Category: Book Reviews

Dangerous Calling

By Paul Tripp

 

We get too comfortable where we are, we become apathetic, we minister to people but yet do not seek to be ministered to… therefore we are in a dangerous area in life and ministry.

Most pastors are angry, have marriage problems, have personal struggles and a much more.

Although we can see other people’s problems, we become blind to our own.

Our ministries are fueled by our personal devotion to the Lord.

It is my worship that can lead to other people worshiping. It is my sense of need to my Savior that can lead other people to fill their sense of need for the Savior. It is my joy and identity in Christ that can help others find theirs.

If I am not looking for joy in the Gospel, I will try to fill it in another gospel.

If my relationship is not right vertically, I will start seeking out things that can fill me horizontally.

We must look to God. We must listen to others. We must ignore the urge to isolate ourselves.

Having fantasies of doing something else or working in another ministry will lead to discontentment and bring on very big problems.

Just as a man who takes care of roses but never takes the time to enjoy them, so is a person that is so busy in the ministry but never stops and enjoys what is around him – how God is blessing, the good things going on.

We are fooled when we think that spiritual maturity is simply knowing more… It is actually applying more, not just knowing more.

Because of our vast knowledge of the Word, we go to her desk to get new sermons, but few times do we open it to really learn.

Knowing so much Scripture brings us to a knowledge/understanding, but very few times brings us to our knees.

Self-righteous people tend to be critical.

Our knowledge makes us think so much that we preach all these rules for people… but if it’s about rules, then Jesus came, died and rose again in vain.

We must not judge ourselves or any pastor in the ministry by the exterior, we must dig deep and find out if he pastors his own home, how his walk with the Lord is, if he is critical and judgmental, if he is loving, etc.

Be careful how we define successful ministry – if we think that a graduate with multiple diplomas will be successful, we could be totally wrong.

Maturity is about a relationship with God.

Sin blinds 10 out of 10 people.

Spiritual blindness is different than physical blindness – spiritual blindness tricks the person by thinking he/she can really see.

Spiritual blindness is so deceptive that we literally need daily intervention. We must establish relationships that can confront us. Be open and except criticism.

A pastor’s wife needs help, mentoring and accountability as well.

Do not let the busyness of ministry cause your marriage to fail.

You should come to the point where you know that you need other people in your life.

You cannot think that your life is fine just because ministry appears good. You cannot be deceived that marriage is well just because your ministry looks good.

It is very hard for a pastor to stay accountable and admit when he is wrong or in sin.

Many that have opened up and admitted struggles or sin failure have been hurt and decide to never open up or tell people their problems again. Most pastors live in isolation and silence, thinking this is the most secure and best way – but this is false!

Why are there so many pastors who struggle in their families? Why are there so many pastors that have problems with other staff members? Why is there so much depression amongst pastors? Why are there so many difficulties in the lives of ministers? The problems are personal; it is a war in the heart.

Problems are so great because there is a war in the heart – pride, wanting to be something, wanting to see results and desiring to measure up.

We preach to so many other people and many times forget to preach to our own selves.

We must fight to keep the gospel first.

So, in the war, are we good soldiers?

We are made to worship, but we must remember that worship is not an activity rather an identity.

What do our words and actions reveal that our priorities are?

God is our refuge and strength – but many pastors run to substance, sex, activities, friends, and other things instead of running to God when they have problems.

There’s a great danger of losing the awe and forgetting what God has done. If you can’t get your excitement back, maybe you are doing what you should not be doing.

Are we so busy feeding others that we don’t have time to feed ourselves? We cannot lead others to do what we ourselves are not doing.

We must be careful that our Christianity does not become a system of what we do instead of a relationship.

I will never measure up; Christ never saved me because of who I am or what I can do. I must remember to look and depend on Christ.

We have to learn to not look for other people’s approval, we minister to serve our Savior.

We must put ourselves under Biblical council. Sadly most pastors do not have a pastor, meaning that no one tells them when they are wrong, calls them out when prideful, helps them grow, etc.

Finding your Element

By Ken Robinson and Lou Aronica

 

Do you know where your element is? Do you know how to find it?

Being in your element into you love what you do, not just that you’re good at it.

What are you good at?

What do you enjoy doing?

What are you passionate about?

Happiness is a feeling, or genetic.

Attitude the allowing you to find or not find your element.

Here to Serve,

Jeffrey Bush

Through My Eyes

Tim Tebow

 

Proverbs 20:7 – let another man praise you and not your own lips.

Do everything for God’s glory. Work hard. Don’t settle for doing something halfway.

He was homeschooled. Had a very clear testimony.

Worked out and was very self disciplined.

