Enjoying the Journey
Posts Tagged ‘work’
7 Rules for Getting More Done
I am happy that in the early years of my life and ministry I was put in a position where there was more to get done than there was time. Hard work never hurt anyone and my pastor was right when he told me that most people never become what they could because no one was ever hard on them. God’s servant said it this way, “It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth” (Lamentations 3:27). Through the years I have had to learn how my own mind works and when I am most productive. Through observation, instruction, and plenty of trial and error I have had to discover how to make my time…
Read MoreYou Can Learn a Lot About Life In a Garden
Grant decided he was going to plant a garden this year. His very own. He wanted to work it from scratch and use no plants, just seeds. The primitive, pioneer way. It has been fun to watch and instructive for us all. You can learn a lot about life in a garden! Here are a few of the thoughts I have had over the last few days… You can’t produce if you won’t prepare. Good seed matters. Planting is the easy part, tending is the challenge. Water is life. There is no fruit to enjoy if you don’t guard against invaders. You only get out of it what you put into it. If it does well it feeds many other…
Read More3 Ways To Use Your Lunch Break For God
We all love the lunch hour! A few moments of quiet from the busyness of the work day. The halfway point. And, most of all…the food! But have you ever considered how your lunch hour could be used for God? It could actually be the most important work you do all day – and the work that makes all the other work more profitable. Here are three suggestions: Use a portion of your lunch hour for prayer. At the very least we should pause to give God thanks for His provision. But perhaps there is a deeper conversation to be had. Lunch is often a time to catch up with friends or conduct business with associates. What if we took…
Read MoreQuestions You Can’t Answer
Why did Jesus wait until He was 30 years of age to begin His ministry when He was so full of wisdom at the age of 12? Why did the earthly ministry of the Lord Jesus only last three and a half years when He could have lived a long, full life? Why in those three and a half years did He not go everywhere, heal everyone, do everything He could have done? There are many things we do not know and some things we cannot answer. One thing is sure. At the end of His short life He said to His Father, “I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do” (John 17:4). So often sincere believers…
Read MoreLoving What You Do
“Do you enjoy what you are doing?” I hear this question often. The answer for me is…absolutely! While there are challenges in every work, there is nothing as fulfilling as being in the will of God. There are many needy places around this world and one individual cannot go everywhere or do everything. We all must find God’s choice for us. The will of God for some will be an obscure village or a small town. God’s will is not done by our logical schemes and plans; it must be done God’s way. Philippians 2:13 teaches, “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” God meets us along the path of His…
Read MoreIt’s Not Automatic!
It was embarrassing to say the least. There I stood in a public restroom waving my hands furiously under the faucet, grumbling that someone really should fix the sensor. Why on earth wouldn’t the water come out? Then I realized – it’s not automatic. That’s right, it was one of the old fashioned kind. The kind you have to turn on! No one was there to enjoy the spectacle but I had a good laugh at myself, and a reminder that everything in life is not automatic. Our world has become so automated. Everything it seems is automatic! With all of our smart technology we rarely think about so many things that other generations labored to have. But, is that…
Read MoreA Thought On This Labor Day
Men must learn to work. They must also learn to rest. The first mention of rest in Scripture is found in Genesis 2 where it is tied directly to the work of God. Man needs rest that only the Creator can provide. In our fast paced society we often find it hard to rest. The work is never done. Never enough. This evening we begin The Preacher’s Rest in Hickory, NC. I am excited to share with the preachers who will attend a copy of Vance Havner’s classic book, Rest Awhile. One brief excerpt from it is so powerful: Resting for God is as important as working for God. We often do more by doing less. “Come apart,” said the Lord…
Read MoreA Goal for 2018
How are you doing with your goals for the new year? It is just the first week but how quickly we can forget and fail in the very areas we resolutely said we would do better in! Do not be discouraged. The year is a marathon, not a sprint…and you are just getting warmed up. The first steps of a run are the hardest. Keep moving. Push yourself. At some point you reach a rhythm. You find your stride. This is true in all of life. Most people never reach their goal because they are not hard enough on themselves. In our age of comfort and ease we have become enamored with convenience. This is never the way to victory.…
Read MoreTraveling
Another trip. I am sitting in a hotel room in Fort Worth, Texas tonight. Tomorrow we host an Open House at Crown Southwest and begin a Regional Youth Congress. I have no complaints, only gratitude. Traveling is a privilege and an opportunity to grow. I learn something on every journey and, with Christ, it is the adventure of a lifetime. Many travels have caused me to realize an aspect of our Lord’s earthly life that I never truly considered. Jesus Christ was the ultimate Traveler. For 33 1/2 years He was away from home. At night He had no place to lay His head. Scripture tells us that when others went to their own houses Jesus went to the Mount…
Read MoreGreat Expectations
Charles Dickens’ classic novel Great Expectations is on my Kindle. I must confess that I have read…and stopped reading the story several times through the years. It is a strange book. Pip, the young orphan in the tale, provides insight into the ambition of the human heart. We all have it. Great expectations. Some would say it is the driving force behind advancement and progress. Others would admit that it is the root of so much disappointment. Ours is a day of low expectations. Sad people have settled for less because something didn’t turn out the way they thought it should. The problem is not great expectations. The problem is that so often our great expectations are just that – ours.…
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