Real Life Stories from the Christian Business Front

A WHIRLWIND THREE YEARS

Steve came to visit a C12 Group meeting in his area with a lot on his heart and mind.

He had purchased the business which he previously served as CFO when the prior owner, a major European company, had ‘a change in strategy’ and decided to liquidate the business.  Steve took out a loan to buy the assets and keep the business running, thereby enabling 150 folks, including himself, to keep their jobs.  In the year following the purchase, Steve had (1) become the owner/operator of a highly leveraged and limping manufacturing business, (2) seen the prior owner’s captive demand unexpectedly disappear (creating even more financial pressure), (3) begun incurring substantial operating losses which threatened his solvency, and (4) was diagnosed with cancer and had been undergoing several weeks of chemotherapy.  Needless to say, he came to his first C12 meeting with a number of threatening challenges on his plate.

During the group’s Open Table time, Steve shared a few of his seemingly intractable challenges.  They involved his organization, overhead expenses, the need for major new accounts, and a confession that he had begun to harbor fear and anxiousness which seemed incompatible with what he knew about his eternal security in the Lord.  The group spoke frankly with Steve and offered many ideas, much encouragement and a season of targeted prayer.
 
Steve became a C12 member the next week and came to the following month’s C12 meeting with an exciting report of progress from implementing suggestions he had received from his peers the month before.  Things seemed to be looking up, and although several more difficult months lay ahead, Steve was able to persevere in the Lord, aided by the continuing encouragement of his fellow C12 members and his wife.
 
A year later, the business had achieved modest profitability, Steve’s cancer had been in remission for several months, and a strategic buyer ‘came knocking’ to discuss the possibility of acquiring the company and keeping it running for the long-term as a regional production site.
 
Ultimately, Steve sold the business and continues to follow the factory’s fortunes and generate income by being its landlord.  With his available time, he has begun overseeing a local Bible-teaching ministry and has become a C12 Area Chair in the region adjacent to the one where he was first introduced to C12 just a few years ago.  God is good!  
     
THIS ONE REQUIRES PRAYER AND FASTING!

Tim joined C12 after several years of running a high-end retail establishment in partnership with a man to whom he seemed to be increasingly unequally-yoked and in fundamental disagreement regarding operating philosophy and future strategy.  The resulting lack of cohesive leadership brought about a steady decline in the company’s financial performance, even as it continued to expand geographically and grow its indebtedness.
 
Tim’s biggest problem was tied to an inability to steer the ship as it was taking on water, coupled with the fact that he had considerable personal assets pledged against the company’s primary debt.  This loan was callable at calendar year-end, and there seemed to be no way for Tim to avert a personal financial catastrophe unless they reached quick consensus on a radical new approach to organization, ownership and financing.  Unfortunately, the partner had very little to lose in the current situation and was not motivated to change anything!  Further, he had a cadre of advisers (including a ‘silent investor’) who seemed to be angling for outcomes counter to Tim’s best interest.
 
Tim had become quite convicted about his years of ignoring the danger signs and living with compromise regarding the ‘business side’ of his life.  His year as a C12 member had helped him to see several prior decisions he might have made differently, but his immediate issue was avoiding business liquidation and financial hardship for his family.  For months, his C12 peer group had provided brainstorming ideas and specific approaches Tim might discuss with his partner.  Nothing he tried, however, was met with any interest. Many seemingly good recommendations, aimed at avoiding the looming crisis, had failed.
 
Tim’s C12 group met for its final calendar year meeting just 10 days before the bank’s cut-off date.  After much discussion and prayer, it was clear that no new idea had surfaced which held promise to avert him 'hitting the wall’.  It was at this point that a C12 member offered the Scriptural advice that, having come to the end of their ability to impact Tim’s situation through their own means, the group should consider ‘fasting and prayer’.  Following a discussion of the Biblical practice of fasting (Jesus said “when you fast…” not if), the group agreed to all fast and pray over the next 24-36 hours.  Many of the older children of individual C12 members watched expectantly (some skeptically) as their mom or dad fasted for the first time that night.
 