Had many Bible verses memorized.

He was a leader – encouraged the guys on his team, stood on the steps when everybody got off the bus to give them a hug & encouraging words.

Even as a senior in college, he said he would probably end up one day working in ministry.

Stated publicly that he was waiting for marriage to have sex. I’m sure he had plenty of temptations and opportunities, but he wanted to get married and respects purity.

Not ashamed to talk about Jesus – to his coach, to his team members, on TV, etc.

Believes that God gave him a platform for the Lord.

He said one could not live life if he listens to the chatter of everyone. There’s only one voice that really matters and that is what he wants to listen to, God.

He says he does not know what his future holds but does know who holds his future.

Think and Grow Rich

By Napoleon Hill.

 

Success usually comes right close to the time of failure and sadly many people quit when it gets tough.

Success will come to them that are successful conscious of failure will come to them that are of failure conscious.

You have to know what you want, and then be willing to go after it.

You are the master of your fate and control your soul.

Our brains become magnetized to what we think about the most.

And those magnets attract thoughts, people and things that will make us to what we must think about.

No one has become rich without hoping, wishing, dreaming and planning on it before hand.

No one is ever defeated until they except defeat as an attitude.

Faith mixed with thought will make things happen.

No one is doomed to bad luck. Too many people believe themselves doomed to poverty or failure, but they are the creators of this misfortune. Their subconscious minds have played into reality. Your faith can override your subconscious mind by believing something.

Faith is a state of mind that can be induced by subconscious thinking.

Faith is the base of all miracles. Faith is the base of thinking rich. Faith is the only antidote for failure.

It is a fact that what happens to a person is what they repeat in their mind over and over.

Everyman is what he is because of the thoughts that he permits to occupy his mind.

Your greatest weakness may be the lack of self-confidence.

You must realize that your thoughts will eventually become actions that eventually become a reality.

If you would think for 30 minutes a day upon the person you would like to become than your thoughts will create a clear mental picture that will later become a reality.

You can cause others to believe in you because you believe in yourself.

The law of autosuggestion is that your subconscious mind will pick you up and take you further or drag you down and stop you as a result of what you think.

If you think you are busy than you are. If you think you cannot succeed than you will not. If you think you will lose than you probably will. Success begins with someone’s will to believe it.

If you think you are outclassed, than you are. You have to think high to rise.

The man who wins is the man who thinks he can.

What genius lies asleep in your brain?

Failure cannot overcome persistence.

Inconsistency and procrastination are brothers.

It’s one thing to want more but it is something else to be worth more – we should work at being worth more.

Learn to make decisions quickly and change them slowly.

Keep your mouth closed and your ears open.

Rich Dad Poor Dad

By Robert T. Kiyosaki

 

The poor says I can’t afford it while the to-be-Rich says why can’t I afford it. One is a statement the other is a question.

Learn to use your mind; it is the greatest computer that exists.

There are different effects on the thoughts you have in life. You really do shape your life through your thoughts.

You have to listen to what advice you’re going to feed your mind. You have to choose what thoughts you’re going to think.

The rich do not work for money.

It’s easier to work for money than your money for you.

If money is the big problem than why do people not change when they get more of it?

Fear and greed are the emotions that many have when it comes to money. Fear that they will not have enough and cannot pay bills. Once they get money they become greedy and want more.

Use your brain. Don’t work for money or live waiting for your next paycheck.

Learn a little about everything.

The next step is to learn leadership. Most everything you do will concern working with people.

There are liabilities and assets – if money does not stay with you, it is a liability and not an asset.

Do not just get a job and earn money, learn to make money work for you.

There are many talented people, but most do not know how to sell. You must be a salesman at whatever you do.

What Great Teachers do Differently

By Todd Whitaker

 

Great teachers focus on expectations. Other teachers focus on rules. The least effective teachers focus on the consequences of breaking the rules.

The key is to set expectations and then establish relationships so that students want to meet these expectations.

Effective teachers understand that what matters is not whether student leaves the office mad, but how the student behaves in the future.

I believe that what I am saying is important, and of course I want my audience to give me their full attention – but it’s my job to gain, and to keep, their attention. If I’m not doing that, I need to change my approach.

If the students are not focused, great teachers ask what they themselves can do differently.

The main variable in a classroom is not the students. The main variable is the teacher.

Effective teachers treat everyone with respect, every day.

Great teachers understand the power of praise.

You don’t have to like the students; you just have to act as if you like them.

Our behaviors are much more obvious than our beliefs.

