Author: admin

It can be heartbreaking to watch your efforts of years go up in smoke in minutes. The company you built from scratch; is dismantled by its new owners. The organization you carefully constructed; is led to ruin by the new CEO. The beautiful yard you meticulously cultivated; is overrun with weeds under its new owners. Few things are as disheartening as seeing your efforts being treated casually or scornfully.

Unfortunately, such is the fate of many. Few people care as much about our work as we do! People have their own priorities. Others will not appreciate the sacrifice and labor we invested. Such a harsh reality ought not discourage you from giving your best effort. But it should cause you to consider carefully where you make major investments.

The only place you can invest yourself that will always outlast you, is God’s activity. His work is eternal. Ten thousand years from now you will be running in to people your life impacted for God. No one can diminish that or take it from you! Invest wisely!

There is nothing quite as therapeutic to the soul as rejoicing in God’s goodness. It is easy to become obsessed with problems and disappointments. Company lunchrooms are filled with habitual complainers. There are people who will wax eloquent to anyone who will listen about the unfair working conditions or their demanding boss. These martyrs appear to spend more energy complaining about their work than they expend doing their work.

Christian employees should not be that way. They understand that their labor provides a platform for them to accomplish good and to honor their Creator. Further, our reward for hard work is to eat, drink, and to enjoy the fruit of our labor. We spend a lot of our life working; God intends for us to find enjoyment in it!

The opportunity to work is a gift from God. Too many live their lives focusing on reaching the weekend, or retirement. But it is the satisfaction of working hard and well, and enjoying the results, that are God’s special gift to His creatures. May you work hard, and rejoice well!

Some things are beautiful, some times. But everything? That’s what Scripture says. God created everything in your life for a particular purpose. And, in its proper time, it is beautiful. The key is that you are experiencing, in the correct season, what God intends for you.

Becoming a parent is an amazing experience. But it can be less than beautiful when it occurs for a sixteen-year-old single mother. Leaving a job can be great, when you have faithfully done stellar work and are being given a heartfelt farewell party. It is not so attractive when you are being let go because of constant conflicts with the boss. Much of the success we achieve in life is based on timing. Events in our life can be beautiful, if they happen at the right time.

Beauty is also often in the eyes of the beholder. That is, events in your life can be wonderful, if you view them the way God does. If you are presently experiencing something that does not seem pleasant to you, or welcome, perhaps you need to search for God’s purpose in it. Even painful experiences can have a beauty to them, if you look for it.

Some of these verses may strike us as inherently incorrect! Of course there are times to love (Duh, like all the time!). But when is it appropriate to hate something? We ought always to seek peace should we not? But when would a Christian ever embrace war?

There are certainly Christians who could learn to love people more than they do. Some believers tale far too much delight in going to war. For such people, they need become more familiar with the heart of God.

But at times, our problem is that we do not hate enough. What should we hate? Anything God hates! God hates sin. Because He knows that sin brings death to those He loves. God hates pride, for it blinds us to our sin. God hates division, for it weakens His people and makes them vulnerable to their enemies. God hates idolatry, because it is a rejection of His love. Hatred means we are not indifferent to that which causes ours, and others, destruction.

Likewise, we ought to be at war against everything that is assaulting the kingdom of God. We are in the midst of a spiritual battle. We have an enemy seeking our destruction. It is supremely naïve to live life like we are on a picnic when in reality we are in the midst of a battlefield.

Are you loving, and hating, what God does?

The world is filled with extroverts and introverts! At times they maintain a precarious relationship! Extroverts love to talk! At times their mouth can begin working before their brain is fully in gear! They think out loud, sorting out the issue, and their opinion, as they speak. What they say first is not necessarily what they really believe.

There are times when such people need to remain silent. This can be difficult. Their mouth desperately wants to be engaged! But often the most profound thing you can possibly communicate is silence. People don’t need to know everything you are thinking. Really!

Conversely, introverts often have tremendous insights into issues. However no one learns them because the insights are never expressed. Introverts can agonize over whether what they think is worthy of utterance. Too often they assume it is not, and they inadvertently rob people of insight that could have enriched their lives.

These people need to speak more than they do. If significant time has passed since the last time you spoke up, it is probably time for you to express your thoughts again! If this is difficult, try speaking your mind, and then watch to see if people are appreciative for what you said. You may not understand it, but you must believe that God has revealed some truths to you that are worth sharing with others.

