 150 or a 200-year goal for the reputation and for the difference that your life makes. You can do things today that can impact people for generations by simply being confident in God, remembering what he's done and keeping his commandments. And that's our tip for today.   Our goal is to be confident in God, the way we do that is we don't forget the works of God and we keep his commandments. Let's find out how we can do that today. Let's challenge ourselves. Remember a Bible verse. Take a minute to get to work a little early and pray for the people that you're going to meet today, and then go out of your way to do something special for someone look for ways to serve others. Ask God to show you how you can make a difference in the lives of someone that you work with.   You have an opportunity today to practice this confidence and make a difference for generations. Your life matters. The difference that you make in the lives of the people that you work with matters. And you do that through this confidence in God. Thanks for being a marketplace minister. Thank you for following Jesus and for making a difference in the lives of the people that you work with your actions matter, be confident in God.   Don't forget what he's done in your life. And let's obey him today. Thanks very much.

Hey, it's Mike Henry with Follower of One. Today I want to talk a little bit about praying for one another. 2 Daniel 17:18. Then Daniel went to his house and informed his friends and Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah about the matter, so that they might request compassion from the God of heaven concerning this mystery so that Daniel and his friends would not be destroyed with the rest of the wise men in battle.   Daniel and his friends are in trouble. The king has had this dream and the Wiseman and the conjurers of that time, couldn't tell the dream to the king and he was angry about it. And so, he was going to kill them all.  And Daniel and his three friends, the guys probably more well known as a Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.   Daniel and his three friends were among those who would be killed. And so this is a tense work situation.  Think you will agree. We face tense work situations every day, but we don't often face them where there's life and death involved. Some of us do, there are people who listen to this podcast who are first responders, and they face life and death on a regular basis.   I'm grateful for what they do. But today's point is about praying for one another. And about having friends who are praying for one another. Do you have people who pray for you?  Often? We tend to focus on what's not happening by someone else, not praying for us, but if we want more prayer in the world and I want to challenge us to pray for others, this story goes on because Daniel does receive a response from God and gives that response to the king. And it makes a difference in the King's life makes a difference in the lives of all these wise men in these conjurers, this story ends up being one where Daniel and his three friends become more important in the kingdom.   It's because of their relationship with God. The way prayer works is interesting because we spend most of our time. If you're like me, I spend most of my time asking God for things. God uses prayer to communicate with me.  And God uses prayer to communicate with us. He's putting us to work. He's working his plan.   What he wants to happen is what's going to happen in the world. Daniel and his three friends got in on it through prayer. We get to take part in the work of Jesus in the lives of every person that we know when we regularly pray. And I want to challenge each of us, our first daily activity as a follower of Jesus Christ is to pray.   We talk about three prayers on a regular basis. One of those is punching in. Here I am. The next one is praying for others. We want to pray for the people in our lives, and sometimes we need to pray and give thanks to God for the circumstances that we face. Even the ones that we don't like. And finally, there are the times like this, where there are situations going on in our life that are just so extreme that we need God to make a difference.   In all of these situations, I want to encourage you find people that you can pray with and pray for about what God's doing in your workplace. Ask God to show him who else around you, who else in your workplace might be someone who can pray for you, or if you need to, you can actually connect with those people in our online community at https://www.Followerofone.org.   Open to believers who want to integrate their faith in the workplace. I want to challenge you, find two or three or four friends who are praying with you and understand enough about each other's work situation, to where your prayers are making a difference where your prayers will make a difference in the things that happen inside that business.   Your prayers can make your employer more successful. You can make you be more successful in the workplace, those prayers can help you see God working and see the difference that he's making in the lives of every person there. Thank you for being a marketplace minister and thank you for being a part of what God's doing in the world.   That's what we're doing. We're checking in. We're punching in when we pray. And say, God, I want to be part of what you're doing in the world today. Show me what to do. Thanks for being a part of that. And thank you for listening to this podcast. If you get a chance, share it with a friend. Thanks very much.

Hey, it's Mike Henry with Follower of One. Today I want to talk about a passage in Matthew. Jesus is speaking. This is Matthew 12:33 and I'm reading from the new living translation. A tree is identified by us fruit. If a tree is good, its fruit will be good. If a tree is bad, it's fruit will be bad. What are you known for?   What am I known for? What we find out is, is that the tree is identified by the type of fruit that it produces. And you and I are known for the type of results that we create. Do people feel better or worse when we're around? Do we bring an attitude of a group up or do we bring the attitude of work down?   Are we someone who always sees the opportunities and the encouraging things that we can say to others? Are we someone who chooses to find out what's wrong and to point out what's wrong and other things that are going on, or the attitudes that our friends have, we will be known by the results that we create?   And I want to challenge myself to think a little bit more about the legacy that I leave. What kind of an imprint does my life make on the lives of my family members on the lives of the people that are working. What type of a difference do this? Some of my actions end up making and did I do anything that made a difference in the lives of the people who will live beyond me?   I was challenged to consider this verse and to add it to our podcast simply because I was challenged to consider a 150-year vision for the legacy of my own life. Instead of thinking about. How my job produces good results for this quarter or this month, whether or not I made my sales objectives or whether or not we got our freight delivered on time, which for, from my old life, what kind of a difference is my life make a hundred years from now or 50 years from now?   What can I do to make sure that I was a positive influence on the world after? That I think is a challenge that we're being called to as believers who follow Jesus, we don't have to set a long-term horizon. I think it's a daily decision, but the sum of our daily decisions over time, I would believe, turn out to be the fruit that we are known by.   So, I want to challenge us today. Let's examine how we go to work and how we interact with people today. Did we pray for the people that we met with? Were we making time to serve them, or are we constantly living with this expectation that others should serve us? Let's be the kind of people that produce good fruit that make the lives of the people around us better.   Let's do that in such a way, even that they might add. If you pray and you ask God to put you to work in the lives of the people around you, I believe he will. If he doesn't reach out to us, you can connect with me at https://followerofone.org and you can respond or comment to this wherever you're listening to it on any platform or reply to me at mike@followerofone.org   And I'd love to talk with you about how to make a positive difference for the rest of your life.   Let's produce the kind of fruit that we want to be known by for 150 years.  

