Engaging fired up leaders who know who they are in Christ and are ready for the challenges of leading with integrity in society today and in the future. This is done by understanding and discussing Biblical Insight into Leadership principles and practices. There has only been one perfect role model for leadership. That only role model has been Jesus Christ.
I enjoy incorporating worship music into my blog posts. Some people enjoy listening while they read and others listen at the end.
There Must Be Unity, We Must Follow Jesus’ Example
Racism and hatred is just simply stupid. It arrogantly
implies that God messed up when He chose to make everyone different. Social injustice and racism was nothing that
God had in mind. After each day of
creation it was always said that it was good. On the flip side however, it is also arrogant
to have a discussion about diversity without God present at the discussion. God is a God of love, mercy, and grace. God does not hate His children and He is not
mad at us.
We must recognize again that creation is His and it is our
separation from God that has created the disorder in the world. The devil seeks to split us off and separate
us from people. Satan's ways are through
hate. He will take any action necessary
to keep disunity within the body of Christ.
“The fullness of God’s purpose and power can only be experienced as the
Body of Christ functions together across the earth” (Mike Bickle).
Jesus taught us to love everybody, including our enemies. He set before us the perfect example. I have set you an example that you should do
as I have done for you. (John 13:15
(NIV)).
While Jesus was on earth, he went to those who lived on the
margins of life. Is there not a better
example of reaching out to each and every person? Why then do so many people in the diversity
and inclusion dialog want to exclude Jesus Christ? No one did it better. No one called together those who had been on
the fringe of society. How can this
message of love be hated by so many?
Too often we want immediate change. We want to snap our fingers and the world be
just as we want it to be. We need to
remember that God's timing is perfect.
In our fleshly nature we want immediate gratification. We want the change we desire now. It takes some time to change the many years
that the devil has been at work in the world.
“Nothing is easier than saying words. Nothing is harder than
living them day after day” (Arthur Gordon). Throughout Ephesians 4 are the directions for
living in unity in the body of Christ. If
we continue to push God away as a society, we will continue to struggle as a
country. We need everyone to recognize
that His creation is good and each of us live as members of the body of Christ.
To live in the body of Christ is to
recognize that each person has a part to play. We need all people to repent and return to the
Lord.
Man's way leads to a hopeless end, whereas God’s way leads
to an endless hope. Everything happens for a reason and within its season. I may not understand it now, but God does, and
that is all that matters. I don't
believe in coincidence, I believe in God's perfect timing. Fasting is choosing to break out of the
routine in order to draw closer to God and listen to Him most completely.
But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes
of His heart through all generations. (Psalm 33:11(NIV)).
We were each uniquely created by God to fulfill the role
that He has planned for us. When our life is given to Him and for Him, we will
accomplish His purposes in the world.
For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do
good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:10 (NIV)
Work with enthusiasm, as though you were working for the
Lord rather than for people.
—Ephesians 6:7 (NLT)
11For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to
all people. 12It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions,
and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, Titus
2:11-12 (NIV).
There are times in our lives when we want to be the ones in
control. This may get us things of the
world but they miss the mark for the things God would have for us. For me, I am very much a person who likes to
be in control of my situation. I rarely
like surprises. Things are planned out
and I often prepare contingency plans as backups after having run several “what-if
and if-then” scenarios in my head. I
have had to come to learn (and God is still working with me on it, He is still
breaking me and chipping me in this area) to let go and wait for His timing. When you let go and let God (according to His
perfect timing), you see your life change for the better in so many ways and
areas. He will place us where He needs
us to be to do the work that He has set before us. And this work and purpose will be revealed to
us in God’s timing.
A thousand times I fail, yet God’s mercy remains. Sometimes we get so busy and caught up in
life we miss the whispers God uses to direct us. Spending time with God places everything else
in perspective. It's amazing what can be
accomplished with a little faith and a big God.
So according to His timing God has a great life plan for each of us!
The start of a new year is often filled with empty
resolutions about how this year is going to be better than last year. That a change we will make this week will
carry us throughout the year. But we
cannot do it alone. We need to recognize
that God is with us.
It is true that we all need recreation in our lives. We need to take time to allow for rest and
diversion from the pressures of the daily grind. We've heard the adage about all work and no
play. We've even heard that in the
creation story in Genesis that on the 7th day God rested. But I
would say to go a step further we don’t need recreation we need
re-creation.
Because God is always at work in you to make you willing and
able to obey his own purpose. Philippians 2:13 (GNB).
