We the People...

With Independence Day rapidly approaching and a void of real leadership, I am reminded of I was 19 and I watched Ronald Reagan deliver his farewell speech.  He had just delivering America through one of it's most challenging decades of a generation.  What Reagan faced upon taking office is much the same as what we see today.  Carter's policies, much the same as "W" and Obama's policies, had crippled the economy and grown the scope and control of government at the expense of the peoples' freedom.  The globe was full of tumult.  The similarities are staggering.

Out of this mess the Lord used this humble man to deliver the country to stability.  Stability founded on sure principles of limited government, freedom and strong dependence upon Jesus Christ (Reagan is known to have been so bold to even preach Jesus to Gorbachev privately on a couple of occasions during their summits). 

To me Ronald Reagan will forever be a great example of real leadership.  Leadership based on humility coupled with boldness.  Leadership founded on principle.  Leadership of old!  Leadership gravely needed and little understood today. 

Click here to see a short segment of Reagan's

Click here to read his entire speech. 

Critical of Being Critical

Last Friday I found myself back with an old friend again, I was reading Oswald Chambers Utmost for His Highest.  As I read the words compiled by Oswald's precious wife "Biddy," I was really struck by the thoughts for the day which I have included below. 

Oh how I need to grow in this area of my life.  Being a little type A, with some perfectionist tendencies I find it easy to see ways things could be done a little better and I often feel the need to point it out.  I need to learn to be quick to point out what is done right, commending a job well done.  Let the better way reveal itself another time in another place.

THE UNCRITICAL TEMPER

By Oswald Chambers in My Utmost for His Highest for June 17th

"Judge not, that ye be not judged." Matthew 7:1 Jesus says regarding judging - Don't. The average Christian is the most penetratingly critical individual. Criticism is a part of the ordinary faculty of man; but in the spiritual domain nothing is accomplished by criticism. The effect of criticism is a dividing up of the powers of the one criticized; the Holy Ghost is the only One in the true position to criticize, He alone is able to show what is wrong without hurting and wounding. It is impossible to enter into communion with God when you are in a critical temper; it makes you hard and vindictive and cruel, and leaves you with the flattering unction that you are a superior person. Jesus says, as a disciple cultivate the uncritical temper. It is not done once and for all. Beware of anything that puts you in the superior person's place. There is no getting away from the penetration of Jesus. If I see the mote in your eye, it means I have a beam in my own. Every wrong thing that I see in you, God locates in me. Every time I judge, I condemn myself (see Romans 2:17-20). Stop having a measuring rod for other people. There is always one fact more in every man's case about which we know nothing. The first thing God does is to give us a spiritual spring-cleaning; there is no possibility of pride left in a man after that. I have never met the man I could despair of after discerning what lies in me apart from the grace of God.

Change is Delivered...

A couple of days ago I received this information in an email and thought it was valuable food for thought...  

-jsb

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After two years of Barak Hussein Obama...here is our change!

	January 2009	TODAY	% chg	Source
Avg.. Retail price/gallon gas in U.S.	$1.83	$3.95	115.8%	1
Crude oil, European Brent (barrel)	$43..48	$99..02	127.7%	2
Crude oil, West TX Inter. (barrel)	$38..74	$91..38	135.9%	2
Gold: London (per troy oz.)	$853.25	$1,504.50	90.5%	2
Corn, No..2 yellow, Central IL	$3.56	$6.33	78.1%	2
Soybeans, No. 1 yellow, IL	$9.66	$13..75	42.3%	2
Sugar, cane, raw, world, lb. Fob	$13..37	$35..39	164.7%	2
Unemployment rate, non-farm, overall	7.6%	9.4%	23.7%	3
Unemployment rate, African Am.	12.6%	15.8%	25.4%	3
Number of unemployed	11,616,000	14,485,000	24.7%	3
Number of fed. Employees	2,779,000	2,840,000	2.2%	3
Real median household income	$50,112	$49,777	-0.7%	4
Number of food stamp recipients	31,983,716	43,200,878	35.1%	5
Number of unemployment benefit recipients	7,526,598	9,193,838	22.2%	6
Number of long-term unemployed	2,600,000	6,400,000	146.2%	3
Poverty rate, individuals	13.2%	14.3%	8.3%	4
People in poverty in U.S.	39,800,000	43,600,000	9.5%	4
U.S.. Rank in Economic Freedom World Rankings	5	9	n/a	10
Present Situation Index	29.9	23.5	-21.4%	11
Failed banks	140	164	17.1%	12
U.S.. Dollar versus Japanese yen exchange rate	89.76	82.03	-8.6%	2
U.S.. Money supply, M1, in billions	1,575.1	1,865.7	18.4%	13
U.S.. Money supply, M2, in billions	8,310.9	8,852.3	6.5%	13
National debt, in trillions	$10..627	$14..052	32.2%	14

