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J.C. Penney: The Golden Rule is Not Enough! · Traveler’s Tales

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  If you walked through a department store today and saw the name J.C. Penney, you might think
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  of racks of clothing, sales, signs, maybe even a memory from years gone by.
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  But behind that name is a man, a man who built an empire on one simple sentence of scripture,
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  and then nearly lost everything because he misunderstood it.
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  Listen again to the words of our Lord in Luke 6, 31.
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  And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.
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  That verse became the foundation of James Cash Penney's life.
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  I'm Greg Dowdy, and you're listening to Traveler's Tales, produced by Enjoying the Journey.
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  Some Christians in history are known by their name, but not by their story.
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  Here on Traveler's Tales, we love bringing those untold moments to light, revealing how
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  God worked through ordinary people in extraordinary ways.
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  Born in 1875 in a small town in Missouri, young J.C. Penney didn't start with wealth.
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  He started with something far more valuable.
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  He was raised in a home where God was real, a praying mother, a father who preached the gospel.
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  Faith wasn't something they talked about on Sundays.
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  It shaped their daily lives.
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  Those early impressions stayed with him.
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  In 1902, with very little to his name, Penney opened a small store in Kemmer, Wyoming.
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  But he wasn't just building a business.
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  He was building it on a principle.
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  It's called the Golden Rule.
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  Treat people right, be honest, give value, do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
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  And God blessed it.
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  That one store became many.
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  The Golden Rule chain was born.
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  In 1913, it became the J.C. Penney Company.
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  Success followed success.
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  Wealth increased, influence expanded.
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  But here's the turning point.
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  By 1929, J.C. Penney was worth $40 million, and within a year, he lost it.
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  The stock market crashed, his fortune vanished, his health broke, his spirit collapsed.
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  And at that moment, when everything outward was gone, he came face to face with a truth
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  he had long avoided.
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  You can live by good principles and still miss a real relationship with God.
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  J.C. Penney later admitted that he had been living off what he called spiritual capital,
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  the faith of his parents, the influence of his upbringing, the residue of truth he had
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  been given as a child.
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  He had morality.
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  He had ethics.
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  He even had scripture.
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  But he didn't have daily fellowship with God.
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  And when life stripped everything away, he realized something powerful.
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  The golden rule is not enough without the God who gave it.
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  Through heartbreak and loss, the Lord brought him back.
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  Penney experienced a true spiritual renewal, not just practicing Christianity, but personally
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  walking with Christ.
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  And God allowed him to rebuild.
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  His business recovered.
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  It grew again, eventually surpassing billions in sales.
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  But more importantly, his life was rebuilt on something deeper than success.
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  He learned to depend on God daily.
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  He once said, it is absurd to pray on rising and consider that that takes care of one's
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  relationship to God for the day.
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  The challenge of living effectively makes it necessary to pray all through the day.
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  In other words, he discovered what 1 Thessalonians 5.17 teaches, pray without ceasing.
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  And also what John 15 reveals, that real life is found in abiding, living in constant fellowship
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  with Christ.
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  Here's the spiritual application for us today.
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  There are many people today, just like J.C. Penney once was.
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  Good people, moral people, principled people.
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  People who know the right things.
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  People who even tried to do the right things, but they were living on borrowed faith.
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  Maybe it's the faith of their parents.
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  Maybe it's the influence of a church.
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  Maybe it's something they learned years ago.
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  But listen carefully.
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  You cannot live today on yesterday's walk with God.
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  God does not want occasional attention.
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  He desires continual, daily fellowship.
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  It is not enough to pray in the morning and forget Him the rest of the day.
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  It's not enough to live by Christian values without living in Christ Himself.
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  The Lord is inviting us into something deeper, a real relationship, a daily dependence, a
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  moment-by-moment walk with Him.
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  So let me ask you, are you just practicing the principles?
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  Or are you walking with the person?
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  Are you living on spiritual leftovers?
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  Or are you feeding daily on the presence of God?
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  Because at the end of the day, success isn't measured by what you build.
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  It's measured by whether you walked with God.
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  The same God who restored J.C. Penney is ready to meet you right where you are today.
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  Thank you for taking time to listen to Traveler's Tales today.
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  Our prayer is that these stories of faith from fellow travelers will encourage your
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  own walk with the Lord.
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  If this episode has been a help to you, we hope you'll share it with someone else.
• 6:00
  For more Bible study resources, sermons, and stories that will strengthen your Christian
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  faith, visit ETJ.Bible, where everything there is designed to help you walk with Jesus and
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  share His salvation with others.