The Meaning & Power of Holy Communion

While partaking the Holy Communion, almost daily (Act 2:46), as a form of worship and for my own healing needs, I discovered another truth - getting ourselves ready to receive Christ(His 2nd Coming). Let me go back to what I have been taught and learned about the meaning and power of the Holy Communion.

The typical Bible references for Holy Communion are 1Cor11:23-27, Mat 26:26-28, Mar_14:22-24. There is another reference in

• 1Co 10:16-17 The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? 17 For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread.

The 4 Meanings and Applications

1. WE ARE ALL ONE IN CHRIST. 1 Co 10:16-17.
1. I am loved by Jesus. I love others with Jesus’ love and are loved by others.
2. We are to see ourselves as members of the same body with Jesus Christ as our head. Christ’s Body is complete when we each play our part and then we are complete too. (Our identity is defined in relation to others).
3. We are to appreciate the differences and talents that each member brings, not wanting them to be the same as us, but letting them and helping them to discover their calling and to fulfill their callings by God.
4. We are to forgive and encourage one another to good work as are led by Christ, our Head
2. HIS BODY WAS BROKEN SO THAT OUR BODY CAN BE WHOLE
1. Isa 53:5, 1 Pet 2:24 with his stripes we are healed.
2. Hence, when we partake the Holy Communion, we also receive our healing for our complete being of Spirit, Soul, and Body.
3. HIS BLOOD SEALED THE COVENANT OF OUR NEW IDENTITY
1. The Covenant between God and Man is sealed between God and Jesus representing men with the shedding of His blood. This covenant cannot be broken.
2. Because of the New Covenant, we are therefore
1. A New Creation 2 Cor 5:17. We are new reborn children of God.
2. Our sins are not just forgiven but eliminated with the Rebirth.
3. We have Jesus' righteousness, authority, inheritances, and blessings.
4. See yourself in your new Christ-like identity. 1 John 4:17, As He is so are we in this world.
4. WE PREPARE TO RECEIVE CHRIST 2ND COMING NOW
1. This is the new revelation to me. We are to be reminded daily to prepare, get ready, to receive our King Jesus Christ.
   Rev 19:7 Let us rejoice... for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready;
2. Eph 5:25-27 Christ is preparing His bride in splendor and without blemish. Christ is coming for a glorious church; not a church in weaknesses and sins and poverty etc...
3. This is not waiting in idle, but getting busy in preparation for the reception.
   Luke 19:13 Occupy till I come; or in some other translation, do business till I come.
4. We want to be the good steward that He may say ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ Mat 25:23

Be reminded daily then, by partaking the Holy Communion, of our new identity in Christ by His blood, of wholeness provided by His once broken-body on the cross, of our oneness in Him, and get busy in reclaiming the families, the marketplace, and the nations as dowries to welcome our Bridegroom.

Update 4 Feb 2012 The Spiritual Meaning & Practice of Eating and Drinking
In partaking the Holy Communion, we do the physical eating of the bread and drinking of wine/grape juice. Jesus first mentioned it in John 6:35-58. See Bible Study John 6b Bread of Life & How to Eat it. In particular, Joh 6:56 He who eats & drink me lives in me, and I in him. The spiritual meaning of the eating and drinking is to abide in Jesus - reading, feeding and doing His Words and drawing strength from His Life in us.


Lim Liat (c) 31-7-08/4-2-12

See also:

• Preparing for Christ 2nd Coming & Preparing for Christ 2nd Coming - Part 2
• The Seven Shedding of Jesus' Blood & Our 7 Confessions 

What is the Gospel?

My understanding of the Gospel - Good News was "Salvation through Jesus Christ". The main concern was to tell people about Jesus Christ and get them saved so that they can have Eternal life and escape hell.

Then someone cited the Great Commission Mat 28:19 "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,...". So, salvation is 1st step, the ultimate aim is "Disciples Making" and not just making converts.

If you read Ed Silvoso's "Transformation" book, he put the stress on nations ... it is not just about people as individuals but about transformation of nations, as groups, for Christ and under His Kingdom.

