Episode 91: Leadership & Marketing, Part 3: Placement

Episode 91: Leadership & Marketing, Part 3: Placement from mitchkrusetv on Vimeo.

Community

Why do you initiate conversations? Is it solely for your benefit? What would happen if you initiated communication simply to know others, to learn about their needs, to understand their desires, and to build relationships rather than focus on any remuneration or return?

Community is something that money can never buy.

When you discover the satisfaction of your desire for significance in the love of Christ, you take that love to others. You initiate conversations with your customers, prospects, friends, and family. You get to know them, ask questions and listen, rather than attempt to work those relationships for your benefit. You do it just for the sake of relationships — storing up treasures in heaven rather than storing up stuff on earth (Matthew 6:19-21).

When your spouse, family, friends, associates, and those in need connect relationally through the way you serve them, then you will find satisfaction. You will be significant. You will be loved.

Seek intimacy with your customers, vendors, employees, employers, family, or friends as you pursue intimacy with God. Read a chapter in Proverbs each day corresponding to the date of the month, applying this wisdom to your tasks and relationships, including your finances.

When life is centered in Christ, as we become clay in His hands, we discover that His love is greater than our desire for significance.

For more, watch:
Episode 10: Restoring Our Four Desires (Significance & Contentment)
Episode 11: Restoring Our Four Desires (Control & Security) with Tony Dungy
Episode 27-30: God’s Ins, Outs, Ups, and Downs of Resources (Part 1-4)

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Significance

Significance  comes from being created in God’s image (Genesis 1:27).

However, pride seeks significance from money. Jesus said, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth” (Matthew 6:19). We store up treasures on earth to find significance, which is “expressed meaning, purpose, importance, or value.” Notice that the first four letters of significance comprise the word “sign” which says, “Look at me.”

The result is insignificance. Jesus continued, “…where moth and rust destroy and thieves break in and steal” (Matthew 6:19). The more we pursue stuff on earth as the satisfaction of our desires, the more we thirst for more. The result is a never-ending cycle of dissatisfaction.

Contrastingly, humility stores up relationships. Jesus said, “Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal” (Matthew 6:20). Relationships are the only treasure that we can store up in heaven because they are eternal.

Our treasures reveal the object of our desires. Jesus said, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21). Valuing relationships over remuneration is what God designed for our lives. Whereas a proud heart searches for significance from money, a humble heart discovers significance in a relationship with the Restorer and shares that relationship with others.

The result is the love of God in Christ (John 3:16).

For more, watch:
Episode 10: Restoring Our Four Desires (Significance & Contentment)
Episode 11: Restoring Our Four Desires (Control & Security) with Tony Dungy
Episode 27-30: God’s Ins, Outs, Ups, and Downs of Resources (Part 1-4)

To share this devotional visit our email archive.

Heart Problems

What is the focal point of your desires?

Adam and Eve were created with humble hearts. The focal point of their satisfaction was God. In their pride, they hardheartedly desired significance, contentment, control and security apart from Him. With temptation from the serpent, they convinced themselves they were making the right decisions. The result was the first sin recorded in Scripture.

Today, we experience the same dilemma. The more we pursue significance apart from God, the more insignificant we become. The more we seek contentment apart from God, the more discontent we become. The more we attempt to find control apart from God, the more out of control we become. The more we desire security apart from God, the more insecure we become.

The solution is Christ. Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). Today, find the restoration in the only One who can satisfy your desires, soften your hard heart, and make you new.

For more, watch:
Episode 10: Restoring Our Four Desires (Significance & Contentment)
Episode 11: Restoring Our Four Desires (Control & Security) with Tony Dungy
Episode 27-30: God’s Ins, Outs, Ups, and Downs of Resources (Part 1-4)

To share this devotional visit our email archive.

Money or Wisdom?

Would a little extra money satisfy any of your desires? Money is pride’s measurement of our giftedness (time, talent, and treasure). Wisdom is humility’s measurement of our godliness (Christ in us). Money, in and of itself, is not evil, and owning stuff is not from the devil. Rather, our problem occurs when the stuff owns us.

Ironically, we don’t really desire money. We desire something much deeper.

What we really desire is Christ. He is “gentle and humble in heart” (Matthew11:29) and the “wisdom of God” (1 Corinthians 1:24). Humility toward Christ is the beginning of His wisdom in our lives. Solomon noted, “When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom” (Proverbs 11:2).

Attempting to satisfy our desires by gaining wealth measured by money will never be enough to satisfy us. It will always leave us dissatisfied. Wisdom not only satisfies our desires, but it also leads to our restoration.

