Saul experienced significant failure as a leader. His downfall was contributed by his disobedience to God's commands. He was somehow thinking he is above the law, he decided it would be acceptable to disobey and come up with excuses for himself. Saul did not take time to listen and take action to obey and do God's will. To Saul, the Giants he is facing is his personality and behavior. Throughout the book we see signs of pride, selfishness, self-deception, personal insecurity, low self-worth and extreme paranoia.
After Saul, was David, a shepherd boy too small for a suit of armor, strides out bravely to meet Goliath's challenge. But as God says, Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." David has the kind of heart God can work with, he absolute belief that God will conquer. Out of the many other dangers and fears, David's heart is with God.
At that time, David is facing one Giant at a time, for me how many giants am I facing today. It might be countless. It will be feelings of inadequacy, fear of failure, guilt over past mistakes, fear of disease or death...... Actually I can go on and on.
Praise God, for leading me back to the story of David
Praise God, for you have help David overcome and conquered Goliath
Praise God, I am sure you will also help me overcome and conquered the Giants I am facing today.
Lord, continue to increase my confidence in you and show me ways to fight the battle that I am going to face.
Amen.
Friday, February 27, 2009
Saturday, February 21, 2009
End on a Good Note
Yesterday was very hectic. I have to complete a lot of projects that is out of my Friday routine. I have to rush and print out thousand of inserts in the morning for the other campus just because of wanting to have better quality for this particular inserts with pictures. I have to rush three ppt that I am not too satisfied with the end-product. Because of the extra number of inserts, my volunteer screw up on some of the bulletins and I have to recheck every bulletin for quality control. I almost loose my temper when I talk to someone at the end of the work day.
In Fellowship last night, we have study Nehemiah Chapter 3. The focus is on teamwork. With the example of this chapter, everyone take a part to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem. They are people from various background with different skills, and attitude towards the project. Some complete a larger scope of work and some do less. Their goal is to rebuild the wall.
In the small group discussion, someone use the example of a choir. No matter how good you are singing, you need to humble yourself, lower your voice in order for unison in a choir. In reflecting my work for the day. The Lord is gracious. He prompted me just in time to get hold of Susanna to bring the inserts to Chinatown and save me a trip. Sonny helps me to do part of the quality control for the bulletins. With encouragement, the ppt were completed on time for use. It works out, it is the teamwork that pulls everything together. This teamwork is for the glory of the Lord.
Thanks You Lord for ending my day with a good note. It is a blessings from you.
In Fellowship last night, we have study Nehemiah Chapter 3. The focus is on teamwork. With the example of this chapter, everyone take a part to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem. They are people from various background with different skills, and attitude towards the project. Some complete a larger scope of work and some do less. Their goal is to rebuild the wall.
In the small group discussion, someone use the example of a choir. No matter how good you are singing, you need to humble yourself, lower your voice in order for unison in a choir. In reflecting my work for the day. The Lord is gracious. He prompted me just in time to get hold of Susanna to bring the inserts to Chinatown and save me a trip. Sonny helps me to do part of the quality control for the bulletins. With encouragement, the ppt were completed on time for use. It works out, it is the teamwork that pulls everything together. This teamwork is for the glory of the Lord.
Thanks You Lord for ending my day with a good note. It is a blessings from you.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Birthday Celebration
Celebration of Alexis's birthday.and Sonny's jealous look.
Wow! Soy Sauce and birthday cake go together, then you will have horns coming out of your head.
A leader need to be the servant of all.
Praise the Lord for laughter,
Praise the Lord for Joy,
Praise the Lord for the youthfulness in our heart.
It is a blessing from God!
Monday, February 16, 2009
Experiencing God's faithfulness
Naomi's life is a challenge and it reveals God's faithfulness towards this needy woman. What sort of woman was this Naomi, to inspire such affection in a daughter-in-law? What relationship with God must she have had to cause Ruth to forsake the gods of Moab and worship Naomi’s God alone?