The later report of how God moved that very night is a testimony of God’s ability to act at times when our flesh is unable.  Tim’s partner came to him that evening, along with the previously contrary ‘silent partner’, and offered a solution to the dilemma which seemed inconceivable, as they had previously rejected it out of hand.  Within a few days, Tim and his previous partner reorganized the business into two ‘affiliated’ companies, with separate ownership/organizational structures and a way to leverage combined overhead in key operating areas.  Tim averted losing his previously pledged assets, and is now at the helm of his own business with sharply reduced debt exposure.  Most importantly, dozens of folks in C12 families and in Tim’s business saw the Lord’s hand in an unforgettable way.  God is sovereign!
 
UNLESS A KERNEL OF WHEAT FALLS TO THE GROUND…

Mark had become the President of a $50 million industrial value-added distributor with roughly 150 employees.  As someone with a financial background, he knew that his primary asset as company leader wouldn’t be technical prowess, but he felt that servant leadership, solid teamwork and caring for his associates would carry the day.  Realizing that many employees are ‘conditioned’ not to totally trust the boss, he engaged the services of a Corporate Chaplain (see C12 Strategic Affiliates) in order to provide an extra level of care and a tangible expression of Christ’s love for all of his team.
 
One day a tough and gruff long-time employee (we’ll call him Ramon) died unexpectedly.  Amazingly, Ramon had surprised everyone by coming to Christ through the Chaplain’s ministry just a couple of weeks before he sat down next to his garage and had a fatal heart attack.  Ramon’s family had very little means to fund a formal funeral service, and Mark realized that his entire workforce would dearly love to pay their respects.  Rather than help to fund a remote funeral which would necessitate his employees either missing a significant amount of work time or being unable to attend the service, Mark decided to have their Corporate Chaplain conduct a memorial service at the factory, which everyone could attend during a two-hour shutdown.  This would maximize everyone’s ability to attend and would spare the family the expense of making other arrangements.
 
Turnout for the memorial service was impressive.  The fact that Ramon had accepted Christ very recently, and was now in Heaven, was a powerful message for all in attendance.  Even more impressive was the way in which many employees and family members responded to the Chaplain’s message regarding their passing of their unsaved associate and the message of eternal life through the Gospel of Christ.  50 people came to the Lord during this brief time!  This was overwhelming to Mark, and also to a guest that day who was one of Mark’s key customers.
 
Within the next month, Mark noticed a newspaper article describing a boating incident in which four employees of his customer’s company had drowned.  Mark contacted him to describe the impact of the memorial service they had hosted for Ramon and offered the services of his Chaplain.  The customer accepted Mark’s offer to come and see him to discuss this possibility.  Mark drove the Chaplain to the customer’s business expecting just to chat about planning a memorial service.  Instead, the customer had assembled his entire workforce (half Hispanic) and a memorial service was held right then, with a supervisor translating the Chaplains words into Spanish.  Again, the Lord used this faithfulness, mightily, as roughly another 50 people accepted Christ as Lord and Savior!
 
The Lord was pleased, in his amazing grace and sovereign plan, to use Ramon’s passing and the faithfulness of a Christian CEO and his Chaplain to draw nearly 100 people to Himself during this brief period.  This represents more salvations than all but a handful of mega-churches can claim in a year and is a testimony to the fields being ‘white for the harvest’ when we respond to His command to be witnesses and make disciples.
 
WHO DEFINES "WHEN IT AIN'T BROKE"?
 
Ken owned a landscaping business which primarily employed Hispanic workers.  As a C12 member, Ken had become increasingly convicted over the number his employees who were actually illegal aliens, as this was an obvious violation of the law of the land even though it seemed common in his industry.
 
Ken’s asked his C12 Group for counsel on this longstanding situation.  He had never had trouble over it and ‘everyone’ in his field was doing it.  In fact, he would likely lose many of his very best employees if he acted.  Through the counsel of his C12 Group, and much prayer, Ken was led to (1) pay for the workers to return to Mexico, (2) wait for them to re-enter the U.S. legally, and (3) hold their jobs open for them if they returned.
 
