Making A Name for Yourself

John Ortberg, in his book, When the Game is Over, It All Goes Back In the Box, tells of a funeral at his Church, Willow Creek near Chicago. The deceased was named Armand Hammer. A billionaire industrialist and philanthropist, he was called by USA Today a “giant of capitalism and confidante of world leaders.” When Hammer died, his son Julian did not attend the funeral. Neither did the members of his two brothers’ families. And neither did almost anyone else. His pallbearers were his chauffeur, his male nurse, and other personal employees. There were about 200 people at the funeral. Then a man named Larry Clarke died. When Larry was in his thirties he quit his job so that he could serve full-time at the church (for no pay). He never married, never owned a home, never went on an expensive vacation. He just befriended people. He saw potential. He invited people into groups, into opportunities to make friends and contribute. He saw potential in discouraged people. He had radar for lonely people. He told people what he thought they could become. One morning when he was jogging downtown, Larry accidently stepped in front of a bus and was struck and killed. A wake was held for Larry in the chapel of the church that week.
No one was sure how many people would come: after all, Larry never married and had no children and no regular job. So many people came to file past the casket that the line went out the chapel door for blocks; eight hundred people stood in line for three hours to honor him. The next day was the funeral service. In the decade of the 90's many funerals were held in the Willow Creek Chapel, several of them for people of significant stature and achievement. Only one drew so many people that it overflowed the chapel
and had to be moved to the main auditorium: Larry Clarke’s. At the service and the wake, at the reception and in the halls, one person after another spoke of how his or her life had been touched by Larry. None of the stories were about Larry’s possessions or achievements. All of them were about Larry’s capacity to love. We used to wonder how Larry could afford to give all his time away. Somebody at his funeral mentioned they heard Larry say one time that you’d be surprised how much good food you could find foraging behind the Supermarket that gets thrown out even though it is still packaged and fresh.
One man was famous, courted, wealthy, connected, powerful, envied, and feared. The other man secretly scrounged for food behind a grocery store. Which one made a true name for himself?

Prayer

Just heard someone say they "need to pray more"...I wonder where the threshold is when we "pray enough"? People see prayer through a lens of guilt, as though we are motivated to pray out of a sense of duty or obligation to God.

Prayer is a pursuit. I love, need, and seek to know God so I talk to him, hear from him, and... spend time with him in prayer. Prayer is more like Christian love, it is a quest not a quota. (Colt Kreeger)

Simple Truth

A sinner can’t find God for the same reason a criminal can’t find a police officer. ~Billy Sunday

Fellowship In The Gospel

After sanctification it is difficult to state what your aim in life is, because God has taken you up into His purpose by the Holy Ghost; He is using you now for His purposes throughout the world as He used His Son for the purpose of our salvation. If you seek great things for yourself - God has called me for this and that; you are putting a barrier to God's use of you. As long as you have a personal interest in your own character, or any set ambition, you cannot get through into identification with God's interests. You can only get there by losing for ever any idea of yourself and by letting God take you right out into His purpose for the world, and because your goings are of the Lord, you can never understand your ways.

I have to learn that the aim in life is God's, not mine. God is using me from His great personal standpoint, and all He asks of me is that I trust Him, and never say - Lord, this gives me such heart-ache. To talk in that way makes me a clog. When I stop telling God what I want, He can catch me up for what He wants without let or hindrance. He can crumple me up or exalt me, He can do anything He chooses. He simply asks me to have implicit faith in Himself and in His goodness. Self pity is of the devil, if I go off on that line I cannot be used by God for His purpose in the world. I have "a world within the world" in which I live, and God will never be able to get me outside it because I am afraid of being frost-bitten. (OC)

Personal Mission Statement and Life Verses

Personal Mission and Vision Statements and Life Verses
( T i m G r e e n )


Personal Mission Statement:
“To know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, being conformed to His death”


Personal Vision Statement:
I will and lead others to continually modify The Method, The Mindset & The Mode of Operation, while holding fast to The Mission, The Mandate and The Message.


Defining Verses:

FAMILY VERSE I TIM 4:12b-16 (NIV)
…but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity. Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching. Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through a prophetic message when the body of elders laid their hands on you. Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress. Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers

HEART VERSE PSALM 24:1-6 (HCSB)
The earth and everything in it, the world and its inhabitants, belong to the LORD; for He laid its foundation on the seas and established it on the rivers. Who may ascend the mountain of the LORD? Who may stand in His holy place? The one who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not set his mind on what is false, and who has not sworn deceitfully. He will receive blessing from the LORD, and righteousness from the God of his salvation. Such is the generation of those who seek Him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob.

LIFE VERSE ACTS 13:36 (NIV)
For when David had served God's purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep…

MINISTRY VERSE PHIL 2:13 (HCSB)
For it is God who is working in you, enabling you both to will and to act for His good purpose.

PRAYER VERSE PSALM 115:1 (NIV)
Not to us, O LORD, not to us
but to your name be the glory,
because of your love and faithfulness.

Have Thine Own Way?

There is no such thing as a private life - "a world within the world" - for a man or woman who is brought into fellowship with Jesus Christ's sufferings. God breaks up the private life of His saints, and makes it a thoroughfare for the world on the one hand and for Himself on the other. No human being can stand that unless he is identified with Jesus Christ. We are not sanctified for ourselves, we are called into the fellowship of the Gospel, and things happen which have nothing to do with us, God is getting us into fellowship with Himself. Let Him have His way, if you do not, instead of being of the slightest use to God in His Redemptive work in the world, you will be a hindrance and a clog. The first thing God does with us is to get us based on rugged Reality until we do not care what becomes of us individually as long as He gets His way for the purpose of His Redemption. Why shouldn't we go through heartbreaks? Through those doorways God is opening up ways of fellowship with His Son. Most of us fall and collapse at the first grip of pain; we sit down on the threshold of God's purpose and die away of self-pity, and all so called Christian sympathy will aid us to our death bed. But God will not. He comes with the grip of the pierced hand of His Son, and says - "Enter into fellowship with Me; arise and shine." If through a broken heart God can bring His purposes to pass in the world, then thank Him for breaking your heart. (OC)