Bridge Builders

I thought I would post a picture of our class this morning. We had some traveling but this is most of the usual group. Today we talked about Bible reading. I recorded it also and Mike Shane and I are going to try our technical hand at a podcast. Pray for Mike, he will do the technical stuff and I will provide the recording. We are going for 100% of the class reading their Bible every day. Its exciting. Howard Hendrix said it best, and I repeated it this morning; “Class time should be for the purpose of assembling a bomb that you set off during the week.” I love that thought.

Remembering Names

I like the website Year to Success by Bo Bennett. There is a daily success strategy that has a great tip for each of the 365 days of the year. This one is on remembering names. There are many proven strategies for successful living, however you define it.

It has been said that a person’s name is the most important word in the world to that person. Using a person’s name in conversation is one of the best ways to build rapport. Sounds good, but if you are like most people, the names of people you meet go in one ear and out the other. So step one is remembering the name.
Many memory experts believe that we all have perfect memories. We are capable of remembering just about any detail from our lives no matter how far back and how specific. The challenge is recalling the information from our memory.

There are dozens of techniques for remembering names; some work for some people and some do not. For this reason, I am listing many of them for you to choose the one that works best for you. You may want to adapt a few techniques rather than just one. For example, use a visual technique for those you meet face to face, and when they tell you the names of their children, use an association technique to associate the person you met with their children’s names. The key again is to use what works best for you.

Here are some steps that should all be followed each time you meet someone:

1) LISTEN AND PAY ATTENTION TO THE NAME. So obvious, yet so overlooked. Pay attention to the name when it is given to you and make sure you can recall it 5 seconds later. If you can, you are halfway to putting this name in your long-term memory.

2) Repeat immediately. The first sentence out of your mouth after hearing a name should include that name. “It is a pleasure to meet you, Jennie”. Use this instead of “Jennie, it is nice to meet you” because saying the person’s name right after they say it is often a mindless automated response that does very little, if anything, toward helping you remember the name.

3) Repeat often. Be careful with this one. You do not want to sound like a psycho, or worse a pushy salesperson, by overdoing it. However, people love to hear their own name and this technique will keep your listener interested in what you have to say.

4) End the conversation with their name. This is the best way to end any conversation. “Jennie, it was great meeting you”. This not only once more sinks their name into your memory, but says to the person that you have cared enough to remember their name.

5) Comment on and/or ask questions about the name. “Jennie, have you always been called Jennie or do people call you Jen as well?” or “Do you spell Jennie with a ‘y’ or ‘ie’?” If it is a unique name, ask about its origin or say that it is a beautiful name (if you really think it is).

6) Review. After the conversation is over with the person, review their name and face in your mind several times. Do this frequently over the next 24 hours. As you get better with steps 1-5, this step will become less important.

Memory is linked to your senses and emotions. As you incorporate more emotion and more of your senses into remembering a name, the name will become more difficult to forget.

Now here are some techniques used to remember names:

1) Face association. Examine a person’s face discreetly when you are introduced. Try to find an unusual feature, whether ears, hairline, forehead, eyebrows, eyes, nose, mouth, chin, complexion, etc. Create an association between that characteristic, the face, and the name in your mind. The association may be to associate the person with someone you know with the same name, or may be to associate a rhyme or image from the name with the person’s face or defining feature.

2) Substitution. Take a person’s name and substitute objects that you can visualize with that name. Then associate those objects with the person somehow. For example, “Murphy” can be substituted with “Murphy’s oil soap”. Visualize the person pouring the soap all over them while dancing the jig. Why dancing the jig? The more outrageous you make the visualization, the better it will stick to memory. Just try not to laugh when making the association, especially if the person is in the process of telling you they have just been fired.
3) Paint their name on their forehead. OK, not literally, but in your imagination. Use your favorite color paint and clearly see each letter as you paint it. If you are standing closer than a few feet from the person, do not look directly at their forehead but rather between their eyes.
4) Association with someone you know. Associate the person you meet with someone you know or know of with the same name. Then visualize the person you know in the same situation as the person you have met. For example, if you meet a “Will” picture your Uncle Will (assuming you have an Uncle Will) standing there, in that same spot. To make the association stronger, visualize your uncle Will doing something that he is known for doing – like his loud drunken laugh.

If you forget the person’s name at any time during the conversation, THIS IS THE TIME TO ASK. Do not be embarrassed to say something such as, “Forgive me but I’ve forgotten your name…” or “I am sorry, what was your name again?” Remember that most people forget names. Those who make it a point to humble themselves and ask for a name again are seen as someone who cares about learning the name.