Hey, it's Mike Henry with Follower of One. Today I'm continuing what we've been talking about for the last two episodes: 1 Peter 4. Today, I'd like to talk about verses three and four for the time already passed is sufficient for you to have carried out the desire of the Gentiles.   Having pursued a course of sensuality, Euless, drunkenness, carousing, drinking parties, and abominable idolatry. In all this, they're surprised that you do not run with them into the same excesses of dissipation, and they malign you. I'm almost disappointed at the different ways, the different translations struggle with these two verses the new living translation says this.   You have had enough in the past of the evil things that godless people enjoy their immorality and law. Their feasting and drunkenness and wild parties. And they're terrible worship of idols. Of course, your former friends are surprised when you no longer plunge into the flood of wild and destructive things they do.   So, they signed, or you, I liked that translational a little bit better, even though I'm not sure it's a direct translation, but I think it communicates the idea. We just decided if you remember, from the previous episode, we decided that we didn't want to pursue living for ourselves anymore. We wanted instead to pursue living for the will of God.   What will happen is that we will surprise our friends. We'll surprise our coworkers when we no longer plunge into whatever it was, we used to do, as we stopped doing the things we used to do, other people notice. The time of doing that is done. He's Peter saying, we've already spent enough time living the way we live living for ourselves now.   And let's spend the rest of our lives living for God, but we will surprise our friends when we no longer plunge into what we used to do. And that way they will be surprised. Some may actually slander you or speak badly against you or malign you. These are not words that I commonly use anymore, but they will look down on us.   They don't think that we are as smart as they are. They think that we're living by some other standard, but that's actually the twist that causes them to ask us. Why are you doing this? When we do something over and above what might be normally expected? They are curious. Others are curious, are former friends are surprised.   It says in living translation, when we no longer do what they do, the time already passed is sufficient. And so, we can give this up and help them be surprised because we did not run with them into the same excess. Or the way that we used to live, we don't seem to live according to the same worldview, which is one of the common words we use or the same kind of mental model that other people live with.   I want to challenge you today, look for ways to bend your life and follow Jesus instead of doing what you normally did. And others will be curious, they will be surprised, and they will ask, I think some will ask some will sign or. That's part of the price of being a Jesus follower. Some will look at you and go, well, that's silly, or that's stupid.   They will think we're dumb. They will think we're dumb for living this way. And I feel sorry for them sometimes, because I believe we're right in the long-term, in the eternal long-term. And therefore, it could be a bad thing for them in the long-term. I experienced a lot of joy doing what Jesus has for me to do today.   And I expect to experience joy throughout eternity as a result of following him as well. And I believe that some of our friends will ask, and some will speak badly of us today. I want to challenge you, bend your life to follow Jesus and watch what happens. I believe it's all part of his plan for our world.   Thank you for being a marketplace minister and thank you for making a difference in your work. Follow him bend your life to follow the will of God instead of the loss of yourself and your flesh and watch what God does in the lives of the people around you.   Thanks very much.

Hey, it's Mike Henry with Follower of One. This is the second of a multi-part discussion on first Peter four.  Today I'd like to read verses one and two, "Therefore, since Jesus Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose, because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin. So as to live the rest of the time in the flesh, no longer for the lusts of men, but for the will of God."   Again, that's from the new American standard.  Yesterday, or in the previous episode, I spoke about how the first verse talks about we prepare ourselves by arming ourselves with the purpose that Jesus had, which was coming to die.   He came to die, and we are all destined to die.  That's our destiny. But when we are prepared to suffer in the flesh, we cease from sin. And he goes on to talk about this here. How do we stop sinning? We don't stop sinning in this life. It's when we enter the next life that we cease from sin, we live the rest of our time in this life, in the flesh, no longer for the lusts of men.   My expectations were always wrong, and I would always get surprised by my circumstances. I always dreamed about the most positive outcomes to everything.  I expected everything to work well and to go well, to be easy, to be beneficial, I always had high positive expectations. I'm a good example of why people like to be pessimists because as an optimist, I feel like I'm regularly disappointed.   I joked last time about how the secret to happiness in golf is to maintain low expectations. Many people who are pessimistic will tell you that if they can maintain low expectations, they're always positively surprised. That's not what this verse is talking about though. It's not coaching us on being pessimistic as a lifestyle.   This passage, I believe is challenging us to put aside the idea that our life works for us. We will not leave this life with anything. The treasure that we lay up in heaven, which is something that I love to think about. I believe that's in the form of the relationships that we have and the investment that we made in people and the investment that we made in helping others learn about Jesus.   To me, that's laying up treasure in heaven is basically making a difference. Taking part in Jesus's work. Jesus came to restore man to a right relationship with God. The degree to which we participate in that action. I believe we're laying up treasure in heaven. In other words, we're being challenged in this passage to focus, not on ourselves, but on what Jesus would have us do no longer for the lusts of men, but for the will of God, Jesus said over and over again that he came to do the will of his father.   He's showing us. That our job is to do the will of God the father. Our job is to make Jesus known and visible in the world.  And the way that we do that, isn't by just going to church all the time.  It's by living as a follower of Jesus Christ. That's why we talk about our five daily activities. Pray, appreciate others, know you believe, serve others, and speak for yourself.  I hope to challenge you today, as you prepare, remind yourself today, my life extends beyond my flesh. My life extends beyond that to the point where it's just me and God, there's no more sin and I'm there with him.  What do I need to do today to work towards that end to lay up treasure in heaven?   Not to be focusing on my stuff and my comfort today, but rather to focus on where I will one day be in eternity.  I believe that's the great part about this challenge.  And my favorite part of this passage is coming up in the next episode, which we'll talk about tomorrow or whenever you hear this, it's the next episode verses three and four are exciting to me.   Thank you for being a marketplace minister. Thank you for making a difference in your workplace. Today, ask God to show you how to look past your flesh and past your present circumstances to look 150 years into the future and the type of difference that you hope your life makes both in this world and in the next it all matters.  

