Don’t Ever Forget

Today is Remembrance Day. Every November 11 we take time to remember the brave men and women who have fought in wars on behalf of Canada, many of whom it cost them their lives. These brave men and women in large part, were only teenagers and in their early twenties. They volunteered to risk their lives and even lay down their lives to preserve the freedom we have in Canada today. If it weren’t for these brave soldiers, the world we live in would be a completely different place.

Don’t ever forget!

Canada is a great country to live in. We have freedom and benefits far beyond most places in the world. I’ve done a fair amount of traveling in my life and it’s made me appreciate Canada all the more. Some places may be more scenic, more historic and definitely warmer, but Canada remains in my opinion one of the greatest countries in the world. We have all this in large part because of those brave young men and women who were willing to go to war to preserve it.

Don’t ever forget!

I’m thankful I’ve never had to fight in a war. I can’t imagine how traumatizing it would be. My grandfather, who I never met, committed suicide after returning from the first world war. My father joined the navy and fought in the second world war. As a young child I would ask my dad about his experience in the navy. He would joke about what he did and the conversation would end. I never learned about my grandfather until after my father died. You see, war can be devastating. I’ve lived my life, like most of us, in a time of peace and prosperity. It can be easy to take everything we have for granted. As generations pass by and time moves on it can be easy to forget.

Don’t ever forget!

Are You a Good Follower

Everyone follows to some degree. How we follow and who we follow can have a dramatic effect on our lives. Who are you following? If you are a Christian you would probably say you’re following Jesus. Are you really or have you gotten off course and become a little disoriented?

Let’s take a look at what’s involved in following someone. The first thing you have to do is make sure the person you’re following knows where they’re going. Jesus…check. Next you have to keep your eye on them and make every move they make. If you do these two things you would be a good follower. How do you know if you’re a good follower? The proof that I followed well is that I arrive at the destination. Below are a few “follow me” destinations that Jesus gave to us.

Matt 4:19  Follow me and you will become fishers of men
Jesus used their occupation to illustrate to them there is something greater to give your life to than your occupation or career. Jesus died for people and followers of Jesus will give their lives for people as well.

Matt 8:22  Follow me and let the dead bury their own dead
Here Jesus is dealing with priorities. The man was a follower of Christ, but wanted to put it on hold, go home and wait for his father to die, then follow the Lord. Jesus was saying, let the spiritually dead look after the natural things, you have something much great to do.

Matt 19:21  Sell all and give to the poor and follow me
This man was trusting in his money. Jesus way trying to teach him to put his trust in God.

Lk 9:23  Deny yourself and take up your cross and follow me
This has to do with relinquishing control over your own life and giving control to Jesus.

The Bible gives us many good things to follow. Now remember, the proof of being a good follower is arriving at the destination. For a follower of Jesus our lives should progressively be looking more like Jesus. Our motives, thinking and our activity should be lining up with the Word of God.

Are you, a good follower?

How to Stay Focused on What Matters

To stay focused on what matters, you have to understand the difference between important things and urgent things. If you want to succeed and live with a sense of purpose and fulfillment, you have to spend the majority of your time being involved in things that are important.

Urgent things scream out for our attention. They tend to be visible and they insist that we take care of them NOW, like the phone ringing. By the way, you don’t have to answer it just because it’s ringing. They often involve demands that other people place on us and they tend to be things that are easier to do. But, they usually are not important. Spending your time on urgent issues will wear you down mentally, emotionally and spiritually. They will keep you busy, but you will have little to show for it.

Important things usually have to do with results and contribute to our values and priorities. Sometimes they may be more difficult to do, but they result in success and a sense of fulfillment. E N Gray who spent his life researching what successful people do says “The successful person has the habit of doing the things failures don’t like to do”. Success isn’t about putting more time into something, but rather putting more important things into your time.

We tend to react to urgent issues whereas important things require us to be proactive. It’s absolutely necessary to take the initiative and focus our time on the important things of life, otherwise we will spend our lives reacting to urgent matters and going nowhere.

