What would you say?

This week I was asked to speak to group of young business people from a local church.  The brief said:

Basically, we are all young professionals so have many questions around entering the workplace and what it is like being a Christian at work.

After thinking about it for a bit, these were the key messages I wanted to deliver:

1. Life is short.  Eternity is a long, long time.  Make your choices with this in mind.  Work isn't everything.  But it isn't nothing.  Make your work missional.  Look for opportunities within it to ask why am I here.  How can I be salt to these people?  Keep an eye out for how God will want you to join Him in His work there.
2. We are called to be God's people.  He has revealed how we should live through His Word.  Become a student of the bible.  Study it, research it, discuss it, debate it, be guided by it, implement it.  Learn to think independently about the Word.  Research your views.  Be humble enough to accept when an initial position is proven wrong or incomplete.
3. Be faithful and diligent.  This is the story of Joseph.  Joseph learnt this in his time as Potiphar's servant and then under the prison warden's rule.   This is the story of God.  No matter what Israel did, He remained faithful and diligent in fulfilling his Promises.  When times get tough, the tough remain faithful and diligent.  Work hard.  Uphold high standards.  Don't accept that Grace means you live with shoddy workmanship.  Keep a perspective on the business you are in.  
4. Do not compromise with what God says to you.  Wait on Him and He will guide you through His word, through His body and through His Spirit.  The bible says our hearts are deceitful.  Don't go with the crowd.  Learn to think independently.  Be ready to back up your thinking with fact-based logic.  Don't jump to conclusions.  That's laziness.  Be careful with who you join up with.  They must share the same values.  All lies no matter what the colour are deal breakers.

 What would you say?

Steve Jobs saved from the Abortion Clinic

I came across this from Kerrie Woodham this morning:

"Jobs was their iDol and, from what commentators are saying, deservedly so. The boy who was born to unmarried college students and adopted by a middle-class Californian family grew into one of the most visionary entrepreneurs of the 20th century." --Source

So what would have happened if Steve Jobs' birth parents had opted for an abortion?  The world would have been so much the poorer for it.  

Hebraic Time v Greek Time

I was given a copy of a chapter from Boman's "Greek Thought and Hebraic Thought."

According to Boman in Greek thought, time stretches out on a line, with the future stretching out before you and the past extending behind you.  The point on which you stand is the present.

In Hebraic thought only the past and the present exist.  The future does not yet exist.  Anything we do is in the present and it shapes the future.

If true, how does this affect our views about predestination?