Leadership Thought: For Those Who Are Tired of Making New Year’s Resolutions.

Dear Friends,

Are you ready for a New Year’s challenge?

"Did you know 9 out of 10 people will fail with their resolutions and that 50% of resolution makers will fail by the end of January?

But One Word sticks!" 

For a number of years, you have may have made New Year’s resolutions, and if you are anything like me by the end of the month you have either broken all of them or worse, yet, you have failed to even remember the ones you made.

Years ago, I read about the “One Word Challenge.”  

The idea is to pick just one word that will be your focus for the coming year.

The idea began with a couple of Fellowship of Christian Athletes staff members.

You choose just One Word that that will provide meaning, mission, passion and purpose for your life, a word that will help you be your very best.

You might choose words like attitude, perseverance, discipline, forgiveness, abide, prayer, connect, relationships, bold…………….

Rather than my trying to describe the One Word Challenge, let me quote the originators of the challenge.

“There is a reason why we say, get one word for the year…. But be careful. The careful  part is serious. You know the phrase, ‘Be careful what you pray for.’”

“It is like when you pray for patience, and all you get are trials, problems and situations in which you need to practice patience. Well, the same goes for one word. We guarantee that as soon as you find your word, the battle will begin.”

“Do not approach this exercise half- heartedly. You will get slammed. This exercise is not for people who want to pick a nice, comfortable word that will have no significant impact on their lives. It truly is a discipline for those who want to press in and see God, do great things in and through them. It is for those who want to live life to its fullest. No retreat. No regrets. It will also be a process of teaching, correcting, and molding, as God’s will certainly bring you to a point of brokenness in relation to your word. But when you are soft in the Creator's hands, He can form you into his vessel! You will be a changed competitor.” FCA Daily Impact, The Power of One Word, Dec. 31, 2021.

If you are looking for change in your life this year,” Why not consider the One Word Challenge, but be careful! It might change you.

Yours in faith and friendship,

Tom

Leadership Thought: How to Quit for All the Right Reasons.

Dear Friend,

You may have heard someone exhort you not to quit something you were doing, or you have heard  the phrase, "Winners never quit and quitters never win." However, it is important to know that there is a time to quit, and leadership expert John Maxwell provides some helpful quitting guidelines.

Maxwell writes you should quit:

1. “Something you don't do well-to start something you do well." 

2. "You should quit something you are not passionate about to do something that fills you with passion." 

3. "You should quit something that doesn't make a difference.”

Aren't you glad that the Apostle Peter quit fishing?

He had been out all-night fishing with nothing to show for his efforts. As a fisherman I know what Peter must have felt. It is hard, and even embarrassing, to pull into the dock with an empty cooler.

Jesus says to Peter, launch out into the deep and put down your nets.

Peter, who was now on shore, could have responded, "Teacher, you may not know it but out here on the sea of Galilee we do all our fishing at night. You stick to teaching and I'll stick to fishing,” but he didn't. 

Peter responds, "Master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets"(Luke 5:4).

Peter's experience doesn't validate what Jesus is asking Him to do, but Peter, out of obedience does what Jesus asks him to do.

And we know the rest of the story. Peter hauls in so many fish that the nets are in danger of breaking. There are so many fish that He has to call another boat for help to land their catch.

If I were Peter, I might have thought that's keep this process going. Let's get some more boats, increase our distribution, and we can make a lot of money.

But that's not what he does. He decides to quit fishing because:

He knows while he can do the fishing thing, but there is something he can do even better.

He knows he is not passionate about what he is doing, and he longs to do something that fills him with passion.

And he knows he is doing something that lacks eternal consequence, and he wants to do something that can change the world.

Peter is not forced to quit his fishing job. He does so voluntarily and on his own because he recognizes that there is something more important than fishing.

Maybe like Peter you are stuck at what you are doing, and you know you could be doing something even better, something that you could do more passionately and something that might have eternal consequences.

Maybe like Peter, you are ready to quit what you are doing for all the right reasons.

Yours in faith and friendship.

Tom

Leadership Thought: A Response to a Concerned Writer Regarding My Leadership Thought.

