Category Archives: Leadership

Kingship, Leadership

Where is glory found? [part 1]

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It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, But the glory of kings is to search out a matter.

God’s Glory is not hidden


The glory of God surrounds us and is displayed in dramatic awe in the sky above and throughout the earth.  “The Psalmist declares: the Heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament shows his handiwork.”  [Psalm 19:1]  His fingerprints are upon the skies, the world and all that we know as we watch for his trademark touches.  His creativity is boundless and He creates a myriad of difference in a single species.  Each snowflake, fingerprint, stripe of a tiger or zebra is both the same and unique.   Then He built His created masterpiece, man, so many different colors, textures and features with the amazing tri-fold being: Spirit, Soul and Body.

Yikes Stripes!
Zebra stripes, like fingerprints are unique.

Even as we enjoy all that we can see exhibited, we have a chance as all creation to bless and praise Him for what he has done and for who He is.   If we are bold enough to recognize how extraordinary it all is, and how awesome it is to experience it:        “Open your eyes and there it is! By taking a long and thoughtful look at what God has created, people have always been able to see what their eyes as such can’t see: eternal power, for instance, and the mystery of his divine being.”  [Rom. 1:20a MSG]

God’s Thoughts

His Divine Being is one brief description of His Supreme Godhead.  He is Omniscient, Omnipresent and Omnipotent (all-knowing, always present everywhere and all-powerful).  He then conceals knowledge that we don’t need.  He does this likely for our protection, but we really don’t know all that we don’t know.   Our greatest minds attempt to explain things whose structure and function they have only an inkling about .

His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. [Isa 55:9] And our highest thoughts He has made absurd:  As the Scriptures say,  “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and discard the intelligence of the intelligent . . .

Cheetah spots are unique to each animal

So where does this leave the philosophers, the scholars, and the world’s brilliant debaters? God has made the wisdom of this world look foolish. Since God in his wisdom saw to it that the world would never know him through human wisdom, he has used our foolish preaching to save those who believe.”  [I Cor 1:20-21 NLT] How do we respond?  Much of the time we don’t respond well . . .  The skeptic swore, “There is no God!    No God!—I can do anything I want!I’m more animal than human;    so-called human intelligence escapes me.   “I flunked ‘wisdom.’    I see no evidence of a holy God.Has anyone ever seen Anyone climb into Heaven and take charge?  grab the winds and control them?  gather the rains in his bucket?  stake out the ends of the earth? Just tell me his name, tell me the names of his sons.    Come on now—tell me!”     [Proverbs 30: 1-4 MSG.]

We all know people who ask, “Why does God do this, Why didn’t he stop that? I would certainly do things differently.” If we understood why God did or didn’t do what he does, he wouldn’t be God would he?

to be continued . . .

Leadership, Wisdom, Wise as serpents

Where is the Wise Leader We Need in America Today?

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In this season of elections, candidates are trying to convince us that their characteristics are worthy of our vote.  Are they portraying the kind of wisdom we need in this time of history?

What is the Wisdom from Heaven?

James 3:17 is the Bible verse that describes wisdom from heaven.  The description breaks down and defines wisdom while providing a hierarchy and/or blueprint of how this wisdom is constructed.  This description is valuable because it is dynamic.  It reveals the ongoing action necessary to maintain and exhibit wise leadership without corruption that frequently defiles leaders.  Let’s look at the verse more closely:

:17 But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.  [NIV] 

We need to break this verse down piece by piece to catch the nuance locked within.   It describes a number of characteristics that the wisdom has.   

  • Wisdom is ranked first as described in the verse.  First of all pure:  free from carnality, faultless, clean, immaculate
  • Peaceable – loving peace, not squabbling or whiny
  • easily entreated – compliant, able to be persuaded [not closed-minded]
  • full of mercy  (eleos)– has manifest pity on those needing it and it has resources to fulfill those needs
  • good- pleasant    fruit – deeds (outcomes)
  • without partiality – unambiguous, without uncertainty  
  • without hypocrisy – sincere, not fake

 If these are the characteristics of leadership wisdom, what is the evidence of it?   We must return to verse 13 to find traits of this wise leader

What is the Evidence of a Wise Leader?

:13 Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom.  [KJV] 

  • endued with knowledge – has knowledge of an expert
  • good conversation – manner of life or lifestyle
  • meekness of wisdom (adding detail from Vines Expository Dictionary: The meaning of (prautes)  {Greek term} “is not readily expressed in English, for the terms meekness, mildness, commonly used, suggest weakness and pusillanimity . . . It must be clearly understood, therefore, that the meekness manifested by the Lord and commended to the believer is the fruit of power.”)

Therefore, before you cast your vote, ask yourself “do these candidates portray what I want to see?”

Leadership, Offense, self-doubt, temptation

Kingdom Wealth Series – A Leadership Dilemma

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Every leader will be challenged, especially when trying to lead “stiff-necked, hard-hearted people, which  from time to time, we ALL are.  Jesus faced the same issue as he tried to lead people into the Kingdom.  
For many of us who assume the mantle of leadership, there is a particular danger of succumbing to unbelief.   Without question, leaders can find themselves questioning their steps and their strategy.  Leaders can be plagued by self-doubt.  The narrative of such can be: “Am I sure that this is way to go?  Is this the direction we should pursue?  Did I miss God?”
 
Considering this, we know that Jesus was the only begotten of the Father, that is, the only offspring to inherit the fullness of the Godhead in one person.  He was fully God and fully man.  I do not pretend to understand how the Trinity works and I fully doubt that any man does.  God gave him the Spirit without measure [John 3:34].  We also know that he “ . . . was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. [Heb. 4:15] so he was tempted to experience the self-doubt that we experience but he did not fall prey to it. 
 
In the sixth chapter of John’s gospel, Jesus responded to a demand that he show a sign that he was God’s messenger.   He responded by telling the crowd that he had come down from heaven.  Many were offended because they thought they already knew him.  They said, “isn’t this the son of Joseph? Don’t we know his mother?”  They argued earlier in the passage that Moses had given the people proof that he was sent from God . . . “Show us what you can do, Moses fed our ancestors bread in the desert.”  [MSG]
 
Jesus said ”  I am the Living Bread that came down out of heaven. If anyone eats of this Bread [believes in Me, accepts Me as Savior], he will live forever. And the Bread that I will give for the life of the world is My flesh (body).” [AMP]
 
This statement was a full affront to his crowd of followers.  The statement meant that anyone who fully commits to me will be alive forever.  They commented to him that it was a very hard statement assuming that he literally meant that they would eat his flesh.  
 
At this point, many left the site and the ministry, offended that he would ask that of them.  Jesus was regarded as teacher, he called himself a prophet but many hoped that he was the “chosen” revolutionary who would lead Israel out of Roman oppression.  The disciples had some knowledge of who Jesus was but it seemed fleeting.  They too struggled hearing him preach the Kingdom but not understanding how it would come to pass.  Obviously, they assumed a literal, physical Kingdom.
 
So when Jesus saw the departure of the other disciples, I am sure that gave him pause. There was a good number of followers who were offended and left.  He then looked at the twelve and asked “Will you leave also?” 
 
His statement to the crowd was that he was the Bread of Life to be consumed by those who were absolutely committed to him.  His question to the disciples was questioning how offended they were, their conviction and their commitment.  His humanity may have led him to believe that the disciples would leave.  
 
He declared to the Father in Gethsemane that he didn’t lose any of the followers given him, but he may have been tempted to give up, to throw in the towel, to question himself.  He had to endure the uncertainty, loneliness, and the burden of leadership.  So do we.