So the gospel is about Jesus Christ and His Kingdom or Rules & Demonstration of His Power. It begins with an individual, Luk 17:21, the Kingdom of God is within you. It then works out from us with other brothers & sisters like us, taking family, businesses, and nations so that Mat 6:10 His Kingdom com, His Word be done on earth.

The Gospel - Good News of His Kingdom begins with Luk 4:18-19 ....The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach

• the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me
  
• to heal the brokenhearted, to preach
  
• deliverance to the captives, and
  
• recovering of sight to the blind,
  
• to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach
  
• the acceptable year of the Lord
  

and comes into full extent in Rev 11:15 .... The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.

We need to put the stress on knowing and have intimate relationship with Christ. We need also to put the stress on His Kingdom, His Lordship on us and through us on our family, the marketplace and the nations.

His Kingdom has power to heal, to deliver, and to bless. The gospel is about Jesus and His Kingdom to deliver and rule over us and the nations with His love and grace. The good news is that we can get back to living with God as God, through Jesus Christ, in a society and environment that follows God's order (His Kingdom and Righteousness).

KP#1 Kingdom Principles - Work Them

This is the first in a series on Principles of the Kingdom of Heaven", or "Kingdom Principles", for victorious earthly living, especially for business success. Many Kingdom Principles are spoken by Jesus in the form of parables which will form the foundation of this series. Jesus Himself said in Mat 13:35, he would utter what has been hidden since the foundation of the world through parables. Mat 11:13, the parables contain the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven. Luke 9:11, Jesus gave them teaching about the Kingdom of God and made well those who were in need of it. Jesus' teaching was substantiated by miracles including healing.

We will begin our series then with the exhortation to know and to apply the Kingdom Principles for victorious living and thereby bringing glory to God. We shall call this, the 'Law of Working the Kingdom System'. This is shown in the mind-map below. BTW, the trend in the move of the Holy Spirit at our present time is about "Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven"... about Heaven invading Earth... preparing for a glorious return of Jesus Christ.

Law of Working the Kingdom System

Luke 16:1-9 is the parable of the "unjust steward". This parable does not teach us to be sly and cunning. Its purpose is to encourage us to know the Kingdom Principles well and wisely apply them to achieve success and influence. It also teaches us that relationship is of greater value then material wealth. See the mind-map carefully and benefit from it.

For the discussion on this post, see Kingdom Principles Discussion 02

For the table of content, see Kingdom Laws & Principles.

For the next post, see The Golden Rule for Business Mat 6:33

Facing Tough Circumstances

Rom 8:26 has been the verse usually quoted for people who are undergoing a tough circumstances - like loss of job, loss of loved ones, betrayals and other attacks and persecutions of all forms. The mindmap belows shows the related verses to Rom 8:28 and give us some answers and solutions.


In todays strong preaching of the "Gospels of Blessings", we tend to forget about the persecutions and sufferings that are associated with trying to live righteously. Many equate 'sufferings' as something to be run away from, as punishments from God, etc. Jesus did not promise us no suffering but victory through the sufferings no matter what.

• Joh 16:33 These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

We should see that whatever happened to us involved God and other people. We sometimes suffer, even willingly, for the sake of others and for the glory of God. We go through the deserts like Joseph, Jacob, Moses, etc, that we may become more mature; that the trust we have in ourselves may be replaced with the greater trust in God; to taste and experience the fact that with God, I can do all things. Because all happenings are under the control of God, and God is with us and for us, we can boldly trust God to bring us victoriously through them. We can rejoice in them because God is in them. We can gain the peace, through bringing our requests before God, and to trust Him, showing the trust with thanks giving. Others will be puzzled by our peace and will inquire of us. Php 4:5 tell us to make know to them - the reason of our peace and confidence - God is at hand and with us and will bring us victoriously through.

May you be strengthened with this posting and let me rejoice with you in advance that your difficult circumstances are stepping stones to higher ground. You are in God's will. Learn and benefits from the current tough times.

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.
  

Attract vs Pursue

Someone said, "You don't have to pursue what you can attract". There in may lie the secret of success and is the solution to alot of our stress, strifes and worries.