When 12 of them were able to return, legally, to work for Ken, he held a welcome celebration and invited a Spanish-speaking pastor to interpret for him as he spoke to them.  He told them that the basis for his care and concern for them was the love of Jesus Christ, and he offered them the opportunity to receive Christ as Savior.  All 12 of them took this life-changing step!
 
Years later, most of these workers still work for Ken.  He learned that although it may appear risky to obey God and conscience, even the temporal rewards are often far in excess of the cost.  Ken, like many C12 members, learned that applying Scripture to daily business decisions will often be counter-cultural!   
 
JUST IN TIME
 
When Marty attended his first C12 Group meeting he had a huge issue to put before his peers during Open Table discussion.  He said, “My one question, and the sole reason for me being here today, was to ask you guys if I should continue my business or fold it up.”
 
Marty’s business was struggling with cash flow problems exacerbated by high debt.  He had followed his father as head of the business, and though he had spent several years with the firm, he really lacked a sound grasp on financial management and basic business practices.  The business owned its property and buildings, but had an unattractive loan with a very high interest rate.  The firm’s near term growth prospects seemed solid, based on a planned new market entry with a high potential new product, but the core business was rather unremarkable.
 
When he presented his two-month-old financial reports to his C12 Group that day, he began to receive feedback from a few of the more mature business leaders around the table.  Looking at the asset value of the company’s property and the prospective cash flow of the business, they counseled him that it would be unwise to close the business and that he had options that he hadn’t yet identified.  One member recommended that Marty consider a new banking relationship and arranged to have him meet his own banker.  He also helped Marty to bring his financial reporting current and to get a better handle on operating cash flow.
 
Within a short time Marty had a new loan with far more attractive terms (helping to free-up valuable working capital) and began a solid relationship with a helpful banker who has subsequently become a valued long-term partner.  Marty has been in business for 13 years since his first C12 meeting.  While the business has had its share of ‘ups and downs’, it has remained profitable and growing.  Scores of people have come to know the Lord, been encouraged to grow in their faith, or been helped through gifts given in Jesus’ name.  Marty is now in the process of rolling out another new exciting product line.
 
Looking back, Marty’s case study reveals the tremendous power available in peer counsel.  In this case, the experience and encouragement of other members not only saved Marty from declaring business and personal bankruptcy, but has led to the business being used by God in countless ways!
 
OBEDIENCE LEADS TO MUCH FRUIT

Jay is the Owner and CEO of a firm which designs and builds high-end homes.  In its metro area, Jay’s firm is well-known as a proven major player which does quality work.  This resulted in a tempting offer to partner with a satisfied client who had significant resources and desired to jointly develop a prime piece of property which was just perfect for Jay’s market niche.
 
The potential partner offered to front all the cash needed and proposed to be a 50/50 partner with Jay’s firm doing all the design and build work.  Jay was faced with the enviable opportunity to be an equal partner, offering his core product and services in a project right in his firm’s ‘sweet spot’, without any upfront cash requirement.  There was, however, one fly in the ointment…the client was not a Christian.  To do the deal as proposed Jay would be ‘unequally yoked’.
 
There was a lively discussion within Jay’s C12 Group with members coming down on both sides of the issue, and many suggestions being offered.  The group’s ultimate consensus was to (1) meet with the client and use the situation as an opportunity to witness to him in a loving way, (2) thank him for his trust, but (3) explain that in order to obey a Biblical principle Jay could not be ‘yoked’ to him as a partner.  The group prayed with Jay for the right words to say, and for the heart of the client who Jay described as a ‘really good guy’.
 
At the next month’s meeting, Jay reported that the client had responded very well in two ways.  First, he said that he would hire Jay’s company as a consultant and pay him for services provided, also splitting the profits with him as though he were a partner.  Second, and more importantly, he told Jay that he wanted to know more about a God who meant that much to him.  The end of this great story is that the client, his wife, and his children all eventually came to the Lord!  In addition to ‘being a great guy’ he is today a great witness for Christ!
 
