Beyond God's Perfect and Permissible Wills

Going beyond the thinking of God's perfect and permissible will saves us from the stress of questioning whether we are in His perfect or permissible will. We are to know that life is both a destination and a journey. The journey is as important as the destination. The destination is our unique upward call of God for us to be in His-image. The journey is our growth process whereby we be molded into His likeness. So even in difficult times and failures, rejoice always, give thanks, and follow the leading of God to see how it works for good for you and Him.

His Perfect & Permissible Wills

When I was growing up in Christian faith, I was taught, in books and sermons, by many pastors and famous preachers, that God's will can be divided into two types --- His perfect will and His permissible will.  When we walk in His perfect will, we will be greatly bless, especially in terms of wealth, health, power, reputation and success. But if we insist on doing our things, God will give in and permit us to walk in His lesser will for us. It is called the permissible will. The result will be little or no blessings. We will have a difficult time but still not too bad or as evil as being disobedience. 

Its intention is good. It tries to encourage us to seek higher, the better, higher and perfect will of God. It explains why our life at present is not so good because we are only in the permissible and not the perfect will of God. 

Are Such Concepts True & Useful?

On reflection and from experience in life, I am not sure these concepts of perfect and permissible wills of God is true or even useful. Firstly, look at the outcome. If one follows the argument that blessings will come from God's perfect will, then we need to understand what blessing mean. Usually people use it to means good life of wealth, health, favors, etc. In which case, consider Paul. In 2 Cor 11:23-27, we find Paul was beaten, stoned, shipwrecked, stoned, imprisoned and finally killed. Going by our argument, Paul was the most disobedient of all. In truth, we cannot judge a person by the outward sufferings alone. Similarly, Joseph was sold as slave, wrongly accused and imprisoned and forgotten for a few years which extended his stay in the prison. Was Joseph walking in the perfect or permissible will of God? What good do such concepts help Joseph? Was it not better for Joseph to realize that in whatever circumstances that one fine oneself , God is still in-charge and is aware and one needs to follow and uphold God's standards and trusting His care and deliverance in due time.

Using the example of marriage, one can disprove the perfect will of God. It took only one person's disobedience to spoil the grand and perfect match-making plan of God. 

Worse, even people in marriage when encountering difficult will question whether he or she had married the right one according to the perfect will of God and then divorce the other on this ground that he or she had married the permissible but not the perfect one!

Here is the mind-map that give more details ....

The Better way - Seeing God's Will as a Destination and a Journey of Life

I propose that we see God's will as a unique calling for everyone of us and a journey of life to reach that destination of our calling. The journey is but a growth through hill tops and low valleys into greater maturity and likeness of Christ. It is a journey to experience and know God in an intimate way and to grow in faith and understanding of Him (Eph 3:16-20).

No matter how tough life is God is with us - It gives us Hope.

No matter and especially in difficult and tough times, we need to know that God is with us and it is his will. We are to be aware of His presence in all that we do and be sensitive to His leading. The high top and valley experiences are all parts of His will and we are to rejoice in them. 

1Th 5:18  give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Php_4:4  Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.

Trust God that He is more than able to save us from our sins and weaknesses

We are to trust God to be able bring us to our destination despite our weaknesses and our sins. So, don't be stuck in our sins and in regrets but wise up and get up to continue this journey with God. Through hard times and failures, we get to be more sensitive, forgiving and less judgmental and at the same time learn to rely on His strength and become tougher. 

You don't need to sin to have suffering

This is not an excuse for our sinning but rather have the faith in God that God is able to save and more than recover from our sins and mistakes. We don't need our sins or mistakes to find persecution and sufferings. More often than not, it is our walk in righteousness and our refusal to compromise with the world that bring forth the attack, scorns and failure in worldly viewpoints. The sufferings and persecutions of Paul were not due to his sins but rather due to his walk in righteousness to fulfill the call of God on his life. 

However, if we do sin or make mistake, we know that God is greater than our sin, and we just need to face our sin directly, confess it and repent from it. Don't let the regrets drag us down but stand up from our fall and walk forward towards our destination that God has planned for. 

Php 3:13 Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Hebrew 12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus,the pioneer and perfecter of faith.... 12 Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. 13 “Make level paths for your feet,” so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.

Therefore ....

So.... Yes, you are in His will for your present state of affairs. Now, spend time with Him and His Word to see what the next step that you are to take. Go on with His upward call of your life.

See also:

• Our Calling of Life - Destination or Journey?

• You are a Masterpiece Created in Christ 

• Perspective - How You Start is A Key to Success.

• Journey of Life - Victory or Defeat?

• Bible for Business Seminar#4 Personal Mission & Journey

Lim Liat (c) 10 Dec 2012

Perspective - How You Start is A Key to Success

In Our Calling of Life - Destination or Journey? I say that life is a journey to a glorious destination. The vision of the destination, or the hope in Biblical literature, or the perspective, points the direction and gives one the encouragement. It gives meaning to the journey. The journey itself is a life long learning and adventure of growth associated with joy and sorrows.

The start, the journey and the arrival at the destination are all equally important. Errors come when we over emphasize one part and ignore the others. It is quite typical for churches to emphasize the how of the journey with good guidelines like the Ten Commandments laws and ignore the others resulting in legalism. It is equally bad for some churches to emphasize the start of new man of creation and grace and ignore the need for the journey and ending up producing babies and/or orphans. Focusing on the glorious destination causes one the ignore the present living and influence with just waiting for the great day.

Hence, it is important for us, now and then, to review and reflect on our lives and see the part we may have neglected. When we feel trapped in the journey, may be we should look at who we are again. When we feel depressed in the journey, may be we should look at the glorious ending that awaits us. When we do not know what to do, or think that we have lost our way, we need to get back to God and His word.

Begin the Journey by Knowing Our Identity

The journey is our present time and naturally occupies our attention. There are much teaching written about the how. I have shared much from the Ancient Chinese Classics on this as well see Chinese Classics & The Bible. So in this post, I want to talk about the starting point of the journey, our perspective of life, our identity in Christ.

Who we think we are determines how we behave.

