Thoughts on Isaiah 44

Well, it has been a while since my last blog and lately, I have been in the mood to blog again. For about the past month, I have been reading through Isaiah and let me just say...WOW. What an amazing illustration of God's pursuit of His people.
The 44th chapter of Isaiah begins like this: "But now hear, O Jacob my servant, Israel whom I have chosen!" The rest of the chapter goes on to first talk about how God, in His complete sovereignty, pursues his people despite their disobedience and worship of idols. He reminds them that there is no God besides Him. No one to come before Him, or after Him. In fact, it's almost as if God mocks the idea of any other gods besides him when he asks in verse 7, "Who is like me? Let him proclaim it. Let him declare and set it before me, since I appointed an ancient people. Let them declare what is to come, and what will happen."
God is taunting even the thought that another god could challenge Him.
In verse 9, God's tone changes a little. "All who fashion idols are nothing, and the things they delight in do not profit. Their witnesses neither see nor know, that they may be put to shame." What does this mean? I'll tell you what I think it means. Many people in this world simply do not know God. Therefore, the wisdom of God, His word, His commandments, His calling His people to a life of holiness........certain people just don't understand. Not only do they not understand, it's not even on their radar!
In the movie Castaway, Tom Hanks, who is in a plane crash and washed ashore on a deserted island, is forced to do what it takes to survive once he realizes that nobody knows where he is. In a very memorable moment in the movie, Tom builds his very first fire on the beach. He is so proud of his accomplishment that he almost begins to worship the fire. The same can be said for his friend Wilson, Tom's volleyball with a painted face, whom Tom begins a relationship with in order to keep him company. I bring these illustrations up because they are a great picture of man worshipping idols, simply because he doesn't know any better.
Verses 12-20 give several examples of mankind and their creations and how despite man's amazing accomplishments, at the end of the day, we are still human and thus, not worthy of worship. We still need food, water, rest, shelter, etc. In a nutshell, we are not God!
Here is the difficult part of the passage...God says that people who have no relationship with Him, meaning they haven't given their life to God's son Jesus Christ, really have no way of knowing any better. They have no ability to discern the difference between the one true God, and idols worshiped by man. Verse 18 says, "They know not, nor do they discern, for he has shut their eyes, so that they cannot see, and their hearts, so that they cannot understand."
So, what do I mean when I say "idols"? Well, an idol could be considered anything that occupies the majority of your time and attention and desire. In other words, an idol can be a good thing that becomes a god thing in your life. For example, work, sports, movies, Hollywood, money, material possessions. If you consider any of these things to be THE "important" things in life, or even the things that motivate you to get up every day and work hard so that you can have these things, then they are idols. At the end of the day, they might bring temporary happiness, but they won't bring eternal joy. Only God can do that, through the salvation that He offers through faith in His son Jesus. Jesus came to take away the idols in our life and He demands that we worship Him and Him alone.
So, how do we apply this passage to our lives? Well, for starters, I'm sure there are many of you that have people in their lives who are non-christians and their lives revolve around idol worship. It will do you no good to try to correct their life style. God tells us in verse 18 above that, "He has shut their eyes, so that they cannot see, and their hearts, so that they cannot understand." So, it becomes a matter of the heart. We need to pray that God will change their heart and that he will use us to initiate that change. Only through the gift of the Holy Spirit into their lives through faith in Jesus, can a person be woken up and shown the error of their ways.
On a more positive note, all you have to do is ask Jesus into your life, devote yourself to Him through repentance of your previous sinful ways, and the rest is history! He will change your life and open your eyes and heart to see and understand things that you never dreamed of! The whole world will look a lot different and trivial things in life that used to matter quite a bit, will all of a sudden not be so important.
When I started this blog post, I really didn't know where it would go, but there you have it. I hope you enjoyed and gained something from it.
To God be the glory!

Business thoughts on Psalm 139

Psalm 139: 1-3
1"O Lord, you have searched me and you know me. 2You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. 3You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways."