Jay and his entire C12 Group learned much from this experience.  Often situations that seem to be too good to turn down from a pragmatic business perspective, but require us to violate Scriptural principle, are given to test us and provide an opportunity to share the reality of our commitment in Christ with others.  God always rewards obedience to His Word, not always in dollars, but in eternal fruit.  Jay and his client will enjoy the fruit of Jay’s obedience together for a long, long time.  A lesson learned here might be:  always look for the potential for God to work in any troublesome situation.  Often He has hidden a golden nugget in a tough nut!

FREEDOM FROM BONDAGE

Another C12 member gives his testimony in his own words…

I have never understood why people refer to it as “our testimony”. Shouldn’t it be called “His Testimony” and our witness or life account of all the wonderful things Jesus Christ is doing in our lives; as He molds us and grows us up, as He transforms our minds and shapes our hearts, and as He pours His understanding and love into each one of our lives, revealing Himself and who He is in each one of us and who we are in Him.

John 15:1-11

Jesus had just performed a miracle in this guys life, a guy that Satan had a hold of and Mark tells us that Jesus told him to, “Go home to your family and tell them how much the Lord has done for you and how He had mercy on you“. I believe “your family” in this context meant, everybody that the man would came in contact with. Shout it to the ends of the earth!
Mark 5:19

This is His testimony for my life.
1 Peter 3:15

For the better part of forty-six years, like the demon-possessed man Jesus healed in Mark 5:19, I too allowed Satan to control and rule my life. I truly experienced every lustful and perverted pleasure this fallen world had to offer. I was a self-made, self-indulgent, prideful and arrogant entrepreneur; a shell of a man that didn’t even have God on the radar screen, yet I had been blessed from head-to-toe. I was as lost and as far away from God as anyone could possibly imagine, never realizing that Jesus was right there all along just waiting and protecting!
Romans 5:8

Even in the midst of the cocaine parties, booze cruises, and the hedonism getaways in far and distant lands, the Lord always had some sort of hedge of protection around me. I tell you the truth, it’s truly only by the Grace of God that I am here this morning to witness to any of this.
Ezekiel 33:11; 1 Timothy 1:15-16

I was captured by and in complete bondage to a thirty-six year drug addiction, serious alcoholic binging, and living completely over the edge in what seemed to be an endless pleasure paradox and quest for happiness and fullness of life. I had been blessed by God with a wife that was a saint in comparison; given two beautiful little daughters who rarely saw their daddy and a much older son heading in the wrong direction, never realizing that the little footsteps of a child are sure to follow.
Romans 8:20-21

Consumed and controlled by the all mighty dollar, which there was no shortage of in my life due to a ten-year-old global reach business that God groomed me into. It grew into my personal resource center for all the capital required to live this “successful life style” in which I was consumed by.
1 Timothy 6:10

Consumed to consume, the desire to acquire… This resource center allowed me to live in fancy houses, to drive the flashy cars, drip with gold and diamonds, eat and play at the finest restaurants and country clubs. It allowed me to afford the world travel and frequent Las Vegas getaways disguised as a businessman’s busyness.
1 John 2:15-16

By all the standards and values taught and accepted by the fallen world in which we live: work-hard-play-harder mindset, I had truly reached the pinnacle of life, living the American dream! When I had reached the very peak of world success, God finally opened my eyes! It was barren, it was a dead ended road, and it wreaked of death and darkness! This was the night I was rushed to the emergency room, with what I thought was a heart attack.
2 Corinthians 1:4

As I sat in my living room, I felt overtaken and consumed by something I can’t fully explain in words, but can only be described as a feeling and sense that life here was over and that I was getting ready to depart from this place. I feared for my life! I screamed for my wife, I huddled down on the floor with my wife and kids- the ones I realized, at that moment, that I truly loved more than life itself. I cried out to God not to take my life and to take care of my family because I knew I wasn’t going to make it!