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Sources:

(1) U.S. Energy Information Administration; 

(2) Wall Street Journal;

 (3) Bureau of Labor Statistics; 

(4) Census Bureau; 

(5) USDA; 

(6) U.S. Dept. Of Labor; 

(7) FHFA;

(8) Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller

(9) RealtyTrac;

(10) Heritage Foundation and WSJ; 

(11) The Conference Board; 

(12) FDIC;  

(13) Federal Reserve; 

(14) U.S. Treasury


Is this the change for which the nation hoped?

The Settling Process...

"Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for
      “ God resists the proud,
      But gives grace to the humble.”
Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.  Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.  Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.  But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you.  To Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen." I Peter 5:5-11 (Emphasis is mine)


In life our decisions, priorities, proclivities, fears and circumstances bring cloudiness into what was once purely existence in Jesus.  Then our merciful Father adds just the right mixture of His Son and applies forces to our being that cause our existence to begin to resemble something like a bunch of particles in a jar that is being stirred up.  In this process we are tested to see what we will hang onto and what will be let go.  We are instructed to be sober and vigilant to hang on to our faith in Jesus Christ as our Stabilizer.  Once the applied force ends, the drag force of gravity begins to win out, then all those who are holding onto the same materials will settle to the appropriate level.  Then depending upon the thing to which you are holding your level in the mixture will be revealed.  Those holding on to gold will settle to the bottom and those holding on to the nothingness of froth will rise to the surface.  My desire is to be found, when the swirling subsides and everything has settled out, holding on to the Living Water of Jesus Christ only, made pure once again by his settling of me.

The process of settling involves lovingly applied force and requires of me yielded patience, gracious humility, enduring vigilance, and steadfast faith.  The end result will be purity once again!  Thank God for the purification process.

A Leader's Role in Paying Attention...

"How will you know if major problems are arising if you choose not to communicate consistently and closely with your employees? Being oblivious to significant concerns can put your organization in jeopardy. “Be sure you know the condition of your flocks, give careful attention to your herds…the lambs will provide you with clothing, and the goats with the price of a field…” (Proverbs 27:23-27)." Robert Milligan, President, CBMC International (Emphasis is mine)

I found a great deal of truth in these few words as I read it this morning.  Whether it be my children, business, church, volunteer organization, etc.  If I bury my head in the sand by ignoring issues others see as significant, then before I know it I have a train wreck!

The older I become the more I see the value of good leadership.  Real Jesus centered leadership which lays it's life down for another in some instances and builds a whip for cleansing in other circumstances.  His divine example shows there is definitely a time and a place for each.

I've seen leadership be overbearingly dictatorial which creates an environment of fear without love.  I've seen leadership from what I would call a "Laissez Faire" style which would be more of a "hands off" style.  This style, though empowering, creates confusion because concerns can tend to be ignored.

I can see in myself the tendency towards each style in different situations.  With my children it is easiest to use the dictatorial rule, which does not promote a healthy relationship and should not be used exclusively.  With adults it is often easiest to follow the hands off approach, because rather than offend I hope that if I ignore the issue it will go away.  I assume that most have experienced the difficult truth found in Proverbs 18:19, "A brother offended is harder to win than a strong city, and contentions are like the bars of a castle."  With adults, I find myself tending the Laissez Faire direction more often than not, which is possibly the correct approach.

Unfortunately, the hands off approach cannot be the exclusive way I cope.  In some instances of practicing this I will begin to resemble the ostrich with it's head buried in the sand.  Once I finally realize the gravity of the situation and pull my head out of the sand, the predator has my neck in his teeth and the game is all but over.  Today, I understand that neither side is the correct style of leadership to the exclusion of the other, they are both necessary of a good leader.  

