ASI 2015: Lift Him Up

Business & Management

Michael Cafferky

Building Wealth and Prosperity Using Biblical Shalom Principles

I want to welcome you here this afternoon to a seminar on how to build wealth and prosperity using the principles of Shalom, biblical principles of Shalom.

I'd like to start with a word of prayer because we're going to look into some Scripture and we're going to think a little deep about some of the Scripture thinking.

Dear Lord, this afternoon as we think about this wonderful, exciting theme of Shalom, guide our thinking and our understanding.

May we take from this place an energy to serve You in a renewed purpose, I pray.

Well I'm excited to be here this afternoon.

This topic, I've just been waiting and waiting and I can't wait any longer.

It's a pretty exciting topic in Scripture, I'll tell you.

Yeah, well, I want to begin with a Bible verse, a memory verse.

Seek peace, and the Hebrew word is shalom, that's where we're going to focus on the Hebrew ideas.

And I've taken the liberty to do a paraphrase at the bottom.

And then my commentary in parentheses, it's not that easy to find.

And if you find it, chase it because it's going to try to get away.

That's really kind of the Hebrew kind of meaning in all of this.

It doesn't come natural to human beings anymore.

That wasn't God's original intent, but at least now David the psalmist understood this.

Actually it wasn't only David because we see evidence from this passage that the apostle Peter was a student of the Old Testament.

1 Peter 3, verse, well we'll come to it in a minute.

1 Peter chapter 3, he quotes from this passage and he says the same thing only in the Greek, he puts it in the Greek but it says the same.

Which is evidence for me that the ancient Hebrew thinking came forward and was in the experience of the disciples and the apostles.

Jesus helped them be that, be those kinds of students.

I'm going to share with you just for a few minutes some resources.

I've got some examples on the table here and I want to invite you to come up and take some of the brochures and flyers.

Over the last dozen years or so I've committed to develop some resources available for students in schools of business, Christian schools of business.

There are other scholars doing the same, but I've decided to make a contribution for students and teachers with a perspective that is perhaps unusual out in the marketplace of Christian business scholars, and that perspective comes from my own Seventh-day Adventist background.

So over the last few years, I've worked with some folks and put together some materials.

This is a textbook that we now use in principles of management class.

A brand new book that's coming out literally today, the editor's telling me, that's for use in a business ethics course.

And then a series of publications published by Andrews University Press, small monographs that can be used by students and teachers in higher education.

Those monographs are also useful for those in practice.

Several articles, I brought some examples, and you can take those, the articles, as long as they last.

Sabbath, the Theological Roots of Sustainable Development just came out a few weeks ago in the Journal of Biblical Integration in Business.

A couple of years ago, an article on efficiency from the scripture point of view, an article teaching the gospel from agency theory in the Bible, and then last year an article about Shalom published in the Journal of Religion and Business Ethics.

And you've noticed I've got the link here.

If you want my PowerPoints, click on the link.

It'll take you right to the article if you want to read it.

I also have a blog for Christian scholars, but it's open to anyone in business who wants to think about some of the challenges that Christian managers face in the marketplace.

So if you'd like the PowerPoint slide set or copies of published articles, if you'd like a reading list, I can supply that as well.

And if you'd be willing to share with me stories that I can then in turn share with students.

And of course I would invite you to connect with me on Facebook and LinkedIn if you'd like.

Something I've noticed over the years is that Christians, and I don't think Seventh Day Adventists are any different in this regard, we sometimes take a silo approach to studying the Bible.

I'm going to learn everything I can about baptism, right?

So we're going to look up in a concordance the word baptism or baptize or stories about baptisms and so forth and we are going to drill down deeply just on that 1 topic.

And then we say well I want to study about the topic of and you can fill in the blank.

Someone name a topic that you might be interested in studying the scripture about.

And so we're going to do the same process.

We're going to drill down deeply and find examples of people in Scripture witnessing like Philip, right?

And we're going to look at passages that encourage us to be disciple makers and so forth, fishers of men, and we're going to study that deeply, right?

The Holy Spirit, we're going to study that topic deeply.

There are some limitations to using that silo approach though.

When it comes to business and what does the Bible say about business, that silo approach only gets us so far.

The Bible doesn't talk about the internet, doesn't talk about investing in stocks and bonds and all the complicated things in business these days.

So you don't get too far when you start diving, trying to go deep into 1 subject.