God delivered me to the hospital and I had four days to consider where I was in life and how in the world did I get to such a dark and desperate place. Although there was never any medical explanation of what happened on that dark and fearful night of March 13, 2008, God opened my eyes to reality, gave me hope, stopped the madness and a whole lot more! The only way to describe in words what happened in that hospital over those few days was that God flipped some sort of “Off Switch” inside of me.

From there, God basically laid out a series of events in my life that I can only explain as supernatural and the Divine Plan of Jesus Christ for my life. God had a cure for every disease in my life. When I say disease, I refer to the addictions that are too lengthy to mention; the broken relationships -with my marriage, with my kids and family; my business and the poison I had bred into it and endless other things that I can’t begin to list. I want to share a few of His miracles in some sort of chronological order as He began His Divine house cleaning in my life:

• “His Off Switch”: I was a 3-pack a day smoker, daily pot smoker, cocaine abusing, binge drinker. After March 13, 2008, I never had the slightest desire to do any of these things again; He had set me free and broken the chains of bondage I had been captured by, all for His greater purpose and glory.
• Philippians 4:13
• “His House Cleaning”: Several days after getting out of the hospital, I was sitting at work, and the Holy Spirit called me home to clean house. I went home and cleansed my house of all the worlds temptations. I flushed the contents of my so-called fun box and poured out an entire private stock of gallons upon gallons of satan’s assorted pleasures and poisons.
• Joshua 24:15b
• “Success that Mattered To God”: My wife had signed me up for, “Man in the Mirror – Success that matters”- a men’s conference, months prior to March 13th. I had no intention of ever going and actually already had an exit strategy orchestrated. The Holy Spirit planted me there that Saturday morning and as I listened to one of the speakers life account of his own out of control and messed up life, I thought to myself, “surely there can’t be two of us in this world that have lived this kind of life?” When there was a calling to pray that prayer, I made a second decision for Christ, praying a similar prayer to the prayer I cried out back in March, just to be certain that God heard me.
• 1 John 5:14-15
• “Honesty Is God’s Best Policy”: After (16) years of marriage, my wife finally popped the question, the one that terrified me! “Have you ever cheated on me?” At that moment, the Holy Spirit spoke to my heart and basically said, “Tony, you have one shot at this- you have lied to everyone in your life for forty-six years; I can clear the slate today and allow the healing to begin, if you’ll just be honest for the first time in your life… right now tell her EVERYTHING!” “Everything?” Everything! I knew at that precise moment that I was not only about to lose my wife, I was also going to lose my children. I had some weird kind of peace and decided to just trust God! I cleaned out the closest and shared every dirty little secret of my life that morning- the prostitutes, pornography, mistresses, drug addictions, everything! I didn’t hold one thing back and in the process of all my realness, I ripped out my wifes heart. She had no idea of the man she had been married to for the last 16 years, but God knew that she was spiritually strong enough to hear the truth, the truth that would begin to set us both free from the grips and lies of Satan.
• Colossians 3:5-10
• “Weekend to Remember God”: Again, in God’s Divine plan, my wife had signed us up for some Christian couples getaway thing at church and again, I had an exit strategy already prepared. Still feeling the wake from the closet cleaning experience just a week prior, the roles were reversed for this weekend outing. I didn’t need an exit strategy, I needed a miracle sent from God to convince my wife to go with me to this ‘Weekend to Remember’ Christian couples getaway! My wife loved the new man that God had been transforming since March 13th , but she hated the old sinful man she thought she once knew. I simply asked her if she would join the new man for a weekend of healing and renewing – leaving all the consequences up to God for a favorable outcome! God truly gave us this weekend- the love letters, the date night on the premier weekend of the movie Fireproof, and a special anonymous book called the “The Love Dare”. It was too perfect to be anything other than God’s sovereign hand upon us. Our marriage was supernaturally brought into oneness with Christ and it was restored to the eternal covenant we had committed to 16 years prior, but never experienced.
• Ephesians 5:25-33; Ephesians 4:16-24; Colossians 3:9-11; Romans 6:6-14
