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The Island Wilderness
Leadership is broken because leaders are unbroken Wilderness Wanderings Series: Learning to Live the Zigzag Life He must have been too hot to touch, that ancient elder of Ephesus, or the Roman authorities probably would have taken him in much sooner than they did… Maybe they were concerned that, since he was so beloved, there would have been a strong reaction in Ephesus, the number two city in the Roman Empire, if they took him into custody. Ephesus was a place where they did not want any unrest. Whatever their reasoning, by the time they exiled him he was in his nineties, perhaps frail and declining in health. His…
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The Grace Wilderness
Leadership is broken because leaders are unbroken Wilderness Wanderings Series: Learning to Live the Zigzag Life A Majority of One Among a Minority of the Many Some men are a wilderness in themselves. Full of anger and hatred, they lash out at others like a fire-breathing dragon, setting the entire landscape aflame. Saul of Tarsus was one such man… Apparently a small man based on his comments about himself, he made up for his size with a brilliant mind. Saul grew up in a devout Jewish family among the Gentiles in Tarsus, then part of Syria in the Roman Empire (now modern day Turkey). It appears that his growing…
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Hidden With Christ in God
“Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God.” Colossians 3:2–3 (NLT), bold and italics mine Much of our esteem arises from various aspects of our lives—gender, heritage, possessions, accomplishments and how others perceive us. Yet, when we entered into a relationship with Christ, we “died to this life” and our “real life” began “hidden with Christ in God.” The phrase hidden with Christ in God means our life now rests safely locked away in Christ. He is our life now. We are in Christ and we have all the…
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Five Time Killers
Leadership is broken because leaders are unbroken Time is like money: invest it well early in life, and you will gain great returns later. Waste time early in life and lose fruit later. Wasted time is never resurrected; invested time never dies. Avoid the five time killers… 1. Anger: anger runs a spectrum from disappointment to murder. None of this is fruitful. Much anger is self-imposed. You’re hemmed in by unchangeable circumstances or God hasn’t given you the gifts to get where you want to go or you grew up in a flawed family, and you respond with burning anger. Anger takes time. Every moment you spend angry is a…
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Becoming Fully Human
For the past seven years, my favorite go-to t-shirt has been a maroon one that simply reads “becoming fully human.” Never mind that I didn’t have a clue what the phrase meant. The shirt was soft with a lived-in feeling and I liked the abstract design on the front. It also was a great conversation starter. The inked cashier at Whole Foods told me that he loved “that band” and someone else commented “surely there is alien life somewhere out there.” Hmm… somehow I don’t think that is what Oklahoma Baptist University had in mind when they chose “becoming fully human” as the theme of “Welcome Week,” the orientation week…
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Identity Crisis?
Next time you attend an event that requires your introduction, notice what you are “known” for. Is it your relationships—Emily’s mother? Mark’s wife? Conway’s girlfriend? The home-schooling mother of six? If you’re proud of what you’re known for, notice how long it takes you to make people aware. Are you known by your work—the accountant, the cafeteria lady, the nursery volunteer, the ophthalmologist? Or maybe it’s by your educational credentials—the Sunday school teacher, the seminary graduate, the dorm parent, the college kid, the grad student. Maybe it’s even a key accomplishment—the speaker, the author, the Olympic gymnast, the friend of the president, the TV show producer. Listen to how you…
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Are Women Worth Less Than Men?
Last month The Economist ran an article, “The Worldwide War on Baby Girls,” that addressed the devastating effect of “son preference” on a number of societies. The author noted that “mothers in some developing countries say they want sons, not daughters, by margins of ten to one. In China midwives charge more for delivering a son than a daughter.” It’s sad how much the world devalues girls. And sometimes such thinking even penetrates the church. Some time back a reader responded to one of my blog posts by saying, “I notice you are in favor of defining women in a good light from a biblical standpoint. This is an issue…