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Friday, December 4, 2015

In Jesus Christ God gives us our identity, our purpose and our meaning in this life and in the life to come.1 Peter1:1-12



●"The Lord created each of us individually with different Spiritual Gifts, Passions, Abilities, strengths and a unique personality with different experiences. Helping people with the puzzle and putting the pieces together so we each can be most effective in our families, church, community and the world and finish our lives well and leave a legacy that gives glory to the LORD so when we stand before Him one day, we will hear, "Well done, my good and faithful servant."​ 

Our work and our calling
Sunday and Monday...any connection?
Our work: How important is it to us?
Are we worshiping our work and working at our worship? 
We are called to God first and then to our secondary calling…which may be our job, business or what we do in “retirement”.

 A word from The Call by Os Guinness

"Calling is the truth that God calls us to himself so decisively that everything we are, everything we do, and everything we have is invested with a special devotion, dynamism, and direction lived out as a response to his summons and service" P. 29

 Answering the Call: The Doctor Who Made Africa His Life.
Albert Einstein
 
From “The One-Talent People.” Christian Herald. Sept 1949. P. 64  
“Always keep your eyes open for the little task, because it is the little task that is important to Jesus Christ.  The future of the Kingdom of God does not depend on the enthusiasm of this or that powerful person; those great ones are necessary too, but it is equally necessary to have a great number of little people who will do a little thing in the service of Christ.” 

            “The great flowing rivers represent only a small part of all the water that is necessary to nourish and sustain the earth. Beside the flowing river

there is the water in the earth-the subterranean water-and there are the little streams which continually enter the river and feed it and prevent it from sinking into the earth. Without these other waters-the silent hidden subterranean waters and the trickling streams-the great river could no longer flow. Thus it is with the little tasks to be fulfilled by us all.”

Some excerpts from:  God’s Best for My Life by Lloyd John Ogilvie 
“What are we daring to attempt which could not be accomplished without His strength and intervention? So often we plan our lives around what we could do without Him on our own.  A sure sign that we are in communion with the Lord is that we are attempting what only He can do? Can you identify that in your life?”

We can "serve" both in our jobs, business's or volunteering.






Seizing opportunities is directly tied to the spiritual gift of discernment. When we see what looks like an opportunity, we have to discern whether we are seeing a true opening or just our own wishful-thinking or a random idea. 
Just because an opportunity arises does not mean that we should take it. An opportunity is just a set of circumstances that makes it possible to do something. We still have the hard work of determining whether it is something WE SHOULD DO.
Opportunities are doorways that God opens. It is divine leading, even though we may not be able to predict what lies beyond. 

God also directs us with closed doors!  Don't be discouraged!
Ability to see with the eyes of God, think with the mind of Christ, and walk in the power of the Holy Spirit! 
A good prayer!
We can "serve" both in our jobs, business's or volunteering.


Making the most of every opportunity the Lord exposes us to.
"Across the board, having the opportunity to develop our strengths is more important to our success than our role, our title, or even our pay."  Strengths Finder 2.0   Tom Rath

 Seems like one of our goals should be to be aware of the opportunities around us and even actively search for them!

 

Have you found peace with God yet?

Thursday, December 3, 2015

Zuckerberg to Give Away Fortune

Article in Wall Street Journal on 12/2/2015.

Will give away 99% of their facebook shares, now valued at 45 Billion.

He and his wife have joined the other 138 billionaires to give away at least half their wealth to Charity.

Their initial focus is on "personalized learning, curing disease, connecting people and building strong communities."

I wonder if any Christian non profits will get some or any of this money.


"Philanthropy experts say that for many wealthy people, deciding to give away their dollars is often easier than directing where the money should go." 
___________ 

 A previous post of mine address's this challenge. 

Author Alan Gotthardt has updated his Eternity Portfolio book and titled it ...The Eternity Portfolio Illuminated.

Alan is a nationally recognized investment advisor, who has spent nearly tree decades focused on the intersection of faith and money.

His new book  includes quest commentaries by people he has worked with and helped them make the decisions on how to best invest their resources for maximum effectiveness.

A previous post of mine includes a checklist from his book showing how to evaluate a charity... whether one has a small amount or millions to invest.

Please come back to this post after checking Alan's Checklist.

Here is Alan's Twitter  posts. 

Alan's website     You can download a Free

Will update with more thoughts on this subject.


Monday, November 30, 2015

Living For The Kingdom : Day 1 Rich Stearn: World Vision: Devotional


As followers of Jesus, we are called to fully surrender our plans for His, taking up our crosses in sacrificial servanthood. ©2014 World Vision, photo by Jon Warren

Living With a Servant’s Heart

The Gospels often portray Jesus’ disciples as ignorant of the things Jesus was trying to teach. They didn’t understand He would have to die. They didn’t understand His parables. When Jesus explained His teachings to them, they asked, “How can this be?”
Despite their misunderstandings, the disciples are examples to us in their readiness to follow Jesus. We see this for the first time in Matthew 4:19—“‘Come, follow me,’ Jesus said, ‘and I will send you out to fish for people.’ At once they left their nets and followed him” (NIV).
At once they left their nets.
And these fishermen didn’t just leave their beloved nets to follow Jesus, they left their entire lives to exchange their plans for His. They didn’t offer excuses. They didn’t say they had just invested in a new boat, for example; they didn’t explain that their business was just taking off. Instead, they dropped everything and followed Jesus.
With a servant’s heart, each one of the disciples accepted Jesus’ invitation to join Him in his world-changing work. This invitation wasn’t to attend a pleasant party, and accepting it certainly didn’t promise an easy life.
In fact, Jesus says that whoever wants to follow Him must choose a life of suffering for the kingdom’s sake.
In Matthew 16:24-25, Jesus declares, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.”
I’m not sure about you, but that doesn’t sound to me like a winning invitation. I know that when God called me away from my corporate career, I agonized, even wept. I listed all the things I would be giving up. But the disciples simply dropped what they were doing and followed Jesus.
I believe that God expects much more of us than just going to church on Sundays, reading our Bibles, saying grace before meals, and believing the right things. We have to be willing to drop whatever is in our hands in order to be used for His purposes. We have to be available for service, and we need to be willing to pay the price that comes with it.
If we’re going to change the world, God is going to take us out of our comfort zones. But what a gift it is to play a part in God’s larger plan when we finally surrender our lives to His! After all, when it comes to changing the world, we as believers are His plan A—and He doesn’t have a plan B.

Sunday, November 29, 2015

Wisdom from my Blogs



I have 2 newer blogs:

Bloom Where You are Planted 


Strengths and Abilities 


Milwaukee Neighborhood Transformation 




1. My blogs are Searchable...see small box on right hand side of blog.
You could experiment with different "words" to find what you might be looking for. 

2. After a little experimenting today...I discovered that most of you find my blog because of a post I put on Twitter! And you find it in a few minutes of my Tweet!
If you did NOT find this post on Twitter...click  HERE  and you can see all my Tweets, even if you are NOT on Twitter!


To a lesser extent others find my blog because we are "connected" on LinkedIn.
You can  Connect  with me on LinkedIN   HERE

3. On the right hand side of the blog are the most "Popular" posts viewed in the last 30 days.

4. If you scroll down to the very bottom of the blog...you will see the most popular viewed posts in the last week.

5. You can also leave comments at the bottom of each post. Would love to answer any questions, etc. 

As you all know...one can find anything we want on  the internet...lots of knowledge out there.

6. I hope to impart some "wisdom" that you could use in your life! Whatever reason would you be searching or looking at my blog?

Blessings on your life and year!


My Latest Tweets

Richard


 In Jesus Christ God gives us our identity, our purpose and our meaning in this life and in the life to come.1 Peter1:1-12 

●"The Lord created each of us individually with different Spiritual Gifts, Passions, Abilities, strengths and a unique personality with different experiences. Helping people with the puzzle and putting the pieces together so we each can be most effective in our families, church, community and the world and finish our lives well and leave a legacy that gives glory to the LORD so when we stand before Him one day, we will hear, "Well done, my good and faithful servant."​

Saturday, November 21, 2015

In Jesus Christ God gives us our identity, our purpose and our meaning in this life and in the life to come.1 Peter1:1-12

●"The Lord created each of us individually with different Spiritual Gifts, Passions, Abilities, strengths and a unique personality with different experiences. Helping people with the puzzle and putting the pieces together so we each can be most effective in our families, church, community and the world and finish our lives well and leave a legacy that gives glory to the LORD so when we stand before Him one day, we will hear, "Well done, my good and faithful servant."​

●Looking for opportunities to help Individuals, Foundations & Christian non profits leverage Passion, Need and Resources to accomplish strategic goals for the Kingdom.

●Helping people identify their God-given Passions, Spiritual Gifts, Talents,Strengths & Abilities so they can become person God made them to be in order to better communicate God's love to a hurting world by word & deed.

●Discovering the story God implanted in my soul when He created me & seeing how that fits into His larger story.​

 A few of my favorite non profits!

●Some of my favorite books besides The Bible are:


Perspectives On The World Christian Movement . a Reader-Ralph Winter & Steven Hawthorne
Perspectives. The Study Guide
Passion For The Heart of God-John Willis Zumwalt
The Eternity Portfolio Illuminated-Alan Gotthardt
Finishing Well - Bob Buford
One minute After You Die-Erwin W. Lutzer
Counter Culture -David Platt
The Hole in Our Gospel - Richard Stearns
Outlive Your Life - Max Lucado
GOOD TO GREAT And The Social Sectors. -Jim Collins.
To Transform a City-Eric Swanson
Multiplying Light and Truth - Stan Rowland
Money, Possessions and Eternity - Randy Alcorn

My Twitter "Tweets" 

Linkedin profile