• My Resource Center?: God had been completely transforming my life- it was overwhelming to me! There were still so many uncertainties, so many things standing between me and my Savior. God was revealing to me all the poison and corruption that I had built into my company- the resource center that helped fund all the things the old man once desired and the same thing the new man despised! And again, my wonderful wife who was always looking after her husbands best interests, had signed us up for another one of these Christan conferences! It was some Financial Peace gig and a guy named Dave Ramsey. I went just because the guy was a Christian and I remember as I watched Dave on stage, talking about managing the resources that God has entrusted us. He kept giving biblical account to how we are called to be good stewards of the green stuff and that it ALL belonged to God. I was blown away by his teaching about handling personal finances and his sensible action plan for living a debt-free life. At the end of the show, Dave called business owners to the stage and he shared with us his one-week, intensive business seminar in Mexico- one which he would be sharing similar biblical values, but applying them to our business, verses our personal finances in FPU. It was called “EntreLeadership”. My wife and I attended the event in Cancun that November and the personal one-on-one time my wife and I had the opportunity to spend with Dave, his wife Sharron, their kids, and his team was beyond awesome; it was a God-given opportunity to be mentored by this man! Dave Ramsey gave me the ingredients and a fundamental launching platform to build a Christian foundation for Ground Zero Electrostatics; to see the commonalities between a static control business and the Kingdom of God. It all sounded pretty weird, but something felt so right.
• 1 Chronicles 31:11; Isaiah 45:7; Romans 8:28
• His Ministry: Dave Ramsey and the EntreLeadership program gave us the cement and rebar to pour a Christian foundation, which has born much fruit for the Kingdom. He was beginning to reveal to me how Static Control and God fit together and what that looked like. So we had a solid foundation coming together, but we had no framework and not enough intentional Christians call-to-action. That’s when The C12 Group came into my life. It was a complete God thing, with multiple people all non-related to one another, telling me about this C12 thing. “What is it?” I asked one business consultant from Chicago. “It’s a Christian organization made up of local Christian CEOs, presidents and business owners. A group of peer-to-peer accountability partners that meet once a month and act as a board of directors and/or advisors.“ After about the fourth time God put C-12 in my path, I finally wised up, submitted and joined the group one week later. God had blessed us with the Christian, Biblically-based foundation and C12 was the actual framework- the Christian call-to-action, the wise counsel, and the conduit that God knew I needed to weather the imminent storms ahead. C12 was the voice of God’s wisdom that helped me realize that Ground Zero wasn’t my company at all- it’s God’s company! It’s the ministry and platform He blessed me with, the one He intended me to use for His glory and Divine purpose for my life! Today anyway…
• Psalm 24:1; Haggai 2:8; 1 Chronicles 29:14
• Waiting Through The Storms: By allowing God to guide me- through the practicing of His presence and by following and implementing the wise counsel shared by my brothers in Christ at C12, He was preparing me for the uncharted waters ahead. Times that would bring the rockiest and most barren terrain imaginable, and rough seas that would make the perfect storm look like child’s play. If someone could have given me a glance of my future, I couldn’t have conceptually imagined the series of trials and tests that God was about to allow to enter my life.
• Isaiah 43:1-3; Romans 12:12; James 1:2; Deuteronomy 31:6
• From Hero’s to Zero’$: As a company we literally went from Hero’s, knocking down $500,000 dollar months to Zeroes- clawing to muster up a $30,000 dollar month. This happened overnight and the business was drying up and evaporating before my very eyes. The harder I tried, the worse things became! I had lost 80% of our workforce and our bank reserves had plummeted to the point we couldn’t even afford to pay attention. There were many weeks where we couldn’t make payroll, even when we could, it was always paid in order of priority from staff to owners. I didn’t get it- God had completely consumed me for the past 12 months and I felt like I was walking on clouds; now I was asking myself, “Where did God go and who flipped the off switch on my business?” There laid the problem, “my business”. I was still putting the business before God; holding on way too tight and trying way too hard. This process took me from a prideful business owner, to a humble servant, to Kingdom building.