As a Christian sales person, this is very encouraging and also very discomforting. After reading this passage, I began to think about what that truly means. As I go about my day, whether I am out on a sales call, or handling a customer service issue, or evaluating an employee, God is constantly right there with me witnessing my thoughts and actions. God knows my thoughts from afar? You bet He does. God knows when I start my day every morning and if I choose to be lazy and sleep in? Yep. That is encouraging in that I am held accountable for my sales practices. Some times all a person needs is a little accountability to keep them going in the right direction. However, it is discomforting just to think that God has always been right with me.... observing......evaluating. Have I always been ethical? Have I always worked hard? I would like to think that I have, but could I have done more? Given lower prices? Gotten up earlier? Handled a customer dispute faster?

There is no question that I have a new perspective on my every day habits. I need to always be careful about how I conduct myself and my thoughts. I need to wake up earlier to accomplish the things that are most important in life. While this is very challenging, there are best practices to help you get through each day.

1. Start your day off in God's word. I know this is hard and a million excuses pop into my head when I think about this. God knows these excuses and He doesn't buy them.
2. Pray. It's quite simple really.
3. Memorize this passage. This is no more important than any other passage, but for this particular purpose, it's a great one to memorize.

Try this for a week or two and see what happens. I guarantee you will look back and see a significant improvement in your life.

Thanks for reading!

To add something more.....

Isaiah 55:8-9 explains even more why we need to seek God in every business decision we make.

v.8 "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declare the LORD. v.9 "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."

Sometimes God sees things that we don't. He is the alpha and omega, the author of the book of life, and knows the outcome of every decison we make. Therefore, trust in Him and listen to what He says, even if you don't think it makes any business sense!

Business ethics from God's perspective

"My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you...then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God...Then you will understand what is right and just and fair-every good path."  Proverbs 2:1,5,9

In the business world, we walk a fine line between what is right in God's eyes and what is right from a business/worldly standpoint.   As a christian businessman, it seems that with every business decision, there is an opportunity to take sides.  Does this have to always be the case?  Can we make decisions that glorify God while also improving the bottom line?  Of course we can!

However, there are many areas of business that I struggle with greatly.  This is one of those posts that I am not going to claim to have all the answers.  In fact, I have probably been guilty of acting for the greater good of the company when in fact my actions probably didn't glorify the LORD that speaks so clearly to me in the passage above.  

In my business, there are many factors involved in how we "price" our customers.  

1. What are considered to be fair rates according to industry standard? 

2. How much time and effort will we put into "servicing" their account?

3. Will the customer price shop and potentially switch to another company in 6 months anyway? 

These are all tough questions that I am sure many people deal with on a fairly consistent basis.  I try to take all of these into consideration when I price an account.  I do this by evaluating their business and customizing my proposal to fit their business.  This is different from other companies that offer the same rates to every merchant, no matter what business type.  This is not in the best interest of the merchant and often ends up costing them way too much money.  The next step I take is guesstimating how much time and energy we will put into servicing this account in the future.  We have many customers that call us quite often and need us to drive out to their business to meet with them.  Time is money!  High maintenance customers might pay a little more than customers that never call us for anything.  I don't see anything wrong with this school of thought.  The last thing that I think about is, "will this customer price shop and leave me in 6 months to save $10 on their service with another company?"  In my experience, I have had customers that I have given extremely low rates(too low!), spent lots of time with the customer on an ongoing basis, only to hear that they went else where to save a few bucks.  Therefore, I don't underprice accounts anymore.  Don't take that to mean that I give high rates, that is not the case at all!!  Simply put, I am fair while still being extremely competitive.  

So far, this philosophy has worked out well for our company.  We are motivated to give the absolute best service possible by being responsive, proactive, and extremely dedicated to the well being of our customers.  But more importantly, I feel that we honor God with our actions.  We play a vital role in a business owners ability to run their business.  I always tell people, "There is not a more important business relationship that with the people who are in charge of your money".    As long as you keep God's words at the forefront of your mind in all business decisions you make, He will honor you and make you prosper.

