Qualities of a good leader

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

The Word for Today
www.rhema.co.nz/

‘Seek out men of good reputation whom we may appoint over this business. Acts 6:3 NKJV


Good leaders practise four qualities.
First, submission.
Only a leader who has followed well knows how to lead others well. Connecting with people becomes possible because you’ve walked in their shoes. Leaders who’ve never submitted to authority tend to be proud, unrealistic and autocratic. 


Second, self–discipline.
To make consistently good decisions requires character and self–discipline. To do otherwise is to lose control of ourselves. British essayist John Foster writes, ‘A man without decision of character can never be said to belong to himself. He belongs to whatever can make a captive of him.’ Peter writes, ‘Knowing God leads to self–control’. (2 Peter 1:6 NLT) 


Third, patience.
Leaders look ahead, think ahead and want to move ahead. That’s what makes them leaders. But the true goal of leadership is not to cross the finishing line first, but to take as many others with you as you can. For that reason you have to deliberately slow your pace, stay connected to your people, keep them informed and inspired, enlist the help of others to fulfil your vision, and keep going. And you can’t do that if you’re running too far ahead of everybody. Solomon writes, ‘Finishing is better than starting. Patience is better than pride.’
(Ecclesiastes 7:8 NLT) 


Finally, accountability.
Many people feel that accountability is a willingness to explain your actions. In reality, real accountability begins long before you take action. Most wrong actions come about because we are not being accountable early enough.


Read the Bible in a year.
www.biblica.com

Today’s readings are:

Old Testament Reading
1 Chronicles 16:37-43; 1 Chronicles 17; 1 Chronicles 18 TNIV
www.biblica.com/bible/verse/?tniv=ye
s&q=1%20Chronicles%2016:37-43;%201%20C
hronicles%2017;%201%20Chronicles%2018

New Testament Reading
1 Corinthians 1:1-17 TNIV
www.biblica.com/bible/verse/?tniv=ye
s&q=1%20Corinthians%201:1-17

Proverbs Reading
Proverbs 19:3-12 TNIV
www.biblica.com/bible/verse/?tniv=ye
s&q=Proverbs%2019:3-12

For your convenience, here is the whole Bible on one page:
www.jrsbible.info/bible.htm 


  

You can rise above your beginnings!

Monday, August 09, 2010

THE WORD FOR TODAY
www.rhema.co.nz/

The Lord was with Joseph. Genesis 39:2 NKJ


Joseph didn’t come from an ideal family. He was the eleventh son of Jacob, a con man and a conniver. By this time, however, Jacob had got his spiritual act together. But his ten older sons took after their dad. They once deceived and killed an entire town of men because one of them raped their sister (Genesis 34). Now they’re about to commit another deed of treachery, selling Joseph into slavery. Yet Joseph turned out to be a man of greatness. What’s the bottom line? That you can rise above your beginnings! Look at Joseph. Perhaps you’ve been rejected, or discovered the people you thought loved you really didn’t. That’s Joseph’s story. But, ‘The Lord was with Joseph’. Those words change everything! Regardless of what happened yesterday, if you remain faithful to God He can rearrange tomorrow in your favour. Many people who’ve been mistreated are still focusing on the people who hurt them, waiting for them to make things right. In a lot of cases that isn’t going to happen. If you’ve been wronged you need to turn to the One who won’t hurt you, and who is there to help and heal you. 
Face it; some relationships aren’t going to get fixed! Your parents may never accept you. You may not be able to escape the problem you’ve been living with or resolve it to your liking. God’s not limited by your past, He’s only limited by your lack of faith. So trust Him. ‘...If God is for us, who can be against us?’ (Romans 8:31 NIV) If God is for you, in the final analysis it doesn’t matter who’s against you.

Read the Bible in a year.
www.biblica.com

Today’s readings are:
Old Testament Reading: 

2 Chronicles 1:1-17 TNIV
www.biblica.com/bible/verse/?tniv=ye
s&q=2%20Chronicles%201:1-17

New Testament Reading: 

1 Corinthians 6 TNIV
www.biblica.com/bible/verse/?tniv=ye
s&q=1%20Corinthians%206

Psalms Reading: 

Psalm 94:1-11 TNIV
www.biblica.com/bible/verse/?tniv=ye
s&q=Psalm%2094:1-11

For your convenience, here is the whole Bible on one page:
www.jrsbible.info/bible.htm 


  

Fénelon’s formula for prayer

Sunday, August 08, 2010

THE WORD FOR TODAY
www.rhema.co.nz/

Fénelon’s formula for prayer
‘You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart. Jeremiah 29:13 NIV


Is your prayer life consistent? Is it rich and rewarding? Do you see measurable growth in it? If not, François Fénelon, a 17th–century Frenchman, tells us how to pray and get results. It’s a tried and true formula worth following: 
‘Tell God all that is in your heart, as one unloads one’s heart, its pleasures and its pains, to a dear friend. Tell Him your troubles that He may comfort you; tell Him your longings that He may purify them; tell Him your dislikes that He may help you conquer them; tell Him your temptations that He may shield you from them; show Him the wounds of your soul that He may heal them; lay bare your indifference to good, your depraved taste for evil, your instability. Tell Him how self love makes you unjust to others, how vanity tempts you to be insincere, how pride hides you from yourself and from others. If you thus pour out all your weaknesses, needs and troubles, there will be no lack of what to say. You will never exhaust the subject, for it is continually being renewed. People who have no secrets from each other never want for subjects of conversation. They do not weigh their words for there is nothing to be held back. Neither do they seek for something to say. They talk out of the abundance of their heart. Without consideration, they simply say just what they think. When they ask, they ask in faith, confident that they will be heard. Blessed are those who attain such familiar, unreserved communication with God.’

