Have you ever felt like a second-rate Christian because you work a secular job instead of serving as a pastor or missionary?  

Do you wish your life could count for God more than just the time you spend at church on Sundays and weekends? If so, today's episode is for you. 

This week we’re talking with Nate Belkstrom, who struggled with these same thoughts for years. After Bible college, Nate expected to enter full-time ministry but found himself back at his old job in food and beverage management.  

While his friend served as a missionary in Africa, Nate felt crushed. He wondered why he got stuck in a "secular, no-win spiritual job" while others got to serve God full-time. 

But God didn't change Nate's circumstances. He changed Nate.  

After crying out to God one day, Nate began studying every verse in the Bible about work. What he discovered was night and day different from what he'd been taught.  

Join us for an encouraging conversation about how your whole life is sacred and why Jesus wants to be your business partner, not just your boss. 

Redeem Your Business Today by the Following: 

How can we honor God in our business? 

Stop leaving Jesus at the door when you go to work.  

He doesn't need you to work for Him—He wants to work with you. We are laborers together with Him, and that applies to factory workers, mechanics, doctors, and engineers just as much as pastors and missionaries.  

Whatever you do, do it from your heart to honor God, and He will reward you for it. 

One challenge from today: 

Go the second mile.  

When your boss asks you to go one mile, volunteer to go two. It's actually easier to go two miles than one because you're in charge of the second mile—you've chosen it.  

Start with the small things: pick up that piece of paper, stay an extra five minutes, show up fully engaged.  

More About Nate Belkstrom

Website: victoryintheworkplace.net 

Video Podcast: Victory in the Workplace Podcast 

Apple: Victory in the Workplace Podcast 

Spotify: Victory in the Workplace Podcast 

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What God Says About Business

So have you ever felt that you are second rate Christian because you work a secular job and are not a pastor or missionary? Or do you wish your life could count for God more than just the time you're putting in on Sundays or weekends during the church time? If so, today is a good episode for you. We have brought on Nate Belkstrom, who has had a lot of these same and similar thoughts and one day ventured out to do something about it. And so we're gonna dig into a little bit of his mindset and

Thank

how he changed and what changed about him. his mindset today is that your whole life is sacred and it's not just the time you spend at church. And so we're going to dig deeper into that today. So Nate, glad to have you on and welcome. Yeah, and so question I like to ask all my guests is before we start is what is one way that you have found to honor God in your business?

Thank you David, good to be here.

One way to honor God in my business, just have a mindset that he's with me. I say this sometimes in one of my teaching sessions. I say, we have this mentality that when we go to work, we almost leave the Lord at the door. And we say, you don't want to come in here, Jesus. It's really nasty in here. Liars, cheaters, just the world.

Ha

operating at doing what the world does. so Jesus, you don't stay, you need to just stay out here and I'll see you after work today. Well, we don't actually do that, but you know what I mean. And I had a friend of mine that was city engineer once and he made this statement, David, and I apply it to us and the Lord. He said to his guys and he really had good rapport with his guys. He said, I don't need you to work for me. I need you to work with me.

Yep.

And I think the Lord says to us, because it says in 1 Corinthians 3, we are labors together with him. And we kind of tend to think about, well, that's if you're a preacher, that's if you're a missionary. No, no, it was written to ordinary joes, you know? And we are, when you go to the factory, when you go to the hospital, just this mindset that Jesus is your business partner. And in a sense, you're working for him. I get that. But it's also true the other side of the same coin, like we were talking about.

You are working with him and he is working with you. That's amazing.

Yes, I like that differentiation, working with Him and not just for Him. Very good. Well, Nate, give us a little background about how God has led you in business to where you are today and especially the shift in thinking that you experienced along the way.

