Tag: Responsibility

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How to Get and Stay Motivated

By Grant Cardone (summary by Jeffrey Bush)

  • If you’re not motivated, you’re not going to get up and take action.
  • No one can tell you what you are capable of, only you know your true potential, so
    work towards it.
  • Shoot for the extra ordinary, not just the ordinary.
  • Do what others are not willing to do.
  • Be willing to fail.
  • Be unique . Be set apart by your actions and attitudes. Don’t try to be like everyone
    else, be different.
  • Do things that push you and challenge you. Most people do the easy things,
    therefore they are not motivated.
  • Give more than is expected of you. Don’t worry about people taking advantage, you
    will actually receive much more by giving more.
  • Surround yourself by winners. Get a mastermind group. Be around people that
    stretch you and become fuel for your dreams.
  • Read one book a week. The average American reads one book per year. If you want
    to separate yourself and reach your full potential, aim to read one book a week.
  • Cut out the negative people in your life. Reach up, not sideways or down, or you will
    kill your dreams and motivation.
  • Stay uncomfortable. Your discomfort is an indication that you are pushing through
    something.
  • Do things you’re scared to do. It will give you more confidence, boldness, and
    motivation.
  • Motivation isn’t something that you go and fill up on, you have to refuel yourself. Do
    things you are afraid of, and you will be refueling.
  • Surround yourself with positive reminders. Great people create their own
    environment. Surround yourself with positive messages and you will be positive and
    stay motivated.
  • Avoid people that refuse to accept responsibility in their life.
  • Throw the concept of balance out the window and seek to be exceptional. Seek to
    be exceptional in every area of your life.
  • Look to control time and not manage time.
  • Make quality time for your family every day. Don’t look for the time, make it.
  • Use and keep a full calendar.
  • Go to sleep early at night. If you stay up too late, you likely waste time or take in junk
    from TV that you do not need.
  • Get things done before the deadline. People that wait until the deadline usually don’t
    accomplish as much. It will motivate you to beat the deadlines.
  • Have a daily battle plan – write a to-do list for every day. Let everyone else just show
    up for work, but you show up with a daily battle plan, and you’ll accomplish more
    and be more motivated.
  • Be the most professionally, best dressed person in the room. Motivation is an inside
    job, so don’t take shortcuts on how you dress. Don’t worry how everyone else
    dresses.
  • Take enough time off that you are tired of taking off. Don’t go away for two days,
    take the amount of time you need until you are fired back up and can’t wait to go
    back to work.
  • Avoid drama TV and drama radio. You do not need the negative drama influence in
    your life, so get it out. Most news channels are not really giving news rather giving
    opinions and drama.
  • Look for an opportunity to help someone every day. Each person and circumstance
    will be different, but look for new opportunities every day. When you seek to help
    someone else, you will end up being energized and motivated.
  • You need to get a little bit of exercise every day. The hardest thing about exercise is
    getting started, but once you do, it will motivate you.
  • Eat healthy foods you can afford, and it will affect the way you feel.
  • Be energetic, whether you feel like it or not. It doesn’t matter if you are in your
    groove; force yourself to be energetic.
  • Take a power nap. Doesn’t matter what others think, if a nap will help you, then do it.
  • Listen to some music that will energize you. You don’t have to listen all day, but do
    listen.
  • Stop saying no to everything and start saying yes. You don’t need to think about it or
    get back to someone, say yes, even if you are not comfortable or enjoy it. You might
    find that you like new foods and new hobbies if you will just learn to say yes more
    often.
  • When people say things cannot be done, be deaf towards it. You will most certainly
    hear negative news, but be deaf towards the naysayers.
  • Be the originator of news instead of the receiver of news. Make news instead of
    watching it.
  • Become the expert in your space, be the person that people go to in your area of
    expertise.
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Reclaiming Surrendered Ground: Book Review by Jeff Bush

