<\/p>\n
\u201cHis master replied, \u2018Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master\u2019s happiness!’\u201d<\/em> -Matthew 25:21<\/p>\n \u201cArgh! Church people suck!\u201d said my fellow server one Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n We all looked at him as he took the tract and the tip out of the check holder.<\/p>\n \u201cTwo dollars and a tract for a party of eight. Do you really think I want to know more about your religion if you don\u2019t even tip?\u201d<\/p>\n I was saddened. I said immediately, \u201cJake, (not his real name) I\u2019m so sorry \u2013 not all Christians are like that. In fact, a true Christian is quite the opposite.\u201d<\/p>\n But it was no use. There was no way I could battle the obvious as he walked away in frustration. What made it worse was that my co-server was gay. I\u2019m sure their stares of disapproval only made things more disappointing.<\/p>\n There is no doubt that we have a brand problem in the Christian faith. A brand is the perceived identity of something, whether it be a product or service, an organization or even a group of people. It amazes me to think that this is where some of us are in the body of Christ today. I\u2019m sure the well-meaning folks at his table had the best of intentions \u2013 saving the soul is obviously more important than money \u2013 but from my friend\u2019s perspective the $2 tip certainly didn\u2019t help him think so.<\/p>\n We talk about being influential in culture so that Jesus\u2019 life and light, his healing and his love for others can shine through us \u2013 but what about right here, right now? Our worship director has said \u2013 \u201cDo your best with what you\u2019ve got in your hands now!\u201d Every encounter we have with others is \u201cbrand management.\u201d Are we who we say we are, especially when no one \u201cimportant\u201d is watching? It\u2019s not about being perfect or doing it for the sake of religion- it\u2019s about the intention to really think about people and love them wherever we go, like Jesus did.<\/p>\n In Matthew 23:11, it says, \u201cThe greatest among you will be your servant.\u201d\u00a0 How are you able to serve others today? Only when we\u2019re been faithful with our influence can God entrust us with more.<\/p>\n Subscribe Now<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Places of Influence \u201cHis master replied, \u2018Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master\u2019s happiness!’\u201d -Matthew 25:21 \u201cArgh! Church people suck!\u201d said my fellow server one Sunday afternoon. We all looked at him as he<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9770,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[182,5464,547,181],"class_list":["post-25432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-devotionals","tag-god","tag-influence","tag-places","tag-today"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25432\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}