The more you do this, the more second nature it will become and remembering names will be an automatic process for you. Using names in conversation will take you a long way in building and maintaining rapport, as well as helping others to both remember you and like you. You will soon find that remembering names becomes a game and it is really quite fun, not to mention one of the best skills that anyone can possess!

If the Gospel is hidden

I discussed this verse with the Bridge Builders class this morning.

2Co 4:3 But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: should we add, its hid to them that are lost, by them that are saved?

I have read this verse many times but lately it seems to have a second part. Since we are the ones who have the truth and are responsible for making sure that the gospel gets to the world, and since the truth is more powerful than the blinding ability of satan, the verse implies that those that have it are the only ones who can hide it from those that don’t.

Consider these things about our witness:

Its hard to draw on an account that is empty. Our witness depends on a growing and on going relationship with Jesus Christ. It requires daily freshness and daily replacing of supply. The man we call the importunate man in the Bible, would have had nothing to give his friend that was in from a long journey if the one he got out of bed had not given it to him. If you are not putting something in the spiritual bank account each day, you can expect to come up empty when its time to make a withdrawl. It takes a daily reading and praying time to have something to give, or to have the daily experience with Jesus that will create a living witness.

Does your office let people know that Jesus Christ is important to you? In my office is a pulpit or teaching stand with an open Bible on it. It is a place i spend time at each day as I pray for my employees and the people that I will come in contact with. There are other bibles, maps, pictures of missionaries, scriptures hanging on the walls etc. In the front lobby you can get a tract or a prayer card of a missionary. Most of my business conversations start or stop with what is happening at the Bible College.

Do you know how to lead someone to Christ? Strange as it may sound, most people feel uncomfortable doing this. There is someone in your church that can help you learn to lead someone to Christ. It is truly one of the greatest experiences in a Christian life and an amazing thing that God would involve us in such an incredible operation like salvation. I remember visiting Stanley Tam at his business in Ohio and talking to him about how shy he was as a young Christian but how bad he wanted to see people get saved. He bought a projector and a film about Jesus and went door to door asking poeple if they wanted to watch it. I remember him telling me that his worst fear was that they would watch the film then want to get saved afterwards! He routinely lead people to Christ daily.

If the gospel is hidden to them that are lost it must be by us that are saved. Jesus certainly is not trying to hide it and the Devil can’t hide it unless we cooperate.

Be sure to read your Bible tomorrow and to subscribe to the Bible Reading Revolution.

We need one more blog

Well, of all people starting another blog. You might hate me today, but I am convinced we need this blog.

If you read my last post here, you know that I talked about starting an epidemic of Bible reading. Well, its called the Bible Reading Revolution.

Add this one to your readers and help me get this epidemic started.

Read your Bible

I am an early (real early) morning Bible reader. I have the Bible set up on my computer and read on a program that completes the Bible every six months. I am reading my Spanish New Testament and Psalms also in that six month period. Usually it takes about an hour to read and write my devotions out. I send them to my accountability partner, Austin Gardner and also Tony Howeth and Chris Gardner. Try to get into trouble with those three guys staring into your personal life. Its not easy.

This morning was one of those mornings when I got so wrapped up in reading that i had to go for two days worth. It became a two hour meeting with God but he opened up so many verses to me i could not quit. One thought fuled another, even more exciting thought and the truths of His Word excited me beyond description. I would love to see a Bible reading epidemic start in our church. I would love to see people calling people telling them what they got from their Bible. Imagine how pleased God would be if that would happen.

I have read my Bible through dozens of times and sometimes like to walk around my house or my office (early in the morning) and read it out loud. I have often times thought about reading the entire Bible through out loud. I love hearing it and somehow the truths sound even more powerful when I am reading out loud.

So many parts of the Bible come to life based on what is happening in my life. Other times things I learned in the New Testament on the last reading make something come to life in a book like Numbers (there is good stuff in there) when I read it this time. I cannot describe to you how exciting it is to get a relationship with your Bible. To love it, listen to it, carry it, respect it. It is the one aboslute truth concerning our God and our Savior.

Before Timothy ever told us to study to show ourselves approved, he said to give attendance to reading.

1Ti 4:13 Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.

Catch a bad case of the Bible reading epidemic.

Getting Control Back from Your Fears

I John 4:1 Don’t believe the false spirit of fear. There are many false spirits that attempt to trouble us and foul the plan of God. They prey on us with false evidence that appears real. They cannot overcome the power of Jesus Christ, but they can stall His plan by intimidating God’s children.

2Timothy 1:7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
1. Fear of anything but God is a false spirit. The fear of God is the preferential choice you give to God over every other choice in life.

