Jesus Developed Followers Before He Developed Leaders

We don't really know a great deal about the first 30 years of Jesus', though we can speculate. Historically, we do know a great deal about the culture, the people, their habits, etc. But have you ever wondered why there was such a long period of time for Him to be revealed for who He was? Was an appropriate age? Probably, but I can't help but believe it was also for Jesus to be developed as a follower before He became a leader. Only then could He begin developing his own followers. Not leaders, that would come later, but followers. Jesus spent 3 years developing followers and at times had hundreds, maybe thousands of people following him.

He taught these men, made in the image of God, to be followers. Or rather, those that chose to follow. What did He do with those that could not meet the standards he set? He let them go. He loved them all, but knew He had to develop good followers before they could be good leaders. When picking the 12, He knew they weren't perfect. But Jesus, the Christ, loved them and continued to give instructions and training.

When He died, He came back and gave them more instruction on and off for 40 days until giving final instructions before departing. Yet, still, Jesus knew their growth wasn't finished and would drift in their following, so he left a Helper behind to continue to guide and train these men left behind to lead.

To lead well, we must learn to follow Christ well. As we lead our family, those we are responsible for at work, we must follow Christ well. As we serve those in authority over us, we must follow Christ well. We must follow, not blindly, and sometimes following well means stepping being courageous in our leading.

Jesus trained followers to train followers to lead well.

Follow, lead, follow more, and do it well.

To that end....

Hmmm...if Christ had come back while I was at work today, would He have found me glorifying Him in my speach, actions, emails....? 5:53 PM Jan 8th from Echofon

#WorkMatters to ponder RT @oschambers-Tell God you are ready to be poured out as an offering and God will prove Himself  http://bit.ly/mu0206

Great workplace Point to Pray and Ponder RT @TomZiglar: You can disagree without being disagreeable. Zig Ziglar 9:04 AM Jan 4th from Echofon

Christian Thinking and Influence: The Pictures in Our Head

Doug Sherman, in his Bible Study, Your Work Matters to God, states "we believe that the workplace is today the most strategic arena for Christian thinking and influence. Moreover, until we become godly workers, we have little hope of becoming godly husbands, wives, parents, or church members. For unless Christlikeness characterizes the 60-80 percent of our lives spent at work, we simply are not living Christlike lives."

The most strategic arena for Christian thinking......hmmm. Have you ever thought much about your thinking being strategic? How about your thinking, do you think about your thinking? Thinking about thinking is not something most of us today think about. Think about it for a minute or two.........hard to do isn't it? How about talking about your thinking, or another's thinking?

How dramatically is your thinking influenced by what's going on around you? Think about how much your thinking is influenced by the thoughts of others, because the mind is hungry for more information and is looking to be influenced. Are you aware of how your thinking is changed? How critical is your thinking?

Prior to the invention of radio, tv, internet, and even the mass production of newspapers, the spoils and triumphs of what flowed from another's thinking a much more celebrated event. In reality, the recepient was much more aware of the absorbtion and how his thinking might be changing. He or she had time to be critical about it.

Thinking about thinking - talking about what we think - arguing about thinking is something philosophers have done for thousands of years. It wasn't that many years ago when people would travel for miles and miles to hear a simple speech and then stay to discuss their thoughts in local bars and meeting houses. Today, we get our information in bits and pieces, yet, as if from a fire hose; there is more information in one week's worth of the New York Times than the average 18th century American would come across in a lifetime.

Thinking, critical thinking, and getting one's message across to others has always been an important part of those intent upon critical thinking. Ben Franklin would write letters to his own newspaper under fictitious names just so he could express his thoughts about what he thought just that he could then write the rebuttals to further spin the thinking. He claimed years later that he did this in part to develop opinions within his readers' thoughts.

So what does this have to do with Christian thinking? Everything. Everyone is bombarded with news and information they don't ask to receive; from emails randomly read to story lines of favorite tv shows, but received and processe it is.

Writer, journalist, and progressive thinker Walter Lippmann, in the mid 1900's, wrote extensively about the tendency of journalists to generalize about other people based on fixed ideas. He argued that people—including journalists—are more apt to believe "the pictures in their heads" than come to judgment by critical thinking.

The pictures in our heads is what we tend to believe and these pictures are formed from what we watch, hear, and read. And what most of us watch, hear, and read, is accidental; not purposeful.

So, what does this have to do with our Christian influence? Everything. If we are not purposeful about what we watch, read, and hear, our thinking will not lead to practicing Christianity and if we aren't practicing Christianity, we aren't influencing others towards God's glory.

And if we aren't influencing others towards God's glory, then what are we influencing them towards?

