The Bullet of Growth: What We Know is Key

If you accept the brief philosophy of growth … knowledge, faith-acting and time … from our last post then the next obvious step is its spiritual application. All of us have the same amount of time … twenty four hours a day … so we are all equal in that sense. All of us faith-act continuously … whether it means committing ourselves to making money, writing a scientific dissertation, or watch the boob tube. We have equal opportunity in category two. We all have opportunity to act on something.

Now the clincher … the category that divides men is the kind of knowledge they put into their minds. It’s not time or action, but the kind of knowledge you put into your time and action. The passing of time is no guarantee of happiness. Neither are activities … no matter how varied or numerous. The key to great living is great knowledge! The key to great Godly living, is great Godly knowledge!

Cheap knowledge, plus faith-action, plus time, equals a cheap life. Baby knowledge, plus faith-action, plus time, equals a baby life. Mediocre, false, self-centered, materialistic knowledge, plus faith-action, plus time, equals a life of mediocrity, falsehood, self-centeredness and gimmicks!

The Bullet of Growth: Three Principles

There are three principles of growth that are inescapable! If you are to make progress in any area of endeavor you must first, gain knowledge; second, faith-act on that knowledge; and third, patiently allow time to work.

For instance, when I learned to fly for the Air Force, I first had to know something about the principles of flight and the airplane. Second, I faith-acted on this knowledge by pushing the throttle, pulling the stick, kicking the rudder, coordinating the instruments … these initial efforts at “acting” on my “knowledge” were very uncoordinated, rather sloppy and amateurish, and brought on the wrath of my cussing instructor whose expletives I will delete. Only the third principle, time, allowed my to practice (act on) my knowledge until I mastered the challenges of flying and received my wings as a pilot. It was a great moment!

All of life’s pursuits demand the same threefold process … knowledge, faith-acting and time. A doctor, student, pianist, salesman, repairman, coach, bookkeeper, typist, etc., and any other job, form the simplest to the most complex … demands knowledge (content), faith-acts (application), and time (experience)!

Thanksgiving In America

It seems the first Thanksgiving celebration in what was to become the United States was a prayer service in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1619. The most storied of early Thanksgivings was that of Plymouth plantation after its first successful harvest in 1621. A participant, Edward Winslow, left us the following account:

“Our harvest being gotten in, our Governor sent four men on fowling, so that we might after a special manner rejoice together after we had gathered the fruit of our labor. They four in one day killed as much fowl as, with a little help beside, served the company almost a week. At which time, amongst other recreations, we exercised our arms, many of the Indians coming among us, and among the rest their greatest King Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed fiver deer, which they brought to the plantation and bestowed on our governor, and upon the captain, and others.”

There were many days of Thanksgiving declared in the early history of the colonies and the nation they became but it was not until 1863 that President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed an annual, nationwide Thanksgiving Day. The date for this remembrance was finally fixed as the 4^th Thursday in November by Congress in 1941.

He who offers a sacrifice of thanksgiving honors Me; And to him who orders his way aright I shall show the salvation of God. Psalm 50:23

From all the Ventures for Christ staff; may you joyful celebrate all the Lord has done for you this past year.

The Price of a Stamp

RA Stites, Ventures staff

The Smithsonian Institution

Election 2006: Stamp found on vote packet may be worth a fortune

The Inverted Jenny is among the most rare -- and valuable -- U.S. postal stamps. And now one may have been found in Broward County -- among piles of absentee ballots from this week's election.

No one knows where the ballot came from. The person who cast the vote was not identified on the envelope containing the ballot, so the vote didn't count.

Now the stamp -- which may be worth at least $200,000 -- is locked up with the rest of the ballots, because by law it must be held for a designated amount of time.

From the Miami Herald, 11-10-06, by Diana Moskovitz and Jennifer Lebovich

Apparently someone made up the needed postage for an absentee ballot out of a stamp collection. For 24 cents of the amount he or she seems to have attached one of America’s rarest stamps. Although the authentication of the stamp must wait on the law, there is a lesson we can learn from this episode – the face value of a thing is not necessarily its true worth!