Pro 23:7 For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he 

You start your New Life - Complete in Christ. There is no lack.
As a believer,

• We are a new creation 2 Cor 5:17.
  We are taught that we are sinners saved by grace.  If you still thinking about the sinner part, then you are trapped in sins. Paul emphasized that we should focus on the saved part - the New Creation. I am a new creation and no longer a sinner. I am the following ....
• We are children of God Rom 8:16, Gal 3:26, 1 Jn 3:1. Since we are God's children, we are like God and have His character within us. 
• We are complete in Christ. Col 2:10  
• We have received all Christ's fullness, and grace for grace. Joh 1:16.
  For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ Joh 1:17. Christ gave us the grace to exceed the Laws.
• You are God's children. He sent Christ Jesus to save us and to make us wise, acceptable, and holy. 1Co 1:30 [CEV]
• We have everything we need to live a life that pleases God. It was all given to us by God's own power, when we learned that he had invited us to share in his wonderful goodness.  2Pe 1:3 [CEV]

The Journey is about Living Out this New Complete Life (in Christ)
The is the complete, righteous, wise, holy, empowered identity in Christ that we start to live out the journey of life. The Laws are no longer something that condemns us anymore because Christ had redeemed us from the curse of the Laws Gal 3:13 but something that we could easily exceeds because of our new identity. The Laws become guidelines, minimum standards actually, for us to show our light to the world and bring glory to God. See positive aspects of the Laws in Principles & Insights from the Ten Commandments. When we know we can make it and excel in it, we are not afraid of being measured. Measurement also shows out the ability inside us. This is the attitude of the champions. Remove the measurements, we could not tell. So, we our new identity of Christ in us, let are boldly move forward.

How we behave in the journey actually reflect our identity and character.

What happen when we fail?

• Hebrew tells us to approach merciful God receive the grace power. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.  Heb 4:16 ESV

• But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2Co 12:9-10 ESV

In the midst of the business of life, we tend to forget who we are. When that happens, it is easy for us to fall into temptations, depressed, do the short-cuts, do the things that are beneath who we really are. When we know who we are in Christ, we live out the champion within.

Remember who you are in Christ, be righteous & capable centric and live out with Christ within.

• And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Eph 4:24 KJV ... the putting on is about letting the external behavior to be seen like the internal Christ in us.
• Each of you is now a new person. You are becoming more and more like your Creator, and you will understand him better Col 3:10 CEV
  

See also: Bible for Business Seminar#4 Personal Mission & Journey
and Seven Easy Steps to Great Success According to LaoZi (You will find many quoting this "A Journey of a thousand miles begin with the first step - Lao Zi.  This is a better explanation on the complete text).

Lim Liat (C) 2011 updated 5 Dec 2011

Bible for Business Seminar#14 Competitors & Summary

We have an intensive coverage of competition and argued that in many cases, working together brings benefits to members that are competitors! e.g. Co-location create presence and attract customers; speaking as single voice to address needs of the members; getting Government support to train the people for the skills needed. The discussion is summarized in the mind-map below:

The High Performance Organization
So far, we use the Norton&Kaplan Strategy Map Driven Balanced Scorecard(BSC) as the framework for building successful corporation. It was very methods based. Knowing that Organization is about People, we look at Corporate Performance from the People's viewpoint and use Ken Blanchard's work on High Performance Organisation. Please click on the link HPO to find out more.

We show how Ken Blanchard HPO SCORES model can be mapped to Kaplan Norton's Strategy-Map and giving us additional insights to how best to run the company for performance. In a way, it also validates the use of the K&N S-Map framework.

1. Center - Triple Bottom Lines - Investment of Choice is the Financial View of S-Map.
2. Compelling Vision: Purpose and Values - Same the top Mission-Vision-Values of S-Map.
3. Relentless Focus on Customer Results - Customer perspective of S-Map.
4. Energizing Systems & Structures - This is the "Internal Process" perspective of S-Map.
5. Shared-Power & High Involvement - This belongs to the Learning-&-Growth (Organization Capital) perspective of S-Map.
6. Shared Information & Open Communication - Maps to the Learning&Growth perspective of IT & Infrastructure.
7. On-going Learning - Maps to the Learning&Growth of Human Capital, Knowledge Management, and the whole implementation of BSC - continued monitoring, learning and upgrading of the understanding of how the organization should work for higher performance.
   

The Unified Corporate Performance Model(CPM)

Combining from the literature on CPM, the following Unified CPM Model was presented.

The expanded model is:

The feedback
About 15 people got together for the Seminar. The overall rating was 90% with the higher scores went to Speaker's knowledge, Expectation Met, and the lower scores to Relevance to Job 86% and location 82%.

Like Best

• The correct approach to a good leader/organization. E.g. top of hierarchy must set goal and follow all they way down.
• Lim Liat, excellent sharing tonight! I learnt a lot. I enjoyed very much - driven vs servant leader, set/create a compelling vision+mission+human sigma.
  
• Sharing of Experience and Insights by trainer
• Competition, because it is enlightening to know we should not focus on competitions to keep us on our feet as they can be way off in reading customers' needs. We should focus on customers as they are the ones who give us our bacon.
  
• Love your enemies (competitors). Able to see the competitors differently
• More interactions between speakers and among participants
• Team & structure
• High Performance Organization
  

Like Least

• nil
  

Others

• to give us topic related to Human Sigma.

Bible for Business Seminar#13 Learning & Growth

12 of us met together to for the topic Learning & Growth . The additional information covered were:

1. Using the 5-fold ministries of the Church model into Business Organization.
   
• Apostles as church planters are comparable to the Entrepreneur starting new businesses and/or in new countries. The key to send the 1st rate staff to opening new businesses and not the 'who want to go' staff. Local companies tend to send their 2nd rate staff to open up new territory and loosing them later as they could never come back to HQ because their vacated position would be filled up. This must be fixed for a globalizing company.
• Prophets are equivalent to the Intelligence Officer or the Scout. They collect market intelligence, scan the PEST, and keep the company informed of the trends and happening the the forefront. Scanning and picking opportunities or sensing pending dangers are very important in this fast changing world. "Re-positioning" with respect to the customers and offerings is a constant need of business.
• Evangelists are the offering marketeers of the company.
  
• Pastors are Teachers are the developers of the company equivalent to the HR Directors & Trainers/Consultants, continuing ensuring talent peopled are recruited, developed, retained, motivated and challenge to give of the their best to accomplishing the company's strategies and vision.
• In Rom 12:6-13 and 1 Cor 12:28, we find other operational and supporting roles. The key is to remember that jobs(roles) are to be derived from strategic processes.
  
