Business by the Book Proverbs 4:7 Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding. It is one thing to get understanding, but sometimes you must make someone else understand. Some things are too important to leave to misunderstanding. There are situations in which a person must make someone else understand something they are not readily accepting. One such situation happened to me. Years ago as a businessman I was responsible fo

Business by the Book Proverbs 4:7 Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding. I just don’t understand! These are powerful words that are used too little. Many of the mistakes of life are caused by a lack of understanding. Yet, seldom do we seek the understanding needed to side step those mistakes. If asked most would not include getting understanding as one of their top priorities of life. Getting money, yes, getting prest

Business by the Book Proverbs 3:27 Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it. Consider today’s verse within the context of sowing and reaping. Within the pages of Scripture examples of the law of sowing and reaping are numerous. Each book of the Bible in some degree illustrates this law. Galatians 6:7 contains the most concise and clear cut overview of this law. It states: Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a

Business by the Book Proverbs 3:9-10 Honour the LORD with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase: So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine. No book about business principles found in the Bible can be complete if it does not explore the inexorable tie between prosperity and honoring the Lord with not only offerings, but with all of one’s substance. Briefly consider each. Honor the LORD with thy substance me

Business by the Book Proverbs 2:6 For the LORD giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding. The book of Proverbs speaks often of wisdom, knowledge, and understanding. These three are to business like onions, celery, and bell pepper are to Cajun cooking. They are in everything. The very purpose of the book of Proverbs is to give the reader wisdom, knowledge, and understanding. Leaders not only obtain these, they retain them. In fact, just four verses la

Business by the Book Proverbs 1:10 My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not. Just stay away from them. Sinners that is, they are everywhere. They love to entice others to enter into their sinful ways. Give them no consent. Like fly paper their slippery words and ways catch the innocent. Countless stories could be told of those who with good intentions and forthright motives were duped by those of sinful proclivities and unlawful methods. Often the sinner skates off fr

Business by the Book Proverbs 1:4 To give subtilty to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion. Beginning today these devotions will be taken from the book of Proverbs. Repetition is a key to learning and the book of Proverbs repeats the same lessons numerous times. This book is a very practical, straightforward and sensible book. It is a collection of wise teachings as collected and compiled by Solomon. He may not have written all these proverbs, but he did gath

Business by the Book I Chronicles 12:38 All these men of war, that could keep rank, came with a perfect heart to Hebron, to make David king over all Israel: and all the rest also of Israel were of one heart to make David king. The tenth and last leadership trait that we see in the men who assembled to make David the King of Israel is that they were prepared to give their all for the task at hand. Their all may mean their life. These men were prepared to live or die trying to

Business by the Book I Chronicles 12:38 All these men of war, that could keep rank, came with a perfect heart to Hebron, to make David king over all Israel: and all the rest also of Israel were of one heart to make David king. The ninth leadership trait that we see in the men who assembled to make David the King of Israel is that they were all of a perfect heart. All of these men, at least 320,000, had a perfect heart for the task at hand. This does not mean that they were pe

Business by the Book I Chronicles 12:36 And of Asher, such as went forth to battle, expert in war, forty thousand. The eighth leadership trait that we see in the men who assembled to make David the King of Israel is that they were experts in war. Unfortunately the pathway to being an expert at something is paved with mistakes. Many have become expert at a certain thing by making many mistakes, few have become expert at the same thing by observing, and learning from, the mist

Business by the Book I Chronicles 12:33 Of Zebulun, such as went forth to battle, expert in war, with all instruments of war, fifty thousand, which could keep rank: they were not of double heart. The seventh leadership trait that we see in the men who assembled to make David the King of Israel is that they knew they could keep rank. This could be interpreted two different ways. One is that these men were men of honor and responsibility. They could obtain a rank and not lose i

Business by the Book I Chronicles 12:32 And of the children of Issachar, which were men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do; the heads of them were two hundred; and all their brethren were at their commandment. The sixth leadership trait that we see in the men who assembled to make David the King of Israel is that they had an understanding of the times. Solomon, David’s son and successor to the throne, wrote the Bible book we call Ecclesiastes

Business by the Book I Chronicles 12:31 And of the half tribe of Manasseh eighteen thousand, which were expressed by name, to come and make David king. The fifth leadership trait that we see in the men who assembled to make David the King of Israel is that they knew they were doing what they were appointed to do. Vagueness, ambiguity, uncertainty, and doubt are enemies of success. It is the responsibility of leaders to provide clearly defined boundaries for followers. In ret

Business by the Book I Chronicles 12:30 And of the children of Ephraim twenty thousand and eight hundred, mighty men of valour, famous throughout the house of their fathers. The fourth leadership trait that we see in the men who assembled to make David the King of Israel is that the habit of success breeds success. Before these men of valor were successful in turning the kingdom of Israel over to David they were already famous. Evidently they were famous because they were pr

Business by the Book I Chronicles 12:28 And Zadok, a young man mighty of valour, and of his father’s house twenty and two captains. The third leadership trait that we see in the men who assembled to make David the King of Israel is valour (today we spell it valor). Zadok is singled out for being a man of valor, but all of the men who came to David also demonstrated this character trait. The word valor is defined by Strongs Bible Concordance as “strength, might, efficiency, we

Business by the Book I Chronicles 12:24 The children of Judah that bare shield and spear were six thousand and eight hundred, ready armed to the war. The second leadership trait that we see in the men who assembled to make David the King of Israel is that they were trained for the job. These men were …ready armed to the war. Not only did they have weapons of war, they were trained on the use of those weapons. Notice the wording, they were not just armed to the war, they were

Business by the Book I Chronicles 12:23 And these are the numbers of the bands that were ready armed to the war, and came to David to Hebron, to turn the kingdom of Saul to him, according to the word of the LORD. The first leadership trait that we see in the men who assembled to make David king of Israel is that they had a purpose. Their purpose was to transition the kingdom from Saul, who was dead, to David who was anointed as the next king by the prophet Samuel. This purpo

Business by the Book I Chronicles 12:23 And these are the numbers of the bands that were ready armed to the war, and came to David to Hebron, to turn the kingdom of Saul to him, according to the word of the LORD. At least 320,000 men came to Hebron to turn the kingdom of Saul over to David. Saul is now dead having fallen upon his own sword. David was appointed by God years before to succeed Saul as king over Israel. The men listed in I Chronicles 12 were amazing; they came f

Business by the Book Isaiah 55:4 Behold, I have given him for a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people. Over the past two days these devotions have been devoted to variance in leadership. Today, a warning. Don’t take this matter of varying ones behavior too far. Too much in the way of variance of a person’s personality will create alienation rather than inclusion. In every manufacturing process there are certain variances that are considered allowable. If

Business by the Book Isaiah 55:4 Behold, I have given him for a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people. As we discussed yesterday, this verse is about King David but written with an eye toward the greater David, the Lord Jesus Christ. To recap, in these two men we find a common trait that leaders need to instill into their own lives. That trait is variance. They both varied their personalities and the way they dealt with people routinely. David, and Jesu