Leadership Thought: A Revolutionary Cure for Discouragement Is Just A Few Words Away.

Dear Friends,

A group of frogs we're walking through a forest. and two of the frogs fell into a pit. All the other frogs looked down and said, "You're as good as dead. You'll never get out of that hole."

The two little frogs didn't want to stay there, and they kept jumping and jumping and jumping, but they couldn't make their way out. One of the frogs who was watching said. "You're going to die. You're going to die. There is no way out."

His words were so discouraging that one of the frogs just gave up and died, but the other frog would not give up. He kept jumping and jumping and finally much to everyone's surprise, he jumped completely out of the pit. 

The other frog said, "Didn't you hear us? We told you that you couldn't get out of the pit." And the little frog said, "Oh, I'm sorry. I'm hard of hearing. I thought you were cheering me on." 

We live in a culture where there is an epidemic of discouragement. Turn on the news, and no matter what station you listen to the broadcaster will probably be sharing bad news-war in Ukraine, lack of baby formula, gas prices, Covid, inflation recession-no wonder our nation's suicide rate has doubled in a decade, and depression is at an all-time high.

According to one survey I read, depression among 14-17 years old rose 60 percent in a decade, and more than half of Americans in general feel left out and unappreciated. 

Because there is so much bad news circulating, there exists a desperate longing for good news. I think most all of us are eager to hear some hopeful, positive, and encouraging news that will lift our spirts and give us something to cheer about. 

As believers you and I are those "Good News People in a Bad News World." We can use our tongues to encourage and lift up those who are discouraged and ready to give up. We can be those cheerleaders that everyone loves to have around.

We can be encouragers. Encouragement starts with doing the small things-just saying "thank you," "I appreciate you," "You did a great job."

The other day after church we had breakfast with some friends. As we were eating, I was noticing this one server who was going out of his way to perform his responsibilities. I never saw anyone clear tables so quickly, or sweep the floor with such determination, or move with such haste.

After our bill was paid, I went back and found him, and I told him how impressed I was with how hard he worked. I told him that I had spoken to his employer and said to him that if I was hiring someone, I would want a person like that on my team. You should have seen the beaming smile that marked my new friend's face. He acted like he had never heard such words before, and unfortunately, maybe he hadn't.

Mother Theresa was fond of saying, "Kind words are short and easy to speak, but their echoes are endless."

Proverbs 25:11 reminds us that "A right word at the right time is like precious gold set in silver."

Paul writes, "We are to encourage one another and build others up." 1 Thess 5:11

"How curious that we spend more time congratulating people who have succeeded than encouraging people who have not." Neil deGrasse Tyson

Let's all be careful to take time to speak the kind of words that lift others up.  If we do, we might just discover a revolutionary cure for discouragement.

Yours in faith and friendship,

Tom

Leadership Thought: Something We All Should Do This Memorial Day.

Dear Friends,

As I look outside my window this morning, I see an array of small American flags surrounding our property. They were planted yesterday by my grandchildren in preparation of today’s celebration of Memorial Day. I am proud and grateful for those flags which always remind me of the great price that was paid for the freedoms we enjoy.

As I thought about our great nation, and the price that has been paid for those cherished freedoms, I was sadly reminded of the current state of our nation. With the unfolding violence that is taken over our streets and schools, I wonder how much longer these cherished freedoms will continue to exist.

I then listened to a Memorial Day message that was sent to me by a friend that was preached yesterday in his church. It was a wonderful reminder of our nation’s greatest need-a need for prayer.

We have removed prayer from our schools, and the halls of government, and we wonder why we are presently reaping the consequences of our actions. America’s greatest need is the need for prayer.

Only prayer can unify our nation and bring our people and our leaders together. This was especially reinforced as I listened to the sermon which included a speech that was given by Benjamin Franklin at the Constitutional Congress.

His words are as appropriate for us today as they were when he spoke to them.