2. Readiness
• How can you tell how ready are you to execute the strategies?
• The HR readiness is measured by (over the total job roles)
  = Actual_No_of_Certified_People/Required_No_of_Certified_People
• For IT and other support applications can be measured similarity by introducing the stages of readiness. e.g. feasibility study, project-approved, started, development, testing, pilot, delivered.
• For organizational & culture readiness, we speak of matching of staff personal goals & corporate objectives. The extrinsic and intrinsic motivators. Leadership (Servant Leadership). Change Agenda - Communications+Communications of mission, vision, strategies, goals.
3. 4 Types of Listeners & 4 Types of Staff
• In the Parable of the Sower (Mk 4:3-20), Jesus shared that there were 4 types of listeners, despite all your good effort in trying to communicate and motivate (it is the same Word that is shared to the 4 types of listeners) with four very different outcomes.
• 1. Paths - Indifferent and Disengaged Staff.
  
• They are not interested in doing or improving things.
  
• May be they are victims of many initiatives and frequent changes in strategies that they don't see the good results of anything 'new' initiatives.
  
• They are the depressed and given-up staff.
  
• If not motivated and changed, they may degrade to be actively disengaged staff that will sabotage the work of others.
  
• Their bad attitudes and behaviour may spread and caused others to follow suit.
• The answer is to change them or get rid of them.
• 2. Rocks - Head Only Listeners
• They are excited quickly and rush to implement.
  
• They are easily discouraged and give up especially when they do not see short term results.
  
• Very often, their failures are due to misunderstanding, lack of depth of knowledge, lack of preparation and unrealistic expectations.
• 3. Thorns - Own Agendas
  
• They have different agendas than the corporates.
  
• They will do only those corporate objectives that agree with their goals.
• Answer: align staff & corporate goals. Go for win-win. Never compromise.
• 4. Soils - Heart, Head, Hand & Habits
  
• The 4 Hs are the terms used in "Lead like Jesus" for ease of remembering .
  
• These people not only understand with their minds, but have taken them into their hearts.
  
• They are committed to achieving the success and will execute them (Hands).
  
• Long term practice makes them good habits that are done without extra supervision. They produce the fruits.
• Answer: keep them … continually challenge them.

The feedback from the people attending are as follows:
The overall rating is 84% with the higher scores going to Speaker's knowledge 96%, Subject Area Coverage, length of talk,... and lower scores to technical level 80% and presentation style 78%.

• Like Best
• Strategic Planning & Goal Setting
• Five fold theories (5 fold ministry applying to Business)
• Sharing of Experience and Insights by trainer
• Human Resource Capital Management cannot be overemphasized enough. More often than not, companies tend to overlook the HR aspect, expecting to replace talents that have exited from the companies, not realizing that it costs them more to replace than to retain.
• Break the lesson into 2 parts if this is necessary.
• Biblical Principles. Never saw the Bible as beng so analytical if we study it carefully
• Encourage us to take personal responsibilities for our own performance & growth
• Like the training. It opens up my mind to more things.
• learning many things about the different aspects of running a business
• 4 types of listeners
• Using Church Model to Business
• Overview, concept, 5 aspect of the system.
• Organization challenges & market forces
  

• Like Least
• some of the principles was too brief due to timing
  

• Others
• Miss the last 12 lessons. Do I need to know the past lesson.
• Share more examples for application of these theories (Speaker business & organisation mgt experience)
• Real company case studies
• too much info but could not cover all in tnis 1.5 hrs
• would like to know more about knowledge in sales & marketing.
• want to know about processes, how to break it down/create & communicate it.
• Thank you
• More case studies / situational analysis, apply Jesus' teaching into the management system.
  

Bible for Business Seminar#12 Processes

About 10 of us get together for the seminar#12 on Processes and Operation Excellence.

The Aims or Strategic Themes for Processes are usually

1. Efficiency - change cost structures, digitize processes
2. Differentiation - becoming a customer centric enterprise
3. Resilience & Agility - Ensure stability and flexibility

Vision and Strategies without Processes to deliver them will remains as unfulfilled dreams. Mat 7:24-27 tells us to do it to have a strong foundation.

People who are doing Strategic Map driven Balanced Scorecard tend to be very concern about the possible effort and need to revamp processes. Processes are the how's to achieve the Strategic Objective Targets. If the present processes are able to achieve the targets, then there is no need to change the existing processes. If the existing processes are not delivering the targeted results, then resources (money and man effort) must be spent, known as Strategic Initiatives, to improve or re-design the processes.

The typical Inductive Bible Study Method of Observation, Interpretation & Application will not benefit us if we do not apply what we learned into practice. The Bible teaches us the following Operation Principles.

Operation Excellence Principles

1. Just Do it:
   
• Mat 6:34, Mark 4:26-29
  
2. Go & See:
   
• Mark 1:39
  
3. Right Usage:
   
• Mark 2:21
• Fishbone Chart (5ME/6M, 8P's, 4 S's), Root Cause Analysis.
  
4. Alignment: Align Processes to deliver the offering to the Customer Segments served.
   
5. Butterfly Effect - Attention to Details.
   
• Mark 4:30-32, Luke 16:10.
  
• The 6-Sigma Methodology: control variation, optimize, breakthrough.
• Improvement with DMAIC: Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control.
• Design with DMADV - Define, Measure, Analyze, Design, Verify.
  
6. Sharing of Best Practices
• Mark 5:19
  
• Knowledge Management
  
7. Internalize The Practices (Not for Show Only)
• Mat 6:18 Fasting
• Mat 5:4 Giving
• Mat 6:6 Praying
  
8. Working like Owners - Law of Promotion
   
• Luke 16:11
  
9. No Waste, Be Lean
• Mat 14:20
• Lean Methodology - Eliminate Waste All the Time
  
• 5 Principles - Value (no waste), Value-Stream, Flow, Pull, Perfection
• Waste are: waiting, over-production, rework, motion, processing waste, inventory, transportation and waste of Talent.
• Flow - Have the "Decision Rights" with the right "Information Flow" are more important than "Motivators" & "Organisation Structure" for successful execution.
10. Innovation
• Operation Innovation guides are
• set stretched goals - Mat 5:20
  
• look for role models in other industry
• identify and eliminate constraining assumptions - John 8:32
  
• rethink the work - purpose, environment, information needs, tools, etc. See Lean Methodology above.
11. System & People - Sabbath for the People
    
• Mark 2:27
  
• Don’t Attribute System Variation to People and wrongly punish or reward the people
• See E W Deming's Profound Knowledge, Read Beans Experiment.
  

