Choices

How to Start A Day

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How to start a day on the right footing, ever wondered that?   Before you put your foot on planet earth from your floating haven above the ground by 150 mm or more, before you step out of your cocooned security, the warm blankets.    As you decide to make that first small step that giant leap stirred by an alarm call, the sound of creation stirring or just your own body clock, how to start the day comes to mind in various ways.

Whether a fog over your eyes or clear thought “what does today hold?” moves through peoples mind, a day much like yesterday? a red letter day or for some the weight of the day is so heavy a reluctant awaking comes, having to face the riggers of the day.   How do I start my day?

Here’s a thought “God, investigate my life; get all the facts firsthand” this is not about finding my mistakes or looking for my failure, the Psalmist asks God to search him twice at the start and end of the Psalm 139:15-22, investigate me.   The picture painted is of a gold digger going to a deep mine, or panning for gold at a rivers edge, knowing that there is treasure in this stream, to search knowing the treasure is here.   God search for the treasure you put into me earlier before the foundation of the world.   It is  a wonderful secure search, investigate me to bring to light the treasure in side of me, the treasure you put there.   Starting the day with a search for the treasure that God put in side of you will remind you of his works each morning – a good way to start the day!

There is a popular action in many today of going to the streets and conducting a Treasure Hunt in peoples lives, as they go about their daily life, an exiting adventure.   Taking the gifts of God to the street and awakening people to the treasure of God.   Well to see it flow more so, I would suggest start the day with a God treasure search in you, the hand of God in you each day, the eye of the Lord each morning, from there you will deliver treasure more effectively.    Let God pan, dig deep to bring your treasure out to the light of day, that you might see you accordingly to heavens investment in you.

“…Investigate my life…”

“…An open book…” nothing closed – is this not the aim of our redemption which is a deliverance on ward going that nothing can be closed or shut off from Father God rather than just being open to people.    Its about having an open book life before God

“…Never out of sight…”

“…You’re there…”  Fathers companionship, never without God, always with God.

“…Too much…”

“…Too wonderful…”

“…I can’t take it all in…” –  what if life was like this, what a way to work with God at all times.   This  would bring us to a place of overwhelming, an amazing way of life “too much” one would cry, I can take it any more, not that I can’t cope, but its overwhelming me “too much” the God of too much.

May we discover God as the Father of “…Too Much…”

This is a very personal psalm (139) (notice the pronouns ‘I’, ‘me’, ‘my’, and ‘mine’) it is attributed to David and has been called ‘the crown of the psalms’. It is certainly safe to say it is one of the best loved of all the psalms and of all Scripture passages.

A day started with the attitudes of  “openness” “thankfulness” these are all good ways to commence a day, the writer tells us be thankful to God. Praise him, but how, not as we are inclined to praise God, for blessings we have received, but David praised God for who God is. Our praise will never be what it should be until we ascend to this level.      David starts the day by praising God for his perfect knowledge of him. Nothing about us is hidden from God.

He knows when we sit down and rise up (v. 2). He knows our thoughts before they ever come into our heads (v. 2). He knows all about our ways (v. 3).

‘… God knows what rule we walk by, what end we walk towards, what company we walk with…‘    Furthermore, he knows every word we speak before we speak (v. 4).

The psalmist stood in awe of God’s knowledge.

The things I know for each day :

“…Investigate my life…” “…An open book…”  “…Never out of sight…” “…You’re there…”  

The response I make:

“…Too much…” “…Too wonderful…” “…I can’t take it all in…”

To have this relationship is wonderful, to see the God of ‘too much’ to you at the start of every day, this is too wonderful, I cannot take it in, it is so high and lofty in my experience.

It is the only way to start the day what ever awaits the first touch down of my foot from my slumber!

Trends of the Spirit – Servant – Leader – Influencer

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Today the Spirit is re engaging our theology and consideration to realise that our God is a Trinitarian God and not a hierarchical God, as we have so often been instructed.   This simple change in understanding has major ramifications on all thinking and practice within our world.  We realise that theology is at the base of every decision and action in each society – it is time to review and adjust to the instructions of the Spirit and allow the impact to  stretch across our world.