“This situation of this Assembly groping as it were in the dark to find political truth, and scarce able to distinguish it when to us, how has it happened, Sir, that we have not hitherto once thought of humbly applying to the Father of lights to illuminate our understandings? In the beginning of the contest with G. Britain, when we were sensible of danger, we had daily prayer in this room for the Divine Protection. -- Our prayers, Sir, were heard, and they were graciously answered. All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of a Superintending providence in our favor. To that kind providence we owe this happy opportunity of consulting in peace on the means of establishing our future national felicity. And have we now forgotten that powerful friend? Or do we imagine that we no longer need His assistance. I have lived, Sir, a long time and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth -- that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid? We have been assured, Sir, in the sacred writings that "except the Lord build they labor in vain that build it." I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without his concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better than the Builders of Babel: We shall be divided by our little partial local interests; our projects will be confounded, and we ourselves shall be become a reproach and a bye word down to future age. And what is worse, mankind may hereafter this unfortunate instance, despair of establishing Governments by Human Wisdom, and leave it to chance, war, and conquest. I therefore beg leave to move -- that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessings on our deliberations, be held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to business, and that one or more of the Clergy of this City be requested to officiate in that service.”

Would that we as a nation recognize this call to prayer and would we take a few moments to give thanks that we live in the greatest nation in the world. But at the same time would we also recognize that our nation will only remain that way if we acknowledge that "Unless the Lord builds the house, they that labor will only labor in vain.” Psalm 127:1

May we take a few moments today to fall on our knees and pray for our nation’s spiritual revival.

Yours in faith and friendship,

Tom

Leadership Thought: Two Lumber Thieves and a Remarkable Story of Forgiveness.

Dear Friends,

In Winning God’s Way, Loren Cunningham, the founder of YWAM (the Christian ministry “Youth with a Mission”) shares a powerful story of how God can use forgiveness to bring a person to faith in Christ.  

In Paris, just prior to World War II, there lived a Frenchman of Italian extraction named Enrico. He was in the construction business. Not long after he had come to know Christ as his personal Savior, he was out late one-night walking near his lumber yard. Just then, he saw two shadowy figures jump out of a truck and make their way into his lumberyard. He paused and prayed. “Lord, what should I do?” A plan came to his mind. He walked over to the two men, who by now were already loading some of his lumber onto their truck. Quietly, he started helping them load the lumber.

After a few minutes, he asked them, “‘What are you going to use the lumber for?”

They told him, and he pointed to a different pile of lumber. “That stuff over there will be better for your purposes,” he explained.

When the truck was filled, one man said to Enrico, “You are a good thief!”

“Oh, but I am not a thief,” he replied.

“Yes, you are! You’ve been helping us out here in the middle of the night. You knew what we were doing.”

“Yes, I knew what you were doing, but I am not a thief,” he said. “You see, I’m not a thief because this is my lumberyard, and this is my lumber.”

The men became very frightened. The Christian replied, “Don’t be afraid. I saw what you were doing, and I decided not to call the police. Evidently you just don’t know how to live right yet, so I am going to teach you. You can have the lumber, but first I want you to hear what I have to say.”

He had a captive audience. The men listened to him, a relationship was formed and within three days both men were converted. One became a pastor and the other a church elder. A load of lumber was a cheap price to pay for two souls, especially when you consider that Jesus taught us that one soul is worth more than the whole world.

It wasn’t just the gift of lumber that led those two men to Christ. It was his act of forgiveness extended to them when they were caught in the act of stealing. They knew Enrico could have them arrested and they knew that instead, this man was forgiving them, even before they repented. It was like Jesus on the cross-extending forgiveness to us before we repented.

Psalm 32:1-5 reminds us that God not only forgives our sin, but He restores our soul. He takes away the guilt of our sin just as the old Gospel hymn writer expresses,

               “O precious is the flow

                          That makes me white as snow.

                          No other fount I know,

                          Nothing but the blood of Jesus.”

There is not only power in the blood to forgive sin, but there is power to remove it, and as the late great saint Corrie Ten Boom used to say, “to bury it in the deepest part of the ocean where God puts up His sign that says, ‘No fishing.’” 

And once removed a new creation is fashioned out of the one, and while the old man has passed away, the new man is born for eternity. (Paraphrase of 2 Corinthians 5:17).

Make today a great day.

Yours in faith and friendship,

Tom

Leadership Thought: The Relational Dangers in a Digital World.

Dear Friends,

I love being around open people, those who are open to fresh ideas and who are willing to explore new ways of looking at things.

Being open means you possess a willingness to hear both sides of a story. You are willing to have your mind changed as you listen and hear another’s perspectives.

People who possess open ears and an open heart attract people like a magnate. People feel comfortable being around them, and even if they have different perspectives, they learn and benefit by listening to another’s point of view. It doesn’t mean that they will always agree with another’s perspective, but it does mean they will listen and work hard to understand how the other person feels.