You're asking a dangerous question because I've lived a long time and it could have a long answer. No, no, no, it Okay, I went to Bible college and a few years ago and my mindset was I would always be in ministry. I narrowly define ministry as anything in church, probably a pastor. Okay. And I remember David getting out of Bible college and I came, we to school in Texas. We moved back in Minnesota. Can you believe this 21 year old kid, there was not a church in America that was

Okay.

calling my phone number wanting me to pastor their church. Mostly 99.5 % of them didn't even know I existed, you know? And so we moved back to Minnesota. My wife and I, we'd been recently married and I went back to the same job I had before going to Bible school. Now, frankly, looking deep within my heart, one of the reasons I went to Bible school was to get away from that, you know? Enter ministry, sit at a desk all day, read your Bible, you know? And instead,

Sure. Yep. Get it.

Okay.

Sure, be great.

I spent those years at Bible College but in it back at the same job. Wasn't a bad job. Food and beverage business. We were the busiest private athletic club in America. I was banquet manager. Ultimately worked my way up to that. Had a staff of 25 to 30 people. We were like family. We really were. It was a great, we had many reunions after the fact, after I stopped working there. Well anyway, I have this friend, David, that I went to Bible school with and we sat next to each other in class. His name was Blake.

Blake graduated from Bible College, went to Africa and this was pre-internet days, know back in the Stone Age with the Flintstones. Yeah, you know those days. And he would send out snail mail newsletters, David. And these newsletters talked about all the people in Africa coming to know Jesus, all the people in Africa getting prayed for, getting healed, getting help. I would be happy for them, those people.

I would be happy for Blake, but for myself, I was crushed. was literally crushed because I knew Blake, he loved Jesus, I loved Jesus. He studied hard, I studied hard. As far as I knew, I could not pinpoint anything in Blake's life to say that he was more spiritual than I was and he deserved to be working in the kingdom of God and I deserved to be working this secular, no-win spiritual job. You know?

Sure, yeah.

And so, we took our, almost finished with my answer to your question. I would take, okay, thanks. I would take my vacation every year and go on mission trips. That's how much I wanted to do ministry. They were the best two weeks of my life, David. We'd go South America, Caribbean islands. And I tell you, I sometimes say it like this. They treated us like we were Billy Graham's brother.

That's fine. You're good.

And I just loved every moment of it. It was all ministry, street ministry in the daytime, big crusades at night, outdoors. I mean, not as big as Bill O'Grain, but they were still fairly good size. But then I'd come back to my other life. And I remember after one particular mission trip now, I can tell you exactly where it was, the corner of Dodd Road and Pilot Knob in Apple Valley, Minnesota. I'm on my way to work. I'm thinking, God, I'm about to go back to my

other life. And I'm not ready to do this, Lord. And I pulled the car over and David, I don't know if I was crying on the outside, know, guys don't do that a lot, but I was crying on the inside. And I said, God, I wouldn't have done anything stupid, I don't think, but I was beginning to go down that path in my thinking of hopelessness. I said, Lord, if you don't change my life, I mean, why can't I serve you? God, how come people I know

that can serve you, but I really can't serve you except for a few hours in church on Sunday and you know, otherwise here and there. And I prayed and I said, the way I say David got us so smart. He answered my prayer, but differently than I thought he would because he didn't begin to, he didn't change my job. About another two years I was there. Last year was one of the best years of my life. Gosh, it was amazing. But he began to change me.

Yeah.

Hmm. Sure. yeah. Yep, absolutely.

You know, we always want God to change the circumstance and usually God wants to change us. And he began to teach me because I got desperate and finally opened my Bible in Genesis and Genesis to Revelation, studying every verse that had anything to say about work. And I'd grown up in church, David, but I'd never heard 99 % of this stuff. And I'm looking at the Bible and what it says about work. And I'm looking at what my mindset about work and most of the Christians I know mindset about work.

And I'm saying, it's a night and day difference. And that was the beginning of it.

yeah. Hmm, very good. And so what is that? You talk about the night and day difference and I know I've searched the scriptures and sometimes, a lot of times, it's not exactly what we've been taught. But it's usually better. So what is the difference between the work that you've been taught and how you feel that God views work?

