Tag: Purpose

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Start With Why Book Review by Jeff Bush

By Simon Sinek

  • There are leaders and those that lead. Leaders hold influence and inspire others.
  • 80% of people say they do not have their dream job. 
  • There’s only two ways to influence human behavior: you can manipulate it or inspire it.
  • Most companies do not know why their customers are their customers, they erroneously think it’s because they have better quality. 
  • Every company knows what they do, that is easy to detect. Some companies have figured out the how. Very few companies have figured out the why – their purpose and belief, the reason they exist.
  • Every company or individual that is successful works from the inside out, they have figured out why they do what they do.
  • What a company does is obvious but the why is the real success.
  • People do not buy what you do, they buy why you do it.
  • Knowing your why is not the only way to be successful, but it is the only way to maintain a lasting success.
  • When your why goes fuzzy it is much harder to maintain the growth, loyalty and inspiration that gave your original success.
  • Detecting your why will help others that have the same feeling. 
  • A failure to communicate your why only causes frustration.
  • Great leaders start with the heart before the mind, they start with the why.
  • When a company does not know their why, it is impossible for the outside world to understand it.
  • Everything you say and do comes from your why. Your why is a belief. 
  • When a salesman believes in what he’s selling, there will be more sales. 
  • If you know the why, you’ll know what decisions to make. 
  • Trust is a feeling, not a rational experience. 
  • Leading is not the same as being a leader. 
  • Great companies don’t hire skilled people and motivate them, they hire people who are already motivated and equip them. 
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Seasons of Sorrow Book Review by Jeff Bush

By Tim Challies 

  • When a child of God dies, he does not go away, rather goes ahead. 
  • The Bible uses the example of sleep for death. Sleep is a time to rest, but it is not an end. 
  • God is good all the time. There’s no laps in God’s sovereignty. 
  • Who are we to deem something as evil if God has deemed it as good. 
  • Bless God in the giving and in the taking. 
  • Our children are more God’s creation than our procreation. 
  • Be careful to distinguish the purpose from the results – why God did something and how God will use it.
  • You can accept something by faith as God‘s will, and God‘s will is always perfect. 
  • Do not charge God with wrong. 
  • You can receive something as a trial to steward instead of a punishment to endure.
  • Things may scar you but they do not have to define you. 
  • God was, is, and will be with you at all times. 
  • We can decide to bow our will to God’s throne.
  • God’s actions are always good and His timing is always perfect.
  • God gave talents: to one servant, one; to another, two; and to another, five. He never asked who wanted what/how many talents, and He doesn’t ask us what He will give or take from us. 
  • A perfect God with with perfect character will display His perfect Will. 
  • God begins every life, has authority over every life, and ultimately ends every life. 
  • Death is the great interruptor. It is also the great redirector. 
  • You do not have to spend the rest of your life incapacitated by sorrow, you can allow it to motivate you to serve God greater. 
  • God owes you no answer, and you would be wrong to demand one. 
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Perspectives on Missions Book Review by Jeff Bush

