January 2012
2 posts
4 tags
Plus, or Minus?
Are you a plus or a minus? I am not talking about a social media service (like Google+) and I am not talking about a math problem. What I am talking about is value. A plus person adds value to a relationship. A minus person subtracts value to a relationship. A plus person adds value to an organization. A minus person subtracts value to an organization. A plus person adds value to a project. ...
1 tag
“The purpose of communication is not to be understood, it is to make it...”
– Cicero
December 2011
1 post
1 tag
“Neither a wise man nor a brave man lies down on the tracks of history to wait...”
– Dwight D Eisenhower
November 2011
2 posts
1 tag
“Silent gratitude isn’t much good to anyone.”
– Gladys Bronwyn Stern
October 2011
2 posts
1 tag
“Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.”
– Winston Churchill
“He who excuses present evils transmits them to posterity.”
– Seneca in Cited in The Reformed Pastor, 105-106
September 2011
3 posts
1 tag
“You can do more than pray after you have prayed, but you cannot do more than...”
– S. D. Gordon in Destined for the Throne, 51
1 tag
“Fire is the life of prayer, and heaven is reached by flaming importunity rising...”
– E. M. Bounds in The Necessity of Prayer
1 tag
“I judge all things only by the price they shall gain in eternity.”
– John Wesley
August 2011
5 posts
1 tag
“Honor is realizing who someone is without realizing who they aren’t.”
– Bill Johnson
1 tag
“Character, in the long run, is the decisive factor in the life of an individual...”
– Theodore Roosevelt
1 tag
“Christianity does not consist in any partial amendment of our lives, any...”
– William Law
1 tag
“Christian love is messy and risky. It is a kind of indecorous love, like the...”
– Kenda Creasy Dean in Almost Christian, 89
“Giving up something now for something better later on isn’t a sacrifice....”
– Andy Stanley
June 2011
3 posts
1 tag
“Spend your time in nothing which you know must be repented of; in nothing on...”
– Richard Baxter
1 tag
“Let us admit that man’s natural eloquence is good for anything else except...”
– Watchman Nee in The Ministry of God’s Word, 167
1 tag
“Every poet and musician, but for Grace, is drawn away from love of the thing he...”
– C. S. Lewis
May 2011
5 posts
2 tags
“External worship is lost labor without a heart devoted to God.”
– John Wesley in Renew My Heart, 58
“Grace is not a lowering of God’s standards but an empowerment to meet...”
– Chris Phillips
Choking The Life Out
Gasping for Air Have you ever felt like you are not moving fast enough – that challenges and opportunities are coming at you at an incredible pace? In many ways life is predictable and simple – you work, eat, sleep, take a shower, etc. And in many ways it can quickly become overwhelming. Instead of order and simplicity we often find ourselves in the midst of chaos and complexity. Much of our...
Choking The Life Out
Gasping for Air Have you ever felt like you are not moving fast enough – that challenges and opportunities are coming at you at an incredible pace? In many ways life is predictable and simple – you work, eat, sleep, take a shower, etc. And in many ways it can quickly become overwhelming. Instead of order and simplicity we often find ourselves in the midst of chaos and complexity. Much of our...
“In doing what we ought we deserve no praise, because it is our duty.”
– Augustine of Hippo
April 2011
4 posts
“An active faith can move mountains-not of itself, but by virtue of a divine...”
– Matthew Henry in Grant Me Wisdom, 23
1 tag
“We ought to pay evildoers, including ourselves, the ‘intolerable...”
– Plantinga in Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be, 68
1 tag
“Justification which does not actually remove the wrong condition in man which is...”
– Marvin R. Vincent in Vincent’s New Testament Word Studies - Romans 3
The Power of Words: Keep your fire burning →
adamsouders:
What a fire needs to burn:
The interactions of three equal parts: heat (temperature), fuel and oxygen, are required for the creation and maintenance of any fire. When there is not enough heat generated to sustain the process, when the fuel is exhausted, removed or isolated, or when oxygen supply…
March 2011
2 posts
Truth About Leadership
The Facts You Need To Know I just started reading The Truth About Leadership (The no-fads heart-of-the-matter facts you need to know) by James Kouzes and Barry Posner. So far it looks very interesting, As a teaser I wanted to list their top 10 truths. You Make a Difference Credibility Is the Foundation of Leadership Values Drive Commitment Focusing on the Future Sets Leaders Apart You Can’t Do...
