Give Thanks

Give thanks to the Lord
He has done great things for us. Psalm 126:3

The Lord has been good to me. This year has been a year of progress, distinction and extraordinary things. The Lord has kept me alive together with my family, relatives, friends etc. I thank God for the gift of life, health, wealth, abundance, excellency, ministry, work, shelter, peace, joy and food.

God has given us the greatest Gift of all—His Son, who died on the cross and rose again so that we can know Him personally and spend eternity with Him in heaven: “Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!” (2 Corinthians 9:15, NIV).

The Bible tells us that we are separated from God because we have sinned. But God loves us—He loves you, He loves me—and He wants us to be part of His family forever. He loves us so much that He sent His only Son into the world to die as a perfect sacrifice for our sins. All we need to do is reach out in faith and accept Christ as our Savior and Lord: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16, NIV).

Have you opened your heart to Jesus Christ? If not, turn to Him with a simple prayer of repentance and faith, and thank Him for what He has done for you. And if you do know Christ, how long has it been since you thanked God for your salvation? We should not let a day go by without thanking God for His mercy and His grace to us in Jesus Christ.

 

VIVA VOCE

Friday 23^rd November 2018 has been a day worth celebrating. The Lord has been so so good to me. Little have I ever imagined that I would finish my Masters course in two years after the tragedy experience I went through on 1st September 2016. Life seemed so hopeless and meaningless. However, God has revealed to me His faithfulness. When He says, His Word never returns to Him void, he really means it. It always accomplishes what He has sent it to do.  

 

Now, when I reflect back on what I learned, I think there are some valuable lessons life has taught me. When you go through the searing fire of tragedy you also learn a lot about yourself. It is my sincere hope that you may learn some from my lessons too.

 

You are stronger that you know. The human spirit is very resilient, and I think we are more resilient than we know. People I have talked to that have been through tragedy almost all tell me they are actually stronger than they even knew. As Muhammad Yunis once said “Human beings have enormous resilience.” The first week after the fatal accident, many people commented on how strong I was. I didn’t realize I had the strength, but I do. You do too, you just don’t know it yet. Loss can cause you to dig deep down into your soul and find your reserves of resilience.

 

You can have hope for a bright future. Even in my darkest hours, I always knew that some day I would be happy again. I would sit in my room, being sad, but at the same time thinking where I would be a year or two later. The future was always bright. It called practicing optimism. You choose which path to take, pessimism or optimism. As Helen Keller once said, “Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.” I always knew I would finish my studies and within the stipulated time. So today I defended my thesis.

 

You don’t have to abide by the rules. When people are grieving other people try to put rules on them. (I don’t know why) Those rules are either direct or implied. There is a whole collection of rules about a people grieving on how they are supposed to act and feel, what they are supposed to do, how they are supposed to live their lives. One implied rule is you have to wait a certain amount of time after you have lost. I decided early on that it was my life and I would not follow the rules. No one can tell me what to do and they have no right if they haven’t walked in my shoes.

 

You deserve to be happy. After a loss, there is almost an expectation that you shouldn’t be or can’t be happy. Well that is some crazy thinking- why can’t you be happy? The person that is no longer here would want you to be happy. You have suffered enough. Life is way too short to be miserable. Yes you can survive loss but also thrive.

You are not alone. Sometimes when we experience loss we feel are alone and feel like no one else would understand, but there are many people who do understand. There are also kind souls who care and will help you, just because they love you.

That is what I have learned- and all things that can help anyone experiencing grief. Ann Roiphe once said “Grief is in two parts. The first is loss. The second is the remaking of a life.”

Authority in the WORD

In this book (Scripture and the Authority of God), Wright notes the various ways biblical authority has been understood by Christians through the centuries. In the Introduction, Wright centered on the following questions: 1.       In what sense is the Bible authoritative in the first place? 2. How can the Bible be appropriately understood and interpreted? 3. How can its authority, assuming such appropriate interpretation, be brought to bear on the church itself, let alone on the world.