There are times in life that call for us to repair what is broken. There are other seasons that demand that we break what is out of date! We must know the difference! We can spend inordinate amounts of time trying to repair what needs to be thrown away. In such occasions, we are guilty of putting new wine into old wine skins.

If you have a relationship or program or investment that continually is being stretched and ripped, perhaps what is needed is not another repair, but a fresh vision. If we must continually sew up another rip in our jeans, the time may have come to purchase a new pair of jeans!

Leaders often become emotionally attached to things that are too small or frail for the current demand. We find ourselves continually repairing a system that needs to be buried, not overhauled, once more. Think about the issues you have to continually address. Why is it still a problem? Will you need to continue investing large amounts of time into it? Or, is the issue that you have an outdated system? Instead of sewing one more patch on to a frayed pair of pants, is it time to tear it up and start afresh?

Most people are perennial collectors. We love to surround ourselves with possessions and friends. We often measure our self worth by how much we have accumulated. Yet it is unhealthy to be continually receiving without correspondingly giving.

We need to beware lest we assume that the more we have, the more important we are. A simple way to address this misconception is to regularly throw or give things away. That is, in one sense, what tithing was intended to accomplish. You could not become too attached to your money if you were regularly giving a significant portion of it away! Tithing was God’s solution for pathological hoarders.

There is something inherently wrong about Christians who hold on to a possession long after its usefulness. This is especially so when they are surrounded by people who could have greatly benefited from it. It is also inefficient to bury much needed possessions in mounds of items that should have been discarded. By throwing items away, we can make better use of the possessions we retain. What is it in your life and home that are past due to be thrown away?

We are by nature collectors. We instinctively gather people and possessions to ourselves. The more the merrier! And, there are seasons when this is important. Some people have nothing to show for their efforts because they collected nothing. They accumulated no possessions, or home equity, or friends, so they have nothing later in life. While we ought not to be greedy accumulators, Scripture does not discourage us from collecting good things along the way.

There are also times when it is wise to cast away and to refrain from embracing. Not everything in life needs to be kept near! Some possessions and responsibilities ought to be maintained at arm’s length. Likewise, some people should not be allowed too close to us. They can be untrustworthy, even dangerous. It would be foolish to naively trust everyone. Likewise, if we keep every responsibility and concern close to us, we will soon feel overwhelmed. That’s why wise leaders are continually pushing responsibilities and concerns “down line.”

Some leaders love to feel needed. Despite their complaints, some thoroughly enjoy being swamped with work and responsibility. It makes them feel needed and important. If this is you, consider what aspects of your life currently need to be cast away. What relationships must be kept at a healthier distance?

Some behaviors are inherently attractive. Laughing and dancing make life worth living! They always draw a crowd! Weeping and mourning, on the other hand, are largely avoided. No one wants to do them.

You may have been raised to believe (especially if you were a man) that you should avoid weeping. That it was a sign of weakness. You may, therefore, feel awkward every time an occasion seems to call for it. You might also have been reared in a church that taught that if you honored God, you would have no cause to weep. Times of weeping may seem to you like admitting spiritual defeat.

Scripture teaches that there are certain seasons in life that call for weeping and mourning. They are a natural part of life. In fact, we may not be fully experiencing life if we never have cause to weep. We might have wrongly avoided situations that were painful so we could abstain from weeping. Attempting to live life without tears is no way to live!

Some of us need to be reminded that it is also important to have times to laugh. We may have become so consumed with our work, that we have not noticed how long it has been since we laughed. Laughter and dancing are crucial for a healthy, full, meaningful life. Make sure you never go too long without laughter peeling from your home!

Life is filled with opposite! It seems obvious that there are times that require healing, but a time to kill? Of course, before you do something foolish, we should take note that the writer did not say, “A time to commit murder . . .” This was written to an agrarian society. People raised animals and offered sacrifices to God at the temple. They were used to killing livestock.

Nevertheless, killing animals was certainly not as pleasant as helping them to be born! Newness is exciting. Bringing something to an end is much more sobering. Yet both are necessary for a healthy life.

Beginning new programs at work or at church can be exhilarating. Bringing them to a close does not possess the same charm. People are generally glad when something is born. There are inevitable questions when something is put to death.

There are also times to break things down, and other times to build them up. Again, some activities are more enjoyable, and more widely praised, than others. As a result, we tend to drift toward those actions that we enjoy and avoid activities we find unpleasant. Yet we can’t afford to be one-dimensional leaders. We must be prepared to do whatever our particular season calls.