When you make yourself attractive, people will pursue you. There are major differences:

1. Your Choice vs Their Choice:
   If you attract people, you have a choice to make, to accept or not. When you pursue, your target has the choice, to accept or reject you.
2. Many to select vs One Target.
3. Rest vs Stress
   

Attractiveness applies to more than just physical.
It refers to character, to career, to money, etc. You make yourself attractive by learning and growing up in maturity. Physical attractiveness is temporary (it degrades with time as familarity breeds contempt and it grows old with time), skin deep and earn you a 1st attempt. It is your maturity, the attractiveness of the inside, that maintains and grows the relationship.

• 1Pe 3:3-4 Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; 4 But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.
  

You make yourself attractive to the head-hunters when you accumulate learning, degrees, job experience, key projects, publications, speaking engagements, connections etc. Job offers will chase after you.

If there be only one thing to pursue, then pursue Jesus and become attractive
We will surely be accepted for He is the one that draws us ... He made the choice to die on the cross for us that we may be connected back to Him.

• Joh 6:44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.
• Joh 12:32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself."
  

When we pursue Jesus, Eph 3:16-20, getting to know more of Him and His love, we will grow up to be like Him, and will draw others to Him through us, with physical, mental, and spiritual blessings. We are reminded from Mat 6:33 that all things will be added as we pursue God and His righteousness. Putting it another way, as we pursue God, we become attractive and we will attract health, wealth, relationships, happiness etc. Why? Because Jesus is attractive and we are like Him.

Let us be like Mary who had made the right choice.

• Luk 10:42 but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her."

Connecting to the Singapore's Dream

In our home group discussion on "Pre-Evangelism" (see Pre-Evangelism or Conversational Evangelism and Pre-Evangelism BT Version, a member said that present Singapore generation are not interested in spiritual matter but are more interested in career advancement and accumulating wealth.

The Singapore's dream, is easily remembered as 5Cs. Even foreigners when describing Singaporeans, use the term too. There are various forms of 5Cs, generally, they refer to Cash, Car, Condominium, Credit-card, Country-Club. In the past, Credit-Card is not easy to get and is considered a status symbol but now it is not so. It is better to be replaced by Career. Country Club, a symbol of success, could possibly be replaced by Clubbing that the young people do. There is also a variant form of 1-2-3-4-5: 1 wife, 2 children, 3 bed-room condominium, 4 wheel-car, and 5 figure salary. Whatever the form, the pursuit can be summarized as material success and enjoyment.

There is another part of the Singaporean dream that is not always highlighted but are nevertheless real and important. That is Singaporeans are also very family centred and law abiding. The family value may be eroding at the expense of material pursuit as evidenced by the rising trend of divorces.

How can we then connect to such material and enjoyment mindset? How will they be interested in Spiritual Matter? (I'm not advocating that Spiritual Pursuit means denouncing material wealth and making poverty a virtue. I believe wealth is part of the blessings that God provides for man. I am advocating that man understands the reality of life and be connected to a very real God through Jesus Christ.)

Connections
I propose that we connect to the material pursuit by sharing the following

1. Be Really Successful - Have Higher Goals
2. Have Better Methods to Success
3. Imaging
4. Stress Reduction

Be Really Successful - Have Higher Goals
While we know from the Bible the true need of man, we can't use it to argue with pre-believers as they don't accept the Bible as relevant. We can use the widely available business and sociology references. We have the famous Maslow's hierarchy of needs that show the real needs of every man, from physiological, safety, social (relational), self-esteem and self-actualization. We need to consider what are of greater values than materials wealth and enjoyment. What are the significance and meaning of life? What are man truly worth?

Have Better Methods to Success
All of us want to be successful in the quickest and surest way. Where can we learn the secrets of success? The Bible provides the tested answers for thousands of years. The Church, whether Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox etc are establishment with life span of thousands of years. No business corporations can boast of similar life-span. The golden rule of success is wealth comes from right pursuit. Mat 6:33. Someone put it as "Economic development follows Spiritual Revival". We have seen from history on the development of Europe and US were closely tied with the reformation. We can introduce the wisdom of the Bible for business success to them. A simple way to start is to read Proverbs or follow the Business by Jesus series in the blog.

Imaging
Another way to stretch the thinking is to imaging if ....