Bible for Business Seminar#11 Customers & Blue Ocean Strategy

For the Customer Perspective in the Strategy Driven Map Balanced Scorecard, we must know the following:

1. The Offering is a multi-dimensional vector of factors like price, features, service, branding and so forth. The vector of the offering is known as a Strategy Curve in the Blue Ocean Strategy (BOS) methodology.
2. Customer buying decision is both rational and emotional. The encounter brings an experience. Frequent pleasant experience causes Engagement and brings Loyalty, Customer Profitability and Lifetime value.
3. We must segment our market so that we can address the customers needs better. Segment tends to be done through demographics like sex, age, incomes, etc. A more precision and effective approach is by the 'task' or 'job' performed. e.g. washing machine for the housewives, Visical for the business manager or accountants etc.
4. The values that Customers desire have moved from Rational, Emotional into Human Values and Significance. Customers may pay more for a product that is 'sustainable' - ie. protect the environment in its manufacturing and use.
   

We discussed Blue Ocean Strategy in details and with examples like Cirque du Soleil, Southwest Airline, MacDonalds etc. The methodology includes the Strategy Canvas, The 6 pathways to identify factors, and then applying ERRC (Eliminate, Reduce, Raise, Create) to come out with your unique Strategy Curve, looking at 3 tiers of non-customers, BOI Index (Buyer Utility, Price, Cost, Adoption), The Matrix of Buyer Utility Map, Profit Model and Pricing Innovation.

We also discussed the need for Re-positioning, using Blockbuster (VRC Rental), Netflix ( Internet DVD Rental) , and Video-on-Demand and Apple iPod as an example of how the market shifted with technology changes.

Finally, we discussed Customer Relationship, see point 2 above.

About 10 people came together for the Seminar. The overall rating was 90% with Length of talk scoring 100%, followed by Subject area coverage, Tech Level, Speaker Knowledge at 94%, and lowest Time of Talk at 80%. The feedbacks were:

Like Best

• Application and example
• About the chart comparison of various circus
• Blue Ocean Strategy & Application in real life example eg Google
• Red Ocean and Blue Ocean Strategy

Others

• should use some pictures or logos to capture our vision while showing so we can enjoy the session more
• Is it possible to take this seminar as a case study - how to market to more people - through email to other churches, advertisement …

Bible for Business Seminar#10 Performance Measures

Highly recommended books are "Transforming Performance Measurement" by Dean Spitzer and the books and writings of E W Deming.

In the Strategy Map talk, we stressed much the need to define measure to enhance understanding about the objective, to help define what success looks like and then to set target. Measures direct behavior, focus attention, increase objectivity, enable accountability, bring visibility and enable prediction .... etc.

D Spitzer, in his book, pointed out 4 important aspects about measurement. The Context, Focus, Integration and Interactivity. The context of measurements is the most important but often neglected issue. The context involves not just the measures, the measurement process, but include the most important factor of all - the People. The perceived consequences and controllability of the measures determine the how people will respond to the measure - either positively or negatively.

Wrongly defined measures will create dyfunctional behavior. Typical example is measuring the number of calls handled per hour to try to increase the productivity of the Call-Center. The end result is unhappy customers with calls being diverted or abruptly ended as operators try to meet or exceed targets.

The Focus and Integration of Measures correspond to the drawing of the Strategy Map of Cause and Effect Objectives. By doing the strategy map first, we can bring out focus and integration. Interactivity of Measures refer to continued review and improvement of measures and measuring systems to increase learning.

Two Main Uses of Measures

1. System centric: As information to gain understanding of the improvement and working of system. i.e. to increase knowledge and wisdom.
   
2. People Centric: As monitoring and control with intention to rewards or punish.
   

It is strongly recommended that measures be used for usage-1 only -gaining insight to the operation of the system and looking into areas for improvement. For People-Centric usage of rewards and punishment, it is important that the measures be outcome and value based. The effects of the contribution of either the individual or team or system must be identifiable. It is very difficult in team work to identify the contribution of any particular individual. E W Deming's System of Profound Knowledge also explains why incentive for pay does not work. Incentive is an Extrinsic Motivator where as Recognition is an Intrinsic Motivator. There is the need to understand the motivators better.

In the Bible, Luk 6:37-42, we discussed judging is finding out the internal intention of the heart. In context, Jesus was not trying to tell not to judge but to judge wisely. Correct our brothers is our responsibility and we can't do that without judging. We need to be trained to be like our Teacher (v40) to judge wisely. See Judging Rightly and Judge Not yet Correcting

Target Settings
4 ways

1. According to your Vision - Goals - Where you want to be.
2. According to your Market Standing - Relative Rank or Share of Market
3. Relative to your Competitor - To beat or catch up with your target competitor.
4. Relative to your Past performance - what improvement over last year.

Deming System of Profound Knowledge

Do a google search on the above topic and you will find a lot of good information about it.
It has four main parts

1. Appreciation of System
• system exists to accomplish a purpose or aim
  
• made up of interdependent sub-systems
• whole greater than the sum of its parts
• must optimize for the whole and not of its parts
• system does not improve itself - It is manager's responsibility
2. Understanding Variation
• understanding probability
• variation is to be expected
• find out the particular outcome is due to common or special causes.
• no tempering or ranking
• understand system capability.
• See The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable and Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets and
  The Halo Effect: ... and the Eight Other Business Delusions That Deceive Managers
  
3. Theory of Knowledge
• Highest form is Prediction
• Learning from theory and experience
• Operational Definitions (see Measures above)
• PDSA for learning and improvement
4. Psychology
• Understand People and Behaviour and interactions
  
• Motivation - Intrinsic vs Extrinsic. Deming's Forces of Destruction.
  
• Beliefs and Assumptions

Management is about Accurate Prediction of Good Outcomes.

Management is responsible for

• improving the system; no one will
• prediction vs prescription
• application of Profound Knowledge

The Gathering & Feedback
About 12 of us gathered together for the seminar. The overall rating is 90%. The highest scores of 100% go to Knowledge of Speaker, followed by Expectation Met, Recommend to Friend, and the lowest score is Relevance to Job 78%. The feedback from the attendees are shown below:

Like Best

• Intrinsic & Extrinsic Motivation
• Traditional vs Positive Measures
• Application of Profound Knowledge. Like & Agree with the idea that we are in a world of systems
• Also the fact it that with humans around, there is always psychology involved and there is variation (random outcomes)
• Lk 6:37-42 Understand what is judging

Like Least

• nil

Others

• Good session. Not too fast and not too much materials in one go.
• Good participation from audience.
• I would recommend more group discussion.
• Sometimes audience can be a little shy or slow to start asking questions.
• So may be help with some prepared questions.
• As usual, the speaker has good in-depth and practical examples.
• Because the participants are regulars and probably those who are really interested, perhaps small group setting may encourage more interactions.