Learning how to praise maybe a challenge for many of us. As teachers, we find it all too easy to spend our time looking for what is wrong, pointing out errors, and focusing on mistakes. However, an effective teacher looks for opportunities to find people doing things right and knows how to praise those people so they’ll keep on doing things right.

Every time I praise someone, at least two people feel better – and one of them is me.

Whether we are aware of it or not, our behavior sets the tone.

If we have great credibility and good relationships, students work to please us. Students come to class each day wanting and expecting us to set the tone.

if our attitude shows we want to be there, our students will reflect that positive energy back to us.

We are very fortunate to work in education; sometimes we just forget how blessed we are. But consistently filtering out the negatives that don’t matter and sharing a positive attitude, we can create a much more successful setting. Consciously or unconsciously, we decide the tone of our classrooms and of our school.

One of the things I noticed about the best teachers is that they sell them engage in the behaviors that cause harm to students. They don’t make cutting remarks or issue smart retorts. They don’t run students down or embarrass them in front of their peers. Quite the opposite: the best teachers consistently complement and praise students.

The best teachers have high expectations for others, but much higher expectations for themselves. The best educators work hard to keep the relationships in good repair – to avoid personal hurt and to repair any possible damage – and others notice.

We can never be sarcastic or demeaning in our tone of voice or body language.

Focus on prevention, not punishment.

Effective teachers reinforce these behaviors; they also take advantage of teachable moments to help other students build the skill of repairing.

Great teachers have an incredible ability to ignore. This doesn’t mean they are oblivious – great teachers are aware of almost everything that happens in their classrooms. Nor does it mean that they have vast reserves of patience (although that helps). Rather, it reflects their mastery of the situations that arise daily in the life of schools. They know how easily one or two students can disrupt the flow of learning, but they also know when to go with the flow, went to take a stand, and how to quell minor disturbances without further distracting others.

Great teachers have learned from experience which issues demand immediate attention and which will wait for a more teachable moment.

A great teacher resembles the master chef who can keep a busy kitchen cooking along in the midst of what looks like chaos to the uninformed. The great teacher has the ability to ignore trivial disturbances and the ability to respond to inappropriate behavior without escalating the situation. The great teacher has the ability to pay attention to students, to recognize and praise their achievements, and the ability to overlook minor errors. It’s a fast-paced and delicate balancing act; The great teacher has mastered this is essential skill.

One hallmark of great teachers is that in their classrooms, very little happens at random. Great teachers have a plan and purpose for everything they do. If things don’t work out the way they had envisioned, they reflect on what they could have done differently and adjust their plans accordingly.

The teacher who needs to prove, over and over, who is in charge of the classroom is wasting precious energy on a losing battle. Great teachers do not try to prove who is in charge in their classrooms; everyone knows.

Great teachers find a way to keep every student in gear and moving forward.

It’s important not to put any student in the position of being seen as the teachers pet. They may lose respect for, and even resent, the one singled out for special treatment.

Nurture the superstar students you have, and work to cultivate others.

Make it cool to care. I wanted everyone – every student, every teacher, each staff member, all the parents – to think it was cool to care.

The real challenge, and the real accomplishment, is to get all the students to care about what happens in the classroom. Once we achieve that, anything is possible. Until we achieve that, any obstacle can seem insurmountable.

Preparing students for life, this is what teaching is all about.

Touch the heart, then teach the child.

Until we connect with them emotionally, we may never be able to connect with their minds. Great educators understand the behaviors and beliefs are tied to the emotion, and they understand the power of emotion to jumpstart change.

The legacies we build last far beyond our years. Students care about great teachers because they know great teachers care about them.

The teacher is the filter for whatever happens in the classroom.

The quality of the teachers determines the quality of the school.

Success comes from people, not programs.

Being a teacher is an amazing profession. It is challenging, dynamic, energizing, and draining – but most of all, it is rewarding. Our impact extends far beyond anything we can imagine. We know that our students talk about us; so do our colleagues, and so do the people throughout our community. We can decide what we want those conversations to be like.

Here to Serve,

Jeff Bush

Today’s All-Star Mission Churches

by Tom Telford

 

Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church, the glory of God is the ultimate goal of the church.

Missions is pen-ultimate; worship is ultimate.

Isaiah 12:4; Ecclesiastes 3:11

III John 6 – there’s a big difference between a church that has missionaries in a church that sends missionaries. These missionaries should be grown and identified by the church.

I often tell young people that if they are called to stay in America, then they need to ask themselves where in the world they need to go to find more worshipers for God’s glory.

Philippians 4:10–19 and I Corinthians 8:1–15 – Genuine missionary care.

Ways to help missionaries: communication. Hospitality. Prayer. Small groups. Short-term teams. Special field visits. Pastors visits. Accountability. Retreats – tuneup spiritually. Individual lies care – make Missionary feel loved and remembered.