• If you die, what do you want others to say about you? What do you want other to put on your tombstone? Is it only "19xx - 20xx". What is in the '-' of your life on earth?
• If a crisis strike, like a lost of job, disability due to accident, death of a loved one, an earth-quake like the China Sichuan, a terrorist attack like the US 9/11, what would you feel and do?

Stress Reduction
All of our stress can be traced to our belief on a Satan's Lie, known as "The Performance Trap"

• We must perform in order to have worth and value.

You must prove first before you can become. This is the Satan's temptation of Jesus that Jesus should turn the rock into bread to prove that He is the Son of God. See The Temptations of Jesus, "Be-Do-Have" of Grace Based Doctrine.

In Robert McGee's book of "In Search of Significance", he put the lie as

• Self-Esteem = Performance + Others' Opinions

Because of such a belief, we work from fear, fear of failure, shame and guilt. We either stressed out to achieve or be depressed and give-up when things don't work to expectation. We try to control and manipulate, to cover up, to put up a bold front, to hide our weaknesses, etc. We seek approvals from man instead of from God. This is an important topic that we will spend more time on in future posting.

I hope the above proposals can help us connect to the present generation and bring them towards a search of greater reality and of God.

• Pro 20:5 The purpose in a man's heart is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out.

We need all the wisdom to connect to the real needs inside.

Appreciate your additional comments.

The Original Bible

The Original Bible that God planned to write consist of Gen 1:1 to Gen 2:3 - 1 Chapter long if the wonderful person who divide the Bible into chapter and verses got it right the 1st time 8-}.

The work of creation was completed, finished and there was not more work for God to do. God rested not because He was tired as most people think but because the created work was completed and perfect. Man and all living things were given the ability to procreate themselves and enrich the creation Gen 1:28-30. There is no need for any further creative intervention from God. That was true till man sinned.

Because of man's sin, God has to intervened into the world to restore it back to perfection through sending His Son Jesus Christ to save us. This saving process takes up the remaining 1188 chapters of the Bible (total 1189 chapters in the Bible). The continued betrayer of God by man and God unceasing effort to bring man back can be read in the Book. There are victories and failures. In summary, this is the touching story of God reaching out to and restoring man to Himself and to perfection of blessings.

It is not about performances of man, but of restoring of relationship between God and man through mere acceptance of offer by faith.

"Willing you be willing to have Me as your Father?" is the invitation of the Gospel of Christianity.

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.
  

Putting the Commandments in Order

There are many commandments listed in the Bible. For many, commandments are perceived as restrictions and therefore bad. If this is your thinking, I wish to tell you that, like Eve, you have fallen into the lies of the devil. James, in 1:25, and 2:12, called them as "the Law of Liberty". Commandments are laws to give us liberty - freedom from bondage. They are actually the Laws of Success. You don't really need to buy books about the "10 Secrets of Success" or "7 Steps to Richness". All you have to do is to know the Commandments Joshua 1:8.

If we want to put the NT commandments in an order, below is my suggestion. Beginning with the most basic and most important of all ....

Step 1 Know & Believe Jesus

1Jn 3:23 And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment.

Step 2 Living Rightly & Know His Will

Mat 6:33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

Col 1:9 ... that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,..

Eph 5:14-18 ... awake, be wise, redeeming the time, understanding the will of the lord, be filled with the Spirit...

Step 3 Fellowship of Love

Joh 13:34-35 A new commandment I give unto you,
That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

Mat 22:37-40 Love God and Love Others....

The "LOVE GOD" part in the OT is now "Believe in His Son Jesus Christ" of 1 Jo 3:23 and then love one another with His, Jesus', love. (Rom 5:5 ... because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.)

Step 4 Go - The Commission

Mat 28:19-20

• Go ye therefore, and
  
• teach all nations,
  
• baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
  
• 20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you:
  
• and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

Step 5 Maintain Focus on Jesus

Only One Thing is Needful - Learn from Mary.  

• Luke 10:42 but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her."

Paul's prayer for us.

• Eph 1:17 ...may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him.
• (18) ... that you will know what is the hope of His calling, ... the glory of His inheritance in the saints, (19) ... greatness of His power toward us who believe.