• Psalm 57:1; 2 Corinthians 12:9
• God’s Yoke Revealed: Humility wasn’t the only treasure in these trials. At this point in my journey, I plugged myself into every possible bible study and men’s group I could find. It wasn’t until my redneck cousin Skipper, had shared with me during one of our 4am Bible studies about the “Yoke of Jesus” and trusting verses trying. I hadn’t a clue at first, but God laid it on my heart to have a deeper understanding of what this yoke stuff looked like. It wasn’t an egg! Once I understood what a yoke was, God revealed His yoke to me. I must say that it felt weird the first day I took the yoke of Christ around my neck. I felt guilty because I was no longer driving the bus, I was just a passenger on the bus! It seemed too easy, I wasn’t working nearly hard enough, it just seemed to free me of my burdens. His revolution came to me during quiet time one morning… I was no longer in charge of my life or responsible for finding a solutions to our financial dilemma… He was! I was to just wait patiently on God and trust that He is in control. Trusting vs. trying, now there was a concept that would lead to growing my faith by leaps and bounds. His business, not mine? God’s in control, not me? He is my provider and I am His child? Wow! Could it really be all about God? Him guiding and me believing and trusting on God for EVERYTHING? This was and is exactly what it all meant.
• Matthew 11:27-28
• Trial By Fire: I resigned as CEO and signed on as Servant Leader. I was broke and broken. He had stripped me and His company of everything and then He began to turn up the heat at the office! With lawsuits coming in about one a week, and with collection calls versus sales opportunities at a ratio of 3:1, we were beaten down and feeling hopeless. Paychecks were scarce at best. Commissions were non-existent.  We were in survival mode and had been for months. Personally, my wife and I had never been happier in this new relationship with Christ. Then He turned up the heat on the homefront! It started with the A.T.M. machine spitting out a white piece of paper verses the green one I had grown accustomed to… “N.S.F.!, what in the world is wrong with this silly machine”? I rushed to work to confirm with my bank that this was just a bad case of fraud or a stolen identity thing. Sure enough, it wasn’t the A.T.M. at all, it was another three letter acronym, the I.R.S.! And they had just cleaned us out of our entire savings, my retirement, and every penny in our personal checking account! Things seem to be going from bad to worse and we were being tested to the gills!
• 1 Peter 5:10; James 1:2; John 16:33; 1 Peter 1:7
• Backup Plan: Our corporate attorney called and insisted on a meeting in his office to discuss a strategy to deal with the all-pending lawsuits that required our responses. Our plan was a common secular approach in business when people are under the pressure of the world and don’t know where their security comes from – Bankruptcy! Just walk away! What in the world are you waiting for?  File already! Our attorney’s plan was brilliant and I agreed to the conception of a new corporation in my wife’s name, hanging all our creditors out to dry in order to regain control of my life and my business. I should have felt great about this, right? Wrong! I had a pit in my stomach and an uncertain uneasiness, as I thought to myself, “We just crafted a wonderful and well thought out business plan - just be happy in it.” I knew that I would feel better if I would go to that downtown Bible study I had been invited to months prior and it was right around the corner. I walked in, introduced myself and they began to show a video about Faith. The story line was Abraham walking with God and God assuring him that He would be blessed with a son and that he would have as many descendants as the stars above. Abraham and Sarah weren’t getting any younger and decided to develop their own backup plan with Hagar just in case God’s promise didn’t work out. I immediately knew at that moment what I had just done and why I had that pit in my stomach. When I left the study, I called my attorney with the news that we were not going to be filing bankruptcy and that we were going to just wait on God to show up and deliver us or move on to other things. I think my attorney wanted to recommend a good psychiatrist to me!
• Hebrews 11:1; 1 John 5:4; Psalm 118:6-9
