by Angela Sanders | May 24, 2016
I am an Amway baby. My grandparents, Doyce and Nadine Dodd, went Diamond in 1979, back in Amway’s heyday, when you stocked SA8, Nutrilite bars, and Artistry products in your own garage and chatted casually with downline every week when they came to pick it up.
It was cool!
A single-digit kid at the time, I didn’t fully comprehend the magnitude of what my grandparents were trying to accomplish, but I admired their passion and ability to see and move with confidence and unrelenting commitment toward a vision they believed in, but had not yet experienced.
Fascinated, I watched them conduct business and interact with people. Closely. If pressed, I could probably still “draw the circles” and explain PV and BV if you’re interested!
Always charming, always kind, my grandparents made me proud and taught me much about serving others, working hard, and dreaming big.
Why bring this up now? Well, judging by the number of business-related posts and messages filling my social media feed and inbox these days, the waters of network marketing are currently at flood stage, and the current is strong, making it that much more important for followers of Christ to stand out from the crowd by navigating them with discernment and integrity.
That being the case, this seems like the perfect time to pass along just a bit of what I learned from watching my grandparents way back when and what I continue to see in so many of my friends in network marketing today.
1. Maintain your eternal focus.
Network marketing is unique in that it requires those who participate to leverage personal connections and relationships for business growth, a sensitive dynamic with great potential for misunderstanding and hurt feelings. Be careful! Remember, God has bigger plans for the connections and relationships he’s given you than a simple business partnership. More than people need to buy in to your business plan, they need to buy in to the Gospel. Don’t allow your mishandling of the first to prevent the second and don’t sacrifice Gospel presentations for pitch sessions. Your business helps, but Jesus saves!
2. Promote freedom, not materialism.
Remember, Jesus preached eternal peace and security through the cross, not temporary happiness through earthly possessions. When casting vision and/or helping your downline set personal goals, help them focus on freedom, financial AND spiritual, over simple wealth and material gain, looking for and taking every opportunity to verbalize your faith and model biblical stewardship as God blesses your efforts.
Understand, there’s nothing wrong with making money! Like anything else, money is a tool, and, managed according to the guidelines laid out in Scripture, it can be used to further the Kingdom in amazing ways, but it can also easily become a stumbling block. Don’t let it drive you and don’t dangle it like a carrot in front of others. Instead, try to focus on the end goal more than the means.
3. Don’t call your business a ministry unless it actually is.
People are pretty keen. Even if they don’t fully understand the abstract concept of doing something “in Jesus’ name”—which means doing things the way He would as His representative—they can pretty much tell whether or not you actually are and don’t much appreciate your pasting Jesus’ name on something that’s really all about you and your own desires or goals.
Not sure how to label your venture? Examine your motives and method of operation. Do you want and work for people, or do you want and take from people? If it’s the latter, you probably shouldn’t call your business a ministry.
On a related note, friends, please don’t tell people that God told you to do something, gave you a message for them, laid them on your heart, or gave you a burden for their situation if He didn’t. Sometimes, He does, but just because you think something is a good idea, doesn’t necessarily mean that God thinks so. Likewise, just because your business is a part of God’s plan for your life doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a part of God’s plan for every life.
As I see it, doing business “the right way” has less to do with strict adherence to methodology taught at business meetings, trainings, and seminars and more to do with the application of biblical principles of stewardship and servanthood to human interaction.
God can do much through businessmen and women committed to His purposes, and although He made it clear to Todd and me early on that He had other pursuits in mind for us, I have nothing but respect for those of you who are taking full advantage of what you believe to be a God-given opportunity to fund God-given dreams in a God-honoring way through network marketing.
I want you to succeed.
Serve well! Work hard! Dream big! Keep giving God all of the glory, and I will keep cheering you on.
by Angela Sanders | May 5, 2016
Like many other Christian conservatives, I’m frustrated these days. You see, I’ve been praying for a long time that God would put a godly person in the White House. Although I am in no position to discern the spiritual condition of any candidate, the one who seemed to be the easiest and most obvious answer to my prayers is no longer an option, so I’m a little upended.
To be honest, I haven’t even let myself consider fully what this means for the election in November. Instead, I’m choosing to ignore the truth of the present political landscape like I ignore the dishes in my sink after cooking Italian. Denial may not solve my problems, but it spares me a queasy stomach.