And what happens is this silo approach also unintentionally results in us missing some connections between the subject we're studying and some really big topics that go from Genesis through Revelation.

It's the biblical themes that provide the connective tissue, if I could use a metaphor from human anatomy, the connective tissue that connect all of these things that we'd like to study of God's Word and God's will for our life.

It's the themes that connect those things to help make sense in the bigger picture.

Some questions in business are not simple to answer.

I had someone contact me not too long ago saying, I've got a retirement fund and there's a mutual fund that's kind of managing a portfolio of stocks and bonds and so forth, and I'm worried that 1 of those stocks might be in a pig farm.

Should I keep my retirement in that portfolio if there's a pig farm hidden in there somewhere?" Wow, ok.

Never thought about that question before.

That's not a simple question to answer, right?

And the Scripture certainly doesn't address that particular question.

But the biblical themes will inform our conversation as we think through the complicated issues.

Let me tell you about how these were found, identified, these particular themes.

Over the last several years, as I've been studying the Scripture partly in development of some of these materials, I've noticed that there's a cluster of Scriptures that talk about our conduct, right, guidance for our conduct.

And I also noticed another group of Scriptures, different ones, that describe the character of God.

And thirdly, there's a third cluster of scriptures that identify Jesus Christ and His work.

I was in South Africa waiting my turn to give a speech at a conference.

I was way up in the top of the amphitheater waiting my turn and suddenly at that moment it kind of all fell into place.

These 3 sets of passages, they're scores of passages, right?

But these 3 different, and where they intersect there are several themes that emerge that are common to all 3.

I'm going to give you 1 example today from Shalom.

Health & Family

Bob Hunsaker

The (Epi)genetics of Sin and Salvation: The 3rd and 4th Generation Effect

Dear Heavenly Father, we just want to thank you for this time to come apart as we approach the Sabbath hours and the rest that's represented there.

I'm impressed, Lord, as I've looked through this topic more and more that we truly are fearfully and wonderfully made.

The more we learn, we think we know so much, but yet the more we learn, we realize we're just scratching the surface of the beautiful designs, the beautiful mechanisms that you've built into the human body and the human mind and the human psyche.

We want to explore those topics today, Lord, but we don't just want to be edified.

We don't just want to access information.

We want to spend this time drawing closer to you.

So may the time we spend together, especially by the time we're done, May we have a greater appreciation for the great sacrifice that you made on our behalf.

That you came down to understand, to appreciate and to experience life as we experience it.

May that give us courage as we approach our lives, as we approach the experiences of those around us, that we can have an influence, Lord, for you and for others, and see people drawn into your kingdom.

I want to start with a quote that won't immediately jump out at you why I'm talking about this quote, because this quote is about evangelism, and this seminar is not about evangelism.

But you'll see, this quote is important because as we go through this talk today, by necessity, when you talk about genetics, you're talking about parenting and parents, both your parents and yourself being a parent.

Now, when you do that, and then you talk about the failures that you have as parents, the failures that your kids have, there's a natural tendency towards feeling some guilt, some shame, some fear.

When you look at your parents, there's a natural tendency to feel, you know, why did you do that and leave me with this heritage?

Why weren't you different and raised me a different way?

Now this quote is going to call to attention how we ought to approach things, okay?

It says, the shortness of time is urged as an incentive for us to make righteousness, to seek righteousness and to make Christ our friend.

We typically use this approach in evangelism very commonly in our conversations with others, and it's true.

Shortness of time is urged as an incentive to seek righteousness and to make Christ our friend.

The shortness of time is not the great motive.

Is it necessary that the terrors of the day of God be held before us to compel us through fear to right action?

This ought not to be." So she's saying there, here's a motivation.

There's a better way of processing that information.

He is full of love, mercy, and compassion.

So as we talk through the different studies we're going to look at, the different principles of genetic inheritance, and you will probably, if you're like a normal person, a normal parent or a normal child, you'll feel in yourself the tendency towards feeling, I wish I'd been a better parent.

And I'm seeing things in my kids that I feel responsible for.

Or if you're a child and you don't have any kids, you look back and say, you know, why did dad do things that way?

If he'd done things this way, why didn't they send me to Arise and AFCO like other kids got sent to?

Why didn't my dad become an Adventist until he was, you know, in his 60s.

I grew up with 1 Christian parent without another Christian parent.

If he'd done things differently, I might be better off.