Wright endeavors to address the above questions in throughout the book that the risen Jesus, at the end of Matthew’s gospel, does not say, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth is given to the books you are all going to write,’ “but ‘All authority in heaven and on earth is given to me.’”  The central claim of his book is that “the phrase ‘authority of scripture’ can make Christian sense only if it is a shorthand for ‘the authority of the triune God, exercised somehow through scripture.” According to Wright, this is what the bible teaches.

Biblical Authority is shorthand for the God’s authority somehow exercised through Scripture.  Wright does not want us to think that God’s word is a synonym for the written Scriptures, it’s much bigger than that. The written word is the expression and embodying of the living word. John didn’t proclaim that the word was written down, he proclaimed the Word took on flesh and dwelt among us.  When the Apostles refused to wait on tables because they wanted to give themselves to the Word of God and prayer, it wasn’t extra time in the Torah scrolls that they were angling for. It was the story of Jesus, particularly his death and resurrection, as the climax of God’s grand story that they needed to focus on and preach about. Jesus as the fulfillment of all that had gone before could now be teased out of the Torah scrolls with greater clarity if they had opportunity to read them, but make no mistake the Word they were after was the knowledge of Jesus wrapped up in God’s grand story. Wright uses the word “story” to help us understand that the authority for the Christian is God’s grand story, climaxing in Jesus — this story is the “word of God” which by divine providence came to be expressed in written form through the work of the early writers.  The Bible is the charter which forms the basis for the fulfilled telling of the story of God at work among his people.

How does one understand and interpret the Bible?

Wright takes us on a world wind tour of the history of Biblical interpretation. It’s always good to know where one is coming from!

Marcion made the Scripture into two totally different stories with two altogether different God’s, he tried to “de-jew” the Christian story, and debunk the Jewish one. Allegorical interpretation was a dramatic counterbalance to Marcion’s throw out the bad stuff mentality.  Basically everything in Scripture became a mystical representation of Jesus with absolutely no care for the context. This was a wayward albeit sincere attempt to stick with Scripture, even when Scripture was problematic.

The reformers, bucked against the sickening allegorical interpretations of their predecessors, but their emphasis on grace over law mistakably set the story improperly against itself at times. The following generations of reformers played around with various interpretive strategies in which they would make distinctions to help with interpretation, for example, Jewish moral law was seen as distinct from Jewish ceremonial law, making the moral applicable and the ceremonial not applicable. Wright disapproves this, citing that ancient Jews would have made no such distinction.

Totally contextual means that the cultural context of a Scripture must be considered at all times. Multilayered means that Scripture is like a five act play with each act stacked up on top of the other, with the whole communicating one grand story. The implication is that some Scriptures will mean something in their original context but will also mean something more in the broader context of the story as a whole. It also means that some portions of Scripture will be less important. To quote Wright:

The key point of the whole model, which forms the heart of the multi-layered view of how ‘the authority of scripture’ actually works, runs as follows. Those who live in this fifth act have an ambiguous relationship with the four previous acts, not because they are being disloyal to them but precisely because they are being loyal to them as part of the story.

He fails to define critical realist, even though he twice calls himself one. He uses the term in reaction to postmodern thought which says one person’s interpretation is as good as another’s. The term, I think, means that there is an actual true meaning in the text that can be determined with careful study. One interpretation is not as good as another.

As mentioned earlier Wright acknowledges that some parts of the Scriptures are no longer relevant for the ongoing life of the church —not, because those parts are bad, or not God-given, or less inspired, but because they belong with earlier parts of the story which have reached their climax. He captures the idea well with the following illustration:

When travelers sail across a vast ocean and finally arrive on the distant shore, they leave the ship behind and continue over land, not because the ship was no good, or because their voyage had been misguided, but precisely because both ship and voyage had accomplished their purpose. During the new, dry-land stage of their journey, the travelers remain—and in this illustration must never forget that they remain—the people who made that voyage in that ship.

Assuming accurate interpretation is possible, how does one manage to bring the authority of Scripture to bear upon the church let alone the world?