Re-creation allows God to continue creation’s story in us. Creation has not stopped it is a continuous
process. Re-creation calls for us to
submit to God’s will for our lives.
Re-creation allows us to refocus on God’s plan.
Too many people feel that they can simply rely on themselves
for recreation, happiness, and joy. These
people have been caught up in the philosophies that the only one that they can
rely on is themselves. Willpower is not
enough to change us. Focusing in on
self-centered ways and ideologies cannot revive us and can be akin to idolatry. People subscribe to these approaches because
God has been moved out of the center space that He should occupy.
The only way to properly recharge and re-create is to plug
into a source greater than yourself. And
that source is God alone. When God
changes you, it's going to hurt. You're going to have to let go of a few
things, but it will make you stronger in Him.
Each of us will change. Life will not allow us to stay the
same. God is right, I am wrong, and he
has the authority to shape and change me into whomever he wants me to be.
22You were taught, with regard to your former way of life,
to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires;
23to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24and to put on the new self,
created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. (Ephesians 4: 22-24
(NIV)).
We need to take time to allow God to work with us and
re-create us. Sometimes we need to have
just a moment of silence and stillness to re-create. Other ways to allow God to engage you in re-creation
is through fasting. The church my family
and I attend has started today with a 21 day period of fasting and prayer. The title “Awakening” has been given to this
period. Through fasting and prayer we
allow God re-create us. Re-creation
challenges spiritual complacency. “Fasting
is a powerful way to let your flesh know that you are a Spirit-dominated person
and your flesh must be submitted to God” (Pastor Alvin Thomas, 2014).
Through re-creation we do not settle for the status quo and
we allow God’s revival to awaken us.
Creation was never to be a once and done event. Through Christ we have been redeemed,
recreated, renewed, revived, and given a future in a new life. We need to pray for continued re-creation by God in our lives. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new
creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Corinthians 5:17 (NIV)).
Christmas is a time for gifts. People run around trying to find the best
deal, the best sale, the latest and greatest.
Each year news stories run about what the hottest toy is for kids. Commercials run about the perfect gift you
need for your significant other. Many
people cave into the secular idea of consumerism and that Christmas is really
tied to the pagan celebration of the winter solstice. They easily forget that Jesus should be the center of the celebration. In all the craziness and the store clerks
saying, “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas” we lose the reason we
celebrate this holiday “Holy Day”.
Jesus' birth at Christmas (Emmanuel: God with us) brought
several gifts to humanity...
God gives his Son as the gift of salvation to humanity.
The birth of the Messiah is foretold.
Isaiah 7:14 (NIV)
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin
will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.
The birth of Jesus Christ (the Messiah) is fulfilled and
humanity is sent a savior.
In Matthew 1:21 (NIV)
21She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the
name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.
Luke 1: 31-33 (NIV)
31You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to
call him Jesus. 32He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.
The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33and he will reign
over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.
Luke 2: 10 – 12 (NIV)
10But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you
good news that will cause great joy for all the people. 11Today in the town of
David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. 12This will
be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a
manger.”
The gift of a relationship with Jesus Christ is there for
each of us. All we need to do is to
engage this relationship and call upon Jesus.
Jesus brings the gift of God’s grace to His people.
Ephesians 2:8-9 (NIV) speaks to this gift from God. 8For
it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from
yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9not
by works, so that no one can boast.
This saving through faith is an unconditional gift that all
we need to do as the children of God is to accept this gift. The Holy Spirit grants us salvation freely
based only on God’s love for us.
Peace be with you. The
gift of God’s peace is given in John 14:27 (NIV).
27Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give
to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be
afraid.
The gift of purpose is revealed in Jeremiah 29:11.
11For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord,
“plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
The gift of God’s Holy Spirit is one that I do not remember
hearing much about in Church at Christmastime.
I heard all about it at Pentecost, but not so much else except for the
Holy Spirit coming to Mary to conceive Jesus.
Matthew 1: 20 (NIV)
“Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as
your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.”
Luke 1: 35 (NIV)
35The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and
the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will
be called the Son of God.
In addition to Mary there are a couple of other places where
the gift of the Holy Spirit is given to believers of Jesus Christ.
John 20:22 (NIV)
22And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the
Holy Spirit.”
Acts 1:8 (NIV)
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon
you…”
The Holy Spirit Comes at Pentecost
Acts 2: 1-4 (NIV)
1When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in
one place. 2Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from
heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3They saw what
seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.