There has never been so much debate regarding the way forward as there is today, with markets changing, people changing, with the needs and requirements of modern men and women.

We actually say that everyone is a leader in some way or another, whether a parent at home discipline, schooling, empowering their children or as a successful business entrepreneur.   You are influencing someone!

Leadership in most people’s’ mind would be thought to be seen, in the charismatic decisive directive goal filled person, with every one else listening and doing as they are told, yet over the years we have seen that this is so far from the servant leadership model, we are all called to.   Willing to pour oneself out for the advance and empowerment of others.

We live in a season where leaders are to be honoured yet Christ poured himself out; this was his style of leadership and influence.    I would even step out and say for true, lasting and worthwhile leadership it has to be “servant style” to be lasting.   As a matter of fact it is in vogue to talk generational in church settings and in mentoring business settings, yet lasting success can only be achieved through servant style leaderships or influence!    It is about time we discovered that once again.

“In times of drastic change it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned usually find themselves equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists”.

Eric Hoffer

The only way to avoid control or domineering of people’s identity, is to rediscover our call to servanthood once again.

As you read through the Psalm’s you can come across gems of thoughts on all emotions and experiences of life, one recently caught my attention “…Finish what you started in me, God.    Your love is eternal—don’t quit on me now…”(138:8), we are reminded that we have a God-given purpose, The Father has begun something in us and through us.        We are told in Paul’s writing each one has been given a destiny that has been for ordained, that was placed before the beginning of time.  Then in Philippians we are told that “… he who began a good work in you will complete it…” you see there is no shadow of turning on his behalf, when it comes to his will towards us and towards his purpose.

Each one of us are given the opportunity to imprison, empower, liberate others around you we can entrap friends and employees or bring them into the “… wide open spaces…” the liberty of God. It does not matter whether it is in the work arena or our faith arena, each one of us should be looking to enlarge others.

“The most immediate risk in your present way of operating may be that you could not be replaced, it there should be a need of that”

Robert Greenleaf, Servant Leadership

Decades ago a new book arrived on the shelves called ‘Servant Leadership’ written by Robert Greenleaf it has always amazed me how few books have taken on this focus, although I do believe for lasting impact we are beginning now to realise the distraction we have been brought into.    The term Servanthood, Servant, has been part of our vocabulary for many years and yet we still seem to struggle with its’ full implication in leadership and influence but subtle distractions come our way.   We seem to be still much more comfortable with a dominant leadership style, rather than one the soul reflects the Godhead and the modeling of Christ in pouring oneself out. Perhaps if we considered a different vantage point we could see a change, and move from the idea of being the chief to being a builder.

The servant leader is not the center of attention but the one that matures, releases and promotes others into their position. The servant becomes the stepping stool for others.

It is time that the church becomes aware of their lasting effect and become the leaders and influencers to bring about maturity.

“Servant leaders want to see the company even more successful in the next generation, comfortable with the idea that most people won’t even know that the roots of that success trace back to their efforts” 

Jim Collins, Good to Great

This “servant leadership” will be built on integrity and therefore will attract trust, people will enable men and women to sleep at night as they pulled out their lives for others. There will come a time with the using of others step is to achieve power will cease only as the impact of servant leadership is allowed to be seen.

To lead with the desire to become a successful as you aim to succeed in the very process, servant leadership it is our day greatest cover our call and vocation to evolve into Servant Leaders, to follow the Christ and explain the Fathers ways.

As we move more and more into the day of the saints, advancing from the priesthood of all believers to the ministry of all believers it is the lasting hand of the servant leader that will bring about a lasting impact for the Kingdom of God and his King.

This Kingdom will fill the whole of creation, and the joy of God, the church, will cause Christ to be seen in our world, by being the exact representation of his style in every way.   To love and empower, to free and give course for life, to be the incarnation in our generation through servants of Christ and leaders who are servants of all creation.

This is not a style of leadership but it is a leadership that endures and therefore brings about true lasting enduring advance

Leadership – discovering again its SERVANT nature.