Today, surrender your pride to Christ and ask for His humble and wise heart. He will make you new.

For more, watch:
Episode 10: Restoring Our Four Desires (Significance & Contentment)
Episode 11: Restoring Our Four Desires (Control & Security) with Tony Dungy
Episode 27-30: God’s Ins, Outs, Ups, and Downs of Resources (Part 1-4)

To share this devotional visit our email archive.

God’s Will

What is God’s will for your life?

King David described the process of knowing God’s will in a psalm: “Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4). “Delight,” anag in Hebrew, means “to make one’s heart pliable.” In essence, it is a surrendered heart that is humble toward God, like clay in the Potter’s hands. “Give” is translated from nathan in Hebrew, meaning “to orchestrate.” Thus, when our hearts become malleable in God’s hands, He makes our desires to be like His. This is how we experience God’s will in our lives.

Today, offer your heart to God, like clay in the Potter’s hands. He will shape your desires to be like His, and you will begin to experience His will for your life.

For more, watch:
Episode 14: Restoring Living Hope: Jim & Linda Pearson (Part 1)
Episode 49: Finding God’s Vision with George Del Canto
Episode 50: The Kingdom Racing Story with George Del Canto

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Four Primary Desires

Four primary God-given desires reside in each one of us. Every choice, every thought, every prayer, every feeling is connected with every investment of time, talent, and treasure by the heartbeat to satisfy these desires. It’s why we click, buy, sell, or act. We see them in the very first book of the Bible.

The first primary God-given desire is significance, which comes from being created in God’s image (Genesis 1:27). The second desire is contentment from being blessed by God to be fruitful, multiply, and subdue (to bring contentment to) the earth (Genesis 1:28). The third desire is control from being empowered by God to rule over the earth (Genesis 1:28). The fourth desire is security from being provided with every seed-bearing plant and fruit-bearing tree (Genesis 1:29-30).

God has given us these desires for a purpose: to be satisfied in Him and to bring a saving knowledge of that satisfaction to others. Too often, we pursue the satisfaction of these desires apart from God, leaving us dissatisfied.

Today, ask God to show you any insignificance, discontentment, lack of control, or insecurity from pursuing life apart from Him and surrender it to the Restorer.

For more, watch:
Episode 10: Restoring Our Four Desires (Significance & Contentment)
Episode 11: Restoring Our Four Desires (Control & Security) with Tony Dungy

To share this devotional please visit our email archive.

Desires

Desires are not for our gratification, nor their negation, but for our transformation. They are intended to point us toward desiring God and lead us to restoration, so that we become carriers of this life-altering message. These are desires that can only be satisfied in full surrender to the Restorer.

Amidst our travels on Desperation Road to gratify our desires, the Restorer draws us to Himself in order to free us from our addictions that come in many forms: a bottle, a syringe, a plate, a screen, a green rectangle sheet of paper, or even uniquely fashioned flesh. God desires that we surrender these addictions to pursue hearts filled with wisdom so that we discover freedom from our enslavement and find transformation in Him.

Solomon offered the location of wisdom’s satisfying source: “For the Lord gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding” (Proverbs 2:6). He elaborated, regarding wisdom’s value: “She is more precious than rubies; nothing you desire can compare with her” (Proverbs 3:15).

Through the Master Key of full surrender to the Restorer, you will discover wisdom that can only be found on Restoration Road.

For more, watch:
Episode 10: Restoring Our Four Desires (Significance & Contentment)
Episode 11: Restoring Our Four Desires (Control & Security) with Tony Dungy

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Foundations

At the executor’s request, I visited a New England farmhouse that had been home to an heirless couple. I noticed how the structure leaned in one particular direction on its foundation. I was amazed that the interior was filled with junk stuffed in boxes spread apart widely enough to form a maze through the various rooms. Below the couple’s routine path, I could see through the wood floor to the foundation underneath.

The executor shared that an unfathomable discovery inside this home had generated a plethora of publicity. One million dollars worth of gold bars had been hidden in the house’s foundation. Additionally, in their barn, they had stockpiled thirty rusted antique and classic cars worth millions of dollars in their dilapidated state. The wealthy couple had lived like misers since the Great Depression, in fear of another economic collapse.

These powerful images caused me to reflect. With money rather than wisdom as our foundations, we build insecure lives tilted with crooked priorities as our framework, failing to recognize the warning offered in Scripture: “But each one should be careful how he builds. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work? (1 Corinthians 3:10-13).

On what foundation have you built your life? Perhaps today is the day that you invite the Restorer to become your foundation and renovate your world.

For more, watch:
Episode 45: House of Leadership

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