By Jim Logan

  • The devil has no authority in the Christian’s life, accept for that which has been surrendered to him.
  • If it is possible to give ground or place to the devil, as Ephesians 4:27 says, then it is also possible to reclaim that ground.
  • The devil wants to kill, steal, and destroy. The good news for us is that he is a defeated foe. 
  • We do not need to ask others if they have the victory, we need to ask if they are standing in the victory they already have. 
  • Since every Christian faces spiritual warfare, every Christian is also equipped with the spiritual tools needed for the war. 
  • If the Christian could not be influenced by the devil, then why are we told to put on the armor of God and stand firm (Ephesians 6:10), to take every thought captive (2 Corinthians 10:5), and to resist the devil (James 4:7)?
  • The popular word that the world uses is “addiction,” but God uses the word “sin.” Addiction gives the idea that you’re a victim of something, but sin suggests you’re making a choice.
  • When you give ground to the devil, he can begins digging a foundation to construct whatever he wants.
  • When Lazarus was raised from the dead, he had life but was bound with grave clothes and needed help being unwound. 
  • Fathers, you have great responsibilities, and the devil wants to attack you, but you have great resources in God.
  • As a child of God, you’re calling is to get to know your Father, not the enemy. You should be aware of the devil, but not fear him because you are God’s child.
  • Getting free can be easy, but staying free is the challenge.
  • You are not fighting to gain victory, you’re fighting from a position of victory. The devil is a defeated foe!
  • We have been delivered from the power of darkness, but not from the presence of darkness. We still live in a wicked world.
  • Because Satan is already defeated, his only power is in deception.
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Raising Grateful Kids In An Entitled Generation: Book Review by Jeff Bush

by Kristen Welch 

  • How can we explain or expect gratitude from our children if we are not showing it in our own lives.
  • Although our children should expect our love and acceptance, they must learn not to expect the material things this world places in front of them.
  • Entitlement winds its way through families. Everything from portion sizes, presents, activities, clothes and toys.
  • Resolving entitlement starts with teaching your children to be thankful for what they already have.
  • Entitlement has always been around, so maybe it’s the parenting that has changed and not the children. We are giving without making them earn, not saying no and overindulging.
  • Proverbs 22:6 has another side to it, a negative one. If you allow children to do whatever they want, they are not going to depart from their bad ways even when they’re old. 
  • Sometimes parents say no so often that they lose the opportunities to explain why they say no.
  • Sadly, parents feel pressured to give their children things they don’t necessarily need because everyone else is giving it to their children (best schools, sports, brand names, vacations, etc.).
  • Begin your quest for contentment. Is Jesus really enough for you?
  • The blurry line of being friend and parent is one of the most controversial lines in parenting today.
  • Kids need to learn how to problem solve. Parents do not need to rob this lesson from them.
  • We cannot make our parenting decisions based on what other parents are doing.
  • Temporary unhappiness from kids not getting their way can make for happiness as adults that love God and others.
  • Wanting our kids to be happy all the time might just be feeding their entitlement attitude.
  • Let your kids be devastated at age six so their first time is not when they are in college.
  • Tell your kids it’s more important who they are then what they have.
  • It is not your job as a parent to provide exciting activities every leisure moment. Kids are known for saying they are bored, but they need to learn to go outside, be creative and find things to do. 
  • Challenge your kids to turn their phone around and take pictures of others instead of themselves. Take them to a homeless shelter. Teach them to think of others.
  • Parents should make restrictions on their kid’s social media platforms/accounts, and should not feel bad about it.
  • You should ask and know your children’s passwords and accounts. This is not an invasion of privacy, it is protecting your children. There are predators and dangerous people out there that want to hurt your children.
  • We must teach our children self control. We will not always be with them to help make decisions, so they must learn to make decisions on their own. Proverbs 25:28
  • Obedience should be expected not suggested. But do so with grace and love.
  • Losing is good for your kids, not bad. Giving a participation trophy does not teach them about life, in fact, it makes them expect more.
  • Make your marriage more important than your children, it’s what you and your kids need. 
  • Nothing makes us more grateful than perspective.
  • The best way to teach gratitude is to model it. Do they see you saying thank you, writing a thank you card and being kind to the server at a restaurant?
  • You may get mad or feel you’ve messed up with your kids, but there’s time to ask forgiveness… so do it when necessary. 
  • Talking to older parents will help coach you as you’re raising your kids.
  • 7 Ways yo Teach Gratitude to our Kids, instead of Entitlement:
          1. Teach ownership. Chores and responsibilities. Their clothes and possessions. 
          2. Stress the value of money. Saving and spending money. Let them have an allowance for their work or an amount on vacation and not get more when it’s spent. It’s easier for them to spend your money than theirs. Teach and encourage them to give. 
          3. Emphasize the value of hard work. Make work part of your daily routine. Teach them to pick up after themselves as well as specific jobs around the house. Let them be in charge of making dinner and cleaning up after meals.
          4. Teach responsibility and consequences. Require them to do their own laundry when they get to a certain age, and when they run out of clean items don’t run to the rescue. It is hard to watch your kids fail, but sometimes that’s what they need to do. 
          5. See the benefits of delayed gratification. In a world of instant gratification children must learn to delay the immediate reward for the later reward. The reward that is worked for and waited for is usually much more valued. 
          6. Give your children a larger worldview. Perspective is one of the greatest gifts you can give your children and yourself, and service is a great way to package it. Not everyone in the world has what you have, many have far less. Your kids need to know that. Take them to work at a homeless shelter or places they can help and as see the need of others. Your family is at its best when you are helping serve others. 
          7. Strive to instill faithfulness. Persevering when things are hard is often rewarding. 
  • Don’t ground your children from spiritual activities. Sometimes parents will not let their children go to a church event because of the way they acted. But they need that influence more than other things they have or do in life.
  • One of the greatest gifts we can ask from the Lord is wisdom. 
  • Nothing we can do or say can ever substitute for bowing our heads and praying for our children. 
  • Prayer is often the last thing we think when raising kids, but God wants to walk this path with us. And there’s nothing greater than telling our parental needs to the One who parents us.
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Planting a Church Without Losing Your Soul: Book Review by Jeff Bush