Bible for Business Seminar#9 Financials

The key of any business is the Business Model - how do the business make money? Understanding Financial is the Basic of Doing Business. It tells us how well we are running the business. It shows us where the problem areas are and their importance by value.

Luk 14:28 For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?

1. sit down - it is going to take a lot of time and effort to do the planning
2. counting the cost - the purpose of accounting - know how to count the right thing rightly
3. complete it - for the own project or business. Need to be comprehensive and complete.

Profit is a Must and is Good

• Business need to make profits to keep going.
• Making profits is the result of the delivery of a good value to customers.
• Even for non-profit making organizations, profits tells us how efficient we are running the charitable organisation. Cost saving will result in profit.
• There is nothing bad or evil in making profit. It is what you do to make profits that decide whether it is good or evil.
• Profits is needed for investing in future, to keep the business going and growing – sowing the seeds.
• Profits are tithed to God.

We cover the essentials of 4 financial statements:

• Income Statement (Profit & Loss)
• How much did we make in a period (e.g. month, year)
• Balance Sheet
• How much we have or owe at a point in time.
• Cash Flow – Sources & Uses of Funds
• Where did our cash comes from and where did it goes
• Owner’s Equity (& Retained Earnings)
• Who owns the business & how much they own.

Optimization & Being a Good Steward

• Without financial measures, we do not know how to optimize our usage of resources. Optimization of our God given talents and resources are taught in the parables of the Good Stewards (Mat 25:14-30, Luk 19:11-27).
• If you don’t, your business will go bust.
• Mat 25:28-29 So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. 29 For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.

We also discussed how financial statements can be manipulated. It is important to make sure you know your financial well and be skeptical of other financial statements.

Economic Value Add (EVA) = Economic Profit
We present a important measure, EVA, that ties up the Profits from the P&L statement and the Working Capital of the Balance Sheet giving a better measure of true profit.

EVA = Net Operating Profit After Tax - Capital_Used x Weight_Avg_Cost_of_Capital

EVA highlights the following:

• Working Capital costs money
• Asset Light is the best policy
• Using the littlest money to make most profits
• Note: sometime right decision leads to wrong outcome
• E.g. sudden rise in the cost of raw materials, inventories may make such agile decision looks foolish – bad outcome.
• The Solution : Risk Management.
• Understanding the underlying assumptions especially the assumed trends
• Figure out how to mitigate the risks.

Cash is more Important than Profits
Profit is a delayed computed measure over a period of time. Profit does not pay your suppliers directly. You use cash (or if supplier allows, may be credit for a time, 30days, but when time is up, cash is please) to pay suppliers and employees. A company can make profits and yet still close down due to lack of cash. There is a trend towards using Free-Cash-Flow (FCF) to measure the 'health' of a company rather than profits.

• "Cash is King" or "He who has the cash has the say".
  

• Time have value.
  Watch out for the time value of money.
  A $1 now is of greater value than $1 at year end.
• Options have value.
  Keeping the decision options opened have value.
  If two plans give the same return, go for the one with greater options.
  A 3% interest rate for a 6-month and a 12-month fixed deposits are not equal in value.

What to do with the Profits?

• Firstly, we realize that "Lay up treasures in heaven, not on earth Mt 6:20". Hence, the 1st portion of the profit is for the Lord.
• Secondly, profits is put back into the business as longer term investment for the future profits. Money is needed to continue to improve and innovate the business.
  
• Lastly, take it out and distribute to the owners (shares-holders) as returns for their investment.
• If you have going for a partnership, make sure there is a clause on how the profit made is to be taken out and distributed.

Metrics for the BSC Financial Perspective

• Profits - NOPAT
• FCF Free Cash Flow
• EVA Economic Value Add, EVA Spread
• Owners Returns: TSR (3-5 years)
• EPS Earnings Per Share
• Employee Productivity
• Profit/Employee
• VA/EC ratio Value-Add/Employee-Cost
• Assets Productivity: ROI, ROCA

The Gathering & Feedback
About 12 of us gathered together for the seminar. The overall rating is 84%. The highest scores of 92% go to Knowledge of Speaker, followed by Length of Talk, Subject Area Coverage, and the lowest score is location 76%. The feedback from the attendees are shown below:

Like Best

• EVA
• Biz Value to Customer Delivered - customer pt of view.
• Value pricing
• Cost pricing is internal driven or my point of view
• Retained Earnings, Working Capital, Free Cash Flow
• Cash is King
• Explanation with real case studies; different interpretation of financial statements
• Incorporation of other theories/concepts from other fields eg Michael Porter's 5 forces, EVA.
• Although financial give a perspective of the state of the business, it is not the only measure.
• Operational measures & other measures, do play an important part in the running of the business
• EVA - It enlightens me on the cost of capital
• Learning about conflict of dept interest, loop holes in accounting system etc.
• Give me bigger picture of organizational behaviour
• Its application with real life examples

Like Least

• nil

Others

• This talk is a revelation to us - when you know the truth, the truth will set you free
• This is my 1st time so I do not have a benchmark. But I'm here to learn even though it is not very relevant to my job scope,
• Have more case studies to drive home points; preferably cases that pertain to current business and economic environment
• Spread the critical topics and allow more time for Q&A and discussion.

Bible for Business Seminar#8 Resources & Balanced Scorecards

We covered two key topics in the seminar:

• Resources
• The Balanced Scorecard

Resources
As Christians, we can draw upon the special resources provided by God. We covered Prov 3:1-14 showing God's vision for us and the strategies to realize the vision:



We covered the process of learning as given in 2 Tim 3:16-17 Judging Rightly

1. Teaching-Doctrines: learn the truth and put into practice.
2. Reproof - when practicing it, there could be an error, so point out the error.
3. Correction - point out the right way to do.
4. Training in Righteousness - build up the right quality & standards of behavior and making them into good habits

Most people need training 1st before counseling. Or put in another way, so-called counseling is actually very time consuming and effort wasting training - it is training one on one.