What do the pictures in your head look like today, and what are they going to look like in 10 years? Are you purposefully drawing those pictures or letting others?

To that end....

Note: this is a re-post from 1/2010.

Struggling at work today? Put on the armor (Eph 6:11-18) and remember Psalm 35, John 16:33. Always remember - your work matters to Him.

Question to ponder: the armor doesn't appear to have any protections for one's backside.

What does that mean?

Challenges at work today? Remember Prov 25:2 and don't waste the struggle.

Pragmatism leads to leaning on values as long as they make money -On chapt "Being Impractical" in Dave Moore's "The Last Men's Book...." 4:39 PM Jan 3rd from Echofon

Is Christ@Work in your business?

Is Christ@Work in your business? Take this simple test to see how you are doing - http://fcci.org/atwork.asp

Pursecuted for Christ's Sake. What Does That Mean At Work?

What does it mean to be persecuted at work?

10 Truths to Live By, by Kent Humphreys

Written by Kent Humphreys and posted at FCCI - http://tiny.cc/pazkf

1. Don’t be religious, but passionately seek to know and love God. Seventy years on this earth will seem but a moment in all eternity.

“Love your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, and with all of your might” Deuteronomy 6:4, 5

2. Make your family a priority. Love is spelled “T-I-M-E”. Create opportunities to work and play together.

“Husbands love, wives respect, young children obey, and grown children honor” Ephesians5, 6

3. Have a career that you enjoy and be the best at what you do, both in your company and industry. Never compare yourself to someone else. Balance times of work and rest.

“God will teach him how to choose the best” Psalms 25:12 (L)

4. Love and serve those people around you as you observe, listen, and become available to them. Don’t seek to control others, but unselfishly give your life for them.

“Through love serve one another” Galatians 5:13

5. Build your life on established truths. The latest “opinion polls,” how people “feel,” or current fads are weak foundations on which to build your life.


“I am the Truth” John 14:6 “A wise man who built his house upon a rock” Matthew 7:24

6. Establish a few intimate friendships and become transparent in small groups. True friends are invaluable and necessary during the storms of life.

“A cord of three standards is not quickly torn apart” Ecclesiastes 4:12

7. Keep your word whatever it cost! Be totally honest, trustworthy, and a person of character. Yes, character does matter.

“Who can find a trustworthy man?” Proverbs 20:6

8. Work hard at learning to be a good communicator. Read a lot, learn to speak, to write and to spell. Be an enthusiastic leader, not a dumb sheep following the crowd over the cliff.

“A wise man will then increase in learning” Proverbs 1:5

9. Make money your slave, not your master, save regularly and avoid debt. “Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.”

“Whoever loves money will not be satisfied” Ecclesiastes 5:10

10. Persist. Never give up! Know where you are going.

“Trials --> Perseverance --> Character --> Hope” Romans 5:3, 4

The Real Everyday Christian

Great post http://christianrealestateandmortgagepros.blogspot.com/

Practicing Christianity

In part, practicing Christianity means:

• To be Called by our Lord God.
• To be brought forth by the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ; to be alive because of Him.
• To know that God create me in His image.
• To be a slave, a servant, and to serve Him, our Lord and Savior
• To know that God worked and I am to work by reshaping His creation.
• To follow God's will, not my own.
• To live a life not restricted by boundaries of names and places.
• To live in the worship of God in all circumstances.
• To remember Jesus in everything I do.
• To renew oneself everyday through to love and suffering Jesus has for me.
• To live for Him, our Lord, our Savior.
• To tell yourself the Gospel everyday; Jesus's life, death, resurrection, and ascension.
• To touch people on God's behalf.
• To create an environment that softens peoples hearts to the point they ask about Jesus.
• To come to God in intercession of other people and places.
• To pray forgiveness when I sin, and pray this many times per day.
• To be a called person on a mission for God.
• To know that my work is my sanctification, even in the daily grid of the nitty gritty.
• To to want to one day hear "well done good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your Master."

Book: Prayer-Finding Hearts True Home

Preface Statement: To be spiritually fit to scale the Himalayas of the spirit, we need regular exercise in the hills and valleys of ordinary life. (XII)

I Coming Home: An Invitation to Prayer

• The heart of God is an open wound of love
• He aches over our distance and preoccupationo He mourns that we do not draw near to himo He grieves that we have forgotten him

God is inviting you, and me

• to come home
• to where we belong
• to that for which we were created
• His arms are stretched wide to receive us
• His heart is enlarged to take us in
• He welcomes us home

The Key and the Door

• The Key, to the heart of God, is Prayer
• even if you’ve unsuccessfully tried prayer before
• even if you’ve only prayed in anguish or terror
• perhaps you are broken and/or bruised
• perhaps prayer is the delight of your life, but you long for more power• more love• more of God in your life

The Door, to the heart of God, is Jesus Christ

• He lived a perfect life
• He died in our place
• He rose victorious over all the dark powers so that we might live through him
• We may now enter through the door of God’s grace and mercy in Jesus Christ
• The Father’s heart is open wide – we are welcome to come in, to come higher up, and deeper in

II Moving Inward: Seeking the Transformation We NeedNote: the movement Inward is prayer to the Son of God, Jesus Christ, which corresponds to his role as Savior and Teacher among us.