Things got so bad in Canaan, especially after a severe famine, that Naomi's Israelite family migrated into enemy territory just to survive. Naomi's husband died in this foreign land; Her two sons married the local pagan women with different ethnic & religious background and settled down. After ten years, both sons died and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband. When she heard in Moab that the Lord had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them, Naomi decides to return to the land of her birth. One of her daughter-in-law Ruth chose to leave her homeland of Moab, switched allegiance to the true God of the Hebrews and accompany Naomi back to Bethlehem.
Lord, give me compassion, love and sensitivity, just like Naomi even during her more devastating and sorrowful moments, to put the welfare of others first.
Lord, Naomi is a wonderful example that she brought Ruth, her daughter-in-law into the Israelite community of faith. Give me the compassion and love that I will need in my family, for both Melissa and Raphael.
Lord, teach me to be the light of my family and to everyone that is around me.
Amen.
Things got so bad in Canaan, especially after a severe famine, that Naomi's Israelite family migrated into enemy territory just to survive. Naomi's husband died in this foreign land; Her two sons married the local pagan women with different ethnic & religious background and settled down. After ten years, both sons died and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband. When she heard in Moab that the Lord had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them, Naomi decides to return to the land of her birth. One of her daughter-in-law Ruth chose to leave her homeland of Moab, switched allegiance to the true God of the Hebrews and accompany Naomi back to Bethlehem.
Like Naomi, we should not turn our backs on God when tragedy strikes our lives. We may feel anger at God and express our emotions in honest prayer to him, and still remain righteous —God is faithful and mercy.
Lord, thank you for leading my parents and I to this foreign land.
Lord, thanks for all the happy and unfortunate situations throughout the years.
Lord, although there it is stormy and rainy outside, help me turn my eyes towards you.
Lord, give me strength so that I have powerful effect, just like Naomi, on people around me.Lord, give me compassion, love and sensitivity, just like Naomi even during her more devastating and sorrowful moments, to put the welfare of others first.
Lord, Naomi is a wonderful example that she brought Ruth, her daughter-in-law into the Israelite community of faith. Give me the compassion and love that I will need in my family, for both Melissa and Raphael.
Lord, teach me to be the light of my family and to everyone that is around me.
Amen.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
A Strong Need for God
As I have gone through the book of Judges, Samson is a person with enormous potential who squanders it. Samson is blessed with extraordinary supernatural gifts. Samson had physical strength. When the Spirit of the Lord comes upon him, he can tackle a lion of single-handedly rout an entire army. Unfortunately he couldn't overcome his weakness. His strength didn't enable him to make good decisions or to find joy in living.
Samson needed not only the physical strength God provided; he needed God's daily guidance. He needed God's Spirit to supply the power to resist temptation, to desire God's best.
Just like Samson, I am in need for God's strength. No matter how capable I am. I need God every day, living in me and acting through me. I need his courage and his hope, his love and his companionship.
Lord I need you; please strength me daily.
Lord I need you; give me strength to comfort
Lord I need you; give me strength to be meek and merciful
Lord I need you; give me strength to be pure in heart
Lord I need you; give me strength as a peacemaker
Lord I need your healing touch.
Amen.
Samson needed not only the physical strength God provided; he needed God's daily guidance. He needed God's Spirit to supply the power to resist temptation, to desire God's best.
Just like Samson, I am in need for God's strength. No matter how capable I am. I need God every day, living in me and acting through me. I need his courage and his hope, his love and his companionship.
Lord I need you; please strength me daily.
Lord I need you; give me strength to comfort
Lord I need you; give me strength to be meek and merciful
Lord I need you; give me strength to be pure in heart
Lord I need you; give me strength as a peacemaker
Lord I need your healing touch.
Amen.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Successful Leadership
As I am reading the book, " Overcoming the Dark Side of Leadership", it start off with giving me a right perspectives in looking at successful Christian leaders.
The book point out the danger Christian Leaders are facing. The success of a church is measured by how many people attending the service, the size of the facility, the number of staff members, the number of user-friendly programs and the size of the budget they have. For the leaders who need to have success to validate themselves are driven to acquire these things and are willing to conform and compromise the Biblical standard.
