Cost of Doing Business?
Theme of the Week: Rated Trustworthy
Friday, October 10, 2008
 1 of 1
Key Bible Verse: The wicked accept secret bribes to pervert justice (Proverbs 17:23). Bonus Reading: Micah 7:2-4
When Christians are known as commitment-keepers and scrupulously ethical business people, we stand out from society's background noise of deceit, deception, and dishonesty. And that positions us positively in the marketplace.
The business of a friend of mine required frequent interaction with a certain branch of government in Cook County, Illinois. Usually one of his assistants handled those transactions, but one day when no one else was around, my friend went to the county building himself.
He encountered a petty form of extortion that everyone else had been tolerating for years as merely a cost of doing business. But instead of participating in the illegal activity, my friend simply said, "No, I'm not going to pay off."
He didn't shout or cause a scene. But his quiet but decisive refusal set in motion a chain of events that resulted in a federal grand jury investigation, a government crackdown, and eventually one little corner of county government getting cleaned up.
The truth is that the ethical temperature of a company, an industry, or an entire nation will notch up only when individuals make the commitment, one by one, to morality in business.
—Lee Strobel in God's Outrageous Claims
My Response: What kind of "pay offs" have I been tempted to make?
Thought to Apply: This old anvil laughs at many broken hammers. There are men who can't be bought. —Carl Sandburg (journalist, historian, biographer, & poet)
Adapted from God's Outrageous Claims (Zondervan, 1997, 2005) by permission.
Copyright © 2008 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine.
Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity. 1 of 1
 share this page
Please give me the boldness, Lord, to demonstrate Your righteousness where You've placed me.
Men of Integrity
Connect with God | Transform my Mind | Live by His Power
Relate Better | Make an Impact
Home | Archives | Contact Us
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
Try an Issue of Men of Integrity
Free!
|
 |
|
No credit card required. Please allow 4-6 weeks for delivery. Offer valid in U.S. only. Click here for International orders.
If you decide you want to keep Men of Integrity coming, honor your invoice for just $19.95 and receive five more issues, a full year in all. If not, simply write "cancel" across the invoice and return it. The trial issue is yours to keep, regardless.
Give Men of Integrity as a gift
Buy 1 gift subscription, get 1 FREE!
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
| 
RSS Feed