Hey, it's Mike Henry with Follower of One, and for the next couple of episodes I'd like to talk about 1 Peter 4. The first four verses of 1 Peter 4. The first verse says, "Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh arm yourselves also with the same purpose, because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin."   That's from the New American standard. That's kind of my default translation. Our attitude matters and our expectations matter. Accurate expectations are like armor. I always joke when I play golf that the secret to happiness in golf is to maintain low expectations. And in a way, some people may interpret this passage as Peter telling everyone expect things to be bad.   I'm not exactly sure that's the message here. So yes, clearly the phrase opens. Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh arm yourselves also with the same purpose, Jesus suffered and died. And this word suffering is clearly about that. He's talking about how Jesus suffered and his suffering brought about death.   But if we can arm ourselves with the same purpose, We can prepare ourselves. We have armor. We have this armor that comes from God. Is the armor what you might call pessimism or planning for the worst? I don't believe so. I believe the best is what we're looking for. The best happens to be something other than what we see and feel and think in our own minds.   I believe our world is much more broken. Then we like to admit, especially when I use the term, we as those of us in the western world who have enough money, much of the people of our brothers and sisters around the globe are not as well off and they're not as wealthy as the people of America are. Poor people in America are wealthy by most nations standards, but this suffering that he's talking about here results in death.   We will die. Prepared to die. That's a different story. How can we prepare to die? We can't prepare pessimistically to die and not, in my mind, I think my preparation for death must extend beyond it. It must extend to the resurrection, and I believe that's what Peter's saying here. If we can see past the worst that can happen to us on this planet, in this life.   Then we are free to cease from sin. He will go on and explain that phrase a little more in the next verse, and we'll talk about that tomorrow. Today I want to keep this short and simple. Let's arm ourselves with the purpose of Jesus Christ. That purpose is to follow him, be like him, and do what he said.   We will die. Death is inevitable for each and every one of us. But we can arm ourselves with the preparation that there's a life beyond that death and that life calls us to serve Jesus now and through everything that happens to us. I hope that you get this message and that I get this message that by preparing myself for all of the worst things that can happen, I'm focusing on what Jesus would have me do in spite of my situation.   In spite of the suffering, Jesus is calling me to a life that extends beyond our circumstances and to beyond this life. And I want to go there. I want to be armed for that, to serve alongside Jesus and to make a difference in his world. Today, I hope you prepare yourself not for misery and agony and difficulty, but for whatever happens, knowing that you, your life extends beyond your circumstances.   I want to focus beyond my circumstances today. I arm myself with the purpose that Jesus had. I get to serve other people regardless of what happens today so that he might become glorified. Thanks so much for being a marketplace minister, and thank you for intentionally trying to live your faith to make a difference in the lives of the people that you meet every day.

Welcome back to the Follower of One podcast. I'm Mike Henry, and today we continue our conversation about 2 Peter chapter 1. Today we're in verse 4, “For by these, He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.” Maintaining consistency, that's the New American Standard, and the reason why I'm continuing in this translation, it's natural to me. It's the translation I've been reading for a long time.    This particular passage is a little bit difficult in that verse, in that translation. In the CSB, it says "By these He has given us very great and precious promises, so that through them you may share in the divine nature, escaping the corruption that is in the world because of evil desire." I think that's a little more natural language for speaking how this passage- what this passage means.   “By these” is a reference to the previous episode. It's by the power of God. It says, “through true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.” I think the "by these" is to His glory and excellence, although it also refers to His power in that verse. So that's the "by these" of 2 Peter 1:4. By these, He has granted us His promises. He gives us the promises, and then He grants them.   And that way we get to, it says "become partakers of the divine nature." In the CSB it says "that we may share in the divine nature." That divine nature is really- it's the God-life. We get to share in the life and the character of God. We get to take part in that, because we've escaped the corruption that is in our world because of the evil desire of us, people. Our sin corrupted our world.   We get to escape that corruption through our relationship with God, and through His promises. We get to escape the corruption. I want to ask you today to escape the corruption in our world, to enjoy and take part in the God-life, because as we join God in His life, and we escape this corruption, that's where we get the power to do the things that we'll be talking about in the next few verses as well.   We get God's life and His strength and His power, and we can make a difference in the lives of the people that we interact with every day. Just simply because we've chosen to enter the God-life, we've been given this access. He talks about in these first four verses of 2 Peter, God gives us this access. And because we have it, we can choose to step into the God-nature and escape the corruption. That calls us to live this God-life in the presence of our peers and our friends.   We're part of God's marketing plan. We're part of His idea to help us live His life in the presence of our friends, so that they might want a piece of that too. They might want to join Him and experience the same life and the joy and the peace that we experience. So today, I want to challenge us. Can we live a life of joy and peace?   Can we celebrate in our own heart, His precious and magnificent promises? And that way, we get to enjoy the God-life and escape the corruption in our world. This is all part of His divine plan. We get to take part in that today, by focusing on Him and joining Him in His life. I want to ask you today to make it a purposeful, intentional act that you want to join God in His life at your workplace.   God's life enters your workplace when you do, and that way, you become a marketplace minister. Ministry is nothing but helping other people move one notch closer to Jesus. When we live His God-life, we make Him visible in the lives of our friends and our family. Thank you for being a marketplace minister, and thank you for making a difference in your job and wherever you are today.   And you can check us out and you can join us and find a community of people who are trying to concentrate on living this God-life on a consistent basis. Our website is followerofone.org. Thanks very much.

Welcome back to the Follower of One podcast. I'm Mike Henry with Follower of One, and today, we're talking about 2 Peter chapter 1, verse 3, "seeing that His divine power has granted us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence."   The reason why this is pulling this one verse out of a sentence fragment, I spoke in the previous episode about grace and peace being multiplied to us, how we multiply grace and peace. And we're able to do that because of the knowledge of God and Jesus, our Lord, but here in this passage, I want to notice something.   This is something I want to remember all the time. His divine power, Jesus' divine power, has granted us everything pertaining to life and godliness. I don't live like I have everything pertaining to life and godliness. I'm constantly buying something else, or eating some sweets, or doing something that basically sends the message that I really don't believe that I live as if I have been granted everything pertaining to life and godliness. And I want to challenge us a little bit. I think our ability to multiply grace and peace, our ability to be these people who bring grace and peace into every circumstance comes from this true knowledge of the fact that we have everything pertaining to life and godliness. Do you believe that? Do you believe what Peter's saying here? Do we have everything pertaining to life and godliness? The only two answers I can realize from this are if I think I don't have them, then I'm questioning God and His word. And if I think I do have them, then why don't I live trusting that?    Why am I worried about finances? Why am I struggling to do different things or pressing to get things done in a particular timeframe? Why am I sensing pressure if I have been granted everything pertaining to life and godliness? I think this verse also explains to us part of the gap, "through the true knowledge of Him who called us." The gaps are my knowledge where I come up short that may equal exactly the gap in my own knowledge.   I'm not trusting Jesus and I don't know Him well enough, and that's where these gaps show up. But as I know Him better, then I experience everything pertaining to life and godliness. I will be praying about this verse for both you and me. I pray that we can live knowing Christ more and experiencing more and more everything pertaining to life and godliness.   We'll talk about this some more in the next verses too. The whole reason why I want to go through at least verse 8 is because this passage is this great example of how we can be grace and peace multipliers. We remember, first of all, that we are being granted everything pertaining to life and godliness through the true knowledge of Jesus.   I want to challenge us today. Let's sharpen our knowledge of Jesus and live like we know that we have been granted everything pertaining to life and godliness. Those places where we sense the gap, those may directly correlate to someplace where our knowledge comes up short where we don't know enough about God and we don't trust enough about God to see Him working through everything that's happening in our life.   I hope that your faith makes a difference in the lives of the people that you work with. I hope that you can intentionally walk with Jesus today and ask Him to show you how His divine power has granted us everything we need pertaining to life and godliness. Thanks for being a marketplace minister, and thank you for making a difference in the lives of the people that you interact with every day.   One moment at a time, we can choose to follow Jesus and watch Him put us to work in the lives of the people that we interact with. Thanks very much.

