Friday, January 24, 2014

All That Really Matters

Do you know what really matters?

Not long ago I was faced with the prospects of two jobs after a year of unemployment.  One job was at a large bank doing the kind of work that I love to do.  This job offered excellent benefits and long term stability.  The other job was doing the kind of work that I had not done in five years and that I did not wish to return to doing.  This job was a short term contract position with limited benefits.  On the surface, it seemed like an easy decision to make but I was not at all certain which job was the right job for me.

You see things like long term stability, higher wages and excellent benefits are not the most important things to me.  I learned a long time ago that it is always better to be doing what the Father of Truth (YHVH aka God aka THE LORD) wants than looking a company to take care of me.  He is the one that takes care of me and doing His will is all that really matters.

I brought this up to my congregation when they asked for prayer requests.  I was not well at the time and every time I tried to get quiet so I could clearly hear from the Spirit of Truth (Ruach HaQodesh aka The Holy Spirit aka The Holy Ghost) I would end up falling asleep.   I thought I knew what to do but I was not 100% sure.  I told the congregation how I had pursued the first job and was on the short list to get it.  In fact, they had advertised for months to find someone with my skills and I was the only candidate they had interviewed that actually had the experience they were looking for.  This other job came about because a recruiter kept calling me and I reluctantly agreed to interview with her company because I believed that would put an end to her pursuits.  After all, five years is a long time to have not worked in a technology.  Still I wanted the will of the Father of Truth more than I wanted my own will because that is all that really matters.

In a short time His will became known.  The first job simply vaporized.  In fact, a friend I have that worked in the information technology department of the bank told me that the entire department was being reorganized.  At the same time I had an interview with the client company and gave a mediocre interview even though I was doing my best.  Within two hours, the recruiter called me back with a counter offer from the client company.  I accepted with the understanding that I might get a better offer from the bank.  I'm not sure what I would have done if I had been given a better offer because for me doing His will is all that really matters.

I started the next Monday and things were less than stellar.  I was still recovering from another illness that I got from a mosquito bite and my daughter was in the hospital.  I learned that I would not even be working for the man that hired me but for another manager in a technology that I had never even heard of.  I was not given my own workspace but instead we were placed around a table to work.  I had worked from home for eight of the last ten years and had always been given a cube in the corner with a lovely view when I worked in an office.  I found it quite distracting to be working so close to other people.  On top of that we had no coding to do at first but rather spent out time setting up our development environment and learning about their project management methodology.  I was able to accomplish setting up my environment much quicker than everyone else and it was obvious to me that the project management methodology used by the company would not produce solid results as quickly as the way I was used to working.  On top of that, there were long periods of time where we were told to sit tight while they figured out what we should do next.  If people could actually die of boredom then I think I would have.  I was not at all happy with the way things were going but I remembered that I had asked for the Father of Truth for His will instead of my will because that was all that really matters.

However, this turmoil and trouble was no indication of being out of His will.  I always enjoyed helping people so I started helping them set up their development environments.  Then we began to talk about things that were unrelated to work since we had nothing else to do and we were sitting around a table by ourselves.  Most of them were from India and I had always had a fascination with India ever since I had heard stories from Miss Luther about her adventures there as a missionary when I went to vacation Bible school as a young man.  So I asked them all kinds of questions about India and told them all kinds of things that I knew about India.  They told me that they were not all Hindus but one was Muslim and one was a Knanaya which were a branch of Nasrani (Saint Thomas Christians) that immigrated to India from Edessa (just north of Syria in Turkey) in 345 AD.  Soon they began to ask me questions as well and in particular about what I believed.  That is when I began to tell them about all that really matters.

We often ate together in the office and I agreed to leave the office to eat lunch with them once a week.  As time went on we became great friends particularly Reddy, Shamira and I.  We were an unlikely trio, a Hindu, a Muslim and a Child of Truth (one who obeys the Father of Truth because they love him) but we came to love each other as our own souls.  They were not just my friends but my family opened up our home to them for the holidays, family barbeques and the like.  They met my daughter Savannah who the Man of Truth had saved from death in a miraculous way on three different occasions.  They loved to discuss and laugh with Miranda about my quirks. Shamira even wants us to come to India for her upcoming wedding.  They became like family to us because we included them in our lives to show them all that really matters.

They began to see for themselves that there was a difference between their religions and being part of the family of the Father of Truth.  One day, Reddy asked me if he could go with me when I met with my congregation and has been attending every since.  You see it was being isolated from the rest of the company on the top floor with people that were interested in hearing about the Man of Truth (Yeshua HaMashiach aka Jesus Christ) and not having enough to do that allowed me to talk about all that really matters.

Eventually, space became available in the main part of the office.  I was working from home on that day but Reddy and Shamira made sure that I had a cube that was next to their cubes. We continued to help each other in so many ways.  I figured out what was important to our manager and helped them to make sure that we made her look good to her boss.  I helped them become better programmers while they helped me improve my people skills.  It turns out that working alone for years on end had caused me to lose many of my people skills.  I loved being around people but it had been necessary to work from home to take care of Savannah.  I needed to regain my people skills because I need to communicate with people all that really matters.

Of course by this time we had gotten quite used to eating together at lunch and talking about whatever was on our minds.  Sometimes we would go back to the top floor but other times when we were shorter on time we spend a few minutes eating together in one of our cubes.  One day, a Jewish man (by religion) that was in the cube next to Reddy let me know that he found our conversations entertaining and interesting.  I had been explaining to Reddy how the Man of Truth had fulfilled all that the Prophets of Truth had written about him and apparently he had overheard.  My voice carries and apparently other people had been hearing me talk about all that really matters.