Read the Bible out loud together. To quote him directly

“The whole of my argument so far leads to the following major conclusion: that the shorthand phrase ‘the authority of scripture’, when unpacked, offers a picture of God’s sovereign and saving plan for the entire cosmos, dramatically inaugurated by Jesus himself, and now to be implemented through the Spirit-led life of the church precisely as the scripture-reading community.”

It feels perhaps a bit simple, but if we want to bring the authority of Scripture to bear on the church and the world we must read it together out loud. Wright laments how churches have cut out Scripture reading in worship gatherings in order to speed things up, or make things more palatable for seekers. Wright will have none of that. Read, read he says. Read it in the liturgy, read it in large chunks together, have good preachers preach it regularly. He doesn’t dismiss the notion of personal private study, but that is not what he is driving at, for Wright the proclamation of the word is the heart of Church life and the only way it will ever be brought to bear upon the church and the world.

To affirm ‘the authority of scripture’ is precisely not to say, ‘We know what scripture means and don’t need to raise any more questions.’ It is always a way of saying that the church in each generation must make fresh and rejuvenated efforts to understand scripture more fully and live by it more thoroughly, even if that means cutting across cherished traditions.

Bless the Lord Always

Psalm 103:1

Bless the Lord, O my soul; And all that is within me, bless His holy name

 

Bless the Lord. What does it mean to bless the Lord? We usually ask God to bless us. God, please give us this, please help us with that.  Much of our prayer life is supplication, asking for things. Nothing wrong with that, and we’ll come back to it in a minute.

But how do we bless God? What can we possibly offer to God?
We can only offer God one basic thing: praise / worship / thanksgiving / blessing.

The Hebrew word for soul means our total self, our whole being, our emotions and desires, everything about us. “Bless the Lord O my soul” means ‘I want to praise God with my entire being, with everything I am.’ And one of the features of Hebrew poetry is repetition, restating an idea in slightly different words. Thus the second line is a repeat and an echo of the first line: Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy Name. May all that I am offer praise to God.

This is a wonderful reminder; this is a wonderful prayer lesson for us. So often we come to prayer with a laundry list, asking for things. But Psalm 103 begins by simply praising God for who he is, offering worship to God, offering adoration, blessing his holy name. It’s no accident that when Jesus teaches his disciples to pray, he doesn’t teach us to
start by asking for things. Nothing wrong with asking for things. In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to ask for our daily bread, for forgiveness of our sins, for deliverance from temptation and evil. But the Lord’s Prayer doesn’t start with a series of requests. It starts with praise. It starts in a similar way to Psalm 103: Our Father, hallowed / holy / praised / blessed be your name.

Maybe our prayer life would be richer if we followed this pattern. Before jumping in and asking for things, maybe we need to praise God, to bask in his presence, to offer worship for who he is, not for what we can get out of the relationship.

And then the psalmist gives a long list of those benefits, those good things God has done.
He forgives all your sins and heals all your infirmities;
He redeems your life from the grave and crowns you with mercy and loving-kindness;
He satisfies you with good things, and your youth is renewed like an eagle’s.
The Lord is full of compassion and mercy, slow to anger and of great kindness.
And our section of Psalm 103 ended there. But the whole psalm keeps going:

He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor rewarded us according to our wickedness.
For as the heavens are high above the earth, so is his mercy great upon those who fear him.
As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our sins from us.

This is an amazing list. These are all things to be thankful for. There is tremendous richness here. But for our purpose, let’s step back and look at the pattern. Verse 1 started with a statement of praise for who God is. And then the psalm gives a long, long list of reasons to be thankful to God for what God has done.
Again, this is different from the way many of us typically pray. And again, this is a tremendous way to enrich our prayer life—not to jump right away to a laundry list of requests for things that we want. But to praise God first and foremost. And then to reflect thankfully on all of God’s blessings in your life.
Bless the Lord, O my soul, *
and forget not all his benefits.
As the old saying goes, if you pause to think, you’ll have cause to thank.