I think that, and now, my father was a pastor, and he was a very good pastor, so I don't mean to put, you know, and he made me preach down work, and I was sleeping during the message. It's very possible as a kid, you know? Probably was, but no, seriously, I don't think, David, I don't think we preach it so much as we just unconsciously all believe it. You know, now I've done a lot of study on this.

talking about believing that work is secular. think it goes back, we blame the Greeks for it. You know, if you want to blame someone, there were Greek philosophers, as I understand it, David, short version, there are Greek philosophers, you know, third and fourth century, whatever, who came to Christ, but they brought their Greek wisdom with them. And this part of the Greek wisdom is that there was a spiritual world and there was a natural world and the two really

didn't have anything to do with each other. And the natural world really for a spiritual person was unimportant. It's only about the spiritual world. Well, they did that. The Greeks, I mean, did that in the worship of their gods. people like I'm going to put out a name here. I think I'm absolutely correct on this. Let's say Aristotle for one. Most people have heard of him. They became believers and they combined faith in Jesus with

the philosophy that they had before they came to Christ. And these guys were honored as very wise people, as philosophers and that by other Christians. So that got ingrained in Christian culture that there is this divide. There's this wall and on one side of this wall is the spiritual stuff that you do. And on the other side of this wall is the natural stuff that you do. And you should look to do more if you really love Jesus.

You should look to do more of the spiritual and less of the natural. Very sad.

Yep. But like you said, God gave Adam a job to do before the fall because we need work to do. And I know for myself, and I know I'm extreme that way, I enjoy doing things. I enjoy working and doing things. And that's part of, though, I think the good works God calls us to do. God has called us to be zealous for good works. And our work in the workplace is part of that.

productive work, doing a good job, but in doing good things for other people. So yes, as you do good works and as you work well, that is a reward of itself that God has given to us. Yes.

Can I tell you this, David? My wife was in a very severe auto accident, head-on crash about two and a years ago. Long recovery process, about two months ago, she's a nurse, about two months ago, still dealing with pain, but taking that step forward. If we want to spiritualize it, say taking that step by faith. She went back to work. David, her first day home after work, and this is, mean, that first year, she...

Mm.

I mean, depression was just bombarding her every day because she was in constant chronic pain, you know? Anyway, the Lord worked and, you know, turned that attitude around. Now still dealing with pain, she goes back to work. She comes home first day of work. David, she's like a kid in kindergarten. Oh my goodness, she's coming home and she's, oh my goodness, and this happened at work today. And I talked to this person. I said, and I said, her name's Chris. And David, I said, Chris, you are so alive right now. And you know what she said to me, David?

She said, it feels so good to feel fully human again.

Hmm.

back at the workplace. I think we're all wired that way.

I think so too. And I think people start to discover that when they retire, they don't have anything to do. I know a lot of people is like, I'm actually busier now than when I had a job, because they find things to do, because they're not just going to sit around and do nothing. But yeah. So you've talked about taking your workplace and viewing it not as a secular place, but viewing all life as a sacred ministry. How can we do that in a workplace? If I'm a worker going,

I'm not preaching the gospel, I'm just working. How can I do that? Bring God into my workplace.

The answer is simple. The application of the answer is a lifetime of reprogramming our thought process because it sounds too good to be true. People ask me as I do these victory in the workplace seminars, what type of job should you work? The Bible does not emphasize any type of job. It says whatever you do, the way I say it this way, anything legal, moral, and ethical. Can't do mafia.

Okay.

Sure.

Sure, sure.

