Proverbs 30:5 (NLV) Every word of God has been proven true. (DARBY) "Every word of God is pure..."
Today is Passover on the Jewish Calendar – a beginning of a celebration of God’s word being true providing hope. Biblical hope is not based on some outlandish wish or desire for something that has no basis in reality. As death passed over the first-born of the children Israel, so our hope remains in the reality of the Word of God. That it is true. Pure in its original autographs. Its promises continually fulfilled.
As leaders, we are charged with providing pure hope for those following – hope, that in managing change, we maintain integrity (that which whole and complete and proven true). Something that is pure needs nothing added to it: in fact, whatever is added renders it to be no long pure.
Followers rely on their leaders – especially when a business is struggling – and therefore we must be well centered (knowing our purpose, knitting into our behavior a standard of ethics) and we must control our thoughts and behaviors; then are able to influence others to follow because we are well grounded and filled with real hope.
Leaders, whose model is Scripture, have hope and expectation, because, like those Jews in New Testament times, who recognized Jesus as Messiah and the fulfiller of their Hope, He still fulfills our hope if we keep our eyes focused on Him with our “self-talk” and not on us or our circumstances.
Our hope is not only in His return again, but also in His promise that in our daily living, He is our shield - our protector. He is our hope for a reason: we must not only live in hope - our life must also reflect that hope within us.
Our hope has meaning. So should our lives. Does your life offer hope?
Copyright © 2010 by P. Griffith Lindell
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Leadership Heat and Joy
Proverbs 17:3 (NKJV) The refining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold, but the LORD tests the hearts.
We don’t like it, but experience validates that it is true: it’s in the furnaces of life that we are tested. We all want to be that finished museum piece, beautiful to behold, gleaming, admired - just needing a little dusting now and then. Not going to happen. We were created “living” beings.
Scripture reminds us that God gives tests – not so that he can know something new or discover anything – testing is for our benefit. What’s really going on inside you – the you nobody sees. Does our repentance hug rejoicing in who God is?
The nation of Israel is our example. God went ahead of them in the Promised Land and when they trusted in Him, and not their own ability, they won battles. There was joy. Dancing. Life was good. They conquered the land.
But after Joshua dies, and that generation passed without doing what God had ordained (teaching the God-principle to their children – that the Joy of the Lord is our strength). That the new generation who did not know God, became the conquered instead of the conquerors. Some of the enemies of truth and righteousness had been left in the land to “test…whether they would obey the Lord’s commands…” They didn’t.
And we (at least, I know I am) are like them. Silver and gold are purified by heat – the dross is burned off and the metal emerges cleaned of the stuff that mars its beauty and usefulness. To mix metaphors here, given the test, the furnace of affliction, I found that “I studied the wrong material and was not prepared,” instead of being the metal and letting the fire clean it – and learn from that – I wanted to manage the test.
God wants us to learn that JOY finds its source in Him. Not ourselves. Not our idols. Not our abilities. And he tests. And tests. And tests, until we learn it’s all about Him and not us.
Are you in the furnace? Are your eyes fixed on the test or the One, who with your repentance, rejoices with you when the fire has done its work?
Copyright © 2010 by P. Griffith Lindell
We don’t like it, but experience validates that it is true: it’s in the furnaces of life that we are tested. We all want to be that finished museum piece, beautiful to behold, gleaming, admired - just needing a little dusting now and then. Not going to happen. We were created “living” beings.
Scripture reminds us that God gives tests – not so that he can know something new or discover anything – testing is for our benefit. What’s really going on inside you – the you nobody sees. Does our repentance hug rejoicing in who God is?
The nation of Israel is our example. God went ahead of them in the Promised Land and when they trusted in Him, and not their own ability, they won battles. There was joy. Dancing. Life was good. They conquered the land.
But after Joshua dies, and that generation passed without doing what God had ordained (teaching the God-principle to their children – that the Joy of the Lord is our strength). That the new generation who did not know God, became the conquered instead of the conquerors. Some of the enemies of truth and righteousness had been left in the land to “test…whether they would obey the Lord’s commands…” They didn’t.
And we (at least, I know I am) are like them. Silver and gold are purified by heat – the dross is burned off and the metal emerges cleaned of the stuff that mars its beauty and usefulness. To mix metaphors here, given the test, the furnace of affliction, I found that “I studied the wrong material and was not prepared,” instead of being the metal and letting the fire clean it – and learn from that – I wanted to manage the test.
God wants us to learn that JOY finds its source in Him. Not ourselves. Not our idols. Not our abilities. And he tests. And tests. And tests, until we learn it’s all about Him and not us.
Are you in the furnace? Are your eyes fixed on the test or the One, who with your repentance, rejoices with you when the fire has done its work?
Copyright © 2010 by P. Griffith Lindell
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Monday, March 15, 2010
Cheerful Leaders Conquer Circumstances
Proverbs 15:15 (NIV) All the days of the oppressed are wretched, but the cheerful (merry, glad) heart has a continual feast.
It’s not the circumstance where you find yourself: it’s how you respond and that response begins with an understanding of who you are.
Understanding our purpose has powerful implications. Anxiety drains us. Allowing circumstances to shape our view of the future is not only unbiblical, it is damages our ability to live and lead. I know. I’ve been there. Circumstances crowded me. In that confined space, it was about me – not about my purpose in life – it was just about me and my “wretched” conditions. No cheerful heart there.
Recently studying the life of the Jewish patriarch, Joseph, has reminded me of the strength of a cheerful heart that is pure with a clear comprehension of purpose. If anyone had an excuse to be shaped by circumstances, it was he. He endured his brothers’ jealous behaviors and the false accusation of a lustful woman: he was imprisoned and forgotten for several years, and when released to interpret Pharaoh’s dream, he instantly deflected the ruler’s flattery and, in humility recognized the source of his abilities was outside of himself – it was not about him, but about the God.
The source of that instinctive humility? It was from a heart fixed on purpose and filled with joy. A leader, who serves others with humility and resoluteness of will, will do it in prison or in the palace. It does not matter.
How are you responding to your circumstances?
Copyright ©2010 by P. Griffith Lindell
It’s not the circumstance where you find yourself: it’s how you respond and that response begins with an understanding of who you are.
Understanding our purpose has powerful implications. Anxiety drains us. Allowing circumstances to shape our view of the future is not only unbiblical, it is damages our ability to live and lead. I know. I’ve been there. Circumstances crowded me. In that confined space, it was about me – not about my purpose in life – it was just about me and my “wretched” conditions. No cheerful heart there.
Recently studying the life of the Jewish patriarch, Joseph, has reminded me of the strength of a cheerful heart that is pure with a clear comprehension of purpose. If anyone had an excuse to be shaped by circumstances, it was he. He endured his brothers’ jealous behaviors and the false accusation of a lustful woman: he was imprisoned and forgotten for several years, and when released to interpret Pharaoh’s dream, he instantly deflected the ruler’s flattery and, in humility recognized the source of his abilities was outside of himself – it was not about him, but about the God.
The source of that instinctive humility? It was from a heart fixed on purpose and filled with joy. A leader, who serves others with humility and resoluteness of will, will do it in prison or in the palace. It does not matter.
How are you responding to your circumstances?
Copyright ©2010 by P. Griffith Lindell
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