Then, I open my Bible. The passage slated for my personal Bible study today is a familiar one, the story of Jesus’ interaction with Martha after Lazarus’ death (John 11:17-27), a story so familiar to me that I’m tempted to skim over it, pray, and get on with my day. However, I know that won’t do a blessed thing for my current state of mind, so I make myself focus, read, reread, and listen, and I notice something. Martha’s attitude when she approaches Jesus on the road bears a startling resemblance to mine.
My heart tunes in.
“Then Martha said to Jesus, ‘Lord, if You had been here, my brother wouldn’t have died. Yet, even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.’”
She’s not mad, exactly, but frustrated and very careful to couch that frustration in words of confessed, if not wholly felt, faith. Jesus hasn’t done what she thought He would, what she hoped for when she and Mary sent Him news of Lazarus’ illness days before, and she is upended.
Still, Martha knows that Jesus is her only hope of any good coming out of a seemingly negative situation. They say faith isn’t faith until it’s all you’re holding onto. Well, that’s exactly where she is, sad, discouraged, disappointed, and frustrated, but still hoping for a miracle.
Sounds very familiar.
“’Your brother will rise again,’ Jesus told her.”
It’s not exactly the response Martha is hoping for. “Okay, girl, get ready! I’m about to raise your brother up in 3,2,1…” would have been more like it, but Jesus’ answer, although true, is a bit vague and not as reassuring as it could be.
“Martha said, ‘I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.’”
Now, I don’t ever want to read into Scripture what isn’t there, so I won’t venture to guess Martha’s thoughts, but I will tell you that I, in Martha’s situation, would be thinking something like, “Thank you, Jesus. I’m well aware. I’ll be looking forward to that, but I need your help now! Give me something to hang on to, something solid and reassuring today!”
That’s just what He does.
“Jesus said, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in Me, even if he dies, will live. Everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die—ever. Do you believe this?’”
Jesus, in His wisdom, turns Martha’s attention away from what she wants, and helps her focus instead on what she needs.
Him.
With gentleness and patience, He lifts Martha above the sadness, disappointment, discouragement, and frustration of the moment and gives her a glimpse of the big picture, something she obviously knows about, given her response to His first statement, but may have lost sight of in the midst of her confusion and grief.
Perspective gained, Martha settles.
“’Yes, Lord,’ she told Him, ‘I believe You are the Messiah, the Son of God, who was to come into the world.’ Having said this, she went back and called her sister Mary…”
Her grief still fresh, her heart still aching, her mind still asking questions, Martha rests in the Truth of Who Jesus is and the hope that He provides, not the superficial hope of a temporary fix, but an eternal hope that carries those who place their faith in Jesus through times of uncertainty.
Of course, we know how the story ends. Jesus does raise Lazarus from the dead, and there is much rejoicing. So why the delay?
Consider this. What would have happened if Jesus had given Martha what she wanted when she wanted it? Who would’ve gotten the credit, the glory, for the miracle then?
To some degree, I think Jesus would have, maybe in the Bethany Gazette below an overexposed photo of Him by His bandage-wrapped buddy.
But what about Martha? Would she have given Jesus all of the glory in her heart, operating as she was in the understandably self-centered and temporal frame of mind she initially demonstrated on the road? Or would she have tucked just a bit of that credit, that glory, away for herself, justifiable recompense for choosing faith in Jesus under pressure?
I wonder what we would have done, brothers and sisters, if God had put a godly person in the White House. I can’t speak for you, but I have a niggling suspicion that I might not have responded appropriately and given God all the glory for what would surely have been a miracle, but claimed some of the credit, the glory, for myself, justifiable recompense for prayers offered in faith.
I’ll never know.
As things stand, I’ve no choice but to look at the big picture and rest in Who Jesus is and the hope that He provides, and I’m glad for it.
What does the future hold? I have absolutely no idea, but I know that my Father is “able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine” (Ephesians 3:20) and I trust Him completely. For whatever good He is able to work through what certainly looks like a mess to me (Romans 8:28), I will give Him every bit of the glory.
by Angela Sanders | Apr 28, 2016
“Breathe, Regina,” my mother coaxed in even tones, willing my sister’s tiny body to work the way it was supposed to.
Shoulders high, eyes wide, Regina strained to obey, fighting tears of panic, her mouth a tiny O sucking air.
Watching from across the room, I inhaled for her and held it. It didn’t help.
