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Faith Driven Entrepreneur Order Printed Copy
- Author: Henry Kaestner, J. D. Greear & Chip Ingram
- Size: 5.08MB | 134 pages
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About the Book
"Faith Driven Entrepreneur" explores how entrepreneurs can integrate their faith with their business practices. The book offers practical advice, personal stories, and biblical principles to help readers build successful businesses while staying true to their Christian beliefs. It emphasizes the importance of seeking God's guidance, serving others, and using business as a platform for sharing one's faith.
David Livingstone
"[I am] serving Christ when shooting a buffalo for my men or taking an observation, [even if some] will consider it not sufficiently or even at all missionary."
With four theatrical words, "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?"—words journalist Henry Morton Stanley rehearsed in advance—David Livingstone became immortal. Stanley stayed with Livingstone for five months and then went off to England to write his bestseller, How I Found Livingstone. Livingstone, in the meantime, got lost again—in a swamp literally up to his neck. Within a year and a half, he died in a mud hut, kneeling beside his cot in prayer.
Berlin Congress spurs African independent churches
The whole civilized world wept. They gave him a 21-gun salute and a hero's funeral among the saints in Westminster Abbey. "Brought by faithful hands over land and sea," his tombstone reads, "David Livingstone: missionary, traveler, philanthropist. For 30 years his life was spent in an unwearied effort to evangelize the native races, to explore the undiscovered secrets, and to abolish the slave trade." He was Mother Teresa, Neil Armstrong, and Abraham Lincoln rolled into one.
Highway man
At age 25, after a childhood spent working 14 hours a day in a cotton mill, followed by learning in class and on his own, Livingstone was captivated by an appeal for medical missionaries to China. As he trained, however, the door to China was slammed shut by the Opium War. Within six months, he met Robert Moffat, a veteran missionary of southern Africa, who enchanted him with tales of his remote station, glowing in the morning sun with "the smoke of a thousand villages where no missionary had been before."
For ten years, Livingstone tried to be a conventional missionary in southern Africa. He opened a string of stations in "the regions beyond," where he settled down to station life, teaching school and superintending the garden. After four years of bachelor life, he married his "boss's" daughter, Mary Moffat.
From the beginning, Livingstone showed signs of restlessness. After his only convert decided to return to polygamy, Livingstone felt more called than ever to explore. During his first term in South Africa, Livingstone made some of the most prodigious—and most dangerous—explorations of the nineteenth century. His object was to open a "Missionary Road"—"God's Highway," he also called it—1,500 miles north into the interior to bring "Christianity and civilization" to unreached peoples.
Explorer for Christ
On these early journeys, Livingstone's interpersonal quirks were already apparent. He had the singular inability to get along with other Westerners. He fought with missionaries, fellow explorers, assistants, and (later) his brother Charles. He held grudges for years. He had the temperament of a book-reading loner, emotionally inarticulate except when he exploded with Scottish rage. He held little patience for the attitudes of missionaries with "miserably contracted minds" who had absorbed "the colonial mentality" regarding the natives. When Livingstone spoke out against racial intolerance, white Afrikaners tried to drive him out, burning his station and stealing his animals.
He also had problems with the London Missionary Society, who felt that his explorations were distracting him from his missionary work. Throughout his life, however, Livingstone always thought of himself as primarily a missionary, "not a dumpy sort of person with a Bible under his arms, [but someone] serving Christ when shooting a buffalo for my men or taking an observation, [even if some] will consider it not sufficiently or even at all missionary."
Though alienated from the whites, the natives loved his common touch, his rough paternalism, and his curiosity. They also thought he might protect them or supply them with guns. More than most Europeans, Livingstone talked to them with respect, Scottish laird to African chief. Some explorers took as many as 150 porters when they traveled; Livingstone traveled with 30 or fewer.
On an epic, three-year trip from the Atlantic Ocean to the Indian Ocean (reputedly the first by a European) Livingstone was introduced to the 1,700-mile-long Zambezi. The river was also home to Victoria Falls, Livingstone's most awe-inspiring discovery. The scene was "so lovely," he later wrote, that it "must have been gazed upon by angels in their flight."
Despite its beauty, the Zambezi was a river of human misery. It linked the Portuguese colonies of Angola and Mozambique, the main suppliers of slaves for Brazil, who in turn sold to Cuba and the United States. Though Livingstone was partially driven by a desire to create a British colony, his primary ambition was to expose the slave trade and cut it off at the source. The strongest weapon in this task, he believed, was Christian commercial civilization. He hoped to replace the "inefficient" slave economy with a capitalist economy: buying and selling goods instead of people.