Hey, it's Mike Henry with Follower of One. Today, and for the next few episodes, I'm going to go through 2 Peter chapter 1, at least the first few verses of it. I so love this passage of scripture, and I've been focusing more on self control, even though I'm not winning the battle, and we'll come to that in verse 6.   But today, 2 Peter chapter 1, verse 1 and 2, I'm just going to go ahead and read verses 1 and 2. “Simon Peter, a bond servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and savior, Jesus Christ, grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord...” Again, that's from the New American Standard. For those of you who listen to this podcast, you know, I generally read from that translation. It's just something that I've been in the habit of doing. Today, I want to talk about how we are called to multiply grace and peace. The model that we're given is Jesus.   Jesus came and brought us this idea that we can be distributors of grace and peace, and Peter's expounding on that idea today. Peter's saying, I want you to have grace and peace multiplied to you. Different translations say it's lavished, or in abundance. This multiplication of grace and peace is the idea that we would get more than we need, and it would be multiplied to us in the knowledge of God and of Jesus, our Lord.   In other words, as we know God, and as we know Jesus, grace and peace are multiplied to us. The gateway for this comes further on. We'll break this apart, and I'm not too sure I have it all mapped together, but my challenge for us: I want to make sure that we have a challenge every day as we go into the workplace. I have a friend whose target word idea for this year is “multiplication”, “multiplying”. And I like the fact that the word is used here.    Let's be people who multiply grace and peace in the world around us because we know God and we know Jesus, our Lord. We know them and we are associated with them. We follow Jesus, and that gives us the ability to take the grace and peace that are multiplied to us, and distribute that. We can share that with every person that we're with. Simply living with grace and peace makes a difference in the world around us. Sharing that and multiplying that to others makes a difference.   We have the power to do this, because we have the knowledge of God and Jesus. We received it. We received the faith of the same kind he mentions in verse one. Having received this faith, we get this knowledge of God and Jesus, our Lord, and therefore grace and peace are multiplied to us.    If you're living without grace, if you're living without peace, I can tend to live without peace. I can get all wrapped up in what's going on in my world. I can feel like I don't have extra to give away. I always feel like I need to give more than I feel comfortable doing, but I believe that comes from me focusing on things that are not God and Jesus, our Lord.   When I focus on what I know about God and Jesus, our Lord, I realize that I have grace and peace to spare. I have grace and peace and the ability to make a difference in the lives of the people that I work with today. And that's what I'd like to challenge us to do today. Find a way to ship some extra grace.   I believe if you ship it, you will find that you have more and more. And so let's ship some extra grace and peace into the lives of the people that we interact with today. Thank you for being a marketplace minister and thank you for making a difference in the world around you. Let's be intentional in our relationship with Jesus and ship this grace and peace to our friends.   And if you want to join a community of people who are trying to do the same thing, check out followerofone.org. Thanks very much.

Hey, it's Mike Henry with Follower of One. Today I've chosen a passage from John chapter 3, verse 36. “He who believes in the Son has eternal life, but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”    This is from the New American Standard Bible, as I typically do, but there are several translations of this that either say “does not obey”; some say “do not believe.” “He who believes in the Son has eternal life, but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”    This word is translated, “obey”, or “does not obey” is "disobedient" in some translations. And I believe that's the accurate rendering because that word is translated most often as disobedience throughout the remainder of the New Testament.   John the Baptist is speaking here, and he's the last Old Testament prophet. And he's explaining about Jesus to his followers, to his disciples. And this is the last thing that he says about Jesus. He actually says before this, “The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand. He who believes in the son...” Now he's talking about us. He's talking about those of us who believe in Jesus. We believe in the Son, we have eternal life. These are present tense.   He who believes, has; they're linked together. This alternate version though says “does not”, “but he who does not obey”. He's talking about the opposite and this is why I think belief and obedience are tightly linked.   When we- Jesus is here to do a job. The Holy Spirit is here on earth, doing a job. He's calling all people to Him. He's redeeming us and challenging us to choose to follow Him. Following Him isn't just mentally deciding that He's right, or mentally acknowledging that He's in charge, as I did for the first 30 years of my life. I believe that God created all this, but He left me alone and I left Him alone, and I felt like we were fine, but I didn't understand the scripture, and I wasn't reading the Bible. As I start reading the Bible, I see that the Son and the Holy Spirit are actively involved in the lives of every person on the planet, calling us to follow Jesus.    And following Jesus grants us eternal life, and I believe based on this sentence, that eternal life produces obedience. It produces us doing what Jesus would have us do, and that's the challenge I have for us today in the workplace. When was the last time you asked Jesus “Okay God, what do you want me to do?” Here I am. That's our kickoff prayer. We punch in, “Here I am Jesus. What do you want me to do today?” If I do not obey the son, then I will not see life. The wrath of God will abide on me.    But I want to obey Jesus. That's my bent. That's something that the Holy Spirit has been growing in me since the day I first trusted Him. And I want to continue to grow, and I get more responsibility by doing more. We'll talk about that in another episode. Today, I want to challenge us. Ask Jesus what he would have us do, but then solve for how.   Solve for how you can do what Jesus challenges you to do. If you get a wild idea while you're praying that you should give somebody an exorbitant tip, or that you should stay after work and help someone today, figure out how to make that happen. Don't question the challenge, solve for how.    I want to challenge us today. Let's link. Let's keep our belief in Jesus and our obeying Jesus tightly coupled, because this verse does the same, John the Baptist challenges us. Because we believe, we obey. That's the proof.    Thank you for being a marketplace minister. Thank you for paying attention to your relationship with the Holy Spirit and your relationship with your coworkers so that you can take part in Jesus's work in your world.   I challenge you also, check out our website at followerofone.org. Join a community of us who are working together to try and help one another do a better job of believing and obeying and making a difference in the lives of people around us. Thanks very much.