Dear Friends,

“I have read it, cover to cover, twice, with no effect.  It just doesn’t stick.  So, I’ve read “The Story,” the “Message”, and other versions.  No impact.  So, I get mini doses through your messages, 3-4 small groups, and occasional Daily Bread online reviews.  Hey, I tried!!

This was one reader’s response to yesterday’s Leadership Thought on reading the importance of bible study.

Do those words ring true or sound familiar? Have you ever read the Bible and felt like “it just doesn't stick?”

Maybe it's because you possess the wrong goals. Possibly you have been reading for information and not transformation. Maybe trying to digest all those names, places, and events- the factual content- have taken precedent over reading for the bible’s transformational content-how it will change your life.

For a number of years, I read through the entire bible every year. Sometimes I was successful and sometimes not. But when I didn't achieve my goal, I felt discouraged and defeated.

One day I finally decided to change my approach. In trying to read through the bible every year, I felt like I was reading it  to complete a ‘task’- just reach the finish line.

Several years ago, I decided to change my approach. I narrowed my goal and decided to pick a particular book and study that book until I felt I really knew it. My study became less goal oriented- reading through the bible in a year.

I narrowed my goal from reading through the whole bible to picking a particular book of the bible and reading through it as many times as needed until I could envision those verses in my mind.

I took the four-chapter book of Philippians, and for the next month I read those four chapters every day. I read them using the New International version (NIV) as my basic translation, but I varied my translations using more contemporary ones like the Living Bible, the Message Bible, and the Promise Bible to get different nuances and perspectives.

I used a couple of commentaries: Warren Wiersbe’s excellent one volume commentary on the Bible- With the Bible- and John Courson’s Old and New Testament Life Application Commentaries that emphasized biblical life application.

In reading though those four chapters each day I would ask myself. “What does what I am reading teach me about how I am to walk more closely with God?  

I took notes, and I outlined the key points in each of the four chapters, and then I took take time to memorize that outline.

After one month, I felt like I really knew the book of Philippians. Those verses I had marked in my bible had marked me, and I experienced the satisfaction of achieving both information and inspiration while achieving the ultimate goal of transformation.

For larger books that are more than four chapters, you can break down your study, into four chapters a month until you have finally completed the book

In my file cabinet can be found the notes and outlines of each of the books I have studied, providing me an excellent source for sermon preparation or spiritual enrichment.

In closing, I would point out that there is not only one way to study the bible. The best way is the way that works best for you. But, if you are not getting what you had hoped from your bible study, if “things are not sticking” as my friend responded, then try something new.

And don’t forget, “It is not how many times you have been through the bible, but how many times the bible has been through you.

Comments and suggestions gladly accepted!

Yours in faith and friendship,

Tom

Leadership Thought: Are You a Missionary or in Need of a Missionary?

Dear Friends,

The author Mark Cahill, a traveling evangelist, titled one of his books, The One Thing You Can’t Do in Heaven. He  points out that the one thing you will be unable to do is to share your faith with unbelievers, for there won’t be any there.

The only time you and I have to share our faith in Jesus is on this side of eternity, and I wonder how we are doing. 

It's easy to lose the kind of passion and zeal we once enjoyed when we first came to know Christ. 

Whenever we become aware of this happening, we need to ask God to restore that passion and zeal and to give us a greater desire and intentionality to share our faith.

The great preacher of yesteryear, Charles Spurgeon, asks a penetrating question. “Have you no wish for others to be saved? (If not)”, “then you are not saved yourself.” The One Thing You Can’t Do in Heaven, Mark Cahill, p 55. Now I wouldn’t go as far as Spurgeon to say you are not saved if you never witness,  but I do believe a lack of witnessing can be an indication of a lack of spiritual passion and maturity.

Would that more of us would be like the great missionary David Brainerd, who was  consumed by one ambition and that was to win souls for the Kingdom. He wrote in his diary,  "I cared not where or how I lived or what hardships I endured, so that I could but gain souls for Christ. While I was asleep, I dreamt of such things and when I waked the first thing I thought of was winning souls to Christ.” George Whitefield shared a similar ambition, when he wrote, “If God did not give me souls, I believe I would die.”

Evangelism must never become a special task for special people at special times, but it should be the normal task for all the church- all the time. It is a ministry for God's rank and file. Each one of us needs to be alert for opportunities to witness to others about our love for our Savior.

