Influence - a Holy motivation for business?

Today I have been pondering the nature of influence. We all know the evils - money, sex and power. I think disciples sometimes run away from all three. Should we do that or embrace all three with an undivided heart without mixture?

Things are moving on in my journey to starting my own business and all sorts of questions have been asked. Why - is the main one? Why does anyone go into business? Is profit ok with God?

As I walked home I thought about the scripture which says the knowlege of the glory (weight) of God will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. In Isaiah 55 there is a stratling promise about the mercies of david which has fascinated me since I was 16. I had just been sharing my hope in jesus with a friend who was in a dark place linked to the occult and I felt the spirit hovering on us as we talked. I said to God 'make an everlasting covenant with me that you will make it possible for me to love you like this all the days of my life'. I'm not sure what I really meant but I think I was feeling ' God, make my life make people love you, let me be significant, don;t let me drift into meaninglessness' A bit like that well quoted prayer of Jabez.

As I walked back the boarding school a scripture reference fell into my head (first time that had happened) - Isaiah 55:3 - and it begins 'I will make an everlasting covenant with you........ It freaked me out because those words are not pasted all over the place in scripture. the promise goes on to describe the promises to david as a model for the way he deals with us. There is a promise there ' that surely you will summon nations you know not and nations you do not know will hasten to you because the Lord your God the Hold one of Israel will endow you with splendour, (glory/weight).

I then reflect on the models in scripture who have gone before us and how they embraced the secular to reveal the sacred. they worked with the carnal so that they could reveal the spiritual. They built in the temporal so that they might point to the eternal. They ruled in the visible to declare the invisible.

David - with a one thing heart filled natural coffers thorugh war to build a place of worship on the natural earth. It was about God's glory but fixed in the natural as well. A meeting point for the created to love the creator.

Solomon - aquired unsurpassed wealth and dedicated it to the temple. It was all about using the natural resources to build worship on the earth.

Jeremiah - a bricks and mortar man to secure the place of worship. he used his influence as a cup bearer to the King to re-build the walls.

Joseph - was a mother to Pharaoh and used wheat, bricks, etc to enable Israel to grow from a family to a nation and see the expansion/fulfillment of the promise to Abraham. He was endowed with splendour to build a family of worshippers.

Back to this question of influence. We should crave nothing but Jesus and his glory but it seems to me that He will add weight to our lives to that we can live and move in the natural, temporal, secular to bring about the realization of that promise that one day God's glory will cover the earth and the waters cover the sea. So maybe we should stop coming up with phrases like 'God doesn't need our money' and start to realize we no linger live but Christ lives in us. He wants to use what is His to establish His throne! If I viewed everything in my life as sacred and His then I could stop running in fear from the natural things and actually spread some Glory. I think part of the fear is legitimate because so many believers start off well and end up in compromise and aquiring the hot tubs, BMW's etc. there is another way i believe.

I think the key is to do with having a Psalm 27 heart, which has onething in mind. I once read some words

"to the heart without mixture I will give the spirit without measure".

More to come along these lines.......