Tag: Priorities

Writing in the sand is as fruitless as chasing fleas and dead dogs. The writing loses focus and washes away with the next wave. Saul lost the focus that kings are indebted to keep. In chasing David from one rocky mountain top to the next ravine, from cave to cavern, he abandoned the priorities of a king. While his kingdom was in peril he engaged in a flea hunt!

Chronic worry is something you choose, but so is courage. Every day I am choosing to put my trust in the Almighty a little bit more. Make sure you are aiming at the right things, the things Jesus would want you running after.

Leaders need to be able to say no, but many find it a hard thing to do. When we think of our marvellously creative Lord, we tend to think of His creativity as a resounding YES. This is correct, but let us also be creative in saying NO when we need to, so we can say yes to the Lord’s best for us.

As I look at the way I have typically treated myself – when I review the way I think about myself – I realize that I haven’t seen myself as someone the Father of the Lord Jesus delights in. My preoccupation is not with God’s goodness, with His love for which no adjective is sufficient; my preoccupation is on the many ways I blow it – impatience, lack of trust, and impure motivations. The list is endless. You have your list too, don’t you?

To reach the unevangelized of today and tomorrow we should focus on “reaching the group” – by planting a church that will endure and will reach this generation and all of the future generations that will be born.

Demands for our time seem to clamor endlessly. When was the last time you had a peaceful moment when you were not thinking about that next thing to do? Usually the decision to commit to too many things is because we can’t seem to say “no.” How do you say “no” in these busy times? Is “no” being selfish, or is “yes” being selfish when you do not have the time to do well the thing to which you said “yes?”

To be effective a leader must delegate many responsibilities, as well as – whenever possible – the necessary decision-making authority. However, there are two critical areas that uniquely require the leader’s personal attention: vision and leader development.

Saying “no,” even when you really want to do this, is going to require everything in you. Saying “no” may be the finest gift you could ever give your wife and family and your church. Saying “no” when your ego and ambition and “sense of self” are all clamoring to seize this invitation is going to say worlds about your self-discipline and focus. Here are four thoughts on the subject.

Many churches have lost one important thing in the pursuit of becoming missional – a true dependency on the all-sufficiency of the Bible. Following attractional, missional, or invitational models, churches become derailed from the central purpose that Scripture gives believers – knowing God by His Spirit in a Christ-centered community.

Demands for our time seem to clamor endlessly. When was the last time you had a peaceful moment when you were not thinking about that next thing to do? Usually the decision to commit to too many things is because we can’t seem to say “no.” How do you say “no” in these busy times? Is “no” being selfish, or is “yes” being selfish when you do not have the time to do well the thing to which you said “yes?”