Peter writes, “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with  gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander” (1 Peter 3: 15-16).  

Danny Lehmann, author of Beautiful Feet: Steps to a Lifestyle of Evangelism, writes, “There is a difference between speaking truth in love and loving to speak the truth. Too many who could be followers of Christ are lost because someone bludgeoned them to death with the gospel truth. They may have spoken the truth, but they failed to do it in love, and so the lost remained lost, and the soul became hardened to future witnessing efforts.”  We need to love people into the Kingdom with both our lives as well as our lips, and there is a need for both of these evangelistic approaches.”

Danny told how his friend Ray Comfort, another traveling evangelist, promised to give $1,000 if anyone could ever catch him without a gospel tract on his person. Once an inspiring opportunist grabbed Ray after he got out of a swimming pool- hoping to be an instant winner. Ray smiled as he pulled  a plastic - wrapped tract out of his swim trunks (Beautiful Feet, Danny Lehman, p. 15)

Ray Comfort is always ready to give a reason for the hope he has, and likewise we too should be ready as well. We don't need to pray for opportunities to witness, for they are all around us. We need to pray for boldness to seize and speak a word for Jesus. And yes, don't be caught without a witnessing tool.  So, get out that plastic bag, insert a “4 Spiritual Laws” or whatever witnessing tool you use, and get on with the task of gossiping the gospel.

And remember, you are either a missionary or you are in need of one.

Yours in faith and friendship,

Tom

Leadership Thought: You Don't Have to Live with Regret over the Choices and Decisions You Have Made.

Dear Friends,

"In life we do things. Some we wish we had never done, some we wish we could replay a million times in our heads, but they all make us who we are. And in the end, those experiences shape every detail about us. If we were to reverse any of them, we wouldn't be at the exact place that we are today. So just live. Make mistakes and have wonderful times but never ever second guess who you are, where you have been, and most importantly, where it is that you are going."― "The Last Words,"- Source Unknown

I sent this quote to a friend of mine, and the next day I received the following response.: "I am so touched by this e-mail. I'm going through some cut to the heart experiences (that) I am having  with my slow growth! I say this  this with tears  because the timing is so perfect. I feel God's grace through this e-mail. My heart is so heavy about who I am and how I am doing and how long it's taking for me to be better in my response when frustrated with people.! From the bottom of my heart, I thank you for your Shepherd's heart."

It didn't take much time to copy this quote and send it to this friend. In receiving the person's response, I was  again reminded of how little effort it takes to make a difference in a person's life. I just read a quote, thought of a person who might appreciate it, copied and pasted it, and with one click  sent it through cyber space, and God  used it to encourage its recipient.

Now the only reason I sent it to this person, was because it first spoke to me, and perhaps it will speak to you, just as it also did to a group of men in an addiction ministry we host at our church.

We all have made poor choices, and wrong decisions in our lives, and those choices and decisions can birth a pain of regret that will hound us for the rest of our lives.  

But as I reminded those men at our addiction meeting, God can and will use even our poor choices and wrong decisions to bring us to the place where we are, a place where we now have the chance for recovery, and a new life with Jesus in control of their lives.  

God has a plan and purpose for all of our lives, and He is able to use even the mistakes we make to bring His plan and purpose to fulfillment.

The Apostle Paul writes: "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose" (Romans 8:28). 

Those men at that meeting were present because of the poor choices and decisions they had made in their past. But those decisions and choices had now brought them to the place where they could discover the transforming power of Jesus to break the  chains of  their addiction. 

So, as the unknown writer of the "Last Words"  has said, "Just live. Make mistakes and have wonderful times but never ever second guess who you are, where you have been, and most importantly, where it is that you are going."

Yours in faith and friendship,

Tom

Leadership Thought: Beware of Pride's Blindness-Just Look at Haman.

Dear Friends,

I don’t know who wrote it, but it was good advice, “Beware of digging a pit for the enemy; you may fall into it yourself.” The character Haman in the book of Esther would never have hung on the gallows had he heeded these words of wisdom (see Esther Ch. 7).

