Author: admin

Everyone would be wise, if it was easy! But there is a huge discrepancy between our desire to be wise and wisdom itself. Only those who are willing to pay the required price will bridge that gap.

Some people want an education but they don’t want to go to school. Others want money, but they are unwilling to work. Some want knowledge, but they hate to read. In life, there is always a price involved to acquire objects of value.

For some people, the journey to wisdom is daunting. They look at how much effort lies before them and they grow discouraged. It seems like becoming the man or woman God intends them to be will take too long and too much work. Yet, as in every great journey, we must focus on the next step, not the distant destination. If we keep faithfully doing the next thing, we will one day achieve all God intends for us. Some of God’s greatest treasures laid aside for us may seem far away today. But they won’t always be, if we will do all we know to do, today.

Leadership is not for the thin skinned! While it holds numerous privileges, it also subjects people to increased pressures and criticisms.

There will always be armchair critics. These are people who do not pay the price of leadership themselves, but they are quick to evaluate and criticize what leaders around them are doing

If you are overly concerned with peoples’ opinions, you will inevitably be hurt and distracted by them. You may have worked hard and made great sacrifices for your organization. Then you overhear someone criticizing your effort or second-guessing your motives. That can be devastating.

To guard yourself, you must be sure you do not place too much weight on peoples’ opinions. For people will inevitably disappoint and criticize you. Learn to expect it. Don’t let peoples’ praise be the reward you seek. For it is elusive. Be certain you are faithfully doing God’s will then take everything you hear from people with a grain of salt.

When God allows us to have an amazing day, we assume it is because He loves us. But when we experience adversity, we become confused. How could a loving God allow us to suffer like that? Why isn’t He protecting us from harm?

The truth is that God has a purpose both for our pleasure as well as our pain. There are certain works He will accomplish in our life using each one. The key is for us to recognize which season we are in, and then to embrace whatever work God wants to accomplish at that time.

In days of prosperity, we need to celebrate and enjoy God’s goodness to us. Too often we are so busy that we miss those special moments God provides us to experience joy. Likewise, when adversity comes, we need to take time to reflect. Without carefully considering our circumstances, we might miss the good work God is doing, even in our discomfort. We should assume that even in our challenges, God has a good purpose. If you are currently experiencing a trial, carefully consider what God is seeking to accomplish through them.

God is sovereign! He will accomplish His purposes! It is foolish to strive against what God is doing.

Some people in churches habitually resist God’s activity. God is clearly moving to bring teenagers into the church, or to minister to immigrants or the poor, yet these misguided saints are opposed. It will cost too much, it will make a mess, it is not in the ten-year plan, they have never done it that way before! So they resist.

Other people do not like God’s will for their life, so they dig in their heels. Perhaps God allowed them to lose their job. Or maybe their struggling teenage child requires more of their time. Yet these people resent the life God has granted them. They refuse to make the necessary adjustments. They angrily wait for God to return their life to the way it used to be.

The truth is that no one can change what God is doing, regardless of how fervently they try. A battle of wills with God is supremely futile. The wise person humbly accepts God’s will and adjusts their life accordingly. They astutely refuse to waste time on what cannot be altered and instead, they make the necessary adjustments in their life so they can embrace God’s activity around them. Some people spend most of their life resisting what God has done. What a waste!

There is no better protection for your life than wisdom. You might install a security system, a protection program, even a vicious guard dog, but the best protection for your life is to accumulate wisdom.

Wisdom comes first and foremost from fearing God. By fearing God we heed His voice. By following divine directives, we avoid numerous pitfalls.

There are many dangers you may face as a leader. You will encounter decisions that can bring you and your organization tumbling down to disaster if you make the wrong one. You must have wisdom. There will be people who could bring your organization tumbling down, who will seek to become your close aids. In gathering advisers around you, you must have wisdom. There will be crises that inevitably come, but the way you respond to them can mean success or failure, you must have wisdom.

At times we can invest great amount of time and money to protect ourselves and yet neglect to gather wisdom. Without it, no amount of security can adequately protect you.

One of the greatest challenges of our life stems from our unwillingness to trust God and his timing. When we sense something should be done, we want it to happen now! We can grow frustrated, even angry, when things do not go the way we think they should.