So you're going to go through those kinds of feelings.

And when you have that temptation to feel guilty or ashamed about how you did things or frustrated or angry towards how your parents did things, I want you to remember there's a better motivation.

Don't give in to fear, don't give in to guilt, but remember Jesus is attractive.

That's the way we want to approach these things.

That's the way we want to approach how we relate to our children.

That's the way we want to approach how we relate to our parents, no matter what their experience is.

All right, so here's a passage that we want to start with today, and this is in several places in the Old Testament.

The Lord is longsuffering and abundant in mercy, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin, but by no means clears the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation.

Now the NIV just kind of translates that as some people interpret it.

They say what it means is he's punishing the children for the sin of the parents.

Well, we wanna explore today what does it mean to visit the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations.

Ezekiel 18 talks about the fathers not being held accountable for the transgressions of their fathers.

Children aren't held responsible for the transgressions of their ancestors.

What does it mean to visit the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations?

Another verse that says something similar, Leviticus 26, because of their iniquity and also because of the iniquities of their fathers, they shall rot away.

It almost sounds like there's an arbitrary or almost vindictive approach that God takes that if you don't fall into line, I'm not just gonna allow these things to happen to you.

I'm gonna impose punishment on your children, your grandchildren, your great-grandchildren." And in fact, that's how the NRA took it.

Well, we have some good friends in the atheist community who read through the Bible and they have an interpretation for this.

This is Christopher Hitchens, 1 of the so-called new atheists.

You may have been familiar with the book, probably it's been about 10 years ago now called God is Not Great.

He's commenting on this commandment, the second commandment, and also this other passage, a dire warning that the sins of the fathers will be visited on their children even unto the third and fourth generation.

This negates, now here, and I was going to interpret this passage, so let's see, what is he thinking about as he reads through this passage?

This negates, this passage, this commandment, this, the moral and reasonable idea that children are innocent of their parents' offenses.

So now look at what he's saying here for just a second.

He's reading that passage and he's saying what this passage says is that innocence is negated, i.e., they're guilty, right?

So he's interpreting this passage as God is ascribing guilt to the children, the grandchildren, the great-grandchildren for the mistakes of their parents, right?

Negating innocence is the same as saying accounting guilty.

God Hates You, Hate Him Back, Making Sense of the Bible.

Werleman is another sort of new fundamentalist atheist.

I wouldn't encourage this, but I haven't read it, I've just kind of skimmed through it.

But basically he goes through the Bible, reads through the whole thing, and picks out any passage that is sort of, can be interpreted negatively or sounds negative, and just strings those all together with his commentary on it.

But anyway, this is his take on this same passage.

Interesting is the second commandment in which God promises to condemn up to 4 generations of a sinner's descendants.

Now again, here's this idea of condemnation.

So his perception is, he's portraying something, God's condemning offspring of people for the mistakes of their parents.

That's the interpretation he's putting on this passage.

And the NIV sort of leaves that flavor to it, right?

It said punishing the grandchildren, great-grandchildren.

So we want to understand is that what's going on.

He says further, further suggests that no matter how righteous your Judeo-Cardinal life should be, this will matter for naught if your great-great-grandfather believed in a sun God and you are thus surely doomed.

So again, the picture that they're imposing on this passage is that God is pronouncing guilt or condemnation or judgment on people for the actions or the mistakes of their ancestors.

And we want to understand is that what this is talking about today?

Well, there's other passages that bring out these ideas about ancestral, prenatal, perinatal kinds of influences.

Personal Evangelism

Steve Allred

Witnessing In the Workplace: Letting Your Light Shine While Avoiding HR & Legal Pitfalls

Hi, my name is Steve Allred, and if you're wondering what seminar this is, this is Witnessing in the Workplace, Letting Your Light Shine While Avoiding the Legal and Human Resource Issues that Could be Pitfalls.

Let me just talk a little bit about myself really quick here.

As I said, I am a pastor in Northern California at the Yuba City Church.

I work with the Church State Council, which is the religious liberty arm of the Pacific Union Conference.

We have a Sacramento office as well as 1 down in Westlake Village.

And I'm licensed in a few different jurisdictions.

And something I just wanna tell you about really quick here since this is at ASI, I really admire ASI, is a free legal aid outreach that we do at our church twice a year.

And it's just a great way to, this is 1 of our posters from our most recent 1, to reach out to the community and basically do something, a service for them that helps them.