The Only One Thing is to be at Jesus's feet. i.e. to be with Jesus all the time as His disciple. To know and to have intimate relationship with Him.

Conclusion

The greatest command is to believe and know Jesus fully. To know of His love for us that we may trust and obey His will for us. Being rooted in His love shed in our hearts, we could love others as He loves them. We can then execute the Great Commission to go to share the gospels and mentor them to be a like-Christ too.

The Greatest Moment of Life is NOW. Living in the past or for the future are not possible. Past is gone. Future is dependent on what you are doing now.

Salvation Re-visited - Relational View

Sin as been emphasized by all religions, including Christianity, as the obstacle to salvation. Even for those New Age belief, sin has to be rationalized off as non-existence.

Salvation has been defined as forgiveness of Sin by Christians through Christ by faith. Christianity is differentiated from all other religions as "Done" vs "Do". All other religions require believers to do good work, to abstain from desires, in order to attain "salvation". For Christianity, the work of salvation has already been done by Jesus Christ and so believers only need to receive the completed work of Jesus by faith to attain salvation. Nevertheless, this is still looking at Salvation from a Performance viewpoint - even though it has been done by someone else, Jesus Christ. This performance viewpoint upset many pre-believers --- they cannot accept the fact that murderer could go to heaven without being punished by just believing in Jesus Christ at the last moment. They ask where is the justice? We have to explain at length that the justice and punishment have been served by Jesus on the Cross.

May be we can look at salvation from another angle. What is the purpose of Salvation? The substitutional death of Jesus Christ on the cross is the process to attain an objective. What is this objective?

The objective is to restore the relationship between God and man. God created man to have intimate fellowship with Him. This fellowship is broken by man lack of trust shown in his choice to believe the Devil rather than God. Intimate relationship between two parties, like husband and wife, need to be built on the same life-form. Man and dogs could have some form or close relationship but not intimate relationship. They don't even the speak the same language. For man to have intimate relationship with God, man needs to be rebirth with a God-kind of life. The way is made possible by Jesus Christ taking the form of man and dying for man's sin to satisfy justice and be resurrected by the Holy Spirit and birth into God's new Zoe life form. Man have to be rebirth into new God-Zoe life form through the path opened by Jesus Christ so that we can be restored back into intimate relationship with God.

Salvation is not about making man good (performance based,work righteousness) but about life-transformation, a rebirth, into a new God-life form, through Jesus Christ, so as to have an intimate relationship with God - the original purpose of man creation.

A better word for salvation might be Reconciliation between God and Man. (added 1 Dec 2008)

Pre-Evangelism or Conversational Evangelism

In this year Petra Church Camp (27-30 May 2008), we have an excellent speaker, Rev Dr Dave Geisler, who spoke on "Pre-Evangelism", or better known as "Conversational Evangelism".

The church in the past, especially in the 70-80's, the era of the Four Spiritual Laws, has been teaching the people to preach the gospel by talking and presenting the Gospel. It works for some and creates rejection for others.

Pre-Evangelism put the emphasis on listening 1st, and asking relevant questions that invites the pre-believers to think for himself, and to enables a bridge where the gospel can be presented.

The methodology has been worked out by Dr Dave Geisler and it can be found at meeknessandtruth.org. You will find it useful in your witness for Christ.

For a simplified and I think improved version, see Pre-Evangelism BT Version .

Kingdom Mindset towards Work

In the previous posts, Satisfying & God Glorifying Work, and Joyful vs Painful Work we discussed about the "Worldly Work" vs "God's Kingdom Work", and the mindset towards Kingdom's work can be summarized in the mind-map below:
The next posting will be on Kingdom's Principles for Work.

When I am weak then I am strong

I think this verse have been mis-understood, and misused to glorify weakness or at least to excuse for weakness. Just like grace, which have been misused as a license to sin.

Let's go back to the context where this verse appear, 2 Cor 12:10

• 2Co 12:10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.