Can't sell drugs. really that verse in 1 Corinthians 10, I don't remember specifically how you asked your question, but I know this first popped in my mind when you did, David. 1 Corinthians 10, 31, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, plumber, engineer, mechanic, doctor, airplane pilot, et cetera, whatever you do, do it to the glory of God. And God cares about it. I'm just reading a book. don't know if you've ever...

read this gentleman, Ed Silvoso. He's one of my mentors when it comes to marketplace ministry and just driving home this truth. And there again, mentally, I think every Christian would kind of sort of agree with this, but in application, it's a whole different thought pattern. Does God care about what you do as much as he cares about you? Yes.

We would hesitate to say yes, I mean, are you a parent, David? Okay, do you care about what goes on with your kids as much as, that's part of who they are, right? And those early Christians, I just love David Ephesians chapter six, 75 % of the first century Christians were slaves, 50 % were low level slaves. They write their spiritual mentor and father figure, Paul.

I am.

And, you know, he tells them about marriage. He tells them about parenting. And then they get around to work and they were slaves. And Paul said, go to work. You're not working for just your slave master. You're working for Jesus and whatever you do as a slave. You're not preaching the gospel. You're taking out garbage or you're cutting wood. You're going for water. You're doing all the stuff in the first century that slaves did. And Paul said, whatever you do, if you do it from your heart,

Yes.

to honor him, he'll reward you for it. And there were many stories, I wish I knew more of these, I wish I had a resource to find more of these, many first century stories, David, where the Roman master and the Jewish slave, and the Roman master in the natural has all the authority, has all the resources, has a life that is to be envied, and it's just the opposite, night and day difference again, just the opposite for the Jewish person, but the Jewish person has joy.

The Jewish person has the kingdom, righteousness, peace and joy. And one day, and I've heard modern day stories of this, one day the Roman master just can't take it anymore, says to the Jewish person, I'm a master, you're a slave, you're always joyful, you're peaceful, you're helpful, you're kind. Why are you so different? Well, they're asking you to tell them about Jesus when they say that. Yes, they are.

Oh yes, they are, yes. And that's very, again, it's simple but hard to apply because it's a habit and again, you're thinking that yes, I may not like this person, but I'm going to go all out and serve them, do the best job I can wherever I'm at. And that should be our attitude, shouldn't it? But you've told me, yeah, yeah.

Yep, and David, to serve your boss, I'm sorry to interrupt you for a second, but to serve your boss just like you would serve the Lord. The Lord, you know, God puts something in your heart. Go to your next door neighbor and do something nice for them. You do it. Your boss, who may or may not be nice, that's got nothing to do with it, says to you, David, do this? You say, yes, ma'am, yes, sir, because in essence, you're not just serving them, you're serving him.

Mm-hmm.

Yes. You have told me before that when you ask some people, would you rather have a Christian working for you or a non-Christian working for you? And you said that there are many times choose the non-Christian because the Christian a lot of times doesn't have a good attitude about work. What is it about that? Why do you think that the Christians don't, why don't people choose a Christian worker versus a non-Christian worker?

I prayed about that David, because I wanted the answer to that question and I feel I got an answer that satisfied me. First of all, we're generalizing here and there are many Christians who are exemplatory in what they do. We know that, but what we're talking percentage just now. Yeah, two thirds of all bosses I would say have said to me, Nate, I'd much rather have non-Christians work for me than Christians. Here's why I think David, a non-believer

Sure, yeah.

if they're halfway smart, and most of them are, they want to as much money as they can. And they know, I work hard, I do the best I can, I'm probably gonna make more money. Okay, so they're engaged more so. Now, again, this is a general statement. Whereas a Christian, and I've had Christians tell me this, you know, just,

They're there. What's God want me to do in my life? What's his will for me? You know, so they go to work and they don't see it as spiritual. They probably see it. Their job is a waste of their spiritual time. They're kind of in this Twilight Zone mentality. What does God want me to do? And they're not fully engaged. I mean, I've had people tell me they work with guys who go out partying.

and they're out half the night. They get two to three hours sleep. And younger guys, don't think guys my age or the guys your age and younger might do that. And they go to work the next day. And this Christian boss said, they do amazing work. Why? Because they're engaged, because they know better they work probably the better they're going to get paid. And it's all about the money for them.

yeah, yeah.