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There are so many Leadership styles along with books urging us to discover style would be the best to lead making your mark amongst people and society.    We some times get confused how we who are followers of Christ should reflect the Christ in our work.    Jesus said in John 1:18 (NASB) “…came to explain the Father.” he has invited us to continue what he started, explaining the Father.    I have repeatedly stated and asked the challenging question of my self “do I  explain the Father” as I live my life, do we explain him.

My interaction with people, my work ethic, my conduct, character, the way I live life, are people gaining an explanation?     You and I have to admit we will through word and deed explain something of to others, I wonder what.     I wonder how I conduct myself in a supermarket line, the way I drive the car, my conduct towards those older, younger, or of any difference to me, what do I explain?   Do people walking away from me depart with an explanation of God or is it something else?

We have been called through our own temperament, they way we are cut our character and life not be like the leadership style in our own way but one that explains what God if like.   Leadership is clearly to be rediscover, is in urgent need to be seen as a SERVANT style, one that pours out for others, one that is more interested in establishing an inheritance for the next generation that building for our selves, that serves the society around giving away to build and establish through a servant leadership.   Let us rediscover in world govern by business, getting more and more, amassing wealth, gaining control a servant leadership that flows from being a son of God rather than endorsing an orphan spirit of protection of me and mine, working to make secure my provision rather than trusting the Father and being a Servant Leader.    the people of God would be different in itself if we could driver our delve storm celebrities to servant ministries and taking that model to our world.    Sometime we are so caught on making a mark we have forgotten the desired Christ like style to do so and fall to become “Christian X-factor” leaders rather than poured out Servant Leaders, Christ will triumph and we will become the Servant Bride- a Challenge to be different but explaining God!

‘Leadership is an opportunity to serve. It is not a trumpet call to self-importance.’

J. Donald Walters

‘You don’t have to hold a position in order to be a leader.’

Anthony J D’Angelo

‘Do you wish to rise? Begin by descending. You plan a tower that will pierce the clouds? Lay first the foundation of humility.’

St. Augustine

‘Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.’

Winston Churchill

‘But among you it should be quite different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must become your slave.’

Whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave. That is what the Son of Man has done: He came to serve, not be served—and then to give away his life in exchange for the many who are held hostage.”( Matt 20:27, 28)

Jesus the Christ

Good read to consider further – Leadership, Greatness & Servanthood Phillip Greenslade

9 things that will come to pass.

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I came across this recently thought-provoking list.   It’s a list of 9 things that will pass away in our lifetime, what will your world be like If these pass?   Start thinking and realizing the effect on our life style

Whether these changes are good or bad depends in part on how we adapt to them. But, ready or not, here they come…

1. The Post Office. Get ready to imagine a world without the post office. They are so deeply in financial trouble that there is probably no way to sustain it long-term. Email, Fed Ex, and UPS have just about wiped out the minimum revenue needed to keep the post office alive. Most of your mail every day is junk mail and bills.

2. The Cheque. Britain is already laying the groundwork to do away with cheque by 2018. It costs the financial system billions of dollars a year to process cheques. Plastic cards and online transactions will lead to the eventual demise of the cheque. This plays right into the death of the post office. If you never paid your bills by mail and never received them by mail, the post office would absolutely go out of business.

3. The Newspaper. The younger generation simply doesn’t read the newspaper. They certainly don’t subscribe to a daily delivered print edition. That may go the way of the milkman and the laundry man. As for reading the paper online, get ready to pay for it. The rise in mobile Internet devices and e-readers has caused all the newspaper and magazine publishers to form an alliance. They have met with Apple, Amazon, and the major cell phone companies to develop a model for paid subscription services.

4. The Book. You say you will never give up the physical book that you hold in your hand and turn the literal pages. I said the same thing about downloading music from iTunes. I wanted my hard copy CD. But I quickly changed my mind when I discovered that I could get albums for half the price without ever leaving home to get the latest music. The same thing will happen with books. You can browse a bookstore online and even read a preview chapter before you buy. And the price is less than half that of a real book. And think of the convenience! Once you start flicking your fingers on the screen instead of the book, you find that you are lost in the story, can’t wait to see what happens next, and you forget that you’re holding a gadget instead of a book.