It has been said that listening and love are so close to one another that they are almost indistinguishable. When a person is heard, he or she feels loved and love transcends those differences and in the end their friendship is strengthened even though they may still hold opposing opinions. 

Our digital world has changed the way we do business. It has provided comfort and convenience, but in so doing we run the risk of sacrificing relationships.

Today we are more personally separated than ever, and separation and isolation are never healthy in the workplace, or in the church. We need each other, and while telephones and computers can still connect us, there is no substitute for in person, face to face relationships.

While churches may find digital worship a convenience, and it may provide opportunities for more people to watch your services, it can never replace that in person hug, or that warm embrace.  You can’t taste the salt in another’s tears from some computer screen.

Years ago, the slogan MBWA (Management by Walking Around) was coined. The idea may have begun in one large corporation where the president spent a couple hours each morning walking around the workplace getting to know his workers and making himself available to them. In doing so, he listened with both his ears and his heart to hear his workers’ hurts, problems and concerns as well as their ideas for improving their workplace. In doing so he gets to not only know them, but their families as well and a bond if formed between him and his employees.

It has been said that to listen is so close to love that the two are almost indistinguishable. When people are heard they feel loved and cared for, and when they feel loved and cared for, they become more productive, and both they and the company benefits. It a win win situation for all.

In today’s digital world, it is important for all of us to be on the lookout for ways to enhance relationships. We must never allow comfort and convenience to transcend the need for in person-to-person relationships.

The bottom line is that whether we connect digitally or in person, we need to recognize our need to be available and accessible to one another. When this happens, relationships are strengthened, and trust is built, and everyone is the beneficiary.

In all our relationships, whether personal or digital, we need to keep in mind the words of the Apostle Paul who wrote “Be completely humble, bearing with one another in love. Make every opportunity to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.” Ephesians 4:2-3

Yours in faith and friendship

Tom

Leadership Thought: Did You Know Jesus Is Always Praying for You?

Dear Friend,

Did you know that your name is on Jesus' prayer list? That is something exciting to think about?  

Not only am I eternally saved. Not only am I eternally forgiven. Not only has He clothed a sinner like me in His robes of righteousness, but he keeps on loving me, and He keeps praying for me.

Pastor Steve Brown, once said, "If God were a grandmother, He would have your picture in His wallet or on his refrigerator.

He not only loves us, but He is continually praying for us. What an encouragement it is when we learn we have friends praying for us, but even greater than that, how amazing to think that the One who saved us is praying for us.

"Therefore, He is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them."  (Hebrews 7: 25) Jesus is at the right hand of God making intercession for each of us.

Saved eternally, loved unconditionally, prayed for continually, that is something we can singing about.

                                   "This is Amazing Grace, this is amazing love 

                                   That you would take my place, that you would bear my cross.

                                   You laid down your life that I would be set free

                                   Jesus, I sing for all that you have done for me."

As you pray each day, be sure to thank Him that He loves you so much that He never ceases to pray for you.

Yours in faith and friendship,

Tom

Leadership Thought: I Want to be Like D.L. Moody.

Dear Friends

D. L. Moody was one of the greatest evangelists who ever lived. R.A. Torrey his good friend and associate and a famous pastor himself, has written a short booklet about him titled "Why God Used D.L. Moody." 

Moody, who was born in 1837, was considered by many to be the greatest man of his generation and even of his century. 

I am always both humbled and inspired every time I read about Moody, and his consuming passion to serve God.

"Henry Varley, a very intimate friend of Mr. Moody in the earlier days of his work, loved to tell how he once said to him: 'It remains to be seen what God will do with a man who gives himself up wholly to him.' Torrey was told that when Mr. Henry Varley said that, Mr. Moody said of himself: 'I will be that man.'"

Moody had a consuming passion for the salvation of the lost and he was determined never to let a day pass without speaking to at least one person about his soul.

"On one occasion when he was going home and it was very late. he realized that he had not spoken to a single person that day about accepting Christ. He said to himself: 'Here's a day lost. I have not spoken to anyone today, and I shall not see anybody at this late hour.'"

"But as he walked up the street, he saw a man standing under a lamppost. The man was a perfect stranger to him, though it turned out afterwards the man knew who Mr. Moody was. He stepped up to the stranger and said: 'Are you a Christian'?  The man replied: 'That is none of your business, whether I'm a Christian or not. If you were not a sort of preacher, I would knock you into the gutter for your impertinence.'"

