Who among us can be trusted ...

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Leaders who know their business and care keep a sharp eye out for the shoddy and cheap, For who among us can be trusted to be always diligent and honest? Switching price tags and padding the expense account are two things God hates. God hates cheating in the marketplace; rigged scales are an outrage. Love and truth form a good leader; sound leadership is founded on loving integrity. -Proverbs 20:8-10,23,28

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There is something about work that lifts the human soul. God is interested in not only what we do but how we do it. I suspect it has always been that way. Even the story of Cain and Abel in Genesis speaks of farming and tending sheep - and one brother appeared to do his work a bit better than the other. I wonder if God rejected Cain's offering of his crops because of the way that he worked his farm? Could it have been that his offering was"shoddy and cheap"?

What do you think of when you read "God hates cheating in the marketplace"? Many of us have been tempted to overlook an error on a purchase when it benefits us - sometimes a waiter forgets to include the charge for your coffee and it is so easy to overlook it. Yet woe be to that waiter if they overcharge us. In both cases only one party was involved in cheating - it is one thing to make a mistake on a bill but another to knowingly and willfully cheat another.

Lord help us to be diligent and honest in our dealings in the marketplace. Cause love and truth to form us.

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