4All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other
tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
Acts 8: 15-17 (NIV)
15When they arrived, they prayed for the new believers there
that they might receive the Holy Spirit, 16because the Holy Spirit had not yet
come on any of them; they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord
Jesus. 17Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the
Holy Spirit.
Acts 19:5-6(NIV)
5On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord
Jesus. 6When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and
they spoke in tongues and prophesied.
The Holy Spirit is a gift from God and cannot be won, bought,
or achieved through deeds or works.
Acts 8: 18-20 (NIV)
18When Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on
of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money 19and said, “Give me also this
ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.”
20Peter answered: “May your money perish with you, because
you thought you could buy the gift of God with money!
Pope John Paul II said that the marvels of Pentecost have
not ceased. This is the new
Pentecost. The move of the Spirit today
is leading an awakening of slumbering faith, changing lives, and engaging a
passion to make Jesus Christ known to the world (Peter Herbeck). Humanity needs to receive the Holy Spirit now more than any other time. We need the palpable experience of an encounter with God that is through the Holy Spirit.
This past October I attended an “Encounter with God” weekend
offered through our Church. This
encounter with God was a spiritual reawakening for me. It was a starting point where I began to feel
led by the Holy Spirit to explore my faith in ways I had never done or been
able to before. I felt God’s presence
stir in me a spiritual revival. My study
has become deeper, my prayer life has been multiplied, and I hear God’s voice
calling to me.
The gift of a Baptism in the Holy Spirit is one that every
believer should pray to receive. I
regularly include receiving the Holy Spirit in my prayers that my hands are to
do God’s work. The gift of the Holy
Spirit is the fulfillment of Jesus’ promise in Luke 24:49. Jesus’ disciples are led by the Spirit in
every aspect of their lives. John
Maxwell writes that leaders (believers) must be empowered before they can
empower. Whenever someone is filled with
the Holy Spirit something happens.
Empowered leaders express, reflect, and convey God’s power, by which
they empower others. The mystery of
Jesus Christ is revealed through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit permits humanity to respond
to what God fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
The Holy Spirit comes in power, and when received and obeyed will lead
to a transformed life in Christ (Peter Herbeck).
This morning I had the opportunity to spend some quality
fellowship time with a new friend. He
and his wife are soon-to-be parents and we enjoyed a wonderful conversation
about being a father and expectations of fatherhood. I shared my apprehensions as my wife and I
approached the birth of our first son (who is now going to be 14). Would I be good enough? Did I have the right skills? Would I “screw” my kid up? That we
must remain steadfast and trust the Lord to reveal the wisdom you will need at
the right time to raise a child. I am
certain as this friend becomes a father that he is well equipped to raise his
first son. Before we knew it 2 hours had
passed.
I am reminded of Ephesians 6:4 (NKJV)
And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but
bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.
God has plans for every child of God. Our role as parents is to educate and love
our children (who are gifts from God) to listen for God’s word and His plan in
their lives. We need to give each child
we have the opportunity to explore his/her own spiritual gifts so that they can
take their place in the Body of Christ to do God’s will.
Proverbs 22:6 (NKJV) Instructs:
Train up a child in the way he should go,
And when he is old he will not
depart from it.
As parents we want the best for our children. We want them to have lives that are happy and
fulfilled. With as much as we would like
to be the ones responsible for their successes we need to recognize that it is
God’s plans that are at work in their lives.
And this can blow our ego. We
have to teach our children how to keep their focus on Jesus Christ.
Some would agree that there is so much confusion,
frustration, anxiety, and emptiness in our homes today. We see the outcomes of this confusion every
day. If you want to make sure that your
children grow in health homes and space then realize that God requires fathers
to be leaders in their homes (Charles Stanley, Man of God: Leading Your Family by Allowing God to Lead You). It’s God’s design and try as we might, we
cannot improve on His design. Ego
pop! In thinking they can improve the
design there are many people today who see the father as disposable. The Lord made men and women equal in value but
each has distinctly different roles.
As fathers we need to reclaim and accept the call to be the
leaders of our families. As parents we
need to believe and trust in the Lord that he will give us the wisdom to
challenge and support our children as they grow and mature in life and in Him. We need to allow our children the
opportunities to reveal their purpose and meaning in Christ.
I am rereading a book I read a year or so back by Bill Peel
called What God Does When Men Lead: The
Power and Potential of Regular Guys.
Peel ends each chapter with several study questions. I am reflecting on one of those questions
this evening. The question is “How did I
come to choose my current work? Do I
think it is what God wants me to do?”
Ephesians 2:10 (NIV)
10For we are God’s
handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in
advance for us to do.