"Mr. Moody said a few earnest words and passed on. The next day that man called upon one of Mr. Moody's prominent business friends and said to him: 'That man Moody of yours over on the north side is doing more harm than he is good. He has got zeal without knowledge. He stepped up to me last night, a perfect stranger, and insulted me. He asked if I were a Christian, and I told him it was none of his business and if he were not a sort of a preacher, I would knock him into the gutter for his impertinence. He is doing more harm than he is good.'"

"Mr. Moody's friend sent for him and told him the story and how he had insulted a friend of his on the street last night."

"Mr. Moody went out of that man's office somewhat crestfallen. He wondered if he were not doing more harm than he was good, and if he really did have zeal without knowledge." 

"Weeks passed by. One night Moody was in bed when he heard a tremendous pounding at his front door. He jumped out of bed and rushed to the door. He thought the house was on fire. He thought the man would break down the door. He opened the door and there stood the man. He said: 'Mr. Moody, I have not had a good night's sleep since that night you spoke to me under the lamp post, and I have come around at this unearthly hour of the night for you to tell me what I have to do to be saved.'" 

"Mr. Moody took him in and told him what to do to be saved. The man accepted Christ, and when the Civil War broke out, he went to the front and laid down his life fighting for his country."

In reflecting on this story, I would suggest that it is far better to be accused of having zeal without knowledge than knowledge without zeal. 

You and I can be deeply versed in the bible, and we may be able to quote bible verses in our sleep, but if our heart has no consuming desire to share Christ with others, what use is that knowledge?

What would our country look like if every Christian had that same kind of consuming passion to share Christ with whomever we met. What if each one who claims the name of Christ would start the day with this prayer: "Lord, keep my eyes and ears open to someone who needs to hear about Jesus today, and keep my heart warmed and quick to share the Good News with at least one person this day."

I was convicted by Moody's faithfulness in witnessing for our Savior. and I hope you will be too.

Yours in faith and friendship,

Tom

Information source: "Why God Used D.L. Moody", R.A. Torrey, The Department of Evangelism, Asbury Theological Seminary, Wilmore, Kentucky

Leadership Thought: Leveraging Failure on the Ball Field of Life.

Dear Friends,

I have been umpiring baseball for over 30 years, and as an umpire I have learned you are only as good as your last game. When you think you have arrived and believe your experience has taught you all you need to know, watch out.

Last week on the baseball field I made a couple of serious mistakes on judgement calls that put me in very uncomfortable situations. In both cases I found myself face to face with unhappy coaches, and I couldn’t think of one legitimate excuse for my poor decisions.

I walked off the field that day feeling like a failure, and there are few things more uncomfortable than that.

Whether on the ball field, or in ministry, I have made more mistakes that I ever would have time to admit.

It is always a temptation to ignore those mistakes or blame them on someone else, but when we do, we lose our opportunity to learn from them, so we don’t repeat them again.

Thomas Edison, commenting on one of his many failed experiments, said, “Don’t call it a failure. Call it an education,”

Failure prevents arrogance and egotism. If we were perfect and never made mistakes, who would ever want to be around you?

“Sometimes it takes a painful situation to make us change our ways.” Proverbs 20:30

I recently read an article on failure, and in it pastor Rick Warren shared a lesson I hope I will never forget. He said, “We must always remember the lesson of the whale: that when you get to the top, and you start to blow-that’s when you get harpooned.”

Now I don’t mean to imply that I am near the top as an umpire, or as a pastor-I have had too many failures both on and off the field to claim mistake free status. I am not an expert at anything.

The Bible reminds us that, “Pride leads to destruction and arrogance to downfall.” Proverbs 18:8

The historian James Anthony Fraude writes, “The worth of a man must be measured by his life, not by his failure under a singular and peculiar trial. Peter the apostle, though forewarned three times, denied his Master on the first alarm of danger; yet that Master, who knew his nature in its strength and in its weakness, chose him. Successful leaders have learned that no failure is final, whether his own failure or someone else’s. No one is perfect, and we cannot be right all the time Failure and even feelings of inadequacy can provoke humility and serve to remind a leader who is really in charge.” Spiritual Leadership, Oswald Sanders, P. 163

Our attitude toward failure will always determine whether it is of value. It is not failure that is the problem-we all will fail- but it’s our response to failure.

If we learn from it, and we leave it behind us, the chances are that we will not be prone to repeat it again.