Strategy Map Driven Balanced Scorecards
We covered the Strategy Map as the cause-effect business model of objectives across 4 or more perspectives. Each perspective is an earlier on view. Each objective must be related, with measures defined, and target set. When actual achievement is below the target, the strategic initiative will then be undertaken to close the gap. Such a method will ensure the focus and alignment of resources and people toward achieving the corporate vision. Focus means saying NO to everything else. Alignment means unity in purpose and actions. We use a budget airline example to illustrate the drawing of the Strategy Map and the setting up of balanced scorecards.

The Unified Corporate Performance Management Framework.
The various management methodology is unified and illustrated with the strategy map below:



The Biblical Basis for BSC

• Alignment – Concentrate All Energy towards Fruit, not Leaves
• The secret to fruitfulness is not adding more. It is pruning – channel the energy from growing leaves into growing fruit.
• Every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. (John 15:2)
• Objective Driven
• “…Run in such a way that you may win. Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air” (1 Cor. 9:24, 26).
• Continual
• “…Let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us” (Heb. 12:1).
• Focused
• “ but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 3:12-14)

The Gathering & Feedback
About 12 of us gathered together for the seminar. The overall rating is 90%. The highest scores of 96% go to Subject Area Coverage, Expectation Met, Knowledge of Speaker, Technical Level, and the lowest score is the length of talk 70%. I am surprised by the high score on the technical level as I was concerned whether the BSC topic is too in depth but the scoring put me at ease.

We have a good time sharing after the talk. We spoke about 2 main aspect of Corporate Performance - The Method, such as BSC and The People. Highly passionate and motivated staff needs to know the method to channel their efforts to achieve excellence. Just having passion without the right methods will result in fighting, activities without positive outcomes. Methods alone without passion will result in the achievement of minimum standards. Some other points are reflected in the feedback report below:

Like Best

1. Strategy Map & Scorecards
2. BSC
3. Prov 3:1-4 Teachings - completeness + God vision + Strategies for us
4. Less is more - 2 miracles in the Bible - Putting our faith in God + obey
5. We are no greater than our belief.
6. Scorecard
7. Introduction of the strategy map & balanced scorecard. Learned new things. It gives a guideline to running an organization, yet not confusing between the overall picture & profitability

Like Least

1. The ending seems a bit hasty, probably due to the shortage of time.

Others

1. Please give us the example of BSC
2. Maybe can change the seminar title to Bible for Success so that more people can attend and benefit

Bible for Business Seminar#7 Designing Strategies

Some who attended the seminars previously felt that as employee, the talks on mission, vision, values and strategies seem not too relevant to work. As employee, we need to understand how our work contributes to our company's mission and visions. I wish to encourage that all to think like your bosses or owners so that one day you will be one. The values covered the previous and this talk tell us the how to behave so that we will be promoted and be successful in life.

We covered the 2nd point of "Appreciation Situations" that not completed due to lack of time. That is to understand the trend and be ready all the time and at any time. We covered Porter's Five Competitive Forces that determines the profitability of a business in the medium & long run.

With the materials given in BJ#6 Strategies the following additional points were added:

1. The Beatitudes of Mat 5 could be seen as the "Commandments" of NT. These are positive commands - be meek, seek righteousness, be merciful, be pure, be peace-makers etc. This list is comparable to James 3:17. We should and are able to do all these because we are rebirthed as children of God with Jesus in us. We gave the business viewpoints of those virtues.
2. Branding & Communications - we should have strategies to create our brand, deliver to expectation and to communicate. We are light for the world to see that bring glory to God. We cited Mat 6:1-4 charity giving, 6:17-19 fasting not as exaltation not to tell but exaltation not to be hypocrites. We are not to give to charity to gain glory or to fast to show our piety. Branding is both - telling and fulfilling the expectation. Branding is a promise. Branding should have consistency of experience, look-and-feel, quality, differentiation and repeated exposure. All strategies, while described in details, should have a tagline for ease of communication and memory. e.g. Customer Intimacy, or High Touch Experience, Operational Excellence etc.
3. Cutting costs uniformly, cutting marketing, training etc are short-term methods with harms on the future. The better method is to cut wisely. Cut the dead weights either in offerings or customers. Be innovative to do more with less. Build employees enthusiam. Outsourcing wisely.
   
4. In the Globalization Strategy of the Church, we stressed how God used Saul to get the church to move out of Jerusalem. We sometimes need to have or to create crisis to move us out of our comfort zone to move into higher plane. God used Paul to address a wider market segment - from the Jews to the Gentiles and setting up an HQ in Antioch to address to expanded market.
5. The Strategies Check List is summarized as:
   
1. Support the Values of Corporations
2. Pursue Differentiation & Excellent / Perfection
3. Building Relationships – Customers, Staff, Suppliers
4. Branding (Authentic Experience) & Communications
5. Be Lean – Cut Losses, Remove Dead weights.
6. Take Positive Initiatives
   
7. Work with Your Competitors Wisely
8. Do the Talk
   
9. Internalized by Staff

About 8 of us gathered together for the seminar. We have a good time of sharing after the talk. Some are reflected in the feedback report below:

The overall score is 84% with the highest score to Speaker Knowledge, Subject Area Coverage, and the lower scores to length of talk 74% and time of talk 66%.

Like Best

1. Cut loss & stop bleeding, prune the tree so that it bear more fruit
2. Toyota sharing their technology and expertise with competitor & supplier
3. Cut loses & Stop Bleedings It is very practical.
4. Pt 6 take positive initiatives - nuggets of biblical truths which can apply even for personal working life.
5. Also more examples given this time to explain & expand the various points

Like Least

1. Ending seems a bit hasty, probably due to the shortage of time.

Others

1. Give assignments for completion
2. It will be good to slow down and not to cover too much information in such a short time

Bible for Business Seminar#6 Appreciation of Situations

About 15 people gathered together for the Seminar#6 on Appreciation of Situations. We have a quick review of Vision and Values. We quoted

• "A life that has no order and discipline is a life that focuses on survival, not vision."
  from Jeff Calloway's new book , "VisionalLife".
  

Using examples of J&J Tylenol and Perrier incidences, we stressed the importance of values in action - Choosing Life over Profit or Integrity over Profit.

Besides covering the content of Appreciation of Situations, the following additional points were added:

• Luke 14:28 - We must make sure we have enough cash to cover the cash-outflow in the initial stages of the new business until the business can be self-sustaining in cash. Many businesses fail prematurely due to lack of cash (funding). Conserving cash is a key principle in running new business.
• Luke 14:31- tells us to consider whether we can overcome the competitors in the market we are entering.
• On SWOT analysis,
  
  • We stressed on capturing the keys 2-3 factors and not too many.
    