So many men (and people in general) struggle to know what it
is that God has planned for them. In
seeking to uncover their vocational calling so many people (including me) try
to find this purpose in things, power, money, status, or fame. Many college students select academic majors
based on what their parents want them to be rather than submitting to God’s
will and their talents.
We need to take time to discern what it is God wants us to
do as members of the Body of Christ. We
need to consider how our gifts and talents and passions intertwine in terms of
vocational direction. We also have to be
okay that it is not a straight line and that we may have to wander in the
wilderness and go around the same mountain time and time again before we see
our place in the Body of Christ revealed.
As I have posted in an earlier blog post I am currently a
college student educator. I have moved
into that stage of my career where we (in the field) say that “I am seasoned”. Like many colleagues I came into this field
from having been involved as an undergraduate student in college. Some might say that classes got in the way of
my co-curricular involvement.
My story starts like this.
Following high school I enrolled in college as a Speech Communications
major. My hope (found in fame and notoriety)
was to become a television news reporter.
I even had an opportunity following my internship to work at a local
station as a reporter. Although I liked
the work, I had not been bitten by the journalism bug. I kept returning to thinking about earlier
thoughts of being a teacher. But
something in K-12 was not for me. Then
while serving as a Resident Advisor I came to learn more about student affairs
in higher education. Student affairs
college student educators are the ones charged on campuses with developing and
coordinating the out of class co-curricular experiences. This seemed to be the connection I was
seeking.
I obtained my first position as a Resident Director and
enrolled in graduate school. I found
connection and success by helping college students. I found that I was also employing many of my
strengths and talents. But my early
career was not without its hurdles. I
had a couple of positions that were not good fits but I learned so much at each school. After leaving one of these early positions I
had the opportunity to teach at a community college. I found another aspect of my calling as an
educator.
Within my career path I experienced two major setbacks with
the loss of positions. In each position
loss I saw the face of the enemy at work.
The enemy was clouding from me the vision and calling about what was
planned by God. Bill Peel in his book
also talks about the experience that everyone should be let go from a job at
least once. It challenges your resolve,
your identity, and your integrity. I can
stand on solid ground that in each instance my integrity was intact and I could
walk knowing that I had stood on principles.
But I still had two job losses within two years. It’s times like these that certainly challenge
your resolve, faith, and decisions.
After the second loss this past summer I challenged God. Several times I sat up at night asking “Why
me again?” I would question if working
with college students was what I was called to do. Was this really where I should be? When I started to consider work outside of academe, nothing
made sense. These positions did not have
the right “feeling” for lack of a better term.
They were out of alignment for who God has prepared me to be.
I knew that I could not stay in that space for long. I set my faith firm that God has a plan for
me. These earlier experiences helped
prepare me for my current work with students and in my current position. I know that working with students (to help
them grow) is what God has prepared me to be.
Following my final contract day I had two interviews scheduled. They were similar positions but at two very
different schools.
I pondered the messages from Romans 8:28 and 2 Corinthians
3:17 - 18 and that before I went on any other interviews I needed His agenda
leading me more. I prayed for clarity
about where I needed to be and what did I need to be doing?
Romans 8:28 (NIV)
28And we know that
in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been
called according to his purpose.
2 Corinthians 3: 17 – 18 (NIV)
17Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the
Lord is, there is freedom. 18And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate
the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing
glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
I was only a couple of days off contract when I was offered
an interview. The night before the interview
I sat in my hotel room and prayed for God’s guidance and wisdom. If this was His plan for me so let it be. If this is the right place then all of the pieces
will come together. Well the pieces came
together rather quickly. And because of
how these pieces have come together with a great position that is in alignment
with what He wants me to do and a new Church family that supports my family and
me, I know in my spirit that this is where we need to be. We are surrounded by good people. And the students in my new institution are
the best I have ever worked with in 20 years in this profession as a college
student educator.
The pieces have all come into alignment. I know that this is the case because I feel
revived and passionate about my work. It
is through this faith that I am certain this is the work that I was prepared to
do. I know that where I am at now I can
do the work that is for God’s glory and it is work that expands His
kingdom. And for that I know that I am
blessed.
Racism and hatred is just simply stupid. It arrogantly
implies that God messed up when He chose to make everyone different. Social injustice and racism was nothing that
God had in mind. After each day of
creation it was always said that it was good. On the flip side however, it is also arrogant
to have a discussion about diversity without God present at the discussion. God is a God of love, mercy, and grace. God does not hate His children and He is not
mad at us.