Hey, it's Mike Henry with Follower of One. Today I want to talk about 2 Kings chapter 6 verse 23. "So he prepared a great feast for them; and when they had eaten and drunk, he sent them away and they went to their master. And the marauding bands of Aramaeans did not come again into the land of Israel."     I talked about this a little bit on the episode proceeding, this.    This army of men came to capture Elisha who had been telling the king of Israel about everything that the king of Aram was planning. And so they sent this army of people there. And the chariots of fire were presented to Elisha's helper. That's what we talked about in the previous episode. And then Elisha spoke. He prayed and asked, and God blinded these- this whole army. And he directed them. He guided them to Israel. All the way down to Samaria, actually in verse 20, it says. And when they had come to Samaria, Elisha said, "Lord open the eyes of these men that they may see." So what Elisha did was he took this entire army of people down into the middle of the enemy camp and handed them over to the king of Israel. The king of Israel thought, "Well, should I kill these guys? They're the enemy." But Elisha said, "No, don't kill them." He suggested that they bless them. That they set bread and water before them and let them eat and drink and then go home.    And verse 23, they prepared this great feast and fed these men who came to kill Elisha. I think it's important to note and the point that I want to make today is the grace that we have as followers of Jesus should show up, even when people are trying to do us harm. That grace may not prompt you to do what these people did, but notice how the Israelites were feeding these people, and blessing them, and sending them away filled. They had grace for these people. They didn't kill them even though these people came to take Elisha captive.    I want to challenge us today as followers of Jesus. And this may be a little bit of a stretch from this passage, but we know what elsewhere in scripture.    Where can we bring grace? Where can we go beyond what is expected of us and deliver this grace so that other people might see Jesus? This question, "How can I ship grace into this environment?" Is a good question for us every day. How can we ship grace to the people that we interact with? Even people who would be our enemy.    Today on your marketplace mission trip, as you go into your own workplace, I want to encourage you to be a missionary, to take some extra grace, to build some time into your schedule and pray for the people around you. And then, let God give you the ideas of how to treat other people, so that they might see Him, not us.    The Israelites prepared a feast for their enemy, and we can prepare a feast for the people that we work for as well. Let's be grace distributors in our workplace today. Let's help the people around us move one notch closer to Jesus.    Thank you for being a marketplace minister, and thank you for making a difference, making your faith applicable and relevant in our daily lives. Your movement, your effort as a follower of Jesus Christ matters forever, and I'm grateful for you. If you want to join a community of people who are also trying to make their faith matter on a daily basis, check us out at followerofone.org. Thanks very much. 

Hey, it's Mike Henry with Follower of One. In today's podcast, I want you to just think for a moment about those with us. “Those with us” is a phrase that comes from 2 Kings 6:16. “So he answered, ‘Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.'” That's from the New American Standard Bible.   If you remember this story, or if you don't, quickly, what happened was this king north of Israel is contesting Israel. He's at war with Israel, the king of Aram. And he's mad, because Elijah is constantly telling the king of Israel everything that's going on. He thought there was a spy, but there wasn't a spy. It was just the prophet, Elijah, who was being told all of this information and passing it along to the king of Israel.    And so the king of Aram gets angry about that. He sends an army of people to go down to Israel, to kidnap Elijah, and the attendant of Elijah's comes to him and says, “Look at these Lord, look at all these horses and chariots circling the city.”   He's very worried; and this is the famous chariots of fire story. Elijah prayed after he said this verse 16, “Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” Elijah prayed and asked the Lord to show his attendant the army that was around them, and all over the mountain was this- was full. The mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elijah.    Our lesson for today, our thought for today, is about the situations that we face at work. There were days in my career when I would be almost absorbed or overwhelmed with a broken situation, a support mess with a client. I remember one time a vendor and I got into a wrestling match, and we were sent a massive bill that it looked like my company might be responsible to have to pay because I had shot off my mouth.   There are these problems that we face in our workplaces on a regular basis, and maybe you're facing one of those today. And so this message for you and for me is “Look around. Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”    Bad things still happen. I'm not saying that the bad things stop happening, that when we come to Jesus, everything just works out. Bad things happen, but those who are with us are more than those who are with them, with the enemy. Our enemy will not win. We may suffer harm, we may suffer loss, but our enemy will not win. And it gives us this perspective that can look beyond our circumstances, and be a peacemaker and one who blesses others; someone who ships grace. We can ship grace into the lives of the people around us. That's our call as marketplace ministers, to be the kind of people who remember that those who are with us are more than those who are with them.    Today, I want you to appropriate the chariots of fire. Think about God, protecting you. His resources are at your disposal and you want to live your life and glorify Him the way I want to. If we want to do that, then we will expect God to provide the resources so that His honor is maintained and that He is glorified.    Let's not mix up our own personal circumstances with everything else, but let's trust to God in them, and let His peace transcend all understanding as it says in Philippians 4. His peace transforms us.   Thank you for being a marketplace minister. Thank you for looking for ways to bring His peace and His joy into our workplaces. That's what makes you a minister of Jesus Christ. Ministry is nothing but helping other people move one notch closer to Jesus. Thank you for being a marketplace minister and check us out at followerofone.org, where you can find a community of us who are working to make God present, make Him visible in our world.   He's already present to make Him visible in our world every day. Thanks very much.