Thanks for reading!

Why do business with me?

There are many answers I could spit out right now but I will keep it simple.  Why not?!?!  Before we get ahead of ourselves, let me take a few steps back and remind you who exactly I am talking about doing business with.  I work with business owners who take electronic payments in some form or fashion.  For the most part, I am talking about businesses that take credit cards.  BUT, I am not limited to credit cards.  My company provides and processes Gift Cards, Checks, ATM's, Online Gateways and Online Terminals(our Virtual Terminal product series).  Heck, we even provide some non-traditional services such as Cash Advance, Loyalty programs, and Online ordering systems for all business types.  

So why should you meet with me?  Well, let's start off by talking about savings.  In my industry, I compete with other merchant service companies on a number of things, but the most popular starting off point is processing rates and fees.  As you well know, there are many credit cards out on the market that you could go apply for as a consumer.  There are debit cards, credit cards, rewards cards, business cards, air mile cards, etc.  What you don't know is that Visa/MC/Discover charge businesses to accept these cards.  Every time a business accepts one of these cards, they incur an expense to the card company ranging from 1-3%.  So where do I fit in?  Well, my company is the one that processes the transaction from the point of sale at the business and communicates with the card company to the customer bank and back to the business owner.  How do we make money?  We collect part of the % charged to the business for taking the credit card for payment.  The reason I am explaining all of this is because that is where the competition begins.......how much money is the business being charged?  

Well, first of all, most processors do not disclose all of the rates and fees at the point of the business owner signing up for processing.  I do.  Most processors have a way of hiding fees on the customer statement that is sent out every month for the customer to review.  We don't hide anything.  A lot of sales people for other processors use the old "bait and switch" tactics and talk about a really low "Qualified" rate knowing full well that the business will see mostly cards that hit higher rates due to the card types that they take, namely rewards cards, business cards, and key-entered cards processed over the phone.  I take the role of a payment consultant more so than a sales guy.  I like to educate my customers.  I have learned that this builds trust with the customer and when you have trust, you tend to pick up more customers at a faster pace and with less headaches.  

I always tell prospects that I like to get right down to business.  If I can help them......GREAT!  If I can't.....I will tell them that and walk away.....that is unless I can help them in areas other than price. (We will talk about those at a later time)  Either way, it is a WIN/WIN situation for prospects.  In my career, this approach has worked pretty well.  My partner Clay and I have helped hundreds of customers in the DFW area.  We even saved one customer about $5K per month!!!(they process a lot of volume every month so they aren't all like that)  So back to the question of why would you do business with me?  I'm honest, I don't hide anything, and if I can't help you I will let you know so it is a WIN/WIN for you.

If you are interested or know someone who might be, please give me a call!  817.459.0707-office

What I do for a living

In a nutshell, I am a payment consultant for First American Payment Systems that mainly sets up merchant accounts. A merchant account gives a business the ability to accept credit/debit cards as a form of payment from their customers. I work with all kinds of businesses from restaurants to retail stores to doctors of all kinds. We provide gift cards, online shopping carts for websites, ATM's and several other products that businesses look for every day. Basically, if you take credit cards, you are a prospect for me. That means that almost every one is a prospect!! I love the industry I am in because it is constantly growing, it never gets boring, and I really get to make a difference in people's lives.

I have been in this industry for about 4 years and the first two years of my career took place out of my home. About two years ago, my best friend Clay Farrell and I, who had been doing the same thing out of his home, decided to start a company to take our business to the next level. We officially formed an LLC, hired a few people to help with administrative duties, and hit the ground running trying to gain as many new customers as possible. Along the road we have had the help of many people. My dad is the Chairman and CEO of First American, thus the main reason I represent them and not someone else. It is nice having access to someone with so much industry knowledge. His career started in a similar way selling merchant accounts out of his living room in the late 80's. I hope I have half the success in my career that my pop has had and I will do okay. Another key employee that we hired is actually Clay's mom Barbara Farrell. Without Barbara, who knows where we would be today. With the former title of "first female sales rep ever hired by Johnson and Johnson", Barbara brings 25 plus years of sales/managerial experience to the table and has kept our ship steered in the right direction thus far.