Suffering is a perfect example of this truth. We usually rate our suffering low in value preferring not to engage in any more pain than absolutely necessary. In reality it is of tremendous value as we enter into oneness with our Lord’s suffering through our own. Furthermore, suffering has a way of drawing us deeper and deeper into fellowship with the Father as we seek His face in the depths of our pain and despair.

The next time trials and tribulations come your way, remember the lesson of the Inverted Jenny!

More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ, ⁹ and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, ¹⁰ that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; Philippians 3:8-10

The Drive to Attain Something Higher

I find inspiration from reading about the men who formed our nation. Consider the following quoted from Founding Father: Rediscovering George Washington by Richard Brookhiser.

State militiamen, who signed up for short terms during the excitement of 1775, were not enough. “When men are irritated and the Passions inflamed,” he (Washington) write the President of Congress from Harlem, “they fly hastily and cheerfully to Arms; but, after the first emotions are over, to expect, among such People, as compose the bulk of an Army, that they are influenced by any other principles than those of Interest, is to look for what never did, and I fear never will happen.”

Washington’s plea to Congress reminds me that self interest will never drive a man to his highest attainment. Most people are coasting … they have never suffered or struggled to create anything bigger than themselves! Yet those who stood with Washington and put the emerging nation above themselves achieved the impossible – they defeated the British army and set America free from foreign control.

The Bullet of Focus: A Four-fold Formula

How does a Christian deal with conflict and controversy? I offer a four-fold formula of life to combat the pressures of daily living – take your reading, take your stand, share your truth and wait on God.

First, just as a quarterback reads the defense before he calls a play all of us must do the best we can to understand what’s really going on in this beleaguered world of war, conflict, death and error. Awareness increases with experience, but based on what I know (read) today, I make my evaluation.

Second, evaluation leads to daily decisions. I know my plans and responses are not perfect, but I’ll do my best with the light I have. “This is where I stand on this issue today” should be my attitude.

Third, I’ll share the truth I’ve discovered with anyone who cares to listen and as the Lord gives me opportunity.

Fourth, I’ll wait on God to vindicate me or correct me as He teaches me how to “read life” better.

Joseph of Egypt followed this pattern and is the man most like Jesus in the Old Testament. When he could have condemned his brothers, he refused to do so and declared, “Am I in the place of God? You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good! (Genesis 50:19-20)”

Conflict and controversy on this fallen and error-gripped planet are inevitable. The situation will drive us to despair or drive us to God. I’ve made my choice and developed my plan. How about you?

The Bullet of Focus: In the Midst of the Mess

Frankly, I have great difficulty really understanding the motives and needs of other because I am increasingly aware that there is much I don’t understand about my own motives and needs. As I grow older, advance more deeply in the study of Scripture and gain experience in counseling scores of people, it is my conclusion that the balanced, integrated, truth oriented life is not an easy thing to grasp. We not only deceive others, but we deceive ourselves!

So what do we do? We begin with humility. My basic concern in life is to find my own place with God through Jesus Christ and to make my primary goal that of pursuing His Lordship over my life. It’s a long process! Even when we discover purpose and peace in the claims of Christ, it doesn’t stop the confusion in the world all around us.

Hence, I have adopted a four-fold formula of life as I combat the pressures of daily living. One, take your reading. Two, take your stand. Three, share your truth. Four, wait on God.

(Read more on this four-fold formula in our next post!)

The Bullet of Discipline: The Price of Our Words

I can still remember a bit of poetry I was required to memorize in my high school days!

“Words are like leaves, and where,
They most abound,
Much fruit of sense beneath is
Rarely ever found.”

Proverbs 10:19 sums it up … “When there are many words, transgression is unavoidable, but he who restrains his lips is wise.” In other words, all of us talk too much!

Reducing your number of words won’t necessarily spare you embarrassment. Even “men of few words” can say “too much” if they say the wrong thing. Proverbs 10:11 tells us that, “The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life, but the mouth of the wicked conceals trouble.”