Hey, it's Mike Henry with Follower of One again. Today I want to talk about a passage from John chapter 3, verse 30. John the Baptist is speaking, and he says “He must increase, but I must decrease.” I think about this passage in several ways. One way to think about it is to remember that this is John the Baptist talking.   John the Baptist isn't really part of the church. He's actually the last Old Testament prophet. He's outside of the church in some degree. He's still the body of Christ, because he, like the rest of us, are saved, but he's a prophet. He's been ordained by God to speak for God, and he's clarifying for his own friends and his own listeners that this is about Jesus getting bigger.   Jesus increases. He takes over. This is His show. The world is operated for Him, and He is on the stage. And the old model of the Hebrew life, the prophet's system, is going away. It's gone. And what's new is this “bridegroom and the bride”. He actually mentions in the verse right proceeding this “He who has the bride is the bridegroom.”   John's making this clear that all of everything that God is doing in the world is summed up in Jesus. He will increase. This is His show, His plan, and He's taking over, and I will decrease. This model will decrease. This also applies to us in the workplace. It applies to us everywhere. I think our sin nature is really, at its core, the idea that we get to call our own shots.    I want to be my own king. I make my own decisions. I choose what I eat, and I choose how I spend my time. I want to run my life. I don't want Jesus running it. I don't want anybody else running it. The “no one else running it” is all part of the great lie. We either serve God or we serve sin, we serve the enemy.    And when we think we run our lives, what we do is we separate ourselves from Jesus and we become part of the enemy. Satan, his people, the world, the flesh, and the devil. Those are the three groups of things that take us away from God. And so the world, our flesh, and our enemy, the devil, are all pulling on us, and the big deception, the big trick is we're in control. We get to choose. I get to call my own shots.    When I follow Jesus - and this is part of the reason why we call this organization Follower of One - when I follow Jesus, then my life works. Then everything about my life fits in eternity. I'm not outside of Christ's plan, I'm part of it.   I get to take part as a member of His church, His bridegroom. I get to join Him as He increases. This world is His, and He will run one day. Every knee will bow. Jesus will be running the show, and every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that He is Lord. If we can remember that He must increase and we decrease, then we put ourselves in a proper position to join Him as He works in the lives of the people that we come in contact with every day.    That's part of the reason why our first daily activity is to pray, and the first prayer that I like to talk about is “Here I am.” Lord Jesus. Here I am. I want to follow you today.   Would you please, as we used to do this when I was in the trucking business, they would give us a stack of freight bills and say, “here, go load this truck.” And we would go take each bill in that stack and go load the truck. Lord Jesus, today, would you give me my stack of bills and tell me what I'm doing? I want to do what you want me to do today.   And I get to take part, then, in your work in the world. Let's join Jesus in His effort today, and let Him use us, so that we get to see Him glorified. He will increase. We will get to see that if we join Him and follow Him.    Check us out at followerofone.org. We're an online community where we try to help one another. Remember, Jesus is in charge and we follow Him.   Thanks very much.

Hey, it's Mike Henry with Follower of One. Today I want to talk about God's will for us. What is God's will for us? One of the places where the Bible tells us God's will is in 1 Thessalonians 4:3, and that verse begins “For this is the will of God, your sanctification...” I confess this was kind of a "duh" moment when I first heard this verse.   When I first remember paying attention to this verse, I had been wondering about God's will for my life in my work, and how I would spend my time, and whether or not I should stay in the job I was in, or how I would find a new job. I actually think I was self-employed and considering job transition the first time I really paid attention to this verse.   And my challenge came in the area of what follows this verse. He talks about how we're called to avoid sexual immorality, how we're to learn, to possess our own vessel in honor, and not in lustful passion as the Gentiles do.    Paul is challenging us with the will of God. He's saying God's will is clear. I want you to be sanctified. What does sanctified mean? Well, sanctified means that we're set apart. We're designated for a specific purpose. My being sanctified means I dedicate more of my life to doing what Jesus would have me do, then I spend my energy trying to do what I want to do. The energy of my life needs to be pointed toward obeying Jesus and doing what He says, instead of trying to do what I want, do just what I want, which might be participating in sexual fornication or overeating. That's one of the ways where I don't possess my own body in honor. I eat too much.   It's one of my challenges, and it's one of those places where you can pray for me. Whatever our addictions are, whatever our challenges are, these are the places where we're consistently reminded that there's more of our life to give over to Jesus. There's more of our time, our thought processes, more of our effort and our energy that can be given over to Jesus.   God's will is that we grow up in sanctification; that we work out our salvation, as it says in Philippians. That we turn ourselves to following Jesus, instead of just following our own flesh, chasing after what we seem to want, or what we think we want, whether that was another drink, or another hamburger, or another foray into pornography on a website or anything like that.   We are called to deny ourselves and pursue Jesus, to follow Him. That's what this passage in 1 Thessalonians is telling us. Let's be sanctified. Today, I want to challenge you: Ask God to give you the energy and the strength and the desire to follow Him and to do exactly what He says. When He gives you clear direction, do it.   If He doesn't give you clear direction, then do the next right thing. We always can do the next, most godly thing in every circumstance, in every situation, in our work, in our daily jobs, in the ways that we interact with people. The next right thing is what God calls us to do when we don't have any other clear direction.   I want to challenge you today to trust God, ask Him for wisdom and guidance and then go do the next right thing. Thank you very much for being a marketplace minister and thank you for following Jesus and for making a difference in your marketplace. If you'd like to join us and learn more about Follower of One, head over to followerofone.org, you can learn more about our ministry there.   Join our online community and take the next Marketplace Mission Trip. Thanks very much.