By Tim Morey 

  • Spiritual competencies are as important, if not more, as other competencies.
  • You as the pastor are not meant to hold all of the church problems. If you try to do what only God can do, you will live anxious and exhausted. Be the Pastor and let God be God.
  • When Elijah was discouraged, God spoke to him about the physical: food, water, and sleep. The physical is connected to the spiritual.
  • Overeating and unhealthy eating is common for those in ministry, but it is not good.
  • Don’t wait until you break. Let God and others help you with your emotional needs.
  • Many church planters started a church, hoping for the story of someone else, but God might want to write your story differently.
  • God doesn’t always meet us in the way we want or expect, but He does always meet us how we need.
  • The number one problem of pastors is isolation.
  • The main thing you will give your congregation is the person you become – Dallas Willard 
  • Church planters become professionals at “winging it.” The problem is you cannot “wing” your spiritual life.
  • The church’s strengths and weaknesses mirror the pastors strengths and weaknesses.
  • Suffering contains the seeds for success.
  • Church planters often have a mixture of confidence and self-doubt. Humility is needed.
  • Suffering keeps me humble and aware of the things I do not know.
  • We fear suffering, but we should probably fear more the absence of suffering.
  • It seems in 2 Corinthians 12 that Paul’s greatest asset was his greatest weakness – and that very likely could be the case with each of us.
  • Are you able to embrace the difficulties as a gift from God? 
  • Without suffering, how could we develop empathy – helping people in an understanding way.
  • Power without love is reckless and abusive. Love without power is sentimental and anemic.
  • According to a survey at Duke University, 43% of US churches run less than 50 people. Another 24% are between 50-100 people. 21% are between 100–200 people. 10% are between 250-1000 people. And 2% are 1000 or more.
  • A study from Harvard Institute for religion says the median size of a church in the US is 80 people. Only half of 1% of churches in the US are mega churches (2,000 plus people). 
  • We should focus more on making big Christians instead of trying to make big churches.
  • We must move from being superheroes to equippers.
  • If you as the pastor are doing the bulk of ministry, you are doing it wrong. Ephesians 4 teaches that the pastor is to equip others, not just do all the work.
  • Teaching others to do what you do means you don’t get to be the hero. 
  • Before we deal with difficult people, we must face the issues with the man in the mirror.
  • If you lose your family, you lose your ministry as well.
  • Do you want your kids to grow up loving church or hating church? Do you want your spouse to be thankful they married someone in the ministry, or regret it?
  • To succeed in church and fail in your family is to fail.
  • As a church planter, you will likely not have as much money as the people in your church, but you do have more power over your schedule than others do. You can use this to your strength to make sure you have time for your family.
  • Most church planters feel like they can’t get away, but a healthy church needs their pastor to be absent so they can learn to take care of areas. Your family and your church need you to get away.
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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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People Can’t Drive You Crazy If You Don’t Give Them The Keys : Book Review by Jeff Bush

By Mike Bechtle 

  • Drama free doesn’t mean ridding of the drama, or the people that create it, rather the affect it has in you.
  • When it comes to drama, you have three choices: 
    1. Get the crazy person to change. 
    2. Live with the craziness. You can learn to accept it. 
    3. Get the crazy person out of your life. You can leave the situation.
  • Your relationship with God will help your relationship with others. 
  • When you determine to grow in spiritual maturity you’ll be able to better deal with drama and craziness.
  • We all have drama in our lives, but some people are controlled by it.
  • Our emotions are based on assumptions. The problem with assumptions is that we are basing solely on the facts that we have. 
  • Proverbs 18:17 teaches that our arguments make sense until we hear the other side.
  • False hopes destroy a relationship. While you’re expecting the other person to change, they likely are hoping for the same thing.
  • 5 truths about relationships:
          1. People with the most drama are the ones we spend the most time with (friends, family, coworkers, etc.). 
          2. Relationships take work.
          3. Relationships take time.
          4. The past doesn’t have to dictate the future.
          5. You don’t have to be the victim. 
  • When people are angry, they do not make logical decisions. 
  • The key to surviving crazy people is determining what we can and cannot control. We can control ourselves, but not others.
  • If each of us try to see how the other person sees, we’re laying the foundation for a good relationship.
  • If we want to best know how to use our car, we read the instruction manual. If we want to best know how to deal with other people, we read the instructions from the One who made people.
  • The key to managing our emotions is learning to manage our thoughts. 
  • Feelings come and go but love remains, and we are commanded to love. 
  • Realize that people are not accountable to you.
  • Reactive people focus on the problems while responsive people focus on the positive.
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Peeking Through the 10/40 Window Book Review by Jeff Bush