Christian shows up at work and well, you know, I don't know, especially if a Christian is working for another Christian. He's my brother. He needs to treat me well. We're friends. We see each other in church. All that wrong thinking comes in and yeah, the, the unbeliever will be more engaged for the wrong reason, but they'll be more engaged oftentimes than the Christian. A friend of mine worked for BBC.

This is overseas, British Broadcasting Corporation. That is the job to have here in the field that she was in. And she said she'd go to work. I mean, her story, her words, David, she would go to work and non-Christians just, I mean, this is my dream job, yeah. And they're getting after it. She'd go to work and, well, I don't think this is what God really, and she'd work hard enough. I say it this way, work hard enough.

it to work just hard enough not to get fired and get paid just enough not to quit. It's all about the heart. Here you've got unbelievers pouring their heart for the wrong reason, but at least they're pouring their heart into it and you've got believers being double-minded. This isn't spiritual, this is unimportant to God.

Yep.

I know the answer and you've already said the answer, but I want you to say it again. How do we as Christians make that more our priority so that we can actually work as unto the Lord? mean, that's the answer that we need to view our work as working not for this employer, but as we're working for the Lord. We need to do that. If you have the attitude, you're going to go all in and go all out.

Tell me.

huh.

What is a step that we can do to get that attitude?

David, is there a step one, two, three? I mean, I wish there was. I think it comes down to just understanding what the Bible says about work and having a heart. If you don't have a heart to totally please the Lord in everything you do, mean, none of this is going to work anyway. But if you are generally born again by the Holy Spirit, you have received the gift of eternal life.

recognize that Jesus gave his life for you. Now we're called to give our life for him and we find out, okay Lord, how do I do this? You look in the scriptures, scriptures is whatever you do. Okay, I do a teaching at Teen Challenge. They often minister at Teen Challenge, an amazing organization. And I'll take a piece of paper and I'll throw it on the floor. And I'll say, you know, okay, here's just some different attitudes about that piece of paper. One is walk by it and go stop my job. Yeah, really.

Another attitude is, that piece of paper is on the floor. I'm a resident at Tee Challenge talking to the guys who are residents there. This is messing up my area, my space. No one's around. No one sees what I'm doing, but I'm going to pick up that paper because I'm going to take care of what God's given me responsible for, and I'm going to do it to honor Jesus. Now, we don't say all that out loud because it's just as simple, but

David, you do a hundred little pieces of paper type things a day and it all adds up. Yeah. I mean, Jesus died for me. Can I pick up paper for him? Can I honor my boss? Even though my boss is ornery, can I stay an extra five minutes when everybody else mentally checks out 15 minutes early and is out of there as soon as they possibly, you know, all these little things added up going the second mile. You know, the boss says, David, go one mile. What did Jesus say to do? Go two.

yeah, yeah.

yeah.

I'm sure the disciples looked at each other and go, man, I do not get this because this does not make any sense. But David, you realize the light that shines for Jesus when we from our heart go, we volunteer to go the second mile. It is easier, I know you didn't ask me about the second mile, but I interject this real quickly. It is easier to go two miles than it is one.

Because when you go one, it's kind of like, have to do this, kind of like a drudgery. But when you, inside of yourself, decide, okay, the boss said I gotta go one, but I'm gonna go two. All of a it's like you're in charge. And people get energized by doing more than they're expected to do.

Mm-hmm. Sure.

I mean, my kids, one time they cleaned up the house when we were gone and we had given them the parental speech, don't burn the house down, okay? Don't beat up your brother and don't burn the house down. We came home, David, they had made cookies, so chocolate chip cookies, the aroma was amazing, living room was clean, every room in the house was clean. And my son, was five years old at the time, is jumping up and down, he's so happy. I thought.