Failure is never our enemy if we learn from it.

Yours in faith and friendship,

Tom

Leadership Thought: The Most Read Book Next to the Bible on My Bookshelf.

Dear Friends,

Yesterday in church I was talking with a member who had just lost his job. Although I was impressed with his positive attitude regarding his situation-he indicated he already had several offers of a new job- I still recognized that it is not always easy to lose one’s job, even if one can see something better down the road.

In the course of our conversation, I shared with him that there is always going to be some unexpected challenge lurking around the next corner of our lives, and when it comes, we need to be prepared and prayed up.

Like baseball managers who are hired to be fired, there may come a time in our lives when we face some unexpected surprise -perhaps like the loss of a job- that has the potential to rock us to our very core.

In talking with my friend, I mentioned a resource that has been a constant ministry companion of mine, one which has often provided a welcome source of encouragement and spiritual support through challenging times. It is a devotional book called Streams in the Desert.

I have seldom opened its pages and not found something that would minister to my deepest need. Next to the Bible, Streams in the Desert has probably been the most frequently read book in my library.

Streams in the Desert is a devotional of 365 daily thoughts that offer the soul refreshment both in the good and bad times of life. It is a compilation of writing by some of the great spiritual saints of the past and edited by L. B. Cowman.

A short while ago I read the following

                                             “Glorify ye the Lord in the fires.” (Isaiah 24: 15 KJV)

“Notice the little word “in”! We are to honor the Lord in the trial- in the very thing that afflicts us. And although there are examples where God did not allow his Saints to even feel the fire, usually the fire causes pain.”

“It is precisely there, in the heat of the fire, we are to glorify Him. We do this by exercising perfect faith in His goodness and love that has permitted the trial to come upon us. Even more, we are to believe that out of the fire will arise something more worthy of praise to Him then had we never experienced it.”

“To go through some fires will take great faith, for little faith will fail. We must win the victory in the furnace.” Margaret Bottome.

“A person has only as much faith as he shows in times of trouble. The three men who were thrown into the fiery furnace came out just as they went in - except for the ropes that had bound them. How often God removes our shackles in the furnace of affliction!”

“This is the way Christians should come out of the furnace of fiery trials- liberated from their shackles but untouched by the flames.”

                                                  Triumphing over them in it. Colossians 2: 15 KJV

“This is the real triumph-triumphing over sickness in it, triumphing over death in dying, and triumphing over other adverse circumstances in them. Believe me, there is power that can make us victors in the conflict.” (April 3) 

If you are looking for a source of spiritual comfort and encouragement, a book that will help you triumph in and through the storms of life, this is a book you need on your bookshelf.

And yes, I will add that you seldom will find a book that has a 4.8 rating among thousands of reviewers, and no, the only profit I make from encouraging its purchase is the satisfaction of knowing you will now be better prepared to face the challenges of your tomorrows.

Yours in faith and friendship,

Tom

Leadership Thought: How Are You Smelling Today?

Dear Friends,

In one of my favorite devotional books, Streams in the Desert, English author Rita Snowden, tells of a village she once visited in Dover, England. As she was having her afternoon tea, she began to feel as if she were in a field of flowers. A wonderful, sweet aroma was everywhere.

She asked the café owner about the smell, and he pointed to a factory not far from where she sat. He said, “It's quitting time at the perfume factory, and what you smell is the perfume fragrance on the workers clothes.”

The story is a good reminder that wherever we as followers of Christ may go, we possess the opportunity to leave behind the scent of Jesus.

Wherever my feet may tread, or my voice is heard, I leave behind the fragrance of His love.

What kind of fragrance do we leave behind as we spend time with those who cross our path? Is our love, kindness, compassion, patience like that of the fragrance of Christ?

Paul writes, “For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are the smell of death; To the other, the fragrance of life."  2 Corinthians 2: 15.

To those who welcome God’s grace we are the small of life, but to those who reject that grace we are the smell of death for our life reminds them that in their rejection they are further distanced from God’s grace.

We cannot control a person's response to the fragrance of the perfume we wear, any more than we can control the response to what they see and hear in our lives, but if we remain true to Christ, we can be sure that the Spirit which is working in us will attract many to Him.

So, my admonition to each of us today is to ask this simple question: “How are we smelling?”

Yours in faith and friendship,

Tom

Leadership Thought: How to Witness Without Making Enemies.