5. The Land Line Telephone. Unless you have a large family and make a lot of local calls, you don’t need it anymore. Most people keep it simply because they’ve always had it. But you are paying double charges for that extra service. All the cell phone companies will let you call customers using the same cell provider for no charge against your minutes

6. Music. This is one of the saddest parts of the change story. The music industry is dying a slow death. Not just because of illegal downloading. It’s the lack of innovative new music being given a chance to get to the people who would like to hear it. Greed and corruption is the problem. The record labels and the radio conglomerates are simply self-destructing. Over 40% of the music purchased today is “catalogue items,” meaning traditional music that the public is familiar with. Older established artists. This is also true on the live concert circuit. To explore this fascinating and disturbing topic further, check out the book, “Appetite for Self-Destruction” by Steve Knopper, and the video documentary, “Before the Music Dies.”

7. Television. Revenues to the networks are down dramatically. Not just because of the economy. People are watching TV and movies streamed from their computers. And they’re playing games and doing lots of other things that take up the time that used to be spent watching TV. Prime time shows have degenerated down to lower than the lowest common denominator. Cable rates are skyrocketing and commercials run about every 4 minutes and 30 seconds. I say good riddance to most of it. It’s time for the cable companies to be put out of our misery. Let the people choose what they want to watch online and through Netflix.

8. The “Things” That You Own. Many of the very possessions that we used to own are still in our lives, but we may not actually own them in the future. They may simply reside in “the cloud.” Today your computer has a hard drive and you store your pictures, music, movies, and documents. Your software is on a CD or DVD, and you can always re-install it if need be. But all of that is changing. Apple, Microsoft, and Google are all finishing up their latest “cloud services.” That means that when you turn on a computer, the Internet will be built into the operating system. So, Windows, Google, and the Mac OS will be tied straight into the Internet. If you click an icon, it will open something in the Internet cloud. If you save something, it will be saved to the cloud. And you may pay a monthly subscription fee to the cloud provider. In this virtual world, you can access your music or your books, or your whatever from any laptop or handheld device. That’s the good news. But, will you actually own any of this “stuff” or will it all be able to disappear at any moment in a big “Poof?” Will most of the things in our lives be disposable and whimsical? It makes you want to run to the closet and pull out that photo album, grab a book from the shelf, or open up a CD case and pull out the insert.

9. Privacy. If there ever was a concept that we can look back on nostalgically, it would be privacy. That’s gone. It’s been gone for a long time anyway. There are cameras on the street, in most of the buildings, and even built into your computer and cell phone. But you can be sure that 24/7, “They” know who you are and where you are, right down to the GPS coordinates, and the Google Street View. If you buy something, your habit is put into a zillion profiles, and your ads will change to reflect those habits. “They” will try to get you to buy something else. Again and again.

Thought of Giving Up?

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The woman who would not give up

 Society all around us is in so much flux, our world is at a pace of change from one day to the next we wonder what will come next.    I come across many who just want to find rest and make a fundamental adjustment to bring peace.    Others who have had enough so to speak, they have tried and tried again but things have worked, what ever the ‘thing is for their life.

We live in a world that constantly speeds things up, instant, immediate delivery, drive thru’s not only for food but for banks, waiting for many has become an alien pastime.     Farming and waiting for a harvest is so far removed from many of us today, this is one factor in us losing the art of cultivation, to get a harvest, our harvest today is determined by the fields of fresh food in our supermarkets rather than watching the green shoots raising, waiting for the produce to grow and mature to bring about harvest time.   Being distant from the soil disconnects us from some of life’s schooling, being patient and persistent for example.    Perhaps a modern parable, rather than one of the soil is this one, I am writing this while in Cape Town with its ‘fast speed’ broadband computer connection, that is as it is sold by Telekom, the government telephone service.    The advertised ‘fast speed’, FAST SPEED!    It is 384 kbps; about half the speed of the old dial-up-network, that old buzzing hissing noise connection, where Virgin/UK are advertising 20 MB speeds.   You can purchase an even FASTER speed of 1 Mbps but its at double the cost for the line!   I give up downloading or uploading as its so slow, I give up waiting and persisting, it takes so long, even some necessary downloads i delay until I get to a faster environment.

We struggle to wait and be patient, wanting things NOW, we don’t wait and persevere so easily, we want to see things advancing or we determine it is not working.