Haman was one of the most evil and despicable men who ever walked this planet. This master manipulator was a classic personification of evil. His jealous hatred of a Jew named Mordecai, led him to engineer a plot that would send Mordecai to his death on the gallows. But in an Alfred Hitchcock like twist of fate filled providence, he himself is the one who is hung, leaving Mordecai to enjoy the power, privilege, and prestige that Haman so desperately coveted.

Proverbs reminds us that “The righteousness of the upright will deliver them, but the unfaithful are trapped by evil desires.” What a fitting epitaph for Haman’s headstone.

Haman’s’ pride destroyed him, just as it will destroy everyone who lives to exalt himself at another’s expense. It has been said that, “the proud man has a mirror in which he sees himself. A humble man, a window through which he sees others.” 

Paul writes, “Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another” (Romans 12:10).

I love the  words of Francois Fenelon, a Roman Catholic archbishop who lived in the early 1700’s. He writes, “Humility is the source of true greatness; pride is ever impatient, ready to be offended. He who thinks nothing is due to him, never thinks himself ill-treated.”

If we all followed the wisdom of this wise old cleric, how much better our world would be. 

Have a wonderful day and don’t forget these wise words:  “an enemy is a costly thing, a luxury that is too expensive to maintain.” With the Word, Warren Wiersbe, p. 276.

Yours in faith and friendship,
Tom

Leadership Thought. The Man Who Died on the 4^th of July Because He Was a Fireworks Kind of Guy.

Dear Friend

Leadership expert John Maxwell has recently been sharing in his daily podcast “Minute with Maxwell,”  the things he learned from his dad.

His dad was 98 and still going strong when he died.

The information below is an edited version of what John shared about the lessons his dad taught him about enthusiasm.

John tells how his dad wasn’t into music very much. “He was kind of tone deaf, and he didn’t sing very well. But I remember the day when he was college president, and we were in chapel, and we sang the doxology. It is just one verse: “Praise God, from whom all blessings flow…,” and my father loved the way it  sounded, and so he said, ‘That sounds so good, let’s sing the second verse.’ “Well, there’s no second verse, so my dad, not to be deterred,  said, ‘Well then, let’s sing the first verse again,’ “and I think we sang the doxology at least five times to satisfy my dad’s enthusiasm for that hymn.”

When his dad moved to an extended care unit in a nursing home, his dad wanted to be the first one to move in. And I said, “Dad, why do you want to be the first one in,” and he said, “So I can meet all of the new people when they come because I know they’re going to be fearful and concerned about their living conditions, and I want to shake their hands at the door and tell them that it is going to be a fine place to live.”

John did the memorial message for his dad, and he talked about his enthusiasm, and he read a message his dad had written at 85, titled  “Celebrating the Senior Years by Melvin Maxwell.

“And what did he say about how you should celebrate life?

1. “Stay alive. Don’t quit dreaming. Find new ideas and set new goals.

  (Remember he is 85).”

2. “Don’t give over to defeat and discouragement. Things are not as bad as you think.”

3. “Never think you’re too old. Moses was eighty and he led 3 ½ million people out of captivity.”

4. “Never think you’ve lost your usefulness. Your years have given you both wisdom and experience to share with others.”

5. “Never think that you’re not needed or important. Everyone you meet needs a smile and some loving words.”

6. Never stop trying. Persistence always wins. Your candle may be burned down, but it’s not out. Don’t complain because you’re gray and bald for a lot of people never live that long.

7. “Keep a spirit of praise, constantly thanking God for His goodness and remember your attitude is more important than your aptitude, for your attitude determines your spiritual altitude.”

8. “Remember God is with you each day, and you’re near the winning line. Just hang on!”

9. “Try to live a memorial that will live on and on: Love and speak kind words, be thoughtful and generous.”

John concludes, “That was my dad. That’s who he was. My father lived his life with enthusiasm. He was a ball of fire. That’s why he fittingly died on the 4^th of July, ”because he was a fireworks kind of guy.

May the tribe of Melvin Maxwell increase, and may the lessons he taught his son be lived out and passed on by us to others.

Yours in faith,

Tom

P.S. “There seems to be a chilling fear of holy enthusiasm among the people of God. We try to tell how happy we are - but we remain so well- controlled that there are very few waves of glory experienced in our midst.” A. W. Tozer.