Month: July 2014

God Controls Promotion and Success

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A few week ago, my wife got a promotion at her work. She still had to apply and be interviewed for it, but I remember how exciting it was for all of us when she shared the news. We texted each other, shouted and celebrated later that evening with a cold bottle of Sparkling Cider. She had worked hard and truly deserved it. A few days after I reflected on this, I concluded that even though we ought to work hard and do our best at work, our promotion doesn’t necessarily come just by our personal and professional growth. There is another element we often overlook. Let me share with you an excerpt from Howard Dayton’s “Your Money Map” to better illustrate. He writes, As much as it may surprise you, your boss is not the one who controls whether you will be promoted. The bible says, “For promotion and power come from nowhere, but only from God.” The bible also reveals the reason for Joseph’s success: The Lord was with Joseph and he prospered… The Lord gave him …

Monday Night Meditation

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So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. (‭Romans‬ ‭12‬:‭1-2‬ MSG) Photo Credit: LightStock  

The Power of Honor

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God has called us to become vessels of honor. The Bible calls us to honor God in everything we do. The Bible says, if we honor God he will honor us. But if we dishonor Him, he will lightly esteem us. I have seen too many Christians buy into the culture of dishonor as displayed on Fox News, MSNBC and other news outlets and blogs toward elected officials. We find this same culture of dishonor in relationships – be it between husband and wife or parents and children. Spiritual authorities are not exempt either from this problem. When it comes to spiritual authorities, I have observed two extremes in the ways church folks relate to them. 1. Church leaders are either put on pedestals – or 2. They are very lightly esteemed As a result, we receive incredibly more value from those we highly esteem,  but no value at all from those we lightly esteem. We receive lots of blessings from those we honor but receive very fewer blessings from those we dishonor. Is it possible for God to …

Charity Begins at Home

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A Paraphrase of 1 Corinthians 13  Author Unknown and altered by J. Yardy Though in the glamour of the public eye I sway the emotions of many by my oratory, or my silver singing, or by my skillful playing, or by my winning personality, and then go home and gripe because things don’t go m way, I am become a sounding brass or a tingling cymbal. And though I am able to impress others with my vast knowledge of the deep things of the Word of God in Bible Studies and prayer groups, and though I am able to accomplish mighty things through faith so that I become famous in the church as a remover of mountains, and have not love that reads the deep longings of the hearts around the family circle, and removes the barriers that grow up in shy and tender hearts, I am nothing at all. And though in glamour of public praise I bestow my goods to feed the poor, and though I win the name and fame of the …

I am officially back!

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40 days ago, I decided to take a break from blogging to kind of reevaluate my priorities. Well, with the Lord’s help, I think I finally have everything in its proper place. Thankfully, blogging is back on the list, but not in the same place it was. I am thankful for your prayers and the many wonderful thoughts I received from many of you by email.  Today, I would like to announce that I am officially back! I look forward to connecting again with all of you for mutual encouragement in the Lord. My first post will center on some of the things the Lord has dealt with me during these 40 days. For example: Family, humility, charity, priority, service, and love.  I’ve learned that “the home is the acid test of the truly yielded life, for in all other phases of Christian service there is a certain amount of glamour; but in the home, one is confronted with the bare facts of life, stripped of all glamour.” I am sure you will enjoy reading my next …