“You have to breathe,” my mother repeated, kneeling in front of her five-year-old, the crack in her voice belying her intentional calm as we waited for help to arrive.
Unforgettable and traumatizing, it was only the first of many such asthma attacks my sister would experience over the next decade or more, the beginning of a new, albeit temporary, way of life for her, one that involved medicine, a lot of medicine.
Half the size of her scrawny little throat, the capsules prescribed by Regina’s pulmonologist were intimidating to look at and, apparently, impossible for her to swallow, so my mother came up with a plan. Every morning after breakfast, she broke one of the giant capsules over a heaping spoonful of grape jelly and mixed the granules that fell out down into the sugary blob.
Nasty!
Thankfully, Regina didn’t think so and swallowed every spoonful of gritty-grape goop my mother gave her without thought or hesitation.
It’s not always easy to get people to swallow what’s good for them. Maybe that’s why so many well intentioned, grounded Christians who truly want to see people come to saving faith in Jesus Christ have taken to drowning sound biblical doctrine in goop—sugar-sweet words that smack of humanism, but go down easy—until the Gospel is barely discernible, if present at all.
I’m sure these brothers and sisters of mine mean well, but their methods are flawed and, in the end, counterproductive and dangerous.
You see, the Gospel is “God’s power of salvation to everyone who believes” (Rom. 1:16). To cover it up or leave part of it out just because you don’t think the person you are talking to will like the taste or texture of God’s absolute truth is to deny them the spiritual healing they so desperately need.
When it comes to proclaiming Truth, don’t sugarcoat or edit it, but present it whole with clarity, compassion, and patience, the good about God, the bad about the Enemy, and the ugly about sin.
Sure, it can be uncomfortable to talk about such things, especially when your audience is already under the conviction of the Holy Spirit or feels attacked by other Christians with less tact than you possess, but that doesn’t make it any less necessary. You see, “godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret” (2 Cor. 7:10).
Want to love people well? Focus on their eternal needs and quit telling them they’re okay if they’re not. Preach the Word unabridged. Remember, “faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ” (Rom. 10:17).
Let’s stop wooing sinners and start winning souls.
by Angela Sanders | Apr 11, 2016
The family unit is one of the best ideas God ever had. How clever of Him to provide a social construct within which the relational, emotional, economic, physical, and spiritual needs of all members could be met and to illustrate, at the same time, both the holy union of Christ and the Church through the metaphor of marriage and the complexities of mutual belonging inherent to Christian brotherhood through the practical experience of parent-child and sibling relationships.
I know He doesn’t need me to say it, but I want to: Good job, God!
I happen to love the little family that He gave me. In fact, I probably love them too much sometimes.
Let me explain.
As a follower of Jesus Christ, my ultimate purpose must match His at all times. That purpose is to bring God glory (John 17:4), or advance the fame of His perfection. I do this only when I assume the appropriate posture before God, submitting to Him in every detail and interacting with others according to His will for me and for them as I read and understand it in His Word, thereby giving Him freedom to work in and through me and in and through others as only He has the ability and right to do.
God’s Word tells me to love others as He loved me, extending grace, mercy, and forgiveness at my own expense, and it is right and good to love my family in this way; however, it is wrong for me to extend grace, mercy, and forgiveness to my family at the expense of others, pulling from their pockets, so to speak. To do so is to sin. It is to steal that which is rightfully theirs to give or withhold, show favoritism toward my family, and assume authority that is not mine. It is to get up off my knees before God, turn, and bow before something else.
It’s a slippery slope, this muddy slant from good and appropriate affection to idol worship, and I’m often half-way down before I even realize I’ve lost my footing. Tell-tale thoughts like these are usually my first clue:
Why does he always forgive so quickly? He ought to let them sweat it out for a while. Maybe then they’ll think twice before hurting him again.
Why should she always be the one to reach out to others and lose her spot in the group? Let someone else do it.
He should make sure they know what he’s done. He deserves more recognition.
She should embarrass them the way they embarrassed her and let them feel awkward for a change.
His behavior was inappropriate, but understandable. If so-and-so gets by with it, why shouldn’t he?
The problem with thoughts like these are that they excuse my family from God-given responsibility, something I’ve no right to do in thought or in practice.
Are you guilty?
When God’s commands, where your family is concerned, seem to apply only to other people, that’s a pretty good indicator that your discernment is clouded and you have lifted your loved ones above their appropriate station in your heart.