For me, three main priorities are God, family and church. Therefore, to have success and a sense of significance it’s absolutely necessary that I focus on these three things. As a result I’ve put things like church attendance, serving God and learning the Bible as priorities in my life. I also did my best to provide for my family, love my children and raise them properly (according God’s standards, not societies), regular family time and yearly vacations. I’ve found that by committing myself to these things, it’s resulted in a sense of purpose and fulfillment.

The following diagram developed by Stephen Covey helps us to understand how to best use our time.The key is to spend most of your time on important issues, sections 1 and 2 and minimize the amount of time you give to non important things, sections 3 and 4. As a general guideline, you don’t want urgent things to dominate your life.

Successful people learn to spend most of their time in section 2. They take the time to plan and act on those plans, achieving a successful life. Instead of focusing on solving problems, they would rather prevent problems. We know that problems and urgent things happen. Don’t let urgent issues pull you into non important activities. The next most important area to look after is section 1, the important and urgent things that are unavoidable. If you want to live a successful life, do your best to stay away from sections 3 and 4. These things are not important. You may not be able to ignore them completely, but to live a fulfilled life that will bring success do your best to minimize these areas.

Do You Have a Predetermined Destination?

In my last post I shared some verses where Jesus declared “I must”. I suggested you take some time to list things in your life that you must do. If you did this it will help you to begin to think about the things that are most important to you. This is necessary because if you want to have a successful life you have to spend your time on the things that matter most. Success has been defined as the progressive realization of a predetermined goal. In other words, before you start on a journey it’s always a good idea to know where you’re going. By having a predetermined destination you are able to know when you are on course and the steps you have to take to get to that destination.

The problem many people face, is they have no predetermined destination. If you asked them where do you hope to be in 10 yrs. they would have at best a vague concept. Their life often consists of just getting by or trying to have a good time. They usually have very little sense of purpose and value in their life. If you want to have a sense of purpose and significance, you have to know what the right things are and then do them.Let me suggest five areas of life that if you had success in, would cause you to enjoy life more and add value to your life.

• Spiritual life
• Family
• Friends
• Finances
• Health

Now take some time to dream. Imagine what you would like each of these areas to look like at the end of your life. What would you like your relationship with God to be like? What would you have done for God? How will your children turn out? How will you have used your money? What will you and your spouse have done with your lives? When you take the time to do this exercise, you will have a clear picture in your mind of the destination you are aiming at. Once you know your destination, it become easier to determine what must you do with your life. You will begin to make better decisions and quickly correct wrong ones. It will effect the way you treat your spouse, raise your children, spend your money and everything else.

If you are a Christian and walking in faith, there is one other very important concept to keep in mind as you do this exercise. Proverbs 19:21 you can make many plans, but the Lord’s purpose will prevail. Make sure that your destination lines up with the Word of God. When your destination and your must do’s are consistent with one another, you then begin to have success in your life.

Using Your Time Wisely

Anyone who wants to do anything for God will find themselves very busy and business requires time. One problem with time is it comes in a limited quantity and is not reproducible. Another problem is we sleep six to eight hours of it away every day. To have success in life and with God, we must learn to use time as effectively as we can.

We need to learn different skills in order to use our time effectively. Things like time management, priorities and goals. We need to eliminate time wasters like procrastination, clutter (imaginary or real), spending time on low return activities.

When we think of Jesus we don’t often think of time management and priorities. We think of the miracles, His teaching and His sacrifice on the cross. On the contrary, Jesus understood His priorities and how to manage His time in order to accomplish what was important to Him.

Luke 2:49   And He said to them,  “Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must                        be about My Father’s business?”
Luke 4:43   He said to them, “I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also,                        because for this purpose I have been sent.”
Luke 19:5   And when Jesus came to the place, He looked up and saw him, and said to                        him, “Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must stay at your                        house.”
John 3:30   He must increase, but I must decrease.
John 9:4     I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming                      when no one can work.

The phrase I must means being bound or knit to something or to be fastened with chains. Jesus was declaring His unwavering commitment to something that had to be done. It was not optional. Jesus understood what His priorities were and that time was limited to accomplish them. He wasn’t going to waste His time on things that didn’t matter.