If someone offends us, we want to see them experience just retribution immediately. If someone proposes a plan contrary to our own, we want to ensure that people soon recognize the brilliance of our plan and the foolishness of theirs. If we feel that we should undertake a certain task, we become agitated when people or circumstances delay our progress.

But becoming angry at others reflects our lack of belief in God. For if we truly believed God was sovereign over the affairs of people, then we would trust completely in His timing. God in His grace, often is not in a hurry to mete out judgment as we would like Him to be! (at least with others). When we sense what God’s will is for our life, we can often be impatient for Him to accomplish it. But our impatience is a sign of a lack of faith. If we truly believed God loved us, we would trust that His timing is an expression of His love also.

How does your patience, as well as your anger, reflect on your faith in God?

Make no mistake; how we begin something has enormous ramifications on how we conclude. However, how we begin something matters not if we do not end well.

It is much easier to begin something than it is to bring that project to a proper conclusion. Beginnings don’t always require great effort or cost. Perseverance and determination are not prerequisite to commencements. They are, however,crucial for completions. While the launching of something new is often met with fanfare and enthusiasm, the often, laborious effort to bring it to completion attracts far less attention from others.

Yet the measure of someone’s life is not so much in how many things you began, but how many things you completed. True satisfaction is coming to the end of a project and seeing your dream become a reality! At times we celebrate prematurely. Genuine celebration is not at the launching, but at the completion of a major effort. Do you have as many successful endings as you have exuberant beginnings?

The scriptures alert us that Joseph was a righteous man, but we see evidence of it here. An angel had just told Joseph the most amazing, unbelievable, frightening news he would ever hear. Yet there was no argument. There was no prolonged discourse on his inadequacies. There was not even a question for clarification. Joseph simply arose and obeyed.

One could not blame Joseph if he had been hesitant or even reluctant. But he was neither. In fact, despite numerous trials and dangers, we never hear of Joseph complaining. He simply does what needs to be done. Such simple, practical faith has a charming quality to it. It does not strike us as complex or brilliant or insightful. Joseph models something even more pleasing in God’s eyes. He demonstrated obedience. In heaven’s eyes there is no substitute for it. No speech can take its place. No future promise or good intention can replicate it.

While Joseph may not have been perfect, he did have that one quality that must be found in God’s servants: obedience. He could be trusted to do what God told him. As a result, Joseph was entrusted with the greatest assignment a father has ever been given.

What does the quality of your obedience to God qualify you to do?

The events that swirled around Joseph during that first Christmas season may have seemed unexpected and bewildering, but they should not have been a complete surprise. They had been predicted hundreds of years earlier. Numerous prophecies had been made, foretelling numerous details of the Messiah’s life. What was surprising to Joseph was not that it happened, but that it had happened to him.

When we read the Bible, it is easy to believe the events could happen to someone else. After all, throughout history there have been spiritual giants walking about. But to see everything the Bible says about living victoriously, and then to have God express those truths through our life is an entirely different matter!

The truth is that God has been relentlessly working out His purposes on earth since the first man and woman walked in the Garden. He has given ample notice of His intentions. He has made abundant promises. He has sent many prophets. But ultimately we must adjust our lives to what God is doing in our generation. We cannot be disoriented to the Bible, for in it is everything we need so we can know what to expect. God has said what is coming. Are you prepared?

Joseph had the most daunting fatherhood task ever given: raising God’s only Son! But he did not have to do it alone. God guided Joseph, going so far as to tell him what to name the child. The name “Jesus” was significant. It meant, “salvation.” Jesus would fulfill the meaning of His name like no one had before! His name in Hebrew was “Joshua.” The famous Joshua of the Old Testament had delivered his people too, but only for a time. Jesus’ salvation would be far more thorough.

But, like Joshua, Jesus’ salvation was for His people. That is, those people who placed their faith in Him and became His follower. If you had been an enemy of Joshua, there was a good chance you would end up dead! Those who were on Joshua’s side could expect victory, and booty. But again, with Jesus, there was so much more.

Those who belong to Jesus can expect salvation from their sins, as well as unimaginable rewards to be enjoyed throughout eternity. But for those who oppose and reject Christ, their punishment shall be far more severe than anything Joshua meted out.

Jesus came to save His people from their sin. There is no sin or bondage or addiction too severe for Jesus’ salvation. He can save us from them all. Has He?