The Race of Life – Tactics 3 and 4 – Breaking Away!

Every race has a beginning, a middle, and an end. In the race of life we enter the starting blocks and sprint out when we join the Master’s team and receive our Trainer. We are off and running from that moment and, using tactics 1 – Develop and fight to Hold the Eternal Perspective of Life and 2 – Develop and Fight to Build Intimacy with Jesus Christ we get a good start. In the middle distance of our race, as we encounter the snares and entanglements that our opposer places in our way, we need to build our strength and skill in applying Tactics 3 and 4. Tactic 3 is to Develop and Fight to Maintain Self-Discipline. We can not continually allow ourselves  to indulge in the secret pleasure or sin that will trip us up and cause us to stumble sooner or later. Self-mastery...

The Race of Life – Tactics 1 and 2 – We’re off and Running!

To be successful in running the race of life we have to stay on the track and know where the finish line is. If we get off the track the best we can hope for is that we will lose and waste time and, since we only get to run our race once, that is costly. To succeed, and post our personal best, will need to train and to focus and to keep looking straight ahead for the tape. We can’t afford to listen to the noise of the crowd or to look away even for a moment. The race is too important, it’s to our destiny. We get on the track when we join the Master’s team and He assigns us the Trainer that will be with us through the race. From the moment we step on the track we are off and running! Our Trainer runs as one with us. He recognizes the snares and entanglements that will...

One Life – Mentors for Our Work/Career

The foundational qualities we identified as most important in looking for a mentor are 1) Intimacy with God 2) Commitment to a godly marriage 3) Commitment to godly parenting 4) A history of ministering Truth to others fruitfully 5) An awareness of and actively resisting excessive acquisition and materialism.6) Displays self-discipline. 7) Is a lifetime learner. Each deserves focused study and attention, and each, as you can see, is directly related to fundamental spiritual perspectives and values. There is good reason to begin with these basic Biblical characteristics. Let me give an example of where we are going with this as it applies to our work and/or career: I once had the privilege of meeting Max DePree, the retired CEO and Chairman of Herman Miller, Corp. one of America’s...

One Life – Mentoring parts 2,3 – Marriage and Family

One of the most obvious indications of an intimate relationship with God that we might observe as we evaluate potential mentors are qualities of their marriage and family lives. The family is God’s smallest church unit and individual intimacy with God developed through the disciplines of consistent time in His Word, prayer, and meditation produce and model an understanding and commitment to the application of His ways in marriage and family life. A husband who loves his wife as Christ loves His Church and sets aside his desires to serve her needs and a wife who is an equal but submitting partner, and children that are blossoming but well-behaved are the normal fruit of a godly marriage in most cases. I say in most cases because we can’t put God in a box and in some cases we...