The context is in the persecutions that Paul suffered. For most people, any persecutions or disappointments in life will cause us to give up and be angry with God. (The Stony Ground of Parable of Sowing). The seeming hardships of Paul's life, e.g. beatings, ship wrecks, imprisonments, etc will cause people to think that Paul must have been going against the Will of God or Paul must be having some sins to had God's punishment. In all these seemingly, outward weaknesses, Paul, through the grace empowerment of God, were not defeated. Pual did not give up, depressed or blame God. On the contrary, through Christ, he overcome all. The persecutions made Paul a better and stronger man. He had, through Christ, learned to face up to the challenges and obstacles and trials in his Christian living. He was able, just like James, to tell to give thanks in all circumstances, for it is the Will of God in Christ Jesus. He can testify that all things work for good to those that love God and those that are called according to His purpose.

This verse is the encouragement that we can accomplish all things, against all odds, in spite of our weaknesses and inabilities, because of Christ's empowerment, to glorify God. It is the victory of seemingly weaklings due to Christ's power inside. It remove the excuse that we cannot because we are weak. We can be confident that God who call us to will also empower us to His accomplish will with Christ that is already given to us. Praise be to God and our Lord Jesus Christ, we are strong and we are more than conqueror. I can accept my weakness and limitations and know that they are not limiting me as long as Christ is calling me to do His will. After the experience, I am sure we have the weaknesses.

Many famous preachers suffered from speech deficiency in all sorts but they nevertheless through Christ become great preachers.

I think the best interpretation for this verse is in the Message Bible. "It was a case of Christ's strength moving in on my weakness. Now I take limitations in stride, and with good cheer, these limitations that cut me down to size—abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks. I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become."

The verse is not an excuse for our lack of doing but should be an encouragement and confidence for us to act. Ps 27 has a passive form of saying this, because of Christ, I have no fear of evil, danger, what man or army may do to me. I am assured of His protection and I shall dwell with Him.

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 …

Another Look at Repentance

Repentance is about knowing one's error and making a change towards God. In short, it is leaving behind and running towards God - or as Paul's saying, forgetting the past and pressing forward to the goal and calling of God Php 3:13-14.

It is an issue of the will and not of emotion though it is usually accompanied with emotion. It is emotion of determination to change and not just remorse or sorry. It is not about being sorry for being caught in the act, fear of the punishment, self-pity, only-ifs, etc. It is a change of heart, thinking and determination. It is boldness in admitting one's error and faith in God's forgiveness and God's plan.

There are two key parts - forgetting the past and pressing forward towards God. If we are still thinking about the past, then we have not complete the repentance process. Jesus tells us not to look back or turn pack once we start the journey. The best way to forget the past is to look forward. Hence, in the shortest form, repentance is just simply looking towards and seeking after God. If we just hunger and thirst for God, we would have forgotten the past and truly repented. Repentance is pursuing God and that is all.

Then I can understand Bro Lawrence's saying that when he made a mistake, he din't spend any time thinking about it -he just confessed and move on (towards God - added by me).

Here are additional sharing about repentance from my home group meeting:

1. Repentance is not just a change of direction but of a change in direction towards God. .i.e. turn to God and not just a turn.
   
2. Repentance is not just feeling sorry, regrets or remorse. These tend to be self centered. Repentance is God centric.
   
3. It is about adopting God's values - a change of our values system.
   
4. It is about a heart change rather than just a head change (change of mind).
   
5. It is not perfection - not that we will not sin again but that we have started our commitment to God.
   
6. Repentance begins with knowing or recalling God have been and is good to us. It is believing God will accept us, no matter what, when we return to Him. Such confidence in the love of God is due to past experience as per the Prodigal Son's taste of his Father goodness to him.
   
7. Lesson to Parent: Must show forth your love to your children now... so that later if they err, they will come back to you rather than stay away even when they repented.
   

Additional Discussion on what to do when a Christian Sin -

1. Laws in our Heart - We are rebirthed with an internal Compass / Conscience to guide us do to the right things.
2. Re-emphasized that Righteousness is right standing with God and not something you gain by doing but by faith.
3. If we are already saved and righteous, then why do we need to confess our sins?
1. Need to differentiate Spirit, Soul, Body.
2. Sins cause us to break fellowship.
   