Being a business owner has its perks and its downfalls. I love the fact that I am my own boss, making key decisions that directly affect my career and not having to answer to someone else. However, there is a huge burden to bear when your ability to run a company has a direct affect on someone else's life. Clay and I employ about 15 people, give or take a few. We have had to hire and fire many people and that is about the hardest thing a business owner has to do. My dad always tells me that the first time that it becomes easy to fire an employee, that is a sad day because it reveals that you have lost touch with reality. I hope that I am always sensitive to other people's lives and never become calloused.

Our mission with our company is simple. We want to always be growing with new customers so that we can always provide jobs to good people that want to work hard. We want to always maintain the highest form of honesty and integrity. We want to impact people and demonstrate to them what it is like to be sold out for Jesus Christ. We want to work diligently to earn an honest living so that we can provide for our familes and spend time with our kids. Last of all, we want to have fun with our careers. We want to always love waking up in the morning and heading off to the office. So far, so good. It has been an interesting journey thus far and God only knows what is in store for us. I guess only time will tell!!

My background

I wanted to take a few moments to comment on my background. I think it's always important to know that two people can be in a similar situation, but have completely different perspectives on that particular situation. Often times, this comes from the environment that the individual grew up in. It might come from their religous beliefs. Sometimes, friends can leave an everlasting impression and other times, life experience itself shapes an individual. These perspectives can be very helpful, but often times can also be very harmful to the individual. Work ethic, business philosophy, family matters, sales tactics, etc.....are all examples of how an environment in which a person is brought up can greatly influence their actions/beliefs.

While I don't have any exciting stories of getting into trouble, playing hookie in school, or partying it up in college, I would hardly say that my life has been dull. The Lord has blessed me tremendously with two loving parents that have always been there for me and have supported me through every stage of my life. I also have a younger sister that I could pick on growing up to build my masculine confidence (Thanks Sis!! ;) We were your typical conservative, church going, young Texan family that would make a lot of people throw up! I love my family tremendously and having their support throughout my life has shaped me into a secure, self sufficient young adult with the confidence to do many things that others my age simply don't have the courage to do. To be clear, I do not consider myself to be any more mature, talented, intellectual or resourceful than my peers. In fact, one of my best qualities is that I know that I always have to surround myself with people who are a lot smarter and more capable than I am. This is something that I learned from my Dad and it has paid off well.

When I was 7 years old, my mom introduced me to Jesus Christ. What a day!! I remember walking down the isle the next Sunday to tell our Pastor about the decision that I had made to invite Jesus into my heart(Revelation 3:20) and of course he was thrilled. I was baptized the next Sunday along with my Dad(see what I mean about support?) From that point through today, I can look back and see how the Lord has guided me, protected me, surrounded me with certain people, and opened doors for me that otherwise might have never been opened. Many of you might be reading this thinking to yourself, "what a cheeseball!". "Is this blog going to be a bunch of this religious crap?" My answer to you is.... see the title of the blog.

Let's get one thing straight, I love the Lord! I try to demonstrate my love for Him in everything that I do. The way I run my family, the way I handle friendships, and the way that I conduct my business should be a direct reflection of God's word(the Bible). While I constantly fail at my attempt, that's okay because we live in a fallen world and I'm not perfect. However, as long as I wake up every day with the mindset that I am going to serve the Lord with my life, that is all I can do.

I tell you all this to allow you to get to know me as an individual. If you have a glimpse into my background, you might understand me a little better. I hope that I have not scared you off from reading my blog. My intent is to post about my thoughts on all three topics in the blog title. So no matter what background you come from, this will be a good resource for all walks of life!

Thanks for reading!!