The ill-fated Zambezi expedition
After a brief heroic return to England, Livingstone returned to Africa, this time to navigate 1,000 miles up the Zambezi in a brass-and-mahogany steamboat to establish a mission near Victoria Falls. The boat was state-of-the-art technology but proved too frail for the expedition. It leaked horribly after repeatedly running aground on sandbars.
Livingstone pushed his men beyond human endurance. When they reached a 30-foot waterfall, he waved his hand, as if to wish it away, and said, "That's not supposed to be there." His wife, who had just given birth to her sixth child, died in 1862 beside the river, only one of several lives claimed on the voyage. Two years later, the British government, which had no interest in "forcing steamers up cataracts," recalled Livingstone and his mission party.
A year later, he was on his way back to Africa again, this time leading an expedition sponsored by the Royal Geographical Society and wealthy friends. "I would not consent to go simply as a geographer," he emphasized, but as biographer Tim Jeal wrote, "It would be hard to judge whether the search for the Nile's source or his desire to expose the slave trade was his dominant motive." The source of the Nile was the great geographical puzzle of the day. But more important to Livingstone was the possibility of proving that the Bible was true by tracing the African roots of Judaism and Christianity.
For two years he simply disappeared, without a letter or scrap of information. He reported later that he had been so ill he could not even lift a pen, but he was able to read the Bible straight through four times. Livingstone's disappearance fascinated the public as much as Amelia Earhart's a few generations later.
When American journalist Henry Stanley found Livingstone, the news exploded in England and America. Papers carried special editions devoted to the famous meeting. In August 1872, in precarious health, Livingstone shook Stanley's hand and set out on his final journey.
When Livingstone had arrived in Africa in 1841, it was as exotic as outer space, called the "Dark Continent" and the "White Man's Graveyard." although the Portuguese, Dutch, and English were pushing into the interior, African maps had blank unexplored areas—no roads, no countries, no landmarks. Livingstone helped redraw the maps, exploring what are now a dozen countries, including South Africa, Rwanda, Angola, and the Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire). And he made the West aware of the continuing evil of African slavery, which led to its being eventually outlawed.
Mercy at the Bottom
Jonah is a fascinating case study in the mercy of God. He is a no-good, rotten man who resents God for his mercy. Jonah would rather see his enemies destroyed and annihilated than forgiven. Nestled within the story of this rotten man, though, is his prayer in the second chapter. The prayer gives insight into Jonah’s inner struggle and plays no small part in the development of the story. It also tells us much about the God to whom we pray. Perhaps you’ve breezed through the prayer in a previous reading of the book, but let’s slow down to see what we can learn from his cry for help from within the belly of the great fish. Most Reluctant Prayer Imagine the flannel graph with me. God sends his prophet to a wicked people to proclaim the judgment of God. Jonah, instead of going to Nineveh, runs from God by sailing in the opposite direction. Jonah — God’s chosen instrument — is a leaky vessel. Despite the futility, he seeks to run “away from the presence of the Lord” (Jonah 1:3). Clearly, he wants no part of Nineveh, but we’re not yet told why. A storm rages on the high seas, and Jonah is reluctantly thrown into the sea by the sailors. These pagan seafarers call out to God for mercy, yet throughout the storm, Jonah opens not his mouth. He will not mutter even one meager word. Jonah would rather die, it seems, than be an instrument of God’s mercy (to others or even himself). We quickly learn that Jonah is not the hero of the story, and frankly, a bit of a rotten fellow. As we’ll see, however, we find good company in Jonah’s character deficiencies. And we can find solace from the fact that God still heard Jonah’s prayer, the desperate cries of a wayward prophet. Chapter 2 records Jonah’s prayer from the belly of the fish. If there is ever a foxhole cry for help recorded in the Bible, this is it. As Jonah gasps for air, covered in darkness and with death at his door, he finally manages to muster a cry for help. What Was Clear in the Dark What, if anything, can we draw out of Jonah’s prayer? Let me trace three themes and then come back to how we might personally be encouraged for our own prayer lives. GOD STILL LISTENS First, Jonah comes to his senses and prays to God. I imagine a cry of help escaped as Jonah was hoisted into the air and as he plunged in the pitch-black sea. Maybe just a singular yelp, or a thought of “save me, Lord,” but that was all it took. Jonah wakes to the overpowering aroma of rotting fish carcasses, thinking that hell resembles a fish market. But then he regains his senses and realizes he’s alive in the belly of a fish. In this dire and desperate situation, Jonah prays: “I called out to the Lord, out of my distress, and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice” (Jonah 2:2). Despite his disobedience and stubbornness, he calls out to the Maker of heaven and earth. Despite attempting to run from God, he now turns to him for deliverance and help. God is always ready to receive the desperate cries of his children. GOD STILL REIGNS Jonah admits that God is in control. He doesn’t say, “Those rotten sailors, I