Sure. Yep. Yep.

That's what it's like when you go the second mile.

Sure, yep. And one of the things I've picked up as I'm reading through the scriptures and studying it is remembrance. know, Peter talks about, I'm gonna remind you, as long as I'm here, I'm gonna remind you. Deuteronomy 8, Moses talks to the Israelites and says, when you are prosperous, don't forget God. Because it's when you forget, you go astray. And I think that's probably what we need to do here is we know in our head that

Don't forget.

we serve God, you have to do something to remember that. If you can get in the head to remember that day by day, remember that when things start to go sideways at work, it's like, yeah, I'm here for God. But yes, it is a habit. It is a habit to, mindset and all that to everything you do, you're doing it for God, not for man.

Absolutely.

And David, tell people if you had to choose, now fortunately we don't have to choose, but if you had to choose to have the Holy Spirit and the presence of Jesus with you in church or at work, where is it more important? Work. Because if you go to church and you're totally zoned out, you're surrounded by believers, you're surrounded by people that'll encourage you. Someone's leading music and telling you just focus on his, you know, you're getting all this encouragement to make it all about him.

At work. yeah.

You go to work, you may be the only one. Yeah. Yeah.

nothing. So, well, Nate, I know you may not like steps and all that stuff, but it's a one step that we could take, one practical step to help put this into practice, help put God back in the workplace for us.

One practical step. Give me a moment to process that.

recognizing that he cares about everything. mean, didn't he even say a glass of cold water would be rewarded? No, there's a verse in the New Testament that you can draw that conclusion from. and he cares. David, if he only cares about 90 minutes on Sunday morning and maybe an hour on Wednesday night and then our few minutes of devotion time in the day,

yeah.

yeah.

We're going to feel like spiritual lone rangers, 160 hours a month. he cares. Yeah, he cares about the bird that falls to the ground. He even cares about how many of these you and I got. So of course he's going to care about our inner reaction with people who need to see Jesus and they don't go to church. They don't read their Bible. were as the old cliche, the only Bible they're going to see us.

Sure.

as we live out our Christianity every day, every way we can. Praying, can I, you got time for a quick story?

Okay, a short version of this. I worked at a fancy restaurant in Bible College and everybody was a non-believer. Everybody spoke Spanish. This was Texas. I learned lots of Spanish swear words, okay? Just because I heard them all the time. As far as I knew, I was the only believer. My friend goes to work, David. And this is kind of how the ministry got started. My friend goes to work and there's a little table in the corner to sit down take your break.

Sure.

He sits down, it's wild and crazy, people are yelling, people are screaming, and he sits down, David, and he does this.

for maybe 30 seconds. Audibly, he said nothing. David, I'm standing on the far side of the kitchen area watching this. The atmosphere changed. People stopped yelling. People stopped swearing. And I'm going, what just happened here? He didn't preach, because that doesn't go well. He didn't even say one word out loud. He just demonstrated a reverence for God, a gratefulness for the lunch he was about to eat.

Hmm.

and it changed the atmosphere. You know? I used to play chicken prayers. You know what a chicken prayer is?

Yeah, you looked at this way, you looked at it you hope no one's watching. Father bless his food in Jesus name. That is so wimpy!

Okay.

Yeah. Sure. Yep.

And my friend was not wimpy. He was bold in action and it changed the atmosphere.

Very cool, very neat. Well, Nate, thank you so much for your time and encouragement today. This has been great. And friends, your next steps to put into practice what you've heard is check out the show notes for some links and sites to get a hold of Nate and learn more about his victory in the workplace ministry. And also sign up for the newsletter to receive Bible verses for business success, for you to be read and encouraged and delivered straight to your inbox. And remember, your business represents the great God you serve. So build it in a way.

that is worthy of God's great name and that honors him. Bye for now.