IT’S A MIND-SET

IT’S A MIND-SET

Teachability is an attitude, a mind-set that says, “No matter how much I know (or think I know), I can learn from this situation.” That kind of thinking can help you turn adversity into advantage. It can make you a winner even during the most difficult circumstances.

Sydney Harris sums up the elements of a teachable mind-set: “A winner knows how much he still has to learn, even when he is considered an expert by others. A loser wants to be considered an expert by others before he has learned enough to know how little he knows.”

Business author Jim Zabloski writes, Contrary to popular belief, I consider failure a necessity in business. If you’re not failing at least five times a day, you’re probably not doing enough. The more you do, the more you fail. The more you fail, the more you learn.

The more you learn, the better you get. The operative word here is learn. If you repeat the same mistake two or three times, you are not learning from it. You must learn from your own mistakes and from the mistakes of others before you.

The ability to learn from mistakes has value not just in business but in all aspects of life. If you live to learn, then you will really learn to live.

—Failing Forward by John Maxwell

The Message of the Cross by Chuck Smith

The Message of the Cross 

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. —1 Corinthians 1:18 

To the Jew, the notion of their Messiah being arrested, beaten, and crucified on a cross was utterly unthinkable. They expected their Messiah, the descendant of David, to rule over the world in righteousness and peace. 

To the Greek, the idea that one man could die for the sins of all men was pure foolishness. None of the many gods the Greeks worshiped would ever have done something that loving. Their gods were selfish. So the idea of a God who was willing to give Himself to save His people was ridiculous. 

"The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him" (1 Corinthians 2:14). Though the world considers the cross to be foolishness, we who are saved see it as the beautiful instrument of our salvation. 

We are not ashamed of the cross. It is the power of God unto salvation. Through the cross, God set us free from the bondage of sin. Through the cross, He conquered death and the grave. Through the cross, He adopted us as His own. 

Through the cross, He made an end of the war that existed between us. Through the cross, He secured our eternal future. Let the world think what it wants. We know the truth. And oh, how we love that old rugged cross.

Fun Argument for God

Fun Argument for God

This is a fun argument that I like to give to people that I witness to and to young believers that want to enjoy witnessing to others on the proof for God.

Man craves what is real.

Man does not crave what is not real.

Man craves food or water, 

he may not find it, 

he may not believe it, 

he may argue against it, but it still exist.

Man craves God, because God exists.

What other God is there?

Christianity came into existence in a polytheistic world, where belief
in the existence of many gods was commonplace. Part of the task of early
Christian writers appears to have been to distinguish the Christian God from
other gods in the religious marketplace. 

At some point, it had to be asked which god Christians were talking
about, and how this god related to the “God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,” who
figures so prominently in the Old Testament. 

The doctrine of the trinity appears to have been, in part, a response
to pressure to identify the god that Christian theologians were speaking about.

As time passed, polytheism began to be regarded as outdated and rather
primitive, especially within the sophisticated intellectual culture of the
cosmopolitan city of Alexandria.

The assumption that there was only one god, and that this god was
identical to the Christian God, became so widespread that, by the early middle
ages Europe, it seems self-evident.

Thus Thomas Aquinas, in developing arguments for the existence of God
in the 13th century, did not think it worth demonstrating that the God whose
existent he had proven was the “God of the Christians,” after all, what other
God was there?

E.M. Bounds on Prayer

God wants, and must have, all that there is in man in answering his prayers. He must have wholehearted men through whom to work out His purposes and plans concerning men. God must have men in their entirely. 

No double minded man need apply. No vacillating man can be used. No man with a divided allegiance to God, and the world and self, can do the praying that is needed. 

Did the Scripture produce the church, or the church the Scripture?

Through the centuries of Christian history, the church had always accepted the Bible as infallible and binding, until the Reformation. Then the Reformers’ Scripture principle, that belief was to be based on Scripture alone (Sola Scriptura), challenged the authority of the Roman church to define faith and morals. 

Roman Catholics immediately began to claim that the New Testament derived its authority from the fact that the church had officially recognized it; the Protestants replied that the church was only acknowledging the authority inherent in the Scriptures in consequence of their divine inspiration. 

-Harold O.J. Brown

Essentials for True Ministry By Warren Wiersbe

You cannot read these verses in Isaiah chapter 50 without seeing in them a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ, God’s Suffering Servant. Our salvation is not dependent on our following His example of perfect sacrifice, but on trusting Him and the work He did for us on the cross.

However, in our service for the Lord, we can find encouragement and strength as we meditate on Christ’s example as the Servant of God. Let us notice several essentials for ministry that are revealed in the life and service of Jesus Christ.

An open ear (v. 4a-5). The image here is that of a servant, rising early in the morning to receive his master's orders. Jesus arose very early in the morning and went out to a solitary place to pray (Mark 1:35). We get the impression that this was his usual practice that he opened each day in fellowship with the Father.

How important it is for each of us to begin every day with the Lord! We can never serve Him acceptably unless we spend time alone with Him, listening to His Word, praying, and worshiping Him. A disciplined devotional life is essential for spiritual leadership.

The psalmist said, “I rise before dawn and cry for help; I have put my hope in Your word” (Ps. 119:147, NIV). If the perfect Son of God had to take time to meet with the Father, how much more do you and I need that daily “quiet time”?

A ready tongue (v. 4a). The “tongue of the learned” means an “instructed” tongue, one that knows what to say. Of course, what the tongue says comes from the heart (Matt. 12:35), so the source of a learned tongue is an instructed heart, one that readily receives the Word of God.

We never know when we will be called upon to give counsel or direction to others, and we must be ready. In our business meetings as church leaders, we must be careful to share “the wisdom that is from above” (James 3:17) and not the wisdom of the world. If we “walk in the counsel of the ungodly,” we will soon be standing with sinners and sitting with the scornful (Ps. 1:1).

James reminds us (3:1-12) that the tongue is a small member of the body, but it carries a great deal of power.

It can be a fire that destroys or a fire that releases warmth and power. It is like a bit and bridle on a horse, or a rudder on a ship, it helps to steer things in either the right or the wrong direction. We must take care that the words we speak do not get us on a dangerous detour.

A surrendered will (v. 5b-6a). The picture here is not a very pretty one, for we see Jesus giving his body to be abused by his captors. It was for us that he was scourged, and it was for us that he was humiliated and hurt. How we ought to bow in love and worship as we contemplate what the Lord willingly endured for us!

Jesus’ body was totally yielded to the Father because his will was totally yielded. Yes, though it meant suffering and shame, he bore it willingly. “I delight to do Your will, O my God...” (Ps. 40:8). It is not likely that you and I will be called upon to bare our backs to the lash, but we ought to have that kind of surrender and obedience in our hearts.

There is a price to pay for godly leadership. People may not scourge us with whips; they may use their tongues instead! If we are surrendered to the Lord, such suffering will not stop us from serving. As leaders in his church, we must be “steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.” (1^st Cor. 15:58).

A set face (v. 7). The Lord “steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem” (Luke 9:51). Think of what was waiting for Jesus there, rejection, arrest, shame, suffering and death on a cross! You and I probably would have thought up several reasons for not going to Jerusalem, yet Jesus set his face “like flint” and obeyed the Father's will.

Dedication and determination are inseparable. There are all kinds of subtle forces that would seek to move us from the course God has set for us. Once we have discovered the Father’s will, we must do it, no matter what others say or do.

When we have these characteristics, we can be sure that the Lord will help our ministry and that we will not be ashamed (v. 7). Why? Because the more we are like Jesus Christ, the easier it is for the Father to bless us and use us for his glory!