• Jesus’ In-Box: God kept reminding me of George Mueller’s contagious statement of faith – “I will always have all I need to do all You have asked of me.” Our finance manager and I were sitting in our typical Wednesday morning finance meeting, which never seemed to take much of our time back then. As we finished up in prayer that morning, we were both in tears over the abundance of financial trauma we were experiencing. Then, God put it on my heart to create and add Him to the series of incoming correspondence boxes that I had for all the employees. Since He was our new CEO and there was an empty box at the top, we were obedient to His request. In place of the tears caused by all the financial threats that were pouring into the company on a daily basis, we would simply place any financial threats and/or issues that were impossible for us to wrap our finite minds around into “the Jesus In-Box” – it was jammed packed! This was about a year ago and today the box is completely empty. The debt is still out there but is being paid back at an accelerated rate as God wills. God has poured His Grace upon all the threats and His Company is getting healthier by the hour.
• Matthew 19:26; Proverbs 3:5-6; Mark 11:22-23
• Blind Bankers: I can only describe the following as God’s Divine plan and another miracle from our Savior. Back in April ‘08 the bank that holds our maxed-out line-of-credit, called me into the bank for an ambush, I mean a meeting. The meeting wasn’t exactly with my banker, it was actually a loan committee and they wanted answers! Their biggest questions were:  “Do you know why we have asked you here today?”, “How in the world are you going to pay us the money you owe us?” and “Anthony, what are you doing to stop the bleeding?” I replied with a bold and excited, “We’re praying!” As they all stared at me and then at each other, as if I was from Mars or some other planet, the regional VP replied, “Seriously Anthony.” I rebutted, “I am being serious. We pray to begin our day and at the closing of our day. We pray with our customers and vendors alike. We even have Bible studies at work.” “We have elected God to step in as active CEO and I have backed down as servant leader. We are also working on right-sizing the business. I assured them that we were still the 5 million dollar a year company we were just two years prior and that we would be once again. I told them that we were keeping our hands and feet busy for Christ and that I felt confident that we would have a profitable June ‘09. The regional VP said He was curious to see if my story would carry any weight, despite the fact that they didn’t think we would make it the remainder of the month and that we were insolvent. He said he would allow us two months but would pull the plug if there wasn’t significant change.
• John 15:18-20; Romans 8:35-39; Psalm 27:1
• God’s Companies Are Resilient: We did end up having a profitable June ‘09 and by God’s good grace, Ground Zero Electrostatics has been profitable every month since. I praise Him that we haven’t missed payroll since early Q1, 2009 and at the current rate the Lord is pouring His abundance upon us, we will be a debt-free company by Q4, 2012. These things can only be explained by the Holy Power of Jesus Christ Almighty. The last word from our banker and I quote, “I wanted to tell you guys how happy I am to see this has all turned around for you. Keep up the effort and keep talking to the man in the sky!!! He seems to have a great impact on all of us!” Our banker has inquired about our Thursday Bible Study on more than one occasion. Praise the Lord for the things He has done and all that He is doing!
• Isaiah 55:11; Matthew 6:33
• God’s In The ESD Business: We have made the decision that once our debt is paid in full, and we are no longer slave to the lender, His company profits will be utilized for Kingdom building opportunities that God puts in our path. He has been doing amazing things through a generosity culture that was adopted in November 2009 and we are watching for every opportunity and the good works in which He has prepared for us beforehand. The old “resource center” that was once used for my personal, worldly pleasures has now been transformed into a profit center for the work of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior!
• Philippians 4:19; John 19:35 (NIV)

I could have literally rambled on and on for hours longer, sharing endless accounts to all the things Jesus has done in my life over the past twenty-four months. This journey has been amazing in how He has used me and His testimony to lead others to Christ and encourage the hopeless. We serve a star breathing, heart transforming, mind restoring faithful God that is our endless supply of acceptance, love, joy, peace, strength, courage, kindness, goodness, and every attribute that is desirable.

With complete victory and freedom in Christ, and by claiming the inheritance that I have in Jesus through trusting and believing, there is no longer anything I desire in this world in which we live except for the relationships He will develop through me while sharing His good news with the world. I Love You Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus and Almighty Spirit!