Dear Friends,

“Choose being kind over being right and you will be right every time.” (Richard Carlson)

I believe that this is an important principle to keep in mind when witnessing to others. When I first read this quote, I thought of Paul's words to the Corinthians: “Knowledge puffs up but love builds up” (1 Corinthians 8:1). How important it is to keep a balance between knowledge and love.

It is so true that “knowledge can become a weapon to hurt people or a tool to build them up.” Chapter by Chapter Bible Commentary, Warren Wiersbe, p. 749.

How often I have seen people try to argue others into the kingdom with biblical truth rather than loving them into the kingdom through a biblical life. It is certainly easier and more convenient to speak the truth than live the truth. However, we must do both if we are to be successful witnesses for Christ. Truth is important when sharing your faith, but we must always be careful to wrap the truth in love.

Howard Newton reminds us that, “Truth is the art of making a point without making an enemy,” and all Christians need to learn this principle. We should be right, but we should never be unloving.

When the newly formed church and Antioch needed some doctrinal grounding, the church in Jerusalem sent Barnabas. Why Barnabas? I think it was because he was an encourager, and because while he was grounded in doctrine, the church knew he wouldn't use his knowledge as a club. They knew that he would be as interested in loving them as changing them.

Barnabas was loving, accepting, and flexible, and no doubt he developed a real ministry among that church where believers were first called Christians.

Fortunately, Barnabas new that truth always needs to be balanced with love, a love that can tolerate those who may think differently, act differently, worship differently and even believe differently.

Christians must learn to disagree without becoming disagreeable. We can witness to people even by the way we disagree with them.

Let us again be reminded of the words of the 16th century theologian who wrote, “In essentials unity; In non- essentials liberty; In all things, charity.

Yours in faith and friendship,

Tom

Leadership Thought: A Wedding and a Prison Story of "His Persistent Love."

Dear Friends,

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to attend a wedding I will never forget. The two people married were in there late 50's and had been communicating with one another for almost 30 years. 

Phil had been in prison serving 50 years for murder and, Debbie, a friend of mine, had been serving in an area prison ministry.

I came to know Phil while visiting the Rahway maximum security prison where the church I was serving would make periodic visits to lead worship services for the inmates.

Phil came to know Christ shortly after entering prison when another prisoner in an adjacent cell whispered through a duct. "Do you know Jesus?" before being transported to another facility. Before he left, he pushed a Bible through the air vent and that was the beginning of Phil's spiritual transformation. 

A few years later he met Debbie, director of His Persistent Love, a prison ministry, and the two became friends.

Over the next 30 years that friendship continued to grow as they communicated with one another through mail and occasional prison visits. Debbie shared during the wedding that she had received and kept over 3000 handwritten letters she had received from Phil. 

During his time behind bars, Phil was a volunteer prison chaplain, and he had the joy of leading many of his incarcerated brothers to Christ.

Phil and Debbie's friendship continued to grow over those many years. And then it happened. Phil received news that after serving 30 years behind bars, he would be released on good behavior, and at 60 he would now be free to start a new life outside Rahway's prison walls.

No longer separated by prison bars, Phil and Debbie could now spend time with together one another. And during the next several months their long friendship took another step when Phil proposed and asked Debbie to be his wife.

I sat in the back with a minister friend of mine, and we marveled at the wedding. I have led or attended at least one hundred weddings in my life, but never had I witnessed one quite like this. There were tears, laughter, and handclapping applause as both Phil and Debbie shared their love for one another.

Before the service even began, Phil took to the mike to thank the packed church for their presence, and then he proceeded to share a brief and remarkable testimony of God's faithfulness and how His transforming love had brought him and Debbie to the altar where they would profess their love for one another and become husband and wife.

I hope this brief introduction will generate enough interest to encourage you to watch this unique celebration of love that brought people to their feet as together they rejoiced in the faithfulness of "His Persistent Love."

Click on the link below and listen to Phil's testimony and, I know you will want to witness the rest of this amazing service.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlHnizr5G0k,

Yours in faith and friendship,

Tom

Leadership Thought: When Was the Last Time You Cried Over Sin?