3. Confession & Repentance restore fellowship.
4. We are created and saved to have fellowship with God.
5. Sins cause us to live in bondage and poor living

Proper Way of Repentance: Responsibility & Accountability

1. Admit specifically what was wrong.
2. Express desire and take action to what is right.
3. Even if we sin and result in body sickness, God provides a way (laying hand, anointing with oil by Elders) for healing thru forgiveness.
   

2 Tim 3:16 4 key things:

1. Doctrine - the truth.
2. Reproof - show what is wrong when we apply #1 Doctrine in our lives.
3. Correct - show what and how to do the right thing
4. Training in Righteousness - building up on the right habits to be champions for God.

We should move from defect-fixing thinking into champion-building thinking.

If we are righteous, then we will not be bothered by sin. No concern and no time for sinning.


How can we pursue champion-building thinking?

1. flesh vs spirit - Reliance on God rather than self
2. overcoming temptation.
3. renewed mind.
4. Break away from Bad Habits -> By Deliverance -> By Knowing the Truth vs Ungodly Beliefs that bind
   

Hear - Obey - Glorify

Following from We can do Nothing apart from Jesus, the most important principle in Christian Living is then

• Hear from God
• Obey with doing
• Accomplishing God's plan and glorify God.

Or is simpler form

• Hear -> Obey -> Glorify or Hear -> Do -> Get

Someone says that the greatest asset that we have is the ability to hear God. Anything that is of value comes first from listening to God's desire and plan. The basic issue of life is then to learn how to listen to God. We need to sharpen our skill in this key area.

We all know how to listen to God when we receive Christ as our Saviour. While our encounter with Jesus may comes from external means like attending a Christian Rally, talking with Christians, reading a book, we know and have the sense of God speaking to us directly. God speaks to us inwardly, the small inner voice, a kind of sense and feeling, a hutch and so forth. The other common way is through reading the Bible and Prayer. God can also speak to us through friends, books, seminars etc. God can also speak to us through dream and vision.

But there are other voices speaking to us as well - our own thoughts and desires, our friends and also the devil. We need to learn how to differentiate them and follow the right voice of God. A reliable way is to check with the Bible - God does not violate His revealed and spoken Word the Bible.

Where is faith? Faith is in believing, receiving Jesus Christ and hearing Him. Faith is in hearing Him and doing His will. Faith is in continued obedience when we face difficulties and knowing that all things will work for good to those that love God.

Let's begin by listening to God and then follow by corresponding action. The action will bring the outcome, i.e. the fruit, that glorify God through you.

Trial vs Temptation

In the study of the Book of James using Concept-Mapping (the concept map of James 1:2-15 is shown below), I was suddenly drawn to the fact that Trial and Temptation are quite different.A mind-map version, drawn earlier a few months ago, is shown below for comparison with the Concept Map version:From the passage, it is clear that Trial is from external to train you to be a better person, to be complete and to obtain the Crown of Life eventually. Temptations comes from internal - from our lusts, and their purpose is to make you worse off by leading us to sin and death eventually. I tried to find out from the Original Greek words - trial is G3986 and tempt is G3985. However, whether the Thayer or the Vines concordance treat both roughly the same. In fact, for G3986, the frequency of translation and use are: temptation (12), testing (2), trial (3), trials (4) - are used. It depends on the context to tell us which is which. G3985 - did (1), put (1), put to the test (2), tempt (2), tempted (13), tempter (2), test (6), tested (2), testing (7), tried (2), trying (2). We have then have to depend on the context to differentiate them.

In James, the differences between trial and temptation are made clear.

Another Personality Types

We are all quite familiar with the DISC personality types, the StrengthsFinder types, BMTI etc.
In yesterday Taiwan TV talk show, one of the them talk of personality as divided into four Seeker types

1. Political - Power
2. Business - Money
3. Philosophy - Truth, Justice, Fairness ..
4. Pleasure - Fun, Enjoyment

It is quite easy at times for us tell that so and so is the Money type; some are Power-type and so forth. What is yours ? What are you motivated by? What do you seek? You do a pair-wise comparison to come out with a ranking or you may rate them equally. There is no implicit good or bad. If you are after the truth and justice, you may need to power and money to execute it and if do not have the joy in pursuing justice, you may not be able to continue your effort for long.

