07 August 2011
Picking People
Aug/12/11
Do you need help? Whether picking a volunteer or an employee selecting the right person for your purposes is vital. The success of your company, your church, or your personal circumstances are worth making a careful pick. Scripture offers us great advice in Acts 6. The new church was growing rapidly. Responsibilities were mushrooming including the feeding of the widows. Apparently discrimination was impacting the program.
Church leaders gathered to pick additional leaders to oversee the program. What qualifications were needed? We might say people who can count plates, people who can keep records, people with experience in supervision.
None of these topped the list. There were two simple criteria: good standing, and full of the Spirit and understanding. With those qualifications the task will be accomplished.
Good advice for us all.
Podcast
Church leaders gathered to pick additional leaders to oversee the program. What qualifications were needed? We might say people who can count plates, people who can keep records, people with experience in supervision.
None of these topped the list. There were two simple criteria: good standing, and full of the Spirit and understanding. With those qualifications the task will be accomplished.
Good advice for us all.
Podcast
Summer Time
Aug/11/11
Summer time usually means time to choose. Vacation from work, school break, more emails pop back that ‘out of the office’ reply. J. Oswald Sanders states that “leisure is a glorious opportunity and a subtle danger.” How did you spend, in other words, invest, your leisure hours? Jesus had time to hike in the wilderness alone with his Father. I’ve spent extra morning time on the front porch with all my favorite reads and just time to think. Family has enjoyed the great outdoors, bike riding sunsets in South Africa and moonlit nights in Kenya.
Summer time is a good time to remember that God created seasons with a reason. All beauty, all change, all months, days, and even minutes are His gift to us.
Podcast
Summer time is a good time to remember that God created seasons with a reason. All beauty, all change, all months, days, and even minutes are His gift to us.
Podcast
Someones Watching
Aug/10/11
Chicago is my home. I’m not always proud of it. In my routine travels to Africa, my home town is usually a source of interesting conversation. Being interviewed on African radio in 2009 about my widow projects, I was also asked about Obama and also our, then governor, Blagoyovich. Recently, I landed in South Africa to see our first lady and her mother pictured on the front page of the The New Age, their popular news paper.
Lesson: Someone is always watching! Why do our politicians behave like they do? Do you agree? What are you doing about it? My best answer: I pray for my leaders. They may or may not answer to the people, but surely one day they will answer to God.
Podcast
Lesson: Someone is always watching! Why do our politicians behave like they do? Do you agree? What are you doing about it? My best answer: I pray for my leaders. They may or may not answer to the people, but surely one day they will answer to God.
Podcast
Tested by Poverty
Aug/09/11
Poverty stepped into my face when I stepped into the Mathare Valley, probably one of the world’s poorest slums with one half million people crowded into shanty’s in the valley of Nairobi, Kenya. The smell from no way to dispose of human or animal waste. The unfathomable, stare of the young men, the masked gaze of the young women. The pungent riverside smell of brewing illegal, sometimes lethal alcohol. All imprinted me with the face of poverty I had never experienced before.
To attempt to create a solution is beyond pondering. But as a believer, inaction is inexcusable.
So I resolve to help a handful of widows learn the salable skill of sewing. Big difference in the Mathare Valley? Not at all. But in one household. Yes, we’ll make a difference.
Podcast
To attempt to create a solution is beyond pondering. But as a believer, inaction is inexcusable.
So I resolve to help a handful of widows learn the salable skill of sewing. Big difference in the Mathare Valley? Not at all. But in one household. Yes, we’ll make a difference.
Podcast
Tested by Praise
Aug/08/11
We love compliments. We savor words of praise. Great job. Great effort. Skillfully negotiated. One would think compliments build us up. But there’s a danger. Proverbs 27: 21 reminds us that a person is tested by being praised. Examples in Scripture clearly show us that success can breed pride. Accomplishments can be claimed as our own doing ignoring that we are only what God has created us to be. We only achieve what he allows us to achieve.
The late Robert Little, who was the radio pastor of Moody Broadcasting at one time, avoided hearing compliments and avoided any praise when He could. He felt that would diminish his rewards in Heaven. That’s where he yearned to hear the praise that matters most. “Well done; you’re home.”
Podcast
The late Robert Little, who was the radio pastor of Moody Broadcasting at one time, avoided hearing compliments and avoided any praise when He could. He felt that would diminish his rewards in Heaven. That’s where he yearned to hear the praise that matters most. “Well done; you’re home.”
Podcast