Do It Anyway
Simple Wisdom The following statement was written on a sign hanging on the wall of the children’s home run by Mother Teresa in Calcutta1: People are often unreasonable, illogical and self-centered…forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish ulterior motives…be kind anyway. If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies…succeed anyway. If...
January 2011
4 posts
How You Do What You Do
Your process can work for you or against you Recently, I was reading the introduction to a book when I came across the confession of an incredibly successful leader.1 He said, “the way I was doing the work of God was destroying the work of God in my life.” Although this was in the context of ministry, I began to see how the idea carried over to most areas of life – business, family, school, etc....
Attention Deficit
Have We Missed Something? Where I live, we recently had snow. And, where I live it was enough to shut everything down – schools, work, etc. Suddenly people who are not used to being home on a Monday are stuck indoors and some of them were home with their children. At face value, a “snow day” sounds good to many people. It’s a day away from the responsibilities of work and the flurry of activity...
2011-01-07 30,000 Feet
A Bird’s Eye View Sometimes it’s important for us to take a step back and look at things from a different perspective. In the middle of a project, a mess, or a challenge it’s easy to get tunnel vision and lose sight of the big picture. When I get in the “zone” it’s like all is see is what is before me. Especially when I’m focused on solving a problem or accomplishing a task everything else just...
Rule Yourself
You Are In Control This morning I came across something in my reading that reminded me an important truth. It was an ancient proverb that said, “Whoever has no rule over his own spirit is like a city broken down, without walls.” 1 As I was thinking about what this proverb was saying I thought of something that I tell people often: “The only thing that you can truly control in life is your...
All In
It’s Time To Live Wide Open New Years Eve. A day when people often reflect as they peer over the precipice of another year. I read something today that challenged me to look at life again and make a decision to live it to the fullest. In The Power Of A Whisper by Bill Hybels, he recounts an experience when he was a teenager and his life was changed. He was invited to eat out by an older...
December 2010
5 posts
The Best Gifts
The best gifts are those in which it is impossible to put a price on. Here is a list of some of the best gifts: Love Peace Joy Hope Think about these for a moment. What price can you put on unconditional acceptance and love? What would you trade to have abiding peace? These gifts you cannot buy or sell at the marketplace. In fact, these are the very things that Christmas is all about. For...
“If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it enough.”
– Albert Einstein
1 tag
Discipline
Master Yourself I recently heard a story about Bill Hybels. He had mentioned to his children that he looked forward to travel because of the routine that he had developed over the years. After sharing about the personal blessing that he experienced from that routine, his kids said, “Why don’t you change your schedule at home so that you can practice that routine here?” He was in a position to do...
“Laughter is to salvation what tears are to repentance.”
– Bill Johnson
November 2010
10 posts
2 tags
“People want God generally but not specifically.”
Surf by Osmosis
This site is a cool way to see what’s hot on the web in an insanely short period o time. http://10k.aneventapart.com/Uploads/321/
“You’ll never do great things if you can’t do little ones well.”
“Gratitude turns ‘what we have’ into ‘enough’.”
– Aaron Mahnke (via minimalmac)
Facebook Explains Why Dinosaurs Disappeared →
(via Instapaper)
“Why try so hard to fit in when you were born to stand out?”
Daring Fireball: Going Flash-Free on Mac OS X, and... →
minimalmac:
OK, now that the Chairman has laid out some clear and concise instructions, with a workaround for the (increasingly rare) times one needs it, I’m going to give this a swing.
“Your enemies will let you know when you have arrived.”
– T. D. Jakes
“In society, the areas that are suffering the most are the ones which do not have...”
– Chis Phillips
October 2010
6 posts
“It takes hard work to get anything done in this world. If you want to do...”
– Rick Renner
“It is easier to be enthusiastic about Humanity with a capital ‘H’...”
– C. S. Lewis