Pray this out loud

Father in Heaven, I pray that you will continue teaching us to trust you, that our confidence will always be in You. May the Holy Spirit lead us in all your truth that our first response to circumstances will always be blessing your name. May we not forget all Your benefits. I pray that teach us to trust you. I pray all this in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Honor is Given

“Honor is given and respect is earned” is a common quote used by most people but “Culture of Honor,” a book written by Danny Silk clearly illustrates what honor is. My highlight is about the two students from Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry who were in a relationship. The two students messed up during holidays and the lady conceived. It’s so amazing how Danny Silk responded when Banning, the second year pastor reported to him that the two students had had sex during summer and the girl was pregnant. He did not condemn them. He instead helped the students discover the root cause of the whole mess.  He treated them as free sons and daughters, not slaves. Probably, the students expected to be punished and chased out of the school which was not the case.

As leaders, our leadership has to be inspired by God and we need to have supernatural sensitivity to situations. For example; I have been once in a church where worship team members or church members become pregnant outside wedlock but the responses got from their leaders were never the best. They either became the topic of the day or would be ignored. Instead of helping members discover their identity, and helping them to clean up the mess, they were just condemned. As a result, they would stop coming to church and look for acceptance in other environments. In this book, Danny Silk searched for the glory, wisdom, and capability in the two students and received them in their God given identities. He assisted them own up the mistake and solve it. In one week, the students were able to contact their family members, church leaders, Pastor Bill Johnson and Kris Valloton and some other staff members. Danny Silk states that “Shame is removed through love.” Most times shame keeps people trapped in their mistakes by convincing them that there is nothing they can do but when we lovingly remove shame over friends, colleagues, etc. they become powerful.   Through love, the two students were able to clean up their mess.   They could not change the past, but they could go to those they loved and ask for forgiveness. Love cast out their fear and made them powerful again. When dealing with shameful situations, it is important to create a free environment and confrontation should be done in love. This way people are willing to; take responsibility for their decisions with truth and integrity, rather than blaming others or circumstances; refuse feelings of anxiety and hopelessness because they know they always have a choice, which gives them the power of self-control; affect their environments rather than being affected by them; set boundaries with those who do not value what they are doing; direct their own lives and visions, knowing they can manage themselves and also love and honor others.

According to Silk, much of what passes for restoration these days is nothing more than punishment; an attempt to control the offender and bring them back into a relationship with the rules. This is earthly wisdom which leads to shame which attacks our identity.

An old meaning of the word ‘restoration’ is to find someone with a royal bloodline who has been removed from the throne and then restore the person to that throne – to a position of honor. Silk recounts a number of stories of restoration based on the principles of honor and love. They are essentially testimonies of Christians being reminded that they were once darkness but are now light. Restoration is about helping people clean up their messes and live as children of light. The stories of restoration in this book are mind-blowing.

The heart of honor is to take the strength of my life and pour it into others. To be more specific, parents honor their children by giving them powerful choices. We honor our friends and spouses by helping them maximize their potential. We honor our leaders by supporting and strengthening them. Honor focuses on empowering the people around us, no matter who they are, or what their gender, age, status or role. Honor is led by love. And when we honor, we are protecting and nurturing our connections with each other. The goal should be to establish and maintain authentic relationship, rather than dominate another person. Honor communicates, ‘My relationship with you is more important than you doing what I want you to do. The result of a culture of honor is progress and momentum.

One of the most important question throughout “Culture of Honor” is, what is the problem? I have realized that until we isolate the real issue, the healing, transformation or change can’t start. So instead of using judgment or punishment to gain control out of chaos, it is vital to honor each other by restoring gently – Galatians 6:1 “Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted.” It is dishonoring to say or imply, “I have all the power… You have none.” Jesus doesn’t use His power to control us, nor does He desire to. When we confront others, it should be motivated by love and a desire for the success of the other person, not a need for control in the situation. Whenever we give people around us permission to be powerful and control themselves, there is the definite possibility that they will use the freedom to justify their selfish behavior. Consequently, the skills of confrontation are indispensable. For most people, the confrontation of sin can feel very threatening, and for some, may have ended disastrously in the past! When confrontation is ‘strategically applied pressure,’ it respectfully exposes areas needing strength and grace. In contrast, if you were to confront someone by accusing or intimidating them (eg. “Stop doing that, or else!”), then this would probably increase their anxiety, bring up their walls, and perhaps even provoke them to withdraw. However, when we confront someone with honor, we are letting the person know how our experience of their behavior is affecting us.