Dear Friends,

I was humbled this morning as I read about Samuel Chadwick, a powerful preacher of past years. He was known as the “Preacher of Passion." John Courson, one of my favorite bible teachers, writes of Chadwick “that every Sunday tears would fill his eyes as he preached to those in his congregation. His writings reveal the reason why week after week, year after year, he felt such compassion for people. Chadwick recounts how every Saturday night after his sermon was prepared, he would go into his study, close the door behind him, and reflect on what a sinner he had been before he met Christ and how good God was to save him.  Remembering the pit from which he has been rescued caused him to break down in gratitude. Then, looking out at his congregation the next morning and realizing many of them were in the same place he had been, he wept for them.” Courson New Testament Commentary, p 1585

It is easy to forget what our life was like before we met Christ. I am often guilty of this. In the midst of the busyness of ministry, I can easily lose track of the very thing that motivates my ministry. What inspires me to serve is nothing more than God’s love for a sinner like me that transformed me from death unto life.

The Apostle Paul says that it was this very fact that motivated his ministry.  “For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus, that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again: 2 Cor 5:14-15

Sam Chadwick never took for granted the great transaction that took place upon a Cross, and neither can we. His death for sin changed me, and it changed all who have trusted in Him for their salvation. 

Lord, forgive me for ever taking for granted the wretchedness of my sin and the cost that was paid for my salvation. And, yes Lord, may you also forgive me for my lack of tears and my lack of gratitude and once again awake within me a greater passion for you and your love that that wrenched me from the clutches of death. 

Yours in faith and friendship,
Tom

Leadership Thought: God Uses the Ordinary to Accomplish the Extraordinary.

Dear Friends,

Yesterday in church we studied Jesus’ calling of his 12 disciples (Matthew 10:1-4).  In this passage Matthew simply lists the names of those men that Jesus called and released for ministry. There was nothing significant or noteworthy about any of those he called. They were common, ordinary, everyday people: a couple of fishermen, two brothers with explosive tempers, a skeptic, a doubter, a rip off tax collector, and a political rabble rouser were among those He chose-certainly not the kind of people we would have selected to change the world.

It is not always the gifted or the extraordinary people that God calls and uses to make a difference in the Kingdom. Most of the time He chooses the least likely, the common, ordinary people with little in their resume to suggest they would be fit for much of anything.

And when the Lord sees you and I, He sees us just as He saw those disciples, and He still he says, “I can use you.”

Over the years God has used ordinary people to do extraordinary things for the Kingdom. I thought of the story I copied from a book by speaker and author Tony Campolo about a camp counseling experience.

Tony relates how he was asked to be a counselor in a junior high camp. He says, “Everybody ought to be a counselor in the junior high camp- just once. A junior high kid’s concept of a good time is picking on people. And in this particular case, at this particular camp, there was a little boy who was suffering from cerebral palsy. His name was Billy. And they picked on him.”

“Oh, they picked on him. As he walked across the camp with his uncoordinated body they would line up and imitate his grotesque movements”.

“I watched him one day as he was asking for directions. ‘Which…… way is…… the……… craft shop? he stammered, his mouth contorting.’”

“And the boys mimicked in that same awful stammer.”

‘It’s……over……there…. Billy.’ And then they laughed at him.” I was irate.”

“But my furor reached its highest pitch when on Thursday morning when it was Billy’s cabin’s turn to give devotions. I wondered what would happen because they had appointed Billy to be the speaker. I knew that they just wanted to get him up there to make fun of him. As he dragged his way to the front, you could hear the giggles rolling over the crowd. It took little Billy almost 5 minutes to say 7 words.”

‘Jesus……. loves……. Me…… and…… I……. love Jesus.’

“When he finished, there was dead silence. I looked over my shoulder and saw junior high boys bawling all over the place. A revival broke out in that camp after Billy’s short testimony. And as I travel all over the world, I find missionaries and preachers who say, ‘Remember Me’? I was converted at the junior high camp.’”

“We counselors had tried everything to get those kids interested in Jesus. We even imported baseball players whose batting averages had gone up since they had started praying. But Jesus chose not to use the superstars. He chose a kid with cerebral palsy to break the spirits of the haughty. He’s that kind of God.”

“Today we become used to hearing testimonies of great athletes whose lives have been turned around because of Christ, but how often do we hear the testimony from people like the Billy’s of this world. We are used to the super stars sharing their faith, but someone like Billy?  What does he have to offer the world? He certainly is not the kind of person that the world would consider influential, or the kind of person whose life would impress many who would see or hear him. But God used him to remind us of a very valuable lesson.”