Let me ask you, what must you do? Give it some thought and write it down. Are you spending your life on what matters or are you choosing from a list of convenient options. In upcoming blogs I’ll talk about how to set priorities, balance a busy life and the difference between the urgent and the important.

Qualities of a Spiritual Mentor

In my last blog I dealt with some of the benefits of having a spiritual mentor in your life. We all do better when we have a teachable spirit and allow mature believers to assist us on our spiritual journey. The weakest and least effective Christians I have met over the years are those who try to do it alone. We have a cell ministry (house groups) in place for this very reason, to assist new believers in their walk with God.  Whether you are a cell leader, or simply have a heart to help others grow, if you develop the traits of a spiritual parent, you will be effective with people. But what does a spiritual father / mother look like?

Let’s take a look at some of the qualities of a spiritual mentor from the life of the apostle Paul. He was not only a spiritual father to Timothy, but also to a number of churches. What are some of the qualities in his life that made him a successful spiritual father?

He Was Honest   1Thess. 2:5
He didn’t in any way attempt to manipulate them in order to gain a place in their lives. He wasn’t just pretending to be their friends, but he honestly cared about them.

He Was Humble   1Thess. 2:6
He wasn’t looking for recognition or to gather a following. It was not about Paul, but about those he could help to become stronger in their faith. His sense of value came from knowing Jesus Christ, not from the accolades of people.

He Was Caring   1Thess. 2:7,8
He treated them kindly, with a heart-felt compassion for them. He taught them the Bible, but even more so, he shared from his heart, his life experience. Many people hear the truth, but have a hard time knowing how to apply it to their lives. With the help of someone who can share from experience, truth is not only understandable, but attainable.

He Motivated Them   1Thess. 2:11,12
The heart of a true spiritual father / mother knows that truth not applied is of little value. You can teach your child to clean their room, but the real value in the teaching happens when it’s applied and the room is clean. Paul encouraged them to walk in the truth. The word encourage literally means “to place courage in”. He helped them to have the courage to obey, to change and to live a life God would be pleased with.

Whether you are working with children, teens or adults, if you develop this type of heart attitude toward others, you will be a person that will be a blessing to God and to others.

A Great Disappointment

I’m glad I’m a Christian. I had no idea how my life was going to change when I met Jesus in April 1973 in Kabul Afghanistan. That means I’ve been living with God for 38 years. During that time there have been many ups and downs, victories and defeats, joys and sorrows. Walking with Jesus is not always the easiest way, but I would have it no other way. One of my greatest disappointments as a Christian has been the lack of a spiritual father. You know, someone who you can talk with, lean on, get advice from. I’m amazed at the number of people I’ve met over the years that think being a Christian is about them and Jesus only. We’ll talk about why that happens another time. The concept of spiritual fathers is prevalent throughout scripture.

• Elisha followed Elijah
• Joshua was trained by Moses
• Jesus trained his disciples
• Timothy was trained by Paul

There are many benefits that come with having mature, successful people of faith speak into your life. Here’s just a few.

Training: Jesus taught his disciples many things. He taught them how to pray, how to minister and how to exercise faith to mention a few. When a successful believer can teach you the things that bring success, that is invaluable.

Modeling: Jesus also modelled what he taught. The disciples saw him spend hours in prayer. They saw what communion with God looked like and the effect it had. They saw him minister to numerous people in various situations. They were able to witness demons being cast out, multitudes being fed, the sick being healed. They were able to witness the authority of faith as Jesus commanded Lazarus to come back to life. Having someone model what they are teaching can make truth very understandable and attainable.

Personal Value: One of the things that cause people to suffer from a lack of self worth is being ignored by others. Knowing someone believes in you enough that they are willing to invest in you for your benefit, with no strings attached, increases your sense of value.

Correction: Without correction we run the risk of going the wrong way and not even knowing it. I love the GPS system in my car. As it’s leading me to my destination if I make a wrong turn it immediately gives me the necessary course corrections to get back on track. A spiritual mentor who cares for you can bring the needed correction whenever we get off course.

Success: Proverbs 11:30 says “the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life.” A person who builds their life on doing what’s right will reap a fruitful and successful life. The ultimate purpose of a spiritual mentor is to assist us in being a success with God and people.