How do you respond to crisis? Nehemiah was personally affected by hearing the sad report of the condition of God’s people in Jerusalem. Overcome by the news he heard, he took on himself their trouble and disgrace, seeking God on their behalf. His ongoing prayer led to personal action. Like God Himself, Nehemiah identified with people’s pain, interceded for them, and his involvement made a difference. What about you?
Joe Leathers is unique. By day he is a financial investor, by night he is an incredible songwriter and artist whose songs are sung by celebrities like Tim McGraw and Kenny Chesney, to name a few.
Throughout His life, we see Jesus’ resting in His relationship with the Father. As a young boy, He confidently asserted His conviction about being engaged in what the Father was doing. When tempted, His Father’s words and will guided His choices. Faced with challenges in ministry, He looked to the Father to supply His needs. In all these ways and more, Jesus made exalting God a priority in His life. His lifelong confidence and humility flowed from an awareness of whose He was and who He was in relationship to God.
One of the great privileges of my adult life is to live in close proximity to my parents. My dad’s three-decade pastoral adventure led him from northwest Missouri to churches in Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Nebraska and Ohio. Now with him retired from full-time ministry, I count it a sweet and extraordinary blessing that they have permanently landed less than three miles away from my home in Bourbonnais, Illinois.
Paul repeatedly emphasized the Christian virtues of faith, hope, and love in his writings. In his opening words to the Thessalonians, he shows us why they are so important. Faith, hope, and love are not simply abstract principles or idealized virtues. They have life-giving force. In the midst of obstacles, fatigue, and discouragement, faith, hope, and love bring energy and endurance to run the race set before us.
It’s time to settle an important life question. As a leader, how do you deal with failure?
Failure is the inability to complete a task. Instead of feeling incompetent or giving into failure and giving up, leaders must learn to reset our expectations. We might even need to alter our schedule and regroup our team.
You may have heard the saying “when the going gets tough, the tough get going.” It’s a catchy phrase. As people who follow in Jesus’ footsteps, the saying might go a little differently. How would you rewrite it? When Jesus’ ministry really got tough, he called His most trusted friends to come away with Him and pray. Who would you invite to go with you to the Garden of Gethsemane?
Jesus didn’t shrink from times of conflict. He openly and wisely responded to those who confronted Him. His advice for us is to make sure to that we examine ourselves first before responding to or confronting others. When emotion and tensions flare, they can cloud our vision. Take time to confront yourself before confronting others, so that God can use your words and attitude for His purposes.
Today's podcast is part 2 in a series of how to have the difficult conversations in order to resolve conflict.
Chris and Karin Conlee focus on fears that prevent us from having those hard conversations. Some of the fears we’ll walk though on today’s podcast are:
Fear of rejection
Fear of disapproval
Fear of loss
Fear of being the bad buy
Fear of getting hurt
I often think back to the day my dad told me that God had called him to be a pastor. Even though my dad had worked as a construction supervisor all of his life, at the age of 48, my dad had been asked to help a large church in our community start a new church in another part of the city. He would be a bi-vocational pastor.