can’t believe they threw me into the sea!” Instead, he sees the sovereign hand of God at work even in his precarious situation. He confesses, “You cast me into the deep; . . . all your waves and your billows passed over me” (Jonah 2:3). Desperate situations are not a result of God falling asleep at the wheel. Jonah admits that God is in control, and reminds us that we can trust him even in dire circumstances. God is still sovereign when our safety is compromised. GOD STILL DELIVERS Lastly, Jonah concludes that God saved him for a purpose. Jonah is incapacitated, but clearly not yet dead, and so he concludes that God saved him for some divine purpose. “God is still sovereign when our safety is compromised.” He prays, “I shall again look upon your holy temple. . . . You brought up my life from the pit. . . . My prayer came to you, into your holy temple” (Jonah 2:4, 6, 7). God did not satisfy Jonah’s death wish (Jonah 1:12). He has been spared to once again worship God in his holy temple. Jonah rightly concludes that his deliverance has some meaning, and he even begins to declare God’s greatness from the belly of the fish: “Salvation belongs to the Lord!” (Jonah 2:9). Ugliest Kind of Grief We know how the story ends. Jonah’s prayer is heard and answered, and he eventually washes ashore. Jonah relents, goes to Nineveh, preaches, and the people heed his message and repent — and then the surprise comes. Jonah does not rejoice over their repentance; he gets angry (Jonah 4:1). We learn that Jonah wasn’t worried that the Ninevites wouldn’t listen or that they would kill the messenger. Rather, he was worried that the Ninevites would repent. He knew God would be gracious and merciful — and now that God has, he grieves. God’s character is stunningly juxtaposed with the most pathetic display of prophetic sulking in Scripture: [Jonah] prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” (Jonah 4:2–3) For all of his sins, at least Jonah is consistent. He would rather die than go preach, he would rather die than pray in the storm, and now he would rather die than see his enemies forgiven. Jonah, however, wasn’t wrong about everything. He wasn’t wrong about God. He knew that God would be gracious and merciful, eager to relent from disaster. The problem was that Jonah didn’t share God’s heart. He was eager for retribution, revenge, and judgment. He wanted to see the people of Nineveh burn for their oppression of Israel. Did Jonah ever become a faithful prophet? Did he ever live up to his task and mission? Did the leaky vessel ever get patched? I’d like to think so, but the author leaves aside any tidy endings. We’re left to ask our own question: Are we like Jonah, or are we like God? Two Lessons for Your Knees How, then, might Jonah’s prayer shape and inspire our prayers today? What might we learn from his cries out of the depths of treacherous seas? See the unrelenting kindness of God. First, we learn that God is still listening. The reality is so simple we might be tempted to overlook it. Even if you just committed a heinous sin — like running away from the living God — he has not decisively closed his ear to you. The intercom to heaven hasn’t been turned off. In the immediate aftermath of sinning against him, we might imagine God exasperated and simmering with anger. We imagine him responding like we would. Jonah, however, reveals that God still waits to receive our desperate and dejected cries, even from the most disobedient among us. He’s eager to receive and welcome our humble and broken prayers for help. As Romans 2:4 reveals, God’s kindness is meant to lead us to repentance. God displays his mercy and forgiveness to Jonah and to the people of Nineveh. We can have confidence, even if we are low-down, dirty, rotten sinners, to come to Jesus with our first or thousandth request for forgiveness — if we humble ourselves and run to him, rather than hiding from him and running away. Resist the urge to run and hide. Second, wherever you are and whatever obedience you’re currently resisting, run to God in prayer. Be persistent in prayer, knowing your God is even more persistent in mercy. Of all the people who shouldn’t have expected their prayers to be answered, it was Jonah. He openly rebelled against God. When God called, he ran in the opposite direction. He jumped aboard a ship and tried to flee the Sovereign of the seas. Even when the storms raged, he refused to pray for deliverance. He would have rather drowned than repented. And yet, out of this watery grave, he comes to his senses and cries out — and wonder of wonders, God listens and answers. “Jonah teaches us that God is more merciful, more patient, and more forgiving than we can now imagine.” If we are in a Jonah-like season of rebellion, we too can pray. Even if we’ve been in a decades-long season of fleeing from God, running from his presence, and resisting his call, we’re invited to come, lay down our rebellion, and be immersed, not in judgment, but in love. God wants to pour out mercy on you, and then through you to other sinners, that they too might repent and be delivered. God is not like us. Where we are quick to anger, slow to forgive, easily frustrated, and prone to hold grudges, God is not like us. Jonah teaches us that God is more merciful, more patient, and more forgiving than we can now imagine. The good news of the gospel is far better than we expect. Through Christ, the better Jonah, we call out to God, with confidence that he will overflow with mercy to no-good, rotten people who come with empty hands — and with confidence that his mercy can change our hearts to be like his. Article by Steven Lee
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