In the Christian circle, we speak about the temptations of 3G - Glory, Gold, Girls/Guys that caused the downfall of many famous preachers. To the list of 4 above, I wish add another, Relationship - family or friendship.

We can use TEMPR to help in memorizing them:

T: Truth, E: Enjoyment M:Money P:Power, R:Relationship

Except for Truth, everything is else Temporary - TEMPR

I wish also to suggest that like the Truth - Jesus be the anchor point of balancing and deciding what you need of the others. This is shown as the picture below:If we really want to rank them, my preference would be TREPM. Truth enables Relationship that provides Joy supported by Power (ability to influence) and then Money. You may other preference.

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.

Christ Coming Out of Us - Maturity

In the movies, can't remember which one, about aliens and monsters from outer space, where we find the alien monster breaking out of a normal human being. This scene is a good representation of Christian growing up into maturity. Except in the case, the outer shell is us - the self-centred ugly monster and the inside is Jesus Christ. Christian maturity is about working out (Php 2:12) and letting the treasure (2Co 4:7) of Christ in us, grows out of us that we may conform to the image of Christ (Rom 8:29).

There are other images about Christian maturity such as

• Christ seating at the throne of our heart.
• A seed growing up into a tree and bearing fruit in the earth of God and His Word.
• A earthen vessel slowly becoming transparent to let the light of treasure inside to shine out.
  

We can do Nothing apart from Jesus

One of the profound truth of Christianity is given in John 15:5 "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing."

More specifically, the phrase "without Jesus, we can do nothing".

Jesus is the Key
The basic of Christianity is Jesus - having Jesus; connected to Jesus; have a relationship with Jesus. Without Jesus, there is no Christianity.

With Jesus, we can bear much fruit. Fruit is outcomes we achieved through enpowerment by Jesus within. The outcomes and the accomplishments bring glory to God and even to us. God honors us when we obey Him.

With Jesus, we can do any and everything. Phil 4:13.

Without Jesus, we can do nothing.
I used to object. That is not true. I can surely do something without Jesus. Look, I am doing it now. The reason we think we can do something is due to the view point we take - from our own view point, we think can do something useful, even for Jesus! But from God's point of view, any thing that is outside of His plan is nothing - even evil.

We are created by God to be a unique part of His creation. If we don't follow His plan for us, without Jesus, we will be doing our thing and spoiling the great plan of God. It is worse than nothing! The great beauty of the Creation is distorted by us who refuses to play the roles that God has created us for.

In the context, John 15:6 If a man doesn't remain in me, he is thrown out as a branch, and is withered; and they gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned. Vine is meant to produce fruits and not as firewood. Without Jesus, we loose our calling and our way and will end up doing things that are of no value to him. We are building things with the wood and hay and are burnt up as in 1 Cor 3:12-15.

God is not interested in our plan. God does not want us to do things for Him (according to our view of what is good for Him). God invites us to join Him in completing the Master-piece of Creation of which we have a unqiue role to play. We can only be fulfilling and useful, producing good fruits, when we are connected to Jesus to discover His plan for us. We are to be led by His Spirit that we can do useful and meaningful thing. Let's humble ourselves, seek Jesus and response to His leading. We will discover the great plan Jesus has for us. We will be surprised by the accomplishments that He has called to do. Forget about our plan and follow His plan so that we can truly enjoy and live a victorious life - showing forth His glory through us. This is the real meaning of Prov 3:5-6. It is not that we abandon our thinking, but that our thinking must be directed by God.

Paul gave us his understanding of this verse in Meditation on the Bible by Reduction. See Hear - Obey - Glorify also.

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.

Joyful vs Painful Work

In the last posting, Satisfying & God Glorifying Work, we discuss the purpose of work for redeemed people. Whether we are saved or not, we all have to work. Born again Christians works for his God's calling while others work for a living.

There is a big difference between in the way work is carried out. For the pre-Christians, the work is a work of pains, stress, struggle and sorrow. For the Christian, since Christ has redeemed us from the curse Col 1:9, our work will be joyful, stress-free, and productive. The work could be hard, but we are satisfied in doing and completing the work. Paul in 2 Co 12:10 said he is content (i.e. satