Connecting to the world

John 17:20-2520 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one — 23 I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. 24 “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. 25 “Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. Bible references: John 17:20-25; Acts 4:34-5:11; 1 John 1:10; Psalm 63; Luke 14:27; Luke 14;33; Luke 9:23; John 8:31-32; James 1:22; Psalm 143:5; 1 Corinthians 3:16-18; Ephesians 4:13; Romans 8:38-3...

John 18:36 Jesus said, "My kingdom does not belong to this world; if my kingdom belonged to this world, my followers would fight to keep me from being handed over to the Jewish authorities. No, my kingdom does not belong here!" 37 So Pilate asked him, "Are you a king, then?" Jesus answered, "You say that I am a king. I was born and came into the world for this one purpose, to speak about the truth. Whoever belongs to the truth listens to me." 38 "And what is truth?" Pilate asked. Then Pilate went back outside to the people and said to them, "I cannot find any reason to condemn him. What is 'Truth'? Is anything really THE truth? In our postmodern times, it is popular to think that all things are equally true. Buddhism is true for some, Hinduism is true for some, and Christianity is true for some in this age. Of course, like the Christian, the Hindu believes Hindu doctrine is true, and so cannot agree with the Postmodernist, just as t...

Thought to Cherish - Deuteronomy 31:23 “The Lord commissioned Joshua son of Nun, ‘Be strong and courageous, for you will take the Israelites to the land I have promised them, and I will be with you.’” What dreams have you had come true? What did you do to bring them to pass? Perhaps you dreamed of a career that you are now pursuing. Maybe it was of having a family, which you now enjoy. You may have dreamed of close friends with whom you could share your struggles in life. Perhaps you desired to make a difference in this world and have searched for the opportunities to do so. God is a dream-giver; He has dreams for each of us that He intends to bring to pass if we listen and obey. Because of His greatness, He is able to fulfill those dreams if we follow His lead and direction. Joshua followed God’s dream. It was not a new dream, but rather it was one that God had given hundreds of years beforehand to Abraham. It was the vision of a land. George Bernard Shaw wrote t...

L. Learning I. Impacting F. Friendship building E. Experiencing How can we encourage one another and build one another up? How can each of us change to a life grounded in friendship building? How can people who do not have a habit of reading and a drive to be educated, be encouraged to do so? How can we encourage those who are not comfortable with sharing their experiences to do so? Learning is as much about growing friendships and community that produce relationships that last. Where we can impact each other with real information and we learn to be accountable to each other (not for each other). With learning, it is as important to grow friendships numerically as we ourselves are growing personally. To do otherwise is a waste of energy and time. So what is L.i.f.e.? Life is not a university course. It allows and encourages the sharing of life experiences in light of the knowledge we have through education ...

Is My life affected by my circumstances or do I build on my dream I have a friend who spent several years in prison. When he was released he made a comment to me that everyone he seen after his release was a lot happier. What he came to realise was that he was the one who was happier. Because he was happier he spread this where ever he went. You see he had made some decisions for his life and these decisions were not based on his circumstances but on what was important to him. So when something went wrong it did not alter his happiness. His focus was on where his life was going and not on what went wrong. He would count his blessings and name them. It is like the saying – two prisoners looked out the window – one saw stars and one saw bars. It is important to take in to build up our lives – it is also important to give out, this also builds up our lives. We learn as much from giving of ourselves as we do from taking in. What we speak with our tongue needs to be guarded. So when we lif...

Proverb: - “A wise person harvests in the summer, but one who sleeps during harvest is a disgrace” Are you lazy? Not me. I'm busy. Up early, up late. My schedule is filled from beginning to end. I love what I do and I love getting stuff done. I attack a daily to-do list with the same intensity I have for spending a day of pleasure at the beach. It's great to keep busy and accomplish stuff, isn't it? What is keeping you busy? How could you reorder your schedule this week to achieve even more? If we grasp what true diligence is all about as presented in this Proverb, we may discover that we are simply being hectic sluggards. Here's why. This Proverb describes the diligent person as busy and wise. In other words, a diligent person uses both his brawn and brain. He analyses his situation and makes wise decisions in his labour. He knows how to act and speak in different situations. He doesn't back down from challenges, but seeks to navigate around or through them with ...

Cheering each other on 1. Active or passive, congratulations must be true • Congratulations are affirmations about who people are and what they do matters, and that they are making a valuable contribution toward achieving the shared mission (the goal). • Telling people what a great job they've done or presenting an award is an active congratulation. • Passive congratulations are such things as stepping aside and letting a team member go forward with a tricky, complicated, and important project, without exercising some sort of control or even offering advice. • You can never out do true congratulations – it needs to be timely, responsive, unconditional and enthusiastic. 2. No score, no game, and cheer the progress. • At cricket matches the crowd doesn’t sit silent as the ball is hit down the ground for a six, before clapping and cheering. Cheer the progress, not just the results. Measurement (score) shared with everyone generates excitement. • The more the congratulations ar...