A new developer joined our team named Jonathan and it soon became apparent that he too was a Child of Truth.  I had been surrounded with people that went to church on the weekend but they would never dare talk about the Man of Truth or anything like that to their co-workers - even when they were out of the office on their lunch hour.  They were simply more afraid of losing their jobs than their co-workers losing their souls.  It was so refreshing to find someone else that was not ashamed of the Man of Truth.  So we began to include him in our lunchtime discussions of all that really matters.

Then suddenly, without any warning, our manager, who had became fond of us, told us that the company had decided to get rid of all contractors.  She was very upset and explained that the company was really ran by stockholders and analysts.  While our division had been very profitable the other divisions had not performed as well as expected.  So the executives had decided to break faith with all of their contractors across the company to make their end of year report look better to the stockholders.  Just like that it was over even though our manager stressed that she had been pleased with our performance.  I am so glad that I took this job and that I did not wasted my opportunity to talk about all that really matters.

You see the story does not end there.  Reddy wants to stay in Tulsa and continue to learn about the Man of Truth with me each weekend.  Even though Shamira wants to stay in Tulsa she is going to move to where her fiancĂ©e lives so that she can get married.  They are like family to me so this is really hard for me because I have no assurance that I will ever see them again.  I want them to be part of His forever family then I know I will see them in eternity.  That is all that really matters.

How about you?  Do you spend your life in pursuit of temporary things that you will either one day lose or leave behind?  Will you put His will in front of your will?  Are you ready to trade in the boredom of living for temporary things to gain the joy that comes from living for all that really matters?

A lot of subjects are covered in the weekly posts of this blog. None of them are meaningless for each post provides answers from the Book of Truth (The Bible) to important life questions.  However, that does not mean that they are all of equal importance.  The answer to the question of what you are doing with your life is all that really matters.

People are the only thing that you can take with you when you leave this Earth and the eternal well being of other people is the only thing really worth pursuing (Proverbs 11:30).  If you spend your life seeking security by storing up treasure on this Earth then one day you will die and realize that you have been a fool (Luke 12:19-21).   At the end of life it will not matter how much you earned or accumulated because you are not taking any of it with you (1 Timothy 6:7).  People are the only thing that you can take with you and they are all that really matters.

Do not get me wrong.  I am in no way advocating that you should become a "holy loafer" and not work to earn money.  The Father of Truth wants you to gain wealth so that His covenant can be established in the Earth and the human race can be saved (Deuteronomy 8:18).  He wants you to be diligent in your work so you can prosper (Proverbs 10:4).   He wants you to be diligent so that you can be put into a leadership role (Proverbs 12:24).  He wants you to be diligent in your business so that you can influence those in power (Proverbs 22:29).  He just does not want you to accumulate wealth for the sake of accumulating wealth but to give into His hands by using it to bring people into His kingdom so that your treasure is in Heaven (Matthew 6:19-21).  He wants you to gain wealth so that you can help send others to reach people that you could never reach (Romans 10:13-15).  If the Father of Truth has placed wealth in your hands then He did it so you could use it to help bring other people to know the Man of Truth because that is all that really matters (Hebrews 11:24-26).

The great work that the Man of Truth has given to every Child of Truth is to tell other people the Good News because they are living in a burning house (Mark 16:15-16).  However you will face opposition if you decide to live like you are not are not ashamed of his name (Luke 21:16-17).  Do not let this discourage you for the Man of Truth has already overcame everything that the Father of Lies (HaShatan aka Satan aka The Devil) can throw at you (John 16:33).   He laid down his life for you so now you need to lay down your life for him (Romans 12:1).   So whether you are out in the workforce in a regular job or a religious professional you need to make every day count (Ephesians 5:15-17). You need to use every opportunity to rescue people from the burning house that they are living in because that is all that really matters (Colossians 4:5-6).

If you are a Child of Truth then you must be more concerned with doing the will of the Father of Truth than your own comfort or safety (Matthew 7:21).  If you do not proclaim the name of the Man of Truth to others then he will not proclaim your name to His Father (Matthew 10:32-33).  If you do not confess him before those you work with then it is because you love their praise more than you love His praise (John 12:42-43).  If you love the Man of Truth then you will remain in the House of Truth by obeying him to the best of your ability and understanding (John 14:21-23).  If your love for him is not deep enough to obey him then you will be put out of the House of Truth because that is all that really matters (Revelation 3:15-16).

Perhaps you have yet to come into the House of Truth because no one has had the courage to tell you the truth until now.  The truth is that you must come into the House of Truth by surrendering everything to the Man of Truth because that is the only way for you to come to know the Father of Truth (Matthew 11:27).  He is pleading with you to come into the House of Truth and let go of your heavy burden of sin (Matthew 11:28-30).  You can only come into the House of Truth to meet His Father by obeying the Man of Truth (John 14:6-7).  The truth is that you must come into the House of Truth by making the Man of Truth your boss in every area of your life because you believe that the Father of Truth raised him from the dead (Romans 10:9-11).  You must come into the House of Truth so that your name will be in the Book of Life and you will not suffer in the Lake of Fire for all eternity because that is all that really matters (Revelation 20:15).

Come into the House of Truth.

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