Notes to Our Readers
“Commit your actions to the Lord, and your plans will succeed. . .”
Proverbs 16:3
C. Thomas Gambrell
Our mission is to galvanize a community of Christian business owners and success-minded people into accelerated Kingdom building activity, not only from a business or career standpoint, but also from an everyday living perspective. My coauthor, Gerald D. Rogers, and I are delighted by the fact that you are reading our book. We would like to start the dialogue and have this be a continuous process in order to bring the relevance of the Word of God to your activities outside of the brick-and-mortar church where you may be fellowshipping. Even if you’re not attending church, these principles and laws still apply to your pursuit of success. This book is for everyone—there is no discrimination in the dissemination of the Word of God.
Over the past decade, operating as career-minded individuals, business owners, success coaches, and family men, we have gathered insight to share with you on how to achieve “good success” based on the spiritual laws found in the Christian Bible. This book is a manifestation of all of the trials, tribulations, and triumphs that we’ve had over the past ten years. With full hearts, we welcome you to Success on God’s Terms: How to Think, Speak and Perform to See the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth.
So, dive right in and enjoy the learning experience. Thank you for taking this journey with us through the pages of our book.
Gerald D. Rogers
It is in a spirit of humility that we share with you the information found in this book. What we are sharing was given to us from our mentors and spiritual leaders. We’re excited about the opportunity to help you develop into the person that you’ve been created and uniquely designed to be.
Remember, success is relative to where you are and there is no end point to the process. For you, reading this book may be the starting point or just a stepping stone on your journey. Nevertheless, we wish to catapult you along your path, in every facet of your life, so that you can have maximum impact in your local, regional, national, and international marketplaces.
Many individuals are looking for success, but we’ve realized through our studies and experiences that success on God’s terms is the only type of success that is everlasting. We’ve designed this book to help you understand that, although material things are a part of success, the most important component is the character you possess. Only a character influenced by and grounded in the Word of God will allow you to have a lasting impact on the lives of the people in the communities you’ve been allowed to represent. These principles, if used properly, will allow your business to flourish in many arenas.
We challenge you to know where you are in your personal relationship with God through our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ. Utilize the information shared in these pages to maximize your earning potential in the marketplace, but more importantly, to be a witness and a living testament of the power of God.
We appreciate you for allowing us to serve you in this capacity. Thank you for your time, your energy, and your open heart.
Our Prayer for You
Father, we thank You for this moment in time. We pray, Lord, that You will continually guide and direct the paths of our readers and let this information be planted deeply in their hearts and have it return to You a thousand fold. Anoint their eyes to see clearly and open their hearts to receive the Spirit of the words on the pages that follow so that their minds and lives can be transformed. Let the words that they read speak to their souls. We thank You for this tool and mechanism to bring honor and glory to Your name. Thank You, for we declare these things in the name of Jesus. Amen.
How to Use this Book
The information in this book is not esoteric or something you have to contemplate for months, weeks, or years. We’ve been straightforward, transparent, and plain in our approach to designing this book. The idea behind this initiative is that we want to help you sift through the Word of God in a way that allows you to practically apply it to your daily life. Because the Word of God is plain and sure, we are all ministers—our lives are ministries to the people who are in our centers of influence. There is no gray area in our lives. We either lead people to the cross or away from it. Our life is our testimony. Either we’re leading people to liberty and eternal life or we’re leading them to destruction and certain death. You have to figure out what you want your life to reflect and determine the impact that you will have on people. If you’re lukewarm in your role, you’re leading people to death and destruction. If you have apathy and you’re not vocal about the things that you see happening in and around you, the inactivity and silence leads people to destruction and death. It’s like seeing someone standing in the street with their back to traffic and suddenly there’s a truck driving towards them. You see the truck coming, but you don’t say anything to the person and they wind up getting hit by the truck. The idea is that you have to be out there blasting and letting people know where you stand, if you are standing on the truth of the Word of God. That’s all we want to model through this process.
Do your own study of the Bible verses at the beginning of each chapter. We would like to have a dialogue with you. The text for this project was taken from our sixteen-week Success on God’s Terms teleseminar series. We have attempted to keep the dialogue in a conversational format as much as feasible. There is a premeditated flow to the topics, but each chapter stands on its own. Therefore, you can use the book as a reference guide and focus on the topic that resonates within you and you can read them in any order. We recommend browsing the chapters and pages on your first view, reading from the beginning to the end on your second pass, and studying each topic individually for a day or two, in any order you choose, on subsequent reads. Another great idea is to do the exercise above with a book club or Bible study group.