Ironically, when you do so, you not only rob yourself of the opportunity to participate in God’s perfect plan for their lives, as you aren’t likely to give sound advice in that state of mind, but may also rob them of the very blessings you so faithfully petition God for on their behalf, peace, joy, fulfillment, a sense of driving purpose, success, intimacy with Christ, the chance to know God as the good Father He is, spiritual maturity, etc. How tragic!
Want to love your family well? It’s simple, if not always easy. Just don’t get in the way!
Keep God first and foremost both in your heart and in your interaction with others, serving, encouraging, and correcting as the Holy Spirit urges according to the truth of God’s Word, even when you really don’t want to. Work to maintain an eternal, rather than temporary, focus and lay your little family at the Father’s feet daily—momentarily, if necessary—in prayer, trusting Him to love them as only He can and to work all things, even the hard things, together for their good and His much-deserved glory (Rom 8:28).
Make God the Lord of your nest; He will take care of the rest!
by Angela Sanders | Mar 24, 2016
I’m ready to die. Well, sort of. Let me put it this way: I’m not afraid of what comes after death. I never really have been. Even before I accepted God’s free gift of salvation made possible through Jesus’ death and resurrection, I didn’t give the topic a lot of thought. Of course, I was only six years old at the time and much more concerned about learning to count money and being line leader than the afterlife!
When I did confess my sin to God and ask Jesus to come into my heart and be my boss forever, I did so not so much because I didn’t want to die and go to hell, although I knew that was the penalty for sin that everyone owed, but because I hated the thought of not belonging to God, not being His child. I realized that being His creation was not the same thing as being adopted into His family, and I began to want a deeper relationship with Him. It was a yearning that I didn’t have a name for.
Then, one night, as I lay in bed trying to fall asleep, Jesus drew me, and my heart began to pound. I didn’t hear any audible words, but I knew that Jesus was telling me it was time for me to surrender, not just to repeat a prayer after my parents, something I knew would happen as a part of the process, but to give Him my very heart, so that’s what I did with my daddy’s help.
Ever since that day, I’ve known deep in my soul, even in times of willful rebellion, that I belonged to God, that He was my Father, and that He would remain faithful even when I was not. I knew because He never left me and never let me enjoy the sin that made communication with Him difficult, but disciplined me like a beloved daughter, bringing me back time and time again to the same heart posture of surrender that had come more easily in the very beginning.
Jesus’ Spirit lives within me still, correcting me, comforting me, and promising me eternity in Heaven with the Father, so the afterlife doesn’t concern me. However, the process of dying does. That’s what gets my heart to pumping when I think about it too long. That’s what highjacks my thoughts before every doctor’s visit and sends my imagination into orbit every time a lymph node swells, that and the prospect of leaving my precious loved ones behind, my family, in particular, my husband and children, most specifically.
Even in this moment, the very thought of being separated from them for any length of time makes my breath catch, my throat close, and my eyes grow hot with tears. When Jesus calls me home, who will love and encourage my sweet Todd as he deserves? Who will comfort Hunter and Hope, my babies? Who will listen to them and love them enough to tell them the Truth even when it hurts?
In the not so distant past, concerns like these drove me to outline a little book for my family to read in my absence in the off-chance that my death came suddenly and without warning, robbing me of the opportunity to voice lengthy good-byes with tender, carefully chosen words. Full of favorite Bible verses, lessons learned, and love letters, I Need You to Know would serve as a sort of go-to resource when my husband needed to be reminded that he was not only loved, but cherished or when my children needed guidance or reassurance that they were never alone, but held.
The outline no longer exists.
You see, as I made notes, I found that every answer I offered, every story I told, every sentiment I recorded came back to one thing, one person, one answer. In the end, it all boiled down to Jesus.
It’s no wonder, really. He is my comfort, my source, my encouragement, my joy, my purpose, my rock, my standard, my refuge, my strength, my dearest friend, my brother, my faithful companion, my help, my Savior, my Counselor, my security, my peace, my relief, and the list goes on and on and on and on.
Everything that I could ever want those whom I love most to know and experience in this life and the next can be found in Jesus Christ. Truth? They don’t really need a little book from me to get them through; they need to know Him, the One Who loves them even more than I do, as hard as that may be for me to get my brain around.
Thankfully, they can. Thankfully, they do. Thankfully, you can, too.