May God help me to be in touch with those around me and the things that bring them angst.  May He help me to understand and help alleviate those things that bind them down.  May Jesus help me to see with their eyes and hear with their ears so I might be able to understand the world from their perspective.  May He help me to relate with those that surround me while at the same time helping them to move onto His agenda for them.  This is no small task.  I guess that is why good leadership is so rare in this life.  Thankfully, I have Jesus to follow each step of the way!

Be Not Ashamed...

Today I see that we are in times where one is ridiculed for believing that Jesus is the only way.  One is considered unstable for believing the totality of the written word to actually be truth.  For example, a believer today is labeled a simpleton for accepting by faith the written account of creation and rejecting the "scientific" explanation of evolution.

It is a time when even believers ask questions like "Do you really believe that '...there is nothing new under the sun'(Ecc.1:9)?"  I hear others say things like, "I think it would be best for us to not share from our bibles because this will bring offense, instead we ought to show them we love them by our actions."  

A couple of months ago I heard another saint, sharing through tears, that in her eyes, the biggest obstacle that the homeless ministry she described faces is overcoming the messes made in the past by the Bible thumpers.  She is convinced that it does more good to "be Jesus to them" through actions than to actually share the truth with them.  Admittedly, she expressed that in reality this means that in most cases the relationship will never become deep enough in a homeless ministry that one would be confident that the word would not offend and therefore the word is seldom actually preached.  

I fully recognize the imperfections of many within Christendom and the wake of messes that have been made through their good intentions.  The mishandling of past situations is wrong and does indeed taint the present reality.  Yet, one should not willing to throw out the written account of the truth of Jesus Christ and the use of it by the Holy Spirit to convict men of sin.  There is only one way to the Father and that is through the biblical Jesus Christ. Jesus who was; born of a virgin, God incarnate, being found in appearance as a man, without sin and fulfilling all the prophecies of old.  The Son of God, yielding to His Father's plan and taking upon Himself my sin, as well as yours.  Jesus the first born from the dead, who conquered the power of death and nailed it to the cross forever!  The Jesus whom we long to see at His physical second coming.  It is in Him that hope is found, that redemption and salvation is procured.  There is only one story of Jesus Christ shared in the written word, inspired by the Holy Spirit, written for us to embrace as the truth of the gospel.


There are many today who teach and/or believe that in order to share Jesus properly, we must put the Bible down and share exclusively through relationship.  Though relationship is an integral part of walking together in His body, it is not to be used as a replacement for the written word of His gospel story.  Jesus shows by example the value of the written word as He spends a great deal of time quoting the Old Testament and reading from the scrolls in the temple as He teaches.  If anyone had the ability to set it aside while one ministered, it was Jesus and He did not do so.  Rather He told the Jews who had come to believe in Him that if they were ever to be set free from the bondage of the old law, then they would have to press into His teachings and how they related to the things they already knew, being Jews.  "If you abide in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." -Jn. 8:31-32  Now obviously, in His physical life He was actively living what would be recorded for us to follow.  While being in appearance as a man, He was also God and therefore He knew what would be written and passed down to us even today when He spoke these words.

May God help us to embrace that it is the truth of Jesus Christ that brings freedom, not the setting aside of the book containing the story of Jesus Christ.  Paul asks in Romans 10 of how someone will ever hear of the good news of Jesus Christ if it is not preached.  In the current environment, I hear a challenge to the church today to not shrink back from sharing the written news of Jesus Christ, because it needs to be heard.  Of course, it must be done appropriately so that whether one is hearing or rejecting, it is Jesus that that he is listening to or rejecting.  God help us to not commit the sins of old creating another wake of messes that have to be redeemed.  Yet may He also help us to stand firm on His word!

My God help us to never be ashamed of the Gospel!  Even when it means that we face ridicule from within or those outside.  Paul is a good example and encourages me in his inspired writing included below: 

"For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.  Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began, but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, to which I was appointed a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles.  For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day.  Hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me, in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.  That good thing which was committed to you, keep by the Holy Spirit who dwells in us." 2 Timothy 1:7-13