As I reflect on this story, I am reminded of Paul’s message to the Corinthians church in which he states, “Brothers, consider your calling: not many are wise from a human perspective, not many powerful, not many of noble birth. Instead, God has chosen the world’s foolish things to shame the wise, and God has chosen the world’s weak things to shame the strong. God has chosen the world’s insignificant and despised things- the things viewed as nothing- so he might bring to nothing the things that are viewed as something, so that no one can boast in his presence” (1 Corinthians 1: 26-29).

Yes, you may have an anger issue like James or John, or a skeptic like Nathaniel, or a doubter like Thomas. You may be someone like Andrew, often in the background unnoticed and overshadowed by his brother, or like Peter who is always talking before thinking.  You might even be a violent revolutionist like Simon. But whoever you are, and regardless of your background or pedigree, God can use you if you will offer Him whatever you have.

And when we do this, we will discover that He can turn the ordinary into the extraordinary.

Yours in faith and friendship,

Tom

Leadership Thought: A Rebuking Lesson Yesterday in Church I Won’t Forget.

Dear Friends,

“Are you so dull? Jesus asked.” Mark 7:18

“Jesus who was no milquetoast, namby- pamby leader. He was exasperated with his disciples and let them know about it in no uncertain terms. In today's language he said, will you guys wake up? Aren't you ever going to get it? How many times do I have to explain it to you?” More Leadership Lessons of Jesus, Bob Briner and Ray Pritchard, p. 17

Those you lead will sometimes need to know you are not happy with them. The authors point out the importance of biblical rebuke, a response that in often avoided in today’s age of tolerance and acceptance where people will do anything to avoid offending someone.

Yesterday at one of our services, one of our pastors had to rebuke a worshipper who has had a history of spreading heretical views within the fellowship. The individual happens to be a good and moral person, but some of his thinking and beliefs are contrary to biblical teaching, and while we have always welcomed him in our worship, we had to draw the line yesterday when he began indoctrinating others with his false teaching.

I was blessed by the way my colleague rebuked the man. He did so gently, but firmly, and in a spirit of love. He made it clear that he loved the individual, but that we would not tolerate the spreading of his personal views of scripture which we considered harmful to the body.

I thought of the words of a pastor I knew who said, “A real friend is someone who stabs us in the front.” That is what my friend did yesterday in confronting this individual.

Proverbs 27:6 reminds us that “Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of the enemy.”  A faithful friend will wound if he must, but the wound will always stem from truth imbedded in love.

In offering rebuke, it is important to remember that it must be offered in the spirit of gentleness. We must always be reminded that we also have our own list of offenses and shortcomings. Doing so will always keep us humble in spirit, and correction always is much easier to receive when it comes from the lips of one who possesses a humble heart.

Charles H. Spurgeon had a preacher friend, Dr.  Newman Hall, who wrote a book entitled, Come to Jesus. Another preacher published an article in which he ridiculed Hall, who bore it patiently for a while. But when the article gained popularity, Hall sat down and wrote a letter of protest. His answer was full of retaliatory invectives that out did anything in the article which attacked him. Before mailing the letter, Hall took it to Spurgeon for his opinion.

Spurgeon read it carefully, and then, handing it back, asserted that it was excellent, and that the writer of the article deserved it all. But he added, it just lacks one thing. After a pause Spurgeon continued, “Underneath your signature you ought to write the words, ‘author of Come to Jesus.’ You Don't Have to Go It Alone, Leslie Flynn, P. 117

J. C Penney wrote a book titled What an Executive Should Know About Himself. In it he asks the question, “Can you take criticism?” And then he quotes Chicago department store magnet Marshall Field who said “Those who enter to by, support me. Those who come to flatter, please me. Those who complain, teach me how I am to please others so that more will come. Only those hurt me who are displeased but do not complain. ……Praise is a wonderful pick me up, but it’s only through criticism that we are enabled to know what we have been doing wrong and thereby correct our failures and shortcomings.” (From a sermon by John Huffman)

I will never forget what Bishop Stephen Neal, and Anglican Bishop who once said, “Criticism is the manure in which the Lord's servants grow best.”

Let's always direct but gentle in our criticism and rebuke like my pastor friend was. Our goal should always be to seek to restore the one rebuked, so he will love you and be wiser still.

Solomon wisely writes, “Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you; Reprove a wise man, and he will love you. Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser; teach a righteous man and he will increase in learning. (Proverbs 9:8-9)

Yes, manure stinks, but when rightly used don’t forget what it so wonderfully produces.

Yours in faith and friendship,

Tom

P. S. “A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him.” David Brinkley