A. Simple Prayer
B. Prayer of the Forsaken
C. The Prayer of Examen
D. The Prayer of Tears
E. The Prayer of Relinquishment
F. Formation Prayer
G. Covenant

Prayer III Moving Upward: Seeking the Intimacy We Need

Note: the movement Upward is prayer to God the Father, which corresponds to his role as sovereign Kind and eternal Lover among us.

A. The Prayer of Adoration
B. The prayer of Rest
C. Sacramental Prayer
D. Unceasing Prayer
E. The Prayer of the Heart
F. Meditative Prayer
G. Contemplative Prayer

IV Moving Outward: Seeking the Ministry We Need

Note: the movement Outward is prayer to God the Holy Spirit, which corresponds to his role as Empowerer and Evangelist among us.
A. Praying the Ordinary
B. Petitionary Prayer
C. Intercessory Prayer
D. Healing Prayer
E. The Prayer of Suffering
F. Authoritative Prayer
G. Radical Prayer

http://leadingwellbyreadingwell.blogspot.com/2008/08/book-prayer-finding-hearts-true-home-by.html

The Discipline of Evaluation and Correction

Do not quench the Spirit. Test everything; hold fast to what is good. Flee from what is evil.

1 Thessalonians 5: 19-21

Do not quench the Spirit...test everything....hold fast what is good...flee from what is evil. I read, ponder, and pray on those words and I'm drawn to the Spirit living inside me; the Spirit that Jesus referred to when He said He had to leave so the Spirit could come. I ponder and pray on that and I'm drawn to how the Spirit groans in us; one of the reasons He groans is because He sees and feels us going against God's will and He is trying to correct us. Thus, the point of this writing.

Again, I'm working under the assumption that if one believes in Christ, he wants to follow Him well. To do anything well takes practice and practicing well takes a good discipline of evaluation and correction. Practicing Christianity well is different only in the aspect that it is the most important aspect of an evaulation and correction process, or discipline.

Many authors have touched on this discipline, most recently Jim Collins with the Hedgehog (Good to Great) and Dennis Bakke's "robust evaluation and correction" (Joy at Work). Years ago I heard Max Anders, senior pastor at Grace Covenant Church, give a sermon where he talked extensively about looking back over your shoulder periodically to review how well your walk with Christ had been.

I like the "robust evaluation and correction" thing, but with some twists.

In the Navy, I was on a submarine and while a radioman, I was a bit intrigued with sonar. We had different types, but primarily passive and active. Active was the type you hear about in movies when the captain orders for a "ping;" the sonarman sends the single pulse (ping) out and then listens for the return. He can then evaluates the distance from the target. Passive sonar is simply listening for threats. In either case, once a sound is recognized, the captain would evaluate and take the necessary action. We would be out at sea for weeks at a time and someone would be in the sonar room at all times....listening and paying attention.

Practicing Christianity well requires a good discipline of listening, paying attention, evaluation and correction when those pings come back at us, whether invited (active), or passive (uninvited);

• Pay attention to what is going on around you at all times.
• Ask questions about how you are doing - listen to the answers
• Be purposeful about your life; have a mission and a plan to carry it out.
• Be aware that everyone has blind spots and you can't see them from where you are at - that is why they are called blind spots.
• Pray for the Holy Spirit to talk to you and be involved in your valuation and correction - this is where the real ROBUSTness kicks in. The bible tells us He is groaning inside us , wanting to help. We just need to listen and pay attention.
• Don't ignore pingings we hear coming through our hulls.

Lord God, I pray that I listen to you today. I pray that I pay attention to where I am at and what you want me to do - right here. Give me the wisdom and discernment to recognize the corrections that need to be made in my life. Help me to accept those evaluations and move towards the corrections. Help me to see the blind spots and remove them. You are good and gracious and  your mercy is boundless. You never said our lives would be easy and I pray that I am listening and paying attention to my surroundings, that I allow the Holy Spirit to work in my life. Blessed by your name, that I honor your name. Amen

To that end.....