The other powerful insight from Culture of Honor was the fivefold ministries. Ephesians 4:11 tells us that God has anointed some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers. In the church God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, also those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues. According to Danny Silk, this order is significant. Apostles and prophets are the foundation of the church (Eph 2:20). Why? Because their anointing is focused on perceiving what is going on in Heaven and bringing that to earth. Absent apostles and prophets and you will get a church that is built on a dysfunctional earth-to-heaven model. For example, a church built on a teacher will tend to focus on what God has done in the past and miss what He is doing now. In a church built on a pastoral anointing the people and their needs will be the main priority. In the Biblical model the priorities are apostles (heaven), prophets (spirit world), teachers (articulating the kingdom) and workers of miracles (the supernatural activity of the believers). Heaven’s design for leadership is based on a team of diverse anointing that work together in a culture of honor to release heaven on earth.

In conclusion, in the quest of helping people clean up their mess, there is need to create a platform for them to realize the root cause. This should be done through love and kindness. Since we are all still a work in progress, there is no need to cast blame.

Diffusion of the Too Good to be True News

Addison lays out five keys to spreading the Gospel. The book outlines what Addison sees as the five key elements present in movements that possess the capacity to spread the Gospel. A movement has been defined as the group of people pursuing a common cause and are characterized by discontent, vision, and action. For good or for evil, movements change the world. The five elements identified in the book are White-Hot Faith, Commitment to a Cause, Contagious Relationships, Rapid Mobilization, and Adaptive Methods. Before expanding upon each of the five elements, Addison opens the book by telling the story of St. Patrick and the missionary movement he started among the Irish Celts.

I like the fact that from the start of the book Addison makes it clear that any movement is going to be driven by God powerfully working in his peoples’ heart. Dynamic missionary movements cannot exist apart from the power of the Spirit.  This is what Addison describes as “White-Hot Faith.” Addison further explains this Spirit led dependence by what he calls, “Crisis” and “Process.” Crisis moments are explained as God’s initiative to “call a person to his service.” It is in these moments of crisis that “we renounce dependence on anything but the presence and power of God.” Process is defined as “all activities that deepen our relationship with God.” Addison gives several historical examples of movements that had Spiritual disciplines integrated into the rhythms of their members lives. For example, The Jesuits’ Spiritual Exercises of Loyola, Methodist and Moravian classes and bands which were accountability groups that met for prayer and confession of sin. The overall message was that no movement can be sustained on the initial crisis experience alone, there must be Spiritual disciplines to prepare the way for, and support, life changing experiences.

The great movements of the Christian faith are released through the presence and power of God in the midst of his people who are faithful to his Word, led by his Spirit, and engaged in his mission. Jesus brought his followers into the same ardent relationship he had with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. He sent them to the ends of the earth with nothing but the message of salvation and the reality of Gods power.

“Committed people make history by living in alignment with their deeply held beliefs.”

In chapter 2, Addison points out obvious elements of a movement in the book. Addison once again utilizes a nice mix of scripture, history, and modern examples to make his case.  This particular quote stuck with me and I found it to be a valuable take away from the chapter: “Living organisms are constantly seeking self-renewal by referring back to their essential identity and adapting to their environment.” There is a necessity of commitment to a core identity, but also an element of adaptability that must be present in a movement for it to be sustainable.  Addison gives historical evidence for movements that declined due to losing their essential identity, as well as those who held their identity but failed to adapt. From my observation, people who change the world live in alignment with their deeply held beliefs. They build environments that sustain and reinforce commitment to their cause. Their agenda for change brings them into tension with the world around them, but they are also deeply connected with their world. It’s the combination of connection and distinction that enables movements to be catalysts for transformation.