2. The things God has given us to combat fears in our life are;
a. Power: I John 4:4 is our source of overcoming. Greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world. Christ is in me and I in He. Nothing can separate me from the love of God, nor can any man pluck me out of His hand.
i. Fear comes when we feel powerless, and the prey of other things even of other men.
ii. Helplessness that blinds us and makes us feel a sense of desperation that there is no good solution. The spirit of power that lives in us can overcome fear.
b. Love: 1 John 4:18 Through His love He has taken away the dread of the judgment (I John 4:17) in that we can stand before Him clean and holy and without fear. Understanding His love is understanding that we are sinless in His eyes.
i. We feel the fears of criticism and of rejection that we don’t meet the standard of our peers or those that know us.
ii. In Jesus Christ we can boldly approach the throne of God in the confidence that He fully accepts us. His love for us has taken away any chance that we will not be accepted.
iii. His love conquers all our fears. Hebrews 2:15
c. The power of a sound mind. Romans 12:2, Ephesians 4:32. The Lord tells us to renew our mind.
i. Fear and lies are the enemy of a sound mind. They breed confusion which is where the devil makes his gains in our lives. II Corinthians 7:5.
ii. The soundness of our mind is renewable by the Word of God and the power of the Holy Spirit. The Word is truth and the Spirit is confirmation of the truth.
iii. A sound mind requires daily renewal.
iv. Daily renewal will transform us. It will give us power over the lies and confusion of the enemy. It will combat our fears.

Summary: The false spirit of fear uses lies and confusion to torment us and make us believe we are powerless against them. We have been given the spirit of power, love and soundness of mind in order to combat the spirit of fear.

Pastor Appreciation is Not a Special Service

Jim Elliot said, “you cannot give your life to God in a moment, for that which is life long can only be given in a life time.”

Pastor appreciation is the same way. We had a special Pastor Appreciation service today in which we gave Austin a brick with a description of the talents, abilities and resources we were going to use to help him build Vision Baptist Church. I love that idea and think it was a great statement. Of course we had a special offering for Austin and Betty who have devoted all they have and all they are to the mission of Jesus Christ. It was a great service. I love special offerings.

But as Jim’s quote goes, so goes pastor appreciation. The response cannot be totally contained in the moment. It must perpetuate itself and become an epidemic. The words and notes on the brick must come to life and get muscle and sinew and breath. It would epitomize the lack of appreciation to say “I go sir” as the man in Matthew 21:30 and then not go. Its a hollow promise that doesnt deliver. Its a frustration to have tools that don’t work, materials that won’t hold up or workers that don’t show up.

Love shown, is better than love said. Commitment demonstrated is better than commitment described. A diligent person beats a brilliant plan any day of the week. If we learn the best ways to say it but never do it we still failed. Pastor appreciation is not a special service, its regular service every day of the week. Its more shoulders to the work and more hands on the plough. Believe me, he will appreciate that more than anything we could do.

What is fear and why does it have such power over me?

Have you had that dream that you were giving a big speech and that you looked down and realized you were not wearing any clothes? Don’t feel alone, the first man that ever was afraid had a meeting with God and realized He showed up naked.

Genesis 3:10 And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.
1. He was afraid because he was naked.
Fear of loss or rejection
Fear of discovery of private things
Fear of pain or punishment
Fear of conflict or confrontation

2. Fear is a result of the fall of man and the curse on the earth.
3. We were created to have dominion. We gave that up in the fall.
4. The animals that Adam named would now prey on him.

Fear is a resistance in us to risk – It is an emotion
Those who do not fear, probably do not understand the risks.

This is the beginning of a two week series in the Bridge Builders class at Vision.

Spectacular Finish

The Pastor’s conference closed last night with what looked like 1200 plus in attendance. I will have a separate post about some things, but here are the basics. The students in the seminary sang two songs as a choir of about 90 that was incredible. I thought about the construction of all the buildings and the projects I have worked on with Austin and Chris Gardner for several years while they sang. I could not help thinking that those students, and the works they will do for God is worth every minute and dollar invested and ten times more. Chris has been doing an excellent job with a huge load.

Austin Gardner is, in my opinion, a man who takes the Bible and makes it a usable book for the greatest of men and the lowest of men. I have had many “road to Emmaus” trips with my Pastor and friend while he opens the Scriptures and my heart burns as i see Jesus. Friday night was no exception. His message was as refreshing as it was pointed, and I beleive it will bear fruit in the hearts of the hundreds that attended.