We even do strange things, in reading the Scriptures, because we can read the book of Acts in one weekend, we think it all happened in 48 hours.   We treat our Christian walk in the same way, thinking it all happens in a weekend, but from Paul’s encounter with Christ on the Damascus Road to his standing before King Agrippa, it was a 20-year period.    We see every miracle, healing breakthrough in terms of immediate rather than reality, and we expect it all over and done with in a weekend.    By the way, this is not an appeal not to see the immediate work of God but one that adds to us as we have to learn the cultivating and preserving journey of our faith as well.   As we learn to see the immediate and the long-term, it gives sense to our daily lives, i hope.

Through out the scriptures we are introduced to people who stayed in, persisted when nothing was happening to the natural eye.   Introduced time and time again to a quality of living that is patient, persistent, consistent, staying in.

Two women for you to consider, just don’t switch off on me now, consider these to be shadows of the bride of Christ, the church and outlining attitudes that we find in the church.    The first being Mary the mother of Jesus who having had been delivered the earth shattering news of the plan for her life, in giving birth to Jesus having said “be it unto me” learned to cultivate the promise, she held it in her heart, quietly with drew and cultivated the word until it become a living promise in the arrival of her son.  Until the word arrived at a place where it could sustain life in itself, interesting thought, how many times have we left the word go before it had life enough to stand by its self, when it still needed our cultivation?     She shows us the attitude of how to cultivate all that God speaks to us.   There will be the gift of time delivered to us, so that we can cultivate the promise of God, to work with the words to bring it to pass, maturing it first in the inner life before we see it fully.    She knew its reality on the inside but it did take a while, 9 months, before it hit the seen realm.   The evidences of the promise had a challenged effect on her relationships and as her physical body changed shape to align with the promises, we are to stay in hold on too, being persistent as we change to bring about the promise, that more often for us all takes time.

The next woman who would not give up reading Luke 18:1-8, It’s the parable of the Woman Who Would Not Give Up. She was unrelenting in her pursuit of an answer to her plea.    This parable is a standard Jewish “how much more” (qal vahomer) argument: if an unjust judge who cared not for widows can dispense justice, how much more will the righteous judge of all the earth. Who was known as the defender of widows and orphans?      It was in a day when it was difficult for widows to get justice because they lacked the means for bribing the officers who would get the judge to act.   But this widow would not quit until the judge had given her what she was supposed to get.      You and I are to adopt the same attitude of faith.     More than that the church of God requires the same attitude of faith.    In recent years I have heard people use the phrase of “failed revival theology” a sadness from not seeing what we thought, or we thought by now the Kingdom of God would have arrived and transformed our worlds.    It is necessary for us again to take up this woman’s attitude to persist a little while longer.

I don’t know about you but I long for the church to be known as a people of faith who will not give up but press through, I want to be known as a man of faith who will not give up.   What i see must be big enough; my message must be big enough to keep me persistent.   I must add that God is not unwilling at all but I would focus this on us and our attitude not the Fathers willingness.

Jesus asks his disciples, “When I come, will I find faith in the earth?” As you meditate on this verse consider this:

“Will I find faith?” Jesus asked His disciples, “When I come…will I find faith?” When we have asked for something over and over, and there is no answer, we are tempted to give up, to give in to unbelief. Jesus, knowing the weakness of His disciples both then and now, taught this parable about faith through unrelenting, persevering prayer. A widow who would not give up she persisted, she would not give up. With that in mind, lay hold of what you have seen and the big message Christ brought.

“When I come…” We don’t know when Jesus will come or how he will return with the culmination of every promise made, but when He comes I want to have faith in my heart. By His grace, I will have faith.

‘Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he really find faith on the earth?’ (v. 8). This implies that faith is often strengthened by waiting on God and persistence in prayer, even if we do not receive immediate answers. Job had faith to recognise the goodness of God even when, humanly speaking, all seemed lost (Job 23:8–10).

Persist, persevere, staying in, keeping faith, are all necessary attitudes for our journey how are you’re doing? Given up doing good, don’t let go of promises learn to stay in and hold your heart, keep the faith and watch it grow.