A quarterly report – update from missionaries. Four categories: personal spiritual information. Interpersonal and family information. Ministry information. Praise and prayer request.

Some must in church for missions: it’s a must that you share everything. It’s a must that you take care of your own. It’s a must that the church to do missions education – teens missions conference in children’s missions conference – three missions conference at the same time. It’s a must that the church family show hospitality to missionaries. It’s an absolute must that the pastor be the key. It’s a must that missionaries report. It’s a must that all missionaries have access to the pastor and spend planned time with him when they are home. It’s a must that the missionaries art listened to. The must that missionaries be properly prepared in the personal life. It’s a must that missionaries be sent out in teams.

Ideas for mobilizing kids for missions: start a missions library for kids. Use the missions P word – (purpose, Power, people, people moving, passport to the world, preparation, possessions, projects, partnership, proclamation). Launch missions prayer for kids. Start a monthly mention missions emphasis in Sunday school, children’s church, or midweek boys and girls program.

I remember speaking one afternoon to a large gathering of retired and senior missionaries. I asked them to tell us that what age they felt the call of God to become a missionary. The typical age was eight years old!

What kind of an impact would happen around the world if everyone of our thousands of churches would send out just one missionary from their congregation.

The pastor is the leader and promoter. Every member is asked to consider short-term missions trip opportunities. The churches annual international missions festival energizes leadership. Church member ownership is encouraged.

Mobilization of the American church is the most strategic thing we can do admissions. – Ralph Winter

Send us people with initiative, who can carry themselves and others too; such as need to be carried hamper the work and weaken those who should be spending their strength for the heathen. Weaklings should be nursed at home! If any have jealousy, pride, or talebearing traits lurking about them, do not send them, nor any who are prone to criticize. Send only Pauls and Timothys; men who are full of zeal, holiness and power. All others are hindrances. If you send us ten such men the work will be done. Quantity is nothing; quality is what matters.– by C.T. Studd written from the Congo.

Criteria for an all star missions Church:

1. The church must have an outward focus and strategy.

2. At least 30% of the churches budget must go to missions.

3. The church must have enough ongoing training program for missionary candidates.

4. Missions education must be integrated into all the program of the church.

5. The church must send its own people.

6. The church must be concerned about and pray for the lost.

7. The church must have a pastor who leads them in vision and outreach.

8. The church must be interested in helping other churches in missions.

9. The church must have a strong evangelism program and it’s community.

Missions is a matter of life and death for the local church. – Dr. Robert Torrey

If we spent less time recruiting and more time training, there would be less failure on the field. There is a high-cost in not sending the right people.

The Way to Wealth

Benjamin Franklin

 

All quotes by Benjamin Franklin

• We are taxed twice as much by our idleness, three times as much by our pride, and four times as much by our folly.

• God helps those who help themselves

• If you love life, then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of

• The sleeping fox catches no poultry

• Lost time is never found again

• He who rises late must trot all day

• Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.

• There are no gains without pains

• At the working man’s house, hunger looks in, but dares not enter

• Industry pays debts, while despair increases them

• Plough deep while sluggards sleep, and you shall have corn to sell and keep

• Never leave till tomorrow what you can do today

• The cat in gloves catch no mice

• Little strokes fell great oakes

• Since you are not sure of a minute, do not throw away an hour

• A life of leisure and a life of laziness are two different things

• Keep your shop and your shop will keep you

• The eye of the master will do more work than both hands

• If you want a faithful servant, and one that you like – serve yourself

• A fat kitchen makes a lean will

• If you want to be wealthy, think of saving as well as earning

• What maintanes one vice would bring up two children

• Beward of little expenses; A small lead will sink a great ship

• Fools make feasts, and wise men eat them

• Buy what you do not need, and soon you will sell your neccessities

• It is foolish to lay out money in a purchase of repentance

• Silks and satins and scarlets and velvets put out the kitchen fire

• A ploughman on his legs is higher than a gentleman on his knees

• Always taking out of the pot, and never putting in, one soon comes to the bottom

• If you want to know the value of money, go and try to borrow some

• Pride is as loud a beggar as need

• It is easier to suppress the first desire than to satisfy all that follow it

• Pride that dines on vanity sups on contempt

• Think what you do when you run into debt; you give to another power over your liberty

• The second vice is lying, the first is running into debt

• It is hard for an empty bag to stand upright

• Creditors have better memories than debtors

• Rather go to bed supperless, than rise in debt

• Experience keeps an expensive school, but fools will learn in no other

• Those who will not be counseled, cannot be helped