Under contagious relationships, to quote Addison;

“It does not take vast amounts of money to fill a nation with the knowledge of the gospel. What it takes is ordinary people, on fire with the love of Christ and empowered by the Holy Spirit, who are willing to tell their families, friends and casual acquaintances what God has done for them.”

Chapter 3 was a great reminder of the existing relational networks that God has put us in that we often overlook. It reminds us of the importance of relationships and how historically movements have spread along these network lines.

“Movements appear to grow spontaneously and randomly, but on closer inspection they are spreading within and across networks of relationships.”

Addison helpfully clarifies that these relational networks must maintain some level of tightness, but remain open enough that others can come into the network. Much of what I gleamed from the chapter was immediately transferable and applicable to my own endeavor of my missional community growth.  I walked away with a renewed vigor to prayerfully and strategically think through the existing relational networks in my own life, identifying what Addison describes as “connectors,” and utilizing those people to help us expand our relational network. All of this so that we might deepen relationships and tell others of what God has done for us in Jesus. The most important factor in a person’s decision to adopt a new faith is a close and positive relationship with a committed believer. Missionary movements grow exponentially when the gospel spreads through networks of preexisting relationships. For continued growth, a movement must maintain open relationships with outsiders, and it must reach out into new, adjacent social networks. I plan to challenge ourselves as “As He Is” missional community members to always come with a new members and be intentional about growing the relationships.

I am Courageous

As He Is, the missional community (MC) I lead made a year on 19^th July 2018. This is a milestone achieved but leading it has been full of ups and downs. Recently, I felt like putting it on hold because of a number of reasons. First, I felt like the members attended at any time of their wish, whenever it felt convenient for them and also communication was a problem.  I had talked about communication and transparency but nothing seemed to change. Generally, I had reached the threshold. My heart was so sad, bitter and also broken. I could not imagine why people weren’t getting the idea of this whole missional community thing. In the midst of thoughts with so many questions running in my mind, that’s when I started reading Courageous Leadership by Bill Hybels thinking I will have the next move on the situation at hand. In this book, Bill Hybels emphasizes the point that the local church is the hope of the world.

“Ten days after the attacks on the World Trade Center Towers, I stood at Ground Zero and tried to take in the aftermath of one horrific day. The thoughts of that made me cry out to God, No way! There’s just no way evil can be that deep and that dark! But strangely, while the ashes smoldered around me, and the grief of it overwhelmed me, a profound hope rose in my heart – the local church is the hope of the world. There were many people and organizations helping out after the disaster. “But a work of a deeper kind was happening behind the scenes in downtown Manhattan. The most important work of all was being done by pastors and church members, volunteers of churches, ordinary Christ followers. They were in the middle of all the misery, addressing the concerns of the soul. It was happening 24 hours a day. That was the untold media story. So many other organizations met the external needs of people, but it was the church that reached out to care for the inner needs of their fellow human beings. The church became the physicians for the souls of people.”

It hit me once again and realized that “As He Is” MC is the hope of the world. I did not have to give up that early. I instead let go of trying to make things work in my efforts and let God take over. Bill Hybels talks about the church in Acts offered believers a vision of life that was so beautiful that it took their breath away. He continues to say that it was so bold, so creative, so dynamic that they could not resist it. The end result was that the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. The above excerpt opened up my mind. Our situation as “As He Is” was attributed to vision clarity. The members may be had neither got the vision clearly nor understood how MCs operate. As a leader, I need to deploy the spiritual gift of leadership, prayerfully provide the vision, the strategy and the inspiration that will enable my entire team to bear fruit abundantly. In addition to that, as a person gifted supernaturally by God, there is need for me to yield fully to God so that I am able to cast powerful, biblical, God honoring visions and build effective, loving, clearly focused team. I cannot say this is going to be easy but it takes God, obedience and intentionality. According to John 4:12, “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.” Standing on the above scripture, I believe I can do greater works. I can strongly say “I am Courageous.”