Hey, it's Mike Henry with Follower of One. This is another one of those episodes where I'm mostly talking to me. I hope you enjoy it. 1 Peter 4:12 & 13, “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you; but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory, you may rejoice with exaltation.”    So I study and contemplate and think about joy. I enjoy the joy that God has given me as I've learned to integrate more of my life, my daily work life and my daily living with Jesus. I wish I had done a better job of that when I was younger and when my faith was newer, and that's part of the reason why I'm involved with Follower of One at all. I want to help us integrate our faith in our work so that we may rejoice with exaltation as he says here at the end of this verse. But he's giving us tips for dealing with difficulty.    Tip number one: do not be surprised at the difficulties that you face. He says “the fiery ordeal among you”, that difficulty comes upon you for your testing. God is using this to strengthen us. You know as well as I do that we get stronger at anything by lifting above our weight, by trying to do more than we are equipped to do, our muscles get torn down, and then they heal back stronger.    We're working out our faith in the same way by facing the fiery ordeals that come upon us for our testing. But when I look at it like it's some strange thing that was happening to me, my expectation is I'm living the good life. My expectation is this should be easy. It should take less time. I always seem to plan for the ideal situation, and then I'm surprised, as though some strange thing were happening to me, as he says in this verse.    And he's reminding us if we can create in ourselves this attitude that comes from Jesus, but if we can create it and say “This comes upon me for my testing, it's not a strange thing. It's part of God's plan”, then to the degree that I can share the sufferings of Jesus, I get to rejoice, so that I can see His glory through my life. When I see His glory through my life, I experience His joy.    I enjoy doing these daily devotionals. I don't do them as often as I'd like, but I just don't want you to go nuts listening to my voice all the time. I hope that these are helpful, because I struggle with this whole idea of following Jesus in the difficult times. I really want the easy job, I want the easy shift. But it's in the difficulty that I get to rejoice, because His glory is revealed.   When I do what Jesus would have me do in my workplace, in the difficulties of my daily life, Jesus is glorified. People go, “Well, why are you doing this?” And I get to tell them about my relationship with Jesus.   I get to glorify God, and then I can rejoice with exaltation. I can enjoy watching God work through me when I am not surprised by the difficulties that face me. I'm preaching to me again, please remember, but maybe this will help you too. Let's look at our circumstances today as the weight Jesus is loading on the bar for us, and it's ours to push. It's ours to lift.    Let's not look as though some strange thing were happening to us, but let's face our difficulties with joy and trust Jesus. Now, maybe you need some help with that. And you can reach out to me at followerofone.org, you can reach out to mike@followerofone.org. I'd be happy to help you to pray for you to do whatever we can. We probably need to create a page where we can share prayer requests.    But I want to encourage you if you need prayer, let me know. And people from our team will pray for you, And so will I. Thank you for being a marketplace minister. Thank you for looking for ways to integrate your life and Jesus' in such a way that He becomes visible.   And any way you want to do that, we can help you. We're trying to help people do this better all the time at followerofone.org. You can check it out over there. Thanks very much for being a minister in your marketplace.

Hey, it's Mike Henry with Follower of One. In episode 199 of our podcast (https://followerofone.org/who-is-greatest-luke-22-27/), we talked about Luke 22:27, but today I want to talk about Luke 22:28. And the verse simply says “You are those who have stood by me in my trials.” Jesus is speaking to the disciples and He's actually calling them out a little bit, because they're having an argument about which one of them is greatest in the kingdom.   And this is the last night or so of Jesus's life. So here they are, arguing about which one of them is greatest, and Jesus interrupts them and He reminds them the story about who's greater. That's what episode 199 is about. But this episode, which I think is 522 of our podcast - thank you for being a listener - this is about the next phrase. You are those who have stood by me in my trials.   We get the choice as followers of Jesus to go with Jesus and stand by Him in His trials, to follow Him daily, or we can choose not to follow Him. I can choose to not follow Him in the next few minutes. Choose to watch something that takes me away from Him or do something that separates me from Him.   I can concentrate on myself. There are so many millions of ways that we can leave Jesus. It's this constant struggle. And I think one of the goals of at least my Christian life has been learning to trust Jesus to keep me drawn to Him, and to keep me connected to Him. And today what I wanted to do is challenge us a little bit.   I wanted to ask the question: How are you? No matter where you are, do you know that if you made a long series of choices to not follow Jesus, the next choice, you can choose to follow Him. You can choose to do what He says again. I don't... I can't get into the “Once saved, always saved” or any of those kinds of arguments.   I just know I want to do the next right thing. I want to choose in my next choice to follow Jesus and obey Him. That's why our prayer that we like to talk about at Follower of One, “Here I am, send me” is a profound, powerful prayer, especially when followed with the question “Okay Jesus, what do you want me to do today? What would you have me do next?”   When we focus on following Jesus in our circumstances, one choice at a time, we get another chance to remain with Him in His trials, just like He says here. We are those who have stood by Him in His trials. “You are those who have stood by me in my trials” Luke 22:28, from the New American Standard.   Let's choose today to stand by Jesus. The difficulties and the temptations and the distractions to separate ourselves from Him, to not stand by Him and to not follow Him, those stay. They remain. We will always be challenged by these temptations to separate ourselves from following Jesus. We can't avoid the difficulty, but we can gain the joy and peace and love of following Jesus by simply choosing.   Here I am. Would you please put me to work? How can you use me in the lives of the people that I will interact with next? Show me what you would have me do today, Jesus, and I will do it.   Try that prayer today and watch Jesus start to transform your life. The more often I believe we can remind ourselves that we're on the clock for Jesus Christ, the more joy filled we will be, the more different we will live, and the more others will ask about why it is that we're doing the things that we do. That's also why we have to practice knowing what we believe in saying what we believe, but start it, begin it all today with here I am. You can begin right now.   Thanks for being a marketplace minister. And thank you for making a difference in your world and in your workplace. The joy that Jesus gives us when we join Him, can transform our world. Jesus is in the process of doing that right now. Let's join Him and take part.    Thanks for listening to this podcast or this audio, wherever you're getting it. Thank you for listening to it. Please share it with someone else. Invite them to join you and me over at followerofone.org. Thanks very much.

Hey, it's Mike Henry with Follower of One. Today's passage is Hebrews 4:15, “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.” On the September 18th edition of “My Utmost for His Highest”, the September 18th entry, Oswald Chambers talks about this passage, and he draws a parallel between temptation and distraction.    Jesus said many times that He came only to do the will of His father, and He focused on that and He achieved that. He also said at the end of His life, that it is finished, He had done the will of His father. He had done those things.    Chambers makes this suggestion that whenever we're tempted to do something else with our resources, our time, our energy, our attention, any of those things, those temptations… That's one way that we can talk about temptation in this passage, “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.”   In other words, anytime I'm distracted, taken away from what God would have as my purpose in my job or in my day, how I live my life. If I live according to my own flesh, if I live according to my own desires, my own wants and needs. Even if I don't do anything that hurts anyone, if I'm a good Christian and stay out of trouble, but I'm distracted and I use the resources God has given me for some goal other than what God might've intended, I'm submitting to this temptation. I'm falling into it. Satan can distract us from God's plan and take us out of being part of God's plan with these kinds of distractions.    Maybe it's watching movies, or maybe it's playing video games. Maybe it's focusing so much on our career and our job, that we miss opportunities to be a blessing to the people that we work with. I think these are all acceptable temptations to Satan. He wants to take us out of God's plan and if he can distract us, he's accomplished his objective. We have this challenge to, and Chambers calls it “be of value to God.” I would actually call it more “take part in God's plan.” We can punch in. We say, here I am. We put ourselves on God's clock and we say, “Alright, God, what do you want me to do today?” We remind ourselves that we want to listen to him and do what he has for us. Because when our attention is focused on him, when we use our time and our energy and our resources to further the kingdom of God in some way - maybe it's simply by appreciating people or by praying for our coworkers - we get to take part in the joy that God intends for us. This is a joy that we can experience now by following Him, and we will experience it in eternity.    I want to challenge us today as followers of Jesus. How can we pay a little more attention to how we allocate the resources God has given us towards his work? Towards taking part in his plan? Let's try and use our time, and our energy, and our attention, and our money, and everything that we do as something that can glorify God. And let's consider the distractions, the things that make us stop thinking about God, as temptations, and trying to avoid those.    I want to be intentionally engaged with Jesus all day today in my job. Lord Jesus, would you make that happen? That's my, "here I am" prayer for today.   Thank you so much for being a marketplace minister, and thank you for making a difference in the marketplace. I hope these are beneficial to you, these devotionals. Please share them with your friends and check us out at followerone.org, where you can learn more about our online community and take part in the next marketplace mission trip. Thanks very much.