In order to reduce the potential for leadership failures, we have to shift our paradigm of measuring success in terms of having as opposed to being. In Matt 18:3-4, Jesus said"I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven." On other occasion Jesus told his disciples, " The greatest among you will be your servant. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. Through Jesus teaching, He emphasized that kingdom success is being, not having or doing.
Dear heavenly father,
I praise You for You are the greatest leader of all
I praise You for your unconditional love and unwavering support even when I am in the darkness phase, making terrible mistakes in marriage through my younger years.
I praise You for your listening ear and merciful heart in attending my inconsistent prayer.
I pray that You will continue to help me be more Christlike and understand myself and overcome areas in my personalities that might threaten my effectiveness as leader.
Amen.
The book point out the danger Christian Leaders are facing. The success of a church is measured by how many people attending the service, the size of the facility, the number of staff members, the number of user-friendly programs and the size of the budget they have. For the leaders who need to have success to validate themselves are driven to acquire these things and are willing to conform and compromise the Biblical standard.
In order to reduce the potential for leadership failures, we have to shift our paradigm of measuring success in terms of having as opposed to being. In Matt 18:3-4, Jesus said"I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven." On other occasion Jesus told his disciples, " The greatest among you will be your servant. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. Through Jesus teaching, He emphasized that kingdom success is being, not having or doing.
Dear heavenly father,
I praise You for You are the greatest leader of all
I praise You for your unconditional love and unwavering support even when I am in the darkness phase, making terrible mistakes in marriage through my younger years.
I praise You for your listening ear and merciful heart in attending my inconsistent prayer.
I pray that You will continue to help me be more Christlike and understand myself and overcome areas in my personalities that might threaten my effectiveness as leader.
Amen.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Follow the Leader
Follow Joshua, God has raised up two new leaders, Deborah and Gideon, as models of courage and faith. They help to turn the eyes of the Israelites back to the Lord. With God-focused leaders, people will adopt a vision for God's ways; without God-focused leaders, people will adopt the ways of the self-focused leaders around them.
Searching in my life, I have follow many leaders in the past. As a child, my mom is the leader in my family. My father and me are under her jurisdiction. She is the gatekeeper of the family and so am I right now. I guess I have picked up this responsiblity for my family too.
The next leader is Sandra, my supervisor in my first job in a Senior Center. Sandra is a self-focused leader. To her, work is to prove that she is capable. That's why she takes on a lot of project herself.
Subtly, I have learn the way she manages workers, projects and dealing with people. To work independently and diligently just to prove that I am capable in my position. I feel very tired and exhausted to work this way. Praise the Lord for showing me the passion of work when I work as a nurse.
The most influential leader to me is my Dai Lo. He is a God-focused leader. Just as Hebrew 13:7 said: "Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. I praise the Lord for giving me this spiritual leader as mentor.
In my lives I will lead and I will follow. When I lead, no matter as staff in church, as advisor of the fellowship group, or as parents, I pray that I do it in the reverence of God and only through his guidance. Each day, each moment, may the Lord through His Spirit be my most respected leader.
Amen.
Searching in my life, I have follow many leaders in the past. As a child, my mom is the leader in my family. My father and me are under her jurisdiction. She is the gatekeeper of the family and so am I right now. I guess I have picked up this responsiblity for my family too.
The next leader is Sandra, my supervisor in my first job in a Senior Center. Sandra is a self-focused leader. To her, work is to prove that she is capable. That's why she takes on a lot of project herself.
Subtly, I have learn the way she manages workers, projects and dealing with people. To work independently and diligently just to prove that I am capable in my position. I feel very tired and exhausted to work this way. Praise the Lord for showing me the passion of work when I work as a nurse.
The most influential leader to me is my Dai Lo. He is a God-focused leader. Just as Hebrew 13:7 said: "Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. I praise the Lord for giving me this spiritual leader as mentor.
In my lives I will lead and I will follow. When I lead, no matter as staff in church, as advisor of the fellowship group, or as parents, I pray that I do it in the reverence of God and only through his guidance. Each day, each moment, may the Lord through His Spirit be my most respected leader.
Amen.
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