by Dr. Don Sisk

  • There are many enemies. If you do not believe it, consider this: there are more than 5 million fundamental Baptist Christians in America today. But these 5 million Christians have fewer than 5000 foreign missionaries., Which means it takes 1000 fundamental Baptist to go to get one missionary on the field. Last year, less than $75 million was given through all fundamental Baptist mission agencies for worldwide evangelization. This represent approximately $15 per fundamental Baptist per year for foreign missions. This is enough to convince anyone that to the average person, missions is not considered obligatory, but optional. Many show a token interest in worldwide evangelization, but only a few our whole heartedly involved. — page 21
  • When He directs people, He has a purpose for them. God prepares the fields before He directs the workers. — page 23
  • The Moravians had such a missionary zeal that 1 out of every 92 members of their congregations were serving God on a foreign mission field. It was not long before the Moravians in foreign countries, outnumbered the Moravians in Germany by 3 to 1. I do not know that there has ever been a more intensified effort on any group to get the gospel out around the world than this group. — page 25-26
  • I believe the missionary should plan his furlough around his work, instead of planning his work around his furlough. — page 39
  • In June (1990), BIMI will be 30 years old. I try to check our pulse regularly. I have a phobia of being a part of something that has lost its purpose. I have a fear of having a name that we live, but are dead (Revelation 3:1). A wise man once said, “Many Christian institutions are dead, but we can’t bury them because they are too heavily endowed.” — page 63
  • As I check our pulse, I must say: “Praise God, we’re alive! Let’s not go to sleep on the job. Let’s not rest on our past and become useless for the present and lose our opportunities for the future.” 
  • I have some visions for our 30th anniversary year:
        1. A gain of 30 missionary couples per year for the next 10 years. (Since every mission loses missionaries each year by death, retirement, etc., we must have at least 60 new missionaries each year.) This would give us 1200 active missionaries by the year 2000.
        2. Thirty new supporting churches for the home office each year. (Administrative cost increase each year. We must have help from churches to keep down the cost for the missionaries.)
        3. Thirty new fields opened in the next 10 years. (There are more opportunities now than at any time in the history of BIMI.)
        4. Thirty new churches established by our missionaries each year for the next 10 years.
  • We are alive! Will you allow us to help you? As your church thinks about missions, would you let us suggest some missionaries? Could we help you in your missionary conference? As you consider the mission field, would you consider BIMI as your mission? Pastor, would you recommend to your church BIMI for monthly support? — page 63-64
  • Someone has well said, “God accepts us as we are, but He loves us too much to leave us as we are.” — page 67
  • How sad, but throughout Christian history, some have come to believe “If I said it, you should believe it.” No man should assume that, and none of us should give any man that kind of allegiance. Any man can make a mistake, and any man can be replaced. We are instruments. God changes instruments, but God does not change. He buries his workmen, but his work goes on. — page 78-79
  • The cry of a Mexican pastor, Brother Enoch, continues to ring in my ear as I remember hearing him say, “There is enough of the Bread of Life to feed the whole world. There’s enough of the Light of the World to enlighten every person who lives on the face of the earth. There’s enough of the Water of Life to quench the thirst of every thirsty soul in the whole world. But the great majority of the people of the world know nothing about the Bread of Life. They know nothing about the Light of the World. They know nothing about the Water of Life.” — page 138
  • Perhaps there are 200 Bible-believing, Gospel-preaching churches in this (Mexico City) city. There’s about 1 Christian worker for every 300,000 people. In contrast, there is about 1 for every 150 people in Chattanooga, Greenville, Dallas, Jacksonville, and Memphis. On we could go naming cities in America, where the Gospel has been preached. — page 139
  • I have a dream… that pastors from all over America can come here to the World Missions Center and, in modular courses, be trained in worldwide evangelization by pastors and mission personnel, who have experienced firsthand what missions is all about. — page 148
  • God never commands the impossible, and He has commanded us, “Go, ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). — page 148
  • We (BIMI) are not a fellowship, we are not a denomination, we have no authority over any church anywhere. It is not our job to keep everybody straight or even to determine who is right and who is wrong. It is our task to serve. To that purpose, we want to get in totally dictate ourselves. — page 152
  • Available! The laborers are in the Bible-believing, fundamental Baptist churches in our country. There are at least fifteen thousand fundamental Baptist churches in North America. However, there are fewer than ten thousand fundamental Baptist missionaries. Thousands of churches have never sent one missionary to the mission field. Thank God for good sending churches. However, this is not a task for a few, but for all. Every church should be sending forth missionaries. — page 170
  • I often say to people, “It is always too early to quit.” The great difference between winners and losers is not that winners never fail – they do. There will always be failures in any endeavor. The difference between winners and losers is that winners never quit. — page 174
  • Approximately 80% of the independent Baptist churches in America do not have a missions conference. That is, they do not have a time during the year that is set apart for the emphasis of worldwide evangelization. I am aware of the fact that we need not to emphasize world evangelization every Sunday; however, churches that are being used by God to make an impact in world missions set aside some time every year for missions is the main emphasis. — page 184
  • The problem is not with the harvest; the problem is a lack of laborers. After making that great statement, Jesus commanded his disciples, “Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest” (verse 38). What if you and I would go before God daily, and pray to Him that He would send forth laborers into this great harvest field? — page 185
  • Someone has well said, “We should not pray unless we are willing to be the answer to God’s prayer.” — page 186
  • It was not until God allowed the persecution of the church to come that the fulfillment of Acts 1:8 began to be unveiled. — page 220
  • It would be impossible for anyone to read the Bible, and not realize that God is interested in the whole world. — page 229
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Out of The Cave Book Review by Jeff Bush

By Chris Hodges 

  • 1 out of 9 people in the US are on some form of anxiety medication. 1 out of 5 people have used it in the past. 
  • Depression has surpassed other diseases in our world such as cancer, etc.
  • Many things we tell someone that is depressed it’s not helpful – quit thinking about it, try harder, at least your problems are not as big as others, read your Bible more, etc. We should learn to listen and sympathize.
  • We need to stop talking about chemical imbalances and start talking about imbalances in our lifestyle. What we eat, how little we sleep, always on the run, not going outside, etc.
  • If we are burning the candle at both ends, we might not be as bright as we think we are. – Rick Warren
  • Motions are the precursors for emotions. When you feel …, you will… 
  • When someone throws up, the problem is a result of something happening in their body. And in the same manner, depression is not the problem, but a result of something that is happening within them.
  • An overwhelmed schedule produces an overwhelmed soul. Just because we can do something doesn’t mean we should. 
  • The comparison culture eats us alive. Proverbs 14:30
  • Experts agree that we’ve never been so connected yet so lonely at the same time.
  • The same social media that connects us also controls us, condemns us, manipulates us, and deceives us. 
  • Your social media very likely needs to be regulated and reduced. It is the number one reason for comparison and envy in the lives of most people.
  • If you want to come out of your cave, you have to stop comparing because God made you incomparable.
  • We cannot change our lives until we change the way we think.
  • The first problem was not sin but isolation. It was not good for Adam to be alone. We were not designed to be self-sufficient. 
  • In Exodus 17, Aaron and Hur held up the arms of Moses. Moses was used of God to open the Red Sea, but he needed help to keep his hands up. Who is helping you keep your hands lifted high?
  • Joy is an attitude that trusts God despite the circumstances. 
  • Instead of asking why to God, we should learn to ask what He wants to teach us through this situation.
  • Fight with light. The devil is dead set against you, but the good news is that the devil and demons are subject unto our God.
  • Prayer is both communion with God and confrontation against the devil.
  • If we want to win over depression, we must let God fill us. 
  • Perhaps our physical needs (rest and nutritious food) is more important then we think. God confronted Elijah‘s physical needs before his spiritual needs.
  • The opposite of depression is not happiness rather meaning and purpose in life.
  • Whether you like it or not, your ministry is strengthen by times you have been through. Your hard times can be either a prison of misery or schooling to help you learn.