Hey, it's Mike Henry with Follower of One. Today, I want to read a very convicting verse to me.    This is a conviction to me, and that's part of the reason why I want to read it. I think it's a challenge to all of us, especially in business, but in any type of work. Proverbs 16:9, “The mind of man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.” I've been working for the last few days, doing some strategic planning around the growth of what I hope the growth will be for Follower of One, and bathing that in prayer and asking God for his direction, for his wisdom and his guidance.   And then I would turn right around and get something- we'd get interrupted. And what I thought I would be spending my time doing X, I ended up having to spend my time doing Y. The Lord directs my steps. He ordains interruptions and circumstances and things that happen in my life, and I often don't like it.   I've just become a pouty little child because God's not letting me do what I wanted to do. The mind of man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps. I pray constantly. I don't pray constantly. That's an exaggeration. I pray regularly. That I would be easier to interrupt, that I would trust God more. My natural instinct is to get angry at interruptions, not to trust God that He would have me do something else.   Almost every interruption, almost everything that takes longer than I thought it would take, ends up being a blessing to me, if I would just trust Jesus and do what He says. Today in our workplaces, I would like to challenge you: let's remember the mind of a man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.   And now let me say that exactly correctly. I'm reading from the New American standard, the mind of man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps. I don't really think that references all that gender-oriented. I think, male or female, we can get all wrapped up in our own goals and objectives and we forget God, but the Lord directs our steps.   He's the one directing us. He's the one choosing what we do. I want to plan to do what God has for me to do, and that means my plans must include interruptions. My plans, and my attitude must be good with interruptions, because God is sovereign. He's the one choosing the plan. We have a person on one of the recent mission trips talking about how she had it all planned out that she was going to do her fastest exercise time walking through her neighborhood, but she couldn't get any of her timer apps to work, and she was very frustrated about that. So she took off anyway and she got interrupted a couple of times on the way and had opportunities to interact with her neighbors, that she never would have done had she had the timer ticking.    And it was just God saying, no, you're walking around the neighborhood today, but I want you to interact with the people that you come into contact with. I think God does that with my schedule. That I wire it tight as a drum, and I'm always in a hurry, and I always have to hurry up and get to the next thing.   And then an interruption will occur, or something will take longer, or something will need to be redone. Lord, may I please have an attitude of openness to you. And I pray that we all do. That openness and that willingness to be God's person in our situation is what makes our faith attractive to the people around us.   I hope today that this criticism of myself, this challenge I'm giving myself is beneficial to you in some way. Let's be the people that Jesus calls on today to make a difference in the lives of our coworkers and bank on it, that will require some interruptions. Thank you for being a marketplace minister, and thank you for making a difference with your faith.   Don't forget if you're interested in more of this content, check us out at followerofone.org. Thanks very much.

Hey, it's Mike Henry with Follower of One. Today I'm doing our podcast on both video and audio. And so you can hear this in both places and it will come out at different times, but our verse for today is 1 Peter 5:7 “casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.” Peter is talking to us, and he's telling us that we can cast our anxiety on him. In our previous episode, we were talking about being humble, and the humility is a key for this anxiety passing. We sometimes feel like we're the victims of anxiety. We're confident that we're not powerful enough to deal with our fear, and yet, it's not our fear that exceeds the power that we have. It's God who exceeds the anxiety and the fear that we have.    When we humble ourselves and put ourselves in the right place, then we're in a position to be able to hand our anxiety to Jesus. We can give it to Him, because He cares for us, and He's powerful. In John 16:33, Jesus said: "These things I've spoken to you, so that in me you may have peace. In the world, you will have trouble. But take courage, I have overcome the world." The trouble of the world does not exceed the authority of Jesus. And so even the true things that we fear, much less the anxiety, which is as Seth Godin called it “experiencing failure in advance”, the anxiety is something that we can give away. We can give it back to Jesus. We can place that on Him because He cares for us.    Today, I want to encourage us to go into our workplaces to pray, and to take that anxiety. If you have a big meeting coming up, or if you know you have a difficult conversation coming up. Or maybe it's a review that's going on. Cast that anxiety on him.   Don't spend time experiencing your failures or your fears in advance, wait for them, and trust Jesus. He has this under control, and He will care for you in such a way that you can take that anxiety and put it on Him, and He will give you peace in its place. And use that peace to make a difference in the lives of the people that you work with. We do these things so that we can be ministers in our marketplace. A minister is just a servant. And so we give this anxiety away and we're back and we're free to be able to serve the people that we work with so that they might ask us, “Why are you doing this?” And we can tell them, "I'm doing this, and I'm peaceful because I trust Jesus, and He's working these things out in our lives and He can do that in yours as well."   I'm so excited to get the chance to be a minister in the marketplace, a minister of Jesus Christ in the marketplace. I hope you join me. Ministry is helping other people move one notch closer to Jesus. And that's what we try and do at Follower of One. And so I want to encourage you to join me by going to followerofone.org and checking out our online community and signing up for the next marketplace mission trip.   Thank you for being a minister in the marketplace and thank you for making a difference in the lives of others. Your ministry at work matters and it makes a difference to those around you. Thank you very much.