Read the Bible in a year.
www.biblica.com

Today’s readings are:

Old Testament Reading: 

1 Chronicles 28; 1 Chronicles 29 TNIV
www.biblica.com/bible/verse/?tniv=ye
s&q=1%20Chronicles%2028;%201%20Chronic
les%2029

New Testament Reading: 

1 Corinthians 5 TNIV
www.biblica.com/bible/verse/?tniv=ye
s&q=1%20Corinthians%205

Psalms Reading: 

Psalm 93:1-5 TNIV
www.biblica.com/bible/verse/?tniv=ye
s&q=Psalm%2093:1-5

For your convenience, here is the whole Bible on one page:
www.jrsbible.info/bible.htm 


  

Very present’

Saturday, August 07, 2010

The Word for Today
www.rhema.co.nz/

‘God is… a very present help in trouble.’ Psalm 46:1 NKJV


Randy Reid, a 34 year old construction worker, was welding on top of a nearly completed water tower outside Chicago. According to writer Melissa Ramsdell, Reid unhooked his safety gear to reach for some pipes when a metal cage slipped and bumped the scaffolding on which he stood. It tipped, and Reid lost his balance. He fell about 35 metres, landing face down on a pile of dirt, just missing rocks and construction debris. A fellow worker called the emergency services. When paramedics arrived, they found Reid conscious, moving, and complaining of a sore back. Apparently the fall didn’t cost Reid his sense of humour! As paramedics carried him on a backboard to the ambulance, Reid had one request: ‘Don’t drop me.’ Doctors later said Reid came away from the accident with just a bruised leg. 
Sometimes we resemble Randy Reid. God protects us from harm in a 35 metre fall, yet we are not willing to trust Him to get us over the next 35cm hurdle. Being sinful, we fail. Being prone to sickness, we hurt. Being mortal, we die. Pressure wears on us. Anxiety gives us ulcers. People intimidate us. Criticism offends us. Disease scares us. Death haunts us. 
What's the answer? ‘God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.’ (Psalm 46:1 NKJV) Note the words ‘very present’. When we hit life’s rough spots our tendency is to feel abandoned, yet the opposite is true. At that very moment we are more than ever the object of His love and concern. Yes, even when our vision is blurred, our thinking foggy, our faith fleeting, and we look up and can’t see Him clearly—He is ‘very present’.

Read the Bible in a year.
www.biblica.com

Today’s readings are:

Old Testament Reading

1 Chronicles 26:20-32; 1 Chronicles 27 TNIV
www.biblica.com/bible/verse/?tniv=ye
s&q=1%20Chronicles%2026:20-32;%201%20C
hronicles%2027

New Testament Reading

1 Corinthians 4 TNIV
www.biblica.com/bible/verse/?tniv=ye
s&q=1%20Corinthians%204

Proverbs Reading

Proverbs 19:13-22 TNIV
www.biblica.com/bible/verse/?tniv=ye
s&q=Proverbs%2019:13-22

For your convenience, here is the whole Bible on one page:
www.jrsbible.info/bible.htm 


  

  Member Comments About This Blog Post:

NANCYLEE46 8/7/2010 7:09PM

for sharing this. Just what I needed to read. Nancy Report Inappropriate Comment

What’s good for the goose (5)

Friday, August 06, 2010

The Word for Today
www.rhema.co.nz/

Whats good for the goose (5)
Look at the birds in the sky! Matthew 6:26 CEV


Lost and stray geese are always welcomed into the formation. It’s not an exclusive club for the elite. Birds separated from other formations, isolated by weather, accident or infirmity, are given full family status. The formation will alter its plans, reschedule its arrival time and inconvenience itself to accommodate any strangers seeking its acceptance. Many newcomers arrive dirty, bedraggled and ill–fed. They’re never turned away. 
In the same way, God’s church isn’t a museum for masterpieces—it’s a hospital for those who have been hurt by life, even self–inflicted hurt. Jesus said, ‘...All…who are weary and carry heavy burdens...’ are accepted. (Matthew 11:28 NLT) ‘I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also… there shall be one flock and one shepherd.’ (John 10:16 NIV) Christ has no higher agenda than to recruit, save and adopt the stranger into His flock. You say, ‘But they’re not my kind of people; they don’t look, talk or smell like me!’ So what? We don’t get to choose our biological or spiritual siblings; God does. If they rub us like sandpaper, they’re helping rub off rough edges and polish us up. 
Want to see the material God builds the church with? Prepare yourself for a shock. ‘...The unrighteous… fornicators… idolaters… adulterers… homosexuals… thieves… covetous… drunkards… revilers… extortioners… And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.’ (1 Corinthians 6:9–11 NKJV) When we were taken into the formation we were washed, sanctified, justified and given full family status!

Read the Bible in a year.
www.biblica.com

Today’s readings are:

Old Testament Reading

1 Chronicles 24; 1 Chronicles 25; 1 Chronicles 26:1-19 TNIV
www.biblica.com/bible/verse/?tniv=ye
s&q=1%20Chronicles%2024;%201%20Chronic
les%2025;%201%20Chronicles%2026:1-19

New Testament Reading

1 Corinthians 3 TNIV
www.biblica.com/bible/verse/?tniv=ye
s&q=1%20Corinthians%203

Psalms Reading

Psalm 92:1-15 TNIV
www.biblica.com/bible/verse/?tniv=ye
s&q=Psalm%2092:1-15

For your convenience, here is the whole Bible on one page:
www.jrsbible.info/bible.htm