Many wonderful specials were sung as well as congregational songs that you will just have to experience to understand. I was shocked again as I was presented with a huge mock up under a glass case of the Bible College. It is complete according to the plan of what the finished product will be. I will have it back in the states as soon as I figure out how to get it there. It is impressive and once again, I was without words. I think I said “wow” which translates in Spanish perfectly. I invite you to check out Businessmen Committed to World Evangelism to see how you can get involved in this project.

I also got to take a taxi ride home with Benjamin Armstrong. I am extremely impressed with this young man. He worked without much rest at all this week doing basically whatever was asked of him. I got to meet Benjamin’s dad a couple years ago. He is Brent Armstrong, Pastor of Oakwood Baptist Church in Anderson SC. Brent has an incredible testimony and a great church. I beleive you will be seeing this young man going places.

We finished the night at Turco’s for a midnight (literally) snack, which is another reason you need to put a trip to Peru in 2008 on your calendar today. God is doing incredible things here.

Jesus on Time Management – John Chapter 11

Time is not really something you can manage. What we can manage are our priorities within the time that we have been given. This is really about managing your “one thing” in life. The thing you are here for. Imagine if all you did in your day was the one thing that God has made you for. Finding and executing that relentlessly is what true time management is about. A multitude of books have been written on this subject. Most of them teach us how to be a fast moving generalist. Real time management is about how to be a content specialist. In learning about Jesus’ method of managing priorities we learn that time only means something to us in light of the fact that we have a job that only we can do. In this case, it was to raise Lazarus. For Jesus was the only one who could do it. Jesus had two basic time management principles.

Never let primary things wait on secondary things: Timing is so important Primary things are primary because of our purpose. Imagine doing only the things that you alone can do. These would all be primary things. A specialist, not a generalist.

Multiply yourself through others: Delegation Anything that can be done by someone else should be. Moses demonstrated that in his lesson on delegation in Exodus 18.

John 11:1-44 In these verses we are given a crisis which would normally incite us to urgent action. Jesus managed this situation because it was made for Him by His heavenly Father.

1. Jesus recognize the right application of who He was to the situation. John 11:11 Know who you are and what you were made for. Jesus understood the situation better than anyone else because he could think through all the possible outcomes in light of all His possible skills.

a. Jesus could easily have healed Lazarus. It was also possible that Lazarus would have been healed by a doctor or a family member that did the right things.
b. There was only one person that could raise him from the dead. Jesus had already healed several people.
c. This was important to Him and very touching. John 11:5, 33-35.
d. The situation included more than a usual amount of people being so close to the time and place of the Passover.
e. The fact that He was the right man for this job, and that He could handle any outcome because this was His specialty, made the time constraint meaningless. John 11:23

2. Jesus recognized the right time to act. Learn how to recognize those situations that were made for you by God, then make an assessment on the right time to act. This is about knowing the right time to act on the right task.

a. We have unfinished things everywhere because the urgent keeps us running.
b. Jesus was not positioned to handle the situation then and would have had to take a lesser result by healing him from a distance.
c. Jesus continued in the place and in the situation He was currently working on until it was complete before going to Bethany. Though these people were very close to Him, He did not change His plans.

i. To lose focus on what we are doing at the present, especially if it is a task designed for us, is to upset the divine timing of our lives.
ii. Delay was good for the situation. John 11:15 It allowed the situation to ripen or mature into exactly the point where Jesus would fulfill His role and accomplish His ends.

d. Urgency is a tyrant that demands we drop what we are doing and commence something else.
e. Thinking and doing things in the order of importance is the key. Important things are things that only you can do.
f. Those that asked Jesus to come were probably astonished that although He loved them and they had a friendship, Jesus seemed not to mind that their affliction increased while He finished His current task.
g. There are boundaries of the work day. John 11:9-10 There is never enough time to do everything, but always enough time to do the right things. Our lives were designed that way.

3. Right results and the greatest benefit. Jesus knew all along that this situation was fully in His control and that the benefits of Him executing this in person and at the right time would bring about exactly the right results.

a. Jesus moved closer to His goal in two ways.

i. He presented to them the resurrection and taught them the truth that death had no power over Him or them. John 11:45-46
ii. He moved the Pharisees to begin planning His capture and death which was very much a necessary part of the plan.

b. Jesus strengthened His disciples by showing them the resurrection.
c. They now know that it doesn’t matter if they die or not. The resurrection and the life is with them.

Summary: Time management is more about knowing your purpose and priorities than it is about cramming a bunch of stuff in one day. Becoming the specialist that God designed us to be not a generalist with a string of unsatisfying attempts at things. Organizing and executing around the priorities of your purpose, not selfishly, but because you know you were made for something and only you can play that role.