  • Strengths and Weaknesses are to be viewed from the external Market Opportunities and Threats.
    
  • We advocate the "Strengths Based" approach and challenge ourselves to see how we could convert Threats to Opportunities. By re-phrasing problem, like high-turnover rates, into a positive one, like "making the company attractive to attract new and retain old", put our mindset into positive mood to work out the many possibilities.
  • We can use our strengths to overcome weaknesses. We cited examples of learning. Each of us learn differently, typical school-teaching method is Left-Brain based and so Right-Brain people has difficulty. If we change the teaching to suit the learning methods, reading to watching tv, to motion and exercises, etc according to the student learning profile, all can do well.
    
  • Another easy way to overcome our weakness is to outsource it to others with the needed strengths.
    
  • On the eternal O&T, we are to look at the macro-economic factors P.E.S.T (Political, Economic, Social, Technology), Environmental & Legal/Regulations. On the micro-level, we look at our firm, competitors, market, customers, suppliers.
  • As a reminder, SWOT should leads to a plan of actions, also called strategies, to use our strengths to exploit the opportunities and minimizing the risks of threats. Also a challenge to convert the threats to opportunities - applying the Invert Operator of BVITS.
    
• In the area of looking at Customers, we combine the contributions of "Strategic Insight in Three Circles" HBR Nov 2007, "Seeing What's Next" and "Blue Ocean Strategies" to classify customers into
  
  • customers that bought from us - what are our differentiating factors?
    
  • our customers who also buy from our competitors, - what can we learn? why are they better?
    
  • customer needs not fulfilled by us -why not?
  • our products&services not bought - to be take away,
    
  • overshot-customers - exposing to disruptive low-end entrants,
  • undershot-customers - opportunities for sustaining innovations,
    
• non-customers
  
  • those falling off the edges
  • those rejected us
  • those we have not address
    
• non-consuming context
  
  • barriers to consumption.e.g. mobile phone opened up opportunities that line-phone could not. e-Learning allows new overseas customers to sign-up.

We did not have the time to cover the 2nd aspect of AOS (Appreciation of Situation) which is reading the trends and getting ready and Michael Porter's 5 competitive forces that determine the profitability of firms in a market. These we will cover in the next seminar on 12 Mar 2008.

The Seminar Feedback
10 Feedback forms were received from attendance of 14. Overall score is 82% with highest score to Speaker Knowledge 92%, Subject Area Coverage 86% and lower scores to Expectation Met 76%, Relevance to Job 72%.

Like Best

• SWOT:working on strengths; converting weakness to strengths; consideration of internal and external factors d study on market share.
  
• Check multiple sources and verify claims, not be be misled
  
• Case Study, better understanding
• Overall Good
• SWOT
• Dissection of the SWOT Analysis and how to go about doing it.
• SWOT, something new to me
• Focus on Strength
• HBR-3 Circle, own, customer, competitor. This is a new angle of looking at the business. Had done SWOT before, a good refresher.
• SWOT analysis, more detailed and easy to understand compared to other lecturers in schools :)
• SWOT, because I can use it for my own business to see it in a different angle

Like Least

Others

• More practical application will be interesting and better understanding. Can touch more on area where we can apply in our daily operations, especially for employees (not business owners)
• May be can be given some exercise.
  
• Suggest to use a well-know e.g. in the mkty textbook to apply the analysis(SWOT)
• Make the seminar more interactive and participative. make this group like a case-group style. Know each other and may be one day can do business together.
• More real life examples and relates to those who do not have their own business
• Get the student to do a "SWOT" before the class & submit to the lecturer for case study. Have a website we can automatically input our "SWOT" results.

Bible for Business Seminar#5 Vision & Values

#5 Painting the Vision & Choosing the Values

I. VISION

Vision is a picture of what we want to become. Vision gives life to mission. It describe what accomplishing the mission will look like at a future point of time. Vision is the dream, a destination. Values are what you stand for and give character to your corporation. Values determine the framework and boundaries for your strategies to realizing your vision. Mission, Vision and Values are related. A person or corporate is created with a mission with character of values trying to accomplish a vision. It is what you are (mission-identity), what you will become(vision) and how(values) to do go about achieving it.

Importance of Vision

You will not be greater than what your vision is. Prov 29:18, Pro 23:7.

Keys in Defining a Vision

Have faith in God. Prayed to discover what God want you to become. Do we fall into the following errors?

• Looking at our present limitations or past failures to define your vision. If so, it would be very restrictive.
• Be satisfied with your present and do not want to change. If so, you are growing old.

Recommended book : Joel Osteen's "Becoming a Better You"

Recommended Message: AR Bernard's"Audacity"

A Good Vision Statement.

1. Use the Terms and Things of your Audience.

We cited Mt 4:19, John 4:13, John 6:35, John 3:16, 7:38, 8:32, 11:25, Mat 11:28 as examples of Jesus describing the same vision in various ways to convey it correctly to the people.

2. Must offer "Things of Values" or "Benefits" to your customers, staff, and partners and owners.

3. Vision needs to be written down and communicated often. Hab 2:2

4. Vision must covers different aspects for the corporation - customers, processes, learning & growth (staff, skill, training, culture), social & environmental perspectives.

5. Chip Heath's 6 basic traits to make a message stick are:

1. Simple
2. Unexpected: audacious,challenging,
3. Concrete: measurable and have targets. You can tell whether you reach it.
4. Credible: challenging and yet believable. If it is incredulous, it will be ridiculed.
5. Emotion: motivating, giving pride,
6. Story: a good story or a good dream.

6. Must be communicated often and shared by all.

II VALUES

Values are what you believe as most importance, what you stand for, for which you will not compromise. They provides the decision making framework when there are no clear guidelines. They determine the Corporate character that is the sum total of the individuals working in the Corporate.

Bible tells us to see Corporation as

1. Living Being (Rom 12, 1 Cor 12, Eph 4) - we are all members of the same body.
1. Differences are respected, appreciated and treasured.
2. Differences must be aligned and synchronized towards achieving the shared mission and vision.
2. Family - relationship of love, care, protection, up-bringing.