I'd love to see ASI combine this with their medical clinics because it's just something that people can receive services, get advanced directives and powers of attorney for finance, that kind of thing done.

I'll tell you a little bit about our seminar today.

First of all, I'm just going to go through a couple of things on our commission as Christians, something that we know about probably.

We're going to ask the question, should Christians assert their legal rights and defend the rights of others?

Then we'll look at an overview of federal and state law regarding religion in the workplace, and we'll talk about religious discrimination of others.

Then we'll look at an overview of federal and state law regarding religion in the workplace.

And I'll explain these terms here in a little bit.

We'll talk about protecting expression of religion in the workplace, talking about your faith, while also as an employer and an employee, avoiding being accused of harassment in the workplace.

Enforcement and remedies after that and then we'll take a little time for question and answer at the end.

So if you have any questions, you just can't wait, you're free to raise your hand and we can try to answer the question then, but I prefer if you can, if you can wait until the end, then we can just get through this and we'll have time for questions at the end.

So a little disclaimer here before we get going.

The entirety of the presentation that we're gonna be having right now is for informational purposes only and not for the purpose of providing legal advice.

You should contact your attorney to obtain advice with respect to your particular situation or issue or problem.

So let's talk about the commission that we have as Christians.

In the book of Acts, Jesus told the disciples, when the Holy Spirit comes to you, you will receive power.

We don't have power without Jesus, without the Holy Spirit.

And he says, then you will be my witnesses in every part of the world.

And of course, Jesus himself, in the final chapter of Matthew 28, gave us what is known as the Great Commission, go and make disciples, right?

And basically, that is our commission as well, to be witnesses.

Ellen White, in the book Christ's Object Lessons, a book I just finished listening to on audible.com, great book, 1 of my favorites right now, character is power, she said, The silent witness of a true and selfish godly life carries an almost irresistible influence.

So witnessing doesn't always have to be loud.

You'll see why I mention this in the context of some of the cases we'll be looking at here of people who were trying to witness in the workplace and it kind of came off wrong.

Should Christian employers and employees, these are rhetorical questions I hope, be law-abiding citizens and people of integrity.

Now there is the caveat that in Acts 529, the well-known verse, Peter and the other apostles said, we ought to obey God rather than people.

So when it comes to a conflict of the laws of the land and principles that God's word tells us to abide by or specifics, then of course we choose God's law over man's law.

But Peter also reminds us in 2 Peter 2, 11 through 17, that if we suffer for doing what's wrong, it doesn't glorify God.

So we should be, as much as possible, law-abiding.

You ever maybe heard somebody complaining about getting bad treatment on the job, but you know they're kind of lazy?

Don't be slothful in business, Romans 12, 11.

What's over your hand, find it to do, do it with your might.

Ellen White again, Christ Object Lessons, told you it was a good book.

It is the duty of every Christian to acquire habits of order, thoroughness, and dispatch.

There is no excuse for slow bungling work of any character.

Should we be respectful of the rights and freedoms of others?

And it especially applies in a society as diverse and pluralistic as ours is becoming.

How respectful should we be of the rights and the freedoms of even people that we disagree with?

Well, Luke 6, 31, a verse I want to share with you in a few minutes in its entirety, it's the golden rule.

So, think about how you would want to be treated if you were in a situation where you were being, you know, with someone who disagreed with you.

What about asserting and defending our legal rights?

Back to Menu

All Teachings

Building Wealth and Prosperity Using Biblical Shalom Principles

1h 11m

The (Epi)genetics of Sin and Salvation: The 3rd and 4th Generation Effect

1h 28m

Witnessing In the Workplace: Letting Your Light Shine While Avoiding HR & Legal Pitfalls

1h 12m

Praying With Power

1h 21m

ASI Project Funding: Improving Your Application

1h 6m

Faster Than the Speed Of Light- How Medical Missionary Work Can Encircle the Globe Quickly

1h 30m

How to Grow Your Church: The Motion of the Movement

1h 23m

Raising Funds For Your Cause- Best Principles and Practices

1h 21m

Using Business as Mission

1h 20m

Making Sense of the Former and Latter Rain

1h 25m

Succession Planning: Without It, Good Business and Ministries Often Vanish

1h 15m

New! Balanced Living and Fit & Free!- Transforming Health Programming Into Soul-Winning

1h 17m

Sound Doctrine