Bill Hybels in his book states that the most potent weapon for world change is vision. He says that vision is at the very core of leadership. This means that without vision, there is no focus, no direction and no destination. Everyone is free to take any direction they wish. Moving forward, it is important for me to revise the vision of the missional community, develop a strategy and share it with the members at least once every month. The vision is not food unless the leader helps others to see it. They can only see it if the leader communicates the vision, embodies it, personifies it and also lives it out. Besides talking about it, action has to happen. Accomplishing a vision requires a lot more than just pep talks, slogans etc. the strategy has to be clear, goals have to be set, champions on the team and also share responsibilities amongst the team members. This will help in creating a spirit of ownership, provide focus and increase energy.

Another highlight is commitment; commitment starts with the leader him/herself. As a leader, it is a requirement to commit to fully develop my leadership potential. All leaders need to strive continually to lift their leadership capacity to the next level regardless of how difficult it is. There is need to move out of the comfort zones, to learn new skills and disciplines, and even to submit to a process of retraining. Personally, in the quest to grow, I have signed up for an online course called Principles of Microeconomics on coursera which is going to run for eight weeks. I have also subscribed for Carey Nieuwhof’s blogs on leadership. What I have so realized is that there is nothing new on planet earth. Whatever I am going through someone else has already gone through it. What will matter are the lessons I draw from each experience and plan to move forward.

As leaders, it’s vital to put ourselves on intense growth tracks, to read and reflect, to travel and seek training, to look for mentors and begin a non-stop search for the best leadership models we can find. I am so grateful for Harvest Institute because it’s one of the training I sought for. And so far a lot has changed and my view about leadership is unexplainable. All in all, building performance starts with the leader: Each team needs a top quality leader who will:

• Keep the team focused on the mission
• Make sure the right people with the right gifts and right talents are in the right positions,
• Maximize every team member’s contribution
• Evenly distribute the load so that morale stays high and burnout stays low
• Facilitate communication so that all team members remain in the information loop
• Assess and raise the level of community within the team

Bill seems to be another example of a man of God who is willing to learn practical wisdom from whatever source he can find. It is possible for us to know all our biblical theology but end up building nothing that is of substance or will last with our lives. That isn’t to say of course that biblical principles are not helpful to us in leadership, but just that the practical wisdom that a man like Bill Hybels obviously gathers from both Christian and Non-Christian sources is also essential. Therefore, my conviction is that we need to listen more to men like Bill Hybells, who clearly has been granted a measure of success in his leadership.

All men are not the same

“All men are the same”, a statement I have grown to disagree with. Having been brought up by a single mother, I am one of the people who strongly believed “men are the same”. Seeing all what my mum went through to make sure we become good citizens that is, providing all the basic needs, educating us etc, I did not like men (being polite).  I remember, one time I told my mum; I will never get married, And guess what her response was, ‘Nze singa sakuzaala’ (Translated; What if I hadn’t given birth to you). A statement I still think about.

I start university doing a four year course. This is time when every one encourages you to focus only on studies. I started making friends and to my surprise, most were already in relationships. However, I was not moved. I reach third year, pressure for marriage begun to rise from every corner. I would receive statements ” if you complete university with no boyfriend, do not expect to get a man.” Nevertheless, these statements never made any sense to me; I had decided, it’s me and me alone. I successfully completed University. After University, I decided to try dating with no clue, I just did because everyone did.  This went on for a period of one year, after which it failed. I remember swearing not to date again. This was attributed to experience.

My attitude towards men started to slowly change after my first one year of fellowshipping at Worship Harvest. Its the place where I encountered many couples (happy, lively, committed etc) “from my observation”. I started admiring marriage and actually believed that there are good men out there. In addition to that, the Word about “Forgiveness” being facilitated by Bee3. She made a statement that transformed my life: here is the statement that God’s love for us gives us the ability to forgive any wrong however terrible. That very day I decided to forgive men (dad inclusive).

Overtime, I have learnt that a failed relationship, does not mean that you got a wrong partner but it’s because we do not know what  we are looking for.  We miss not because the opportunity was not there but because we did not have a clue what it looked like when it arrived. Men and women do not take time to figure out what they are looking for. As we look for lifelong partners do not choose based on what they say, they can do, or based on what they did once. Choose based on their regular behavior. That’s what tells what their values are. The fact that we are all humans, it is ok to give a person a benefit of doubt. However, there is also need to have a picture of what we’re shooting for.