By Johnny J. Esposito

  • Many of the countries in this window (10/40) are either officially closed or informally opposed to Christian ministry within their borders. Citizens have limited knowledge of the Gospel, minimal access to Bibles, and Christian materials, and extremely restricted opportunities to respond to and follow the Christian faith. 
  • Of course, the people who are lost in the 10/40 Window are not “more lost” than your neighbor or family member who does not know Christ. But, they are unreached in the sense that they have not had an opportunity to hear the Gospel. “The issue is not their lostness, but their access to the Gospel.” People can be unevangelized without being unreached. There are people in the United States who have not heard the Gospel by their choice. Most people living in the 10/40 Window could not learn about Jesus even if they wanted to! These are unreached people who do not have access to the Gospel!
  • One-third of the planet’s population, over two billion people, has never heard the gospel. And of that number, over 50,000 die daily, separated from God forever. As has been said, one definition of a missionary is someone who never gets used to the sound of pagan footsteps on their way to a Christless eternity. The sounds of those footsteps echo in their minds and haunt their waking dreams. One should not go driven by the need alone, but God often uses the need as a starting place to awaken us to Hs call. — The Missionary Call by David Sills
  • Jesus has not given us a commission to consider; He has given us a command to obey. That command involves sacrifice on all our parts. If we have this much access to the Gospel in our culture, and there is this much absence of the Gospel in other cultures, then surely God is leading many more of us (maybe the majority of us) to go to those cultures. If God calls us to stay in this culture, then surely He is leading us to live simply and give sacrificially so that as many people as possible can go. — Counter Culture by David Platt
  • The United States, with its 600,000 congregations or groups, is blessed with 1.5 million full-time Christian workers, or one full-time religious leader for every 182 people in the nation. What a difference this is from the rest of the world, where more than 2 billion people are still unreached with the Gospel. The unreached or “hidden peoples” have only one missionary working for every 78,000 people and there are still 1,240 distinct cultural groups in the world world without a single church among them to preach the Gospel. These are the masses for whom Christ wept and died. — Revolution in World Missions by K.P. Yohannan
  • It has been said that in India alone there are 500,000 villages without a Gospel witness. None! Not one. In China, Southeast Asia, and the many islands in the great Pacific we are unsure how many there are. In the country of Cambodia, where my wife and I are presently serving, it is said there are nearly 14,000 villages without a Gospel witness. A statement has been made that it would take a million workers to finish the task at hand in the 10/40 Window.
  • If the church in America isn’t giving and our church members aren’t going, the task will remain undone!
  • God has always used people to get His work done. Therefore, if this area (10/40 Window) of the world will be reached with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, it is going to be because men and women choose to leave the comforts and conveniences of home to deliver the message of Christ’s love.
  • There’s only one thing worse than being lost, and that is being lost and having no one trying to find you. – David Platt
  • Today, more than a billion people in the world live and die in desperate poverty. They attempt to survive on less than a dollar per day. Close to two billion others live on less than $2.00 per day. In other words, almost half of the world lives on less than two dollars per day. That is nearly half of the world struggling to find food, water, and shelter with the same amount of money that I spend on fries for lunch. — Radical by David Platt.
  • We are told that the average Cristian gives only 1.8 percent of his income to the church and the cause of Christ. Study after study has revealed that the richer we are the smaller the percentage of our income we give to the church, the mission of the church and to the poor.
  • Did you know?
          • If your income is $25,000 per year, you are wealthier than approximately 90 percent of the world’s population!
          • If you make $50,000 per year, you are wealthier than 99 percent of the world!
  • Does this shock you? Remember, of the 7 billion people on earth, almost half of them live on less than two dollars a day. If you don’t feel rich, it’s because you are comparing yourself to people who have more than you do – those living above even the 99th percentile of global wealth.