Typical Values

Commitment – Passion, Perseverance, Overcoming, Creativity.
Empathy – Understanding Others, Culturally Savvy and extending help.
Respect & Trust
Integrity – Honesty & Competence
TRIP – Trust, Risk, Innovation, Progress
Learning, Innovation, Agility
Humility
Fun & Play

We cited two books "How" by Dov Seidman, and "The Future of Management" by Gary Hamel, that show how the business world are moving towards seeking significance on top on profits and share values, and adopting Biblical Principles in their business practices. Having employees satisfaction leads to profit too. 100 Best Companies to Work for in America between 1998 and 2005 returned 14% per year, compared to 6% a year for the overall market.

Seminar Response & Feedback

Yesterday was Chinese New Year 7th day -the People's Birthday. So we see many people having dinner at the restaurants around our church and causing quite a big jam. It took me extra half hour to reach church. There were 12 people who attended the seminar. The overall satisfaction rating was 86%. The highest score go to 'Knowledge of Speaker', 'Recommend to Friend'... with lowest score to time of talk, but still at 78%.

Like Best

• The definition of vision/mission and factors to consider to derive a mission statement. The biblical references. It's a diff and unique perspective that is biblical & practical at the same time.
• About setting of our vision beyond our limits. It's really encouraging to hear that.
• Vision; It gives practical advice on how to set good vision statements. e.g characteristics of a good vision statement is very informative & helpful for those setting their vision statements
• Applications

Like Least

• Value topic. Not quite understand how to apply on my work.

Others

• more of such sessions
• overall presentation is grounded and very practical yet biblical.
• Review the Previous Seminar
• Coming to this seminar is like listening to 10 authors summarizing their books

Timing of Seminar - 2 times a month for the future.

Majority of those present supported the idea of having the seminar fortnightly instead of the present monthly.

The next seminar#6 "Appreciation of Situations" will be conducted on 27 Feb, Wed, 8pm at Church.

Bible for Business Seminar#4 Personal Mission & Journey

#4 Your Personal Mission Statement & Life Journey
The following main points were discussed at yesterday meeting.

• Identity of Man – Purpose of Creation of Man
• Your Unique Calling – Discovery of
  
• Your Life Journey – Importance of
• Your Helps & Hindrances – The How of Victory
• Your Rewards

Identity of Man
Eph 1:4-5 tells us Man is created to be Sons/Daughters of God through Jesus Christ to be Holy and Blameless(Righteous). God did not create many men to be his children. God begets us and want to father us as his children. The whole universe is created for His children(Us!) for our living.

Your Unique Calling – Discovery of

• By Name & Direct Calling
  Abram Gen 12:1-3, Moses Exo 3:10, Paul Act 9:3-6
• By placing an unquenchable desire in a heart
  Nehemiah ; Isaiah 6:8, ..Writer, Dancer, Musician, Businessman.
• By arranging a clear path (Pray for Opportunities – Opened Doors)
  Daniel, Josiah 2 King 22
• By preparing an attractive option
  Elisha by Elijah. Stephen as Deacon.
• By your talents & gifts.

Our ability to hear requires a desire and devotion to God… spend time in His presence to recognize His voice from the noise. Calling is Progressive…need to get your feet wet first.
Your assignment may change but the calling is fixed. (Story of Joseph). Calling is the Key to Contentment in your vocation/business. Lots of Noises --- from family, friends, colleagues, commerce and community and you need to stay your path.

Your Life Journey – Importance of
The journey is important. Else, we all will go straight to heaven upon conversion.
In this journey, we can truly learn to experience the love and relationship with God.
No matter what, God is there for us, in joy and sorrows (2Co 1:4). Jesus is Lord.
Knowing more stimulates the desire to know more …. That is growing in love with Christ. Php 1:9, 3:10.

The How of Victory - The Unified Model of Transformation
This is an updated chart 1st appeared in Christian Transformation & Growth -The Unified Model.

Kent gave some very good illustrations. We can compare the above chart as driving a car - moving forward. But after a while, we find that we are not moving as forward as fast as we should. We then discovered that we did not release the handbrake - the load. Another picture is sailing a boat. We started off fine and then we just some how got stuck - unable to move forward any more. We then discover that we have not pull up the anchor. The anchor - the load, need to be lifted for the boat to go forward. The recommendation is that we use the resources given to move forward and when we find we are immobilized, we should examine the loads and resistances that are holding us back. We may need to seek counseling and healing before we can go forward again.

Work of Flesh vs Work of Faith
We also pointed out that some Grace-Based teachings ignore the journey to a destination and just want the final good outcomes. Some have mistakenly assume all effort is work of the flesh. Whether work is of the flesh or of faith depends on the underlying motivation. Below is table to show the differences.

Flesh	Faith
Justify Self	Glorify God
Self-Initiated	Response of Faith, Obedience to God’s Calling
Self-Capability	Grace-Empowered & Capability (Greater Results)
Have-Do-Be	Be-Do-Have

About 23 people attended the seminar with overall rating of 84%. Below are some of the comments:

• My identity is not defined by a vocation. My journey may take me through different vocations to arrive at destination. Personality and Environment is the key to contentment in our vocation. Why? Because I struggled for years with all that and tonight I am getting some clear directions.
• Disover my calling through God's word
• Examples of Joseph's Identity to know God's callings. Be-Do-Have (process) vs Have-Do-Be
• Disover my calling.
• Discernment between works of the flesh and faith driven works. Clear Dictinction.
  Content is clear.
• Chart, map very good.
• Use skills + knowledge to guide people of God in the market place; not so much spiritual talk but can somewhat relate Bible scriptures to work related or investments.
• Christians Growth Chart. Summary of the Drive/Force.
• Discover your own strength.
• talk too fast, can slow down a little.
• Many Gems in 1 hour. Some speaker has 1 gem in hour. The key is balance - some points need to elaborate.
• I thought this was one of the best sessions yet. Everything that was shared was fresh insight and hence refreshing to learn.
• The part about the importance of the journey also resonates with something that God taught me some years back about the fact that (borrowing from one of Singapore Airline’s marketing slogans) the “Journey is the Destination” and that our God is one who focuses so much more on who we BEcome (human BEINGS) rather than necessarily what we achieve ( not human DOings).
• The clarification of the underlying motivation of work (flesh vs. faith) was important in qualifying the grace message very succinctly for me personally. Thanks!
• The “How” of Victory was also fresh and instructional.
• Have-Do-Be v.s Be-Do-Have was also insightful and follows on from the fact that while the devil works from the outside-in, God works opposite to that – from the inside-out.