I love my mother

On a bitterly hot October evening in 1999, my father died. Being a child, it held no shock.  Life moved on swiftly like nothing had happened. Of course the journey with my mother (Ms. Justine Nakibuuka) started. This has been a journey worthy celebrating.

She has been a mother, a mentor, a father, friend and counselor. Above all, i thank God for a gift of a mother. Everything I am is because of my mum. There is nothing she didn’t do all in the name of her children to live a better and enjoyable life.

She is a wonderful mother to four of us (Annet, Hellen, Henriettah and Heather), who has raised us to be valiant, strong and hard working women. Most people on this earth have a mother who they love no matter what but I am blessed to have a mother who I truly love, respect, and admire more and more every day. She is an inspiration to not only her daughters but to everyone who meets her. Her smile is contagious and her passion is infectious.

We don’t always agree on everything, I will not paint an impossible picture, but we do not fight, we discuss and agree. She has never pulled the “I am your mother and you will obey me” card ever, she respects this partnership as much if not more than I do, and continues to push us to greatness with her excitement and AMAZING ideas.

My mum toughed it out for 19 years on her own, raising us. No matter how bad things got, she handled every challenge without ever once feeling sorry for herself. It’s who she’s always been: the beating heart of our family, woefully outclassed in any conceivable naval encounter. No one else could have raised me like she did.

I love her with all my heart, being and soul and I count my blessings every day, the biggest one of all is having her as a mother.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wisdom! Wisdom!

Wisdom is the principal thing: Therefore get wisdom. And in all your getting, get understanding. Exalt her, and she will promote you; she will bring you honor, when you embrace her. She will place on your head an ornament of grace; A crown of glory she will deliver to you. Proverbs 4:7-9

Principal means; the most important thing or the main thing. When I read the above scripture, what came to my mind first is the state of our nation. Looking at everything happening around us, the so many world theories cropping up. Did we really get wisdom? Or if we have wisdom, do we exalt her?. Exalting means speak very highly of something or raise to a higher rank or position. Those are all questions to think about.

In Proverbs 4:7, Solomon tells us that Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding. There are many educated and intelligent people that fall victim to the physical, social and economic maladies of today. Knowledge is nothing more than an accumulation of raw facts, but wisdom is the ability to see people, events, and situations as God sees them. In the Book of Proverbs, Solomon reveals the mind of God in common, ordinary, everyday situations, too.  The Matthew Henry Bible Commentary says this about wisdom as used in this Scripture: “It is that which recommends us to God, which beautifies the soul, which enables us to answer the end of our creation, to live to some good purpose in the world, and to get to heaven at last; and therefore it is the principal thing.”

Many of us would have expected God to say that power is the principal thing, not wisdom. Yet the Scripture above gives us the tantalizing statement that “wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom.” It also does not say that riches or fame are the principal thing in life. The reason we tend to think otherwise is because our thoughts are not God’s thoughts and our ways are not His ways.

We typically live a crisis or problem-oriented life. We value the things that will solve the crisis we are in right now or what will meet our immediate or physical needs. Our vision is often blurred by our present or earthly needs. The Lord, however, sees the entire picture, including the future here on earth and in eternity and tells us what really matters in life. He says wisdom, divine wisdom, or the knowledge of God’s ways, is the principal thing in life.

The preeminence of wisdom lies in the fact that it has or will produce every other treasure in life including long life, riches, honor, and power! (Prov. 3:16, 8:14)

Wisdom comes from God, and is found in His Word, “For the LORD gives wisdom: out of his mouth comes knowledge and understanding. He lays up sound wisdom for the righteous” (Prov. 2:6-7 KJV). Seek wisdom today in God’s Word and have the edge in every aspect of life!

In this life there are a lot of things that people deem to be important enough that they spend much of their life trying to attain or acquire them. Some people spend their whole life trying to gain riches. Others spend their life in search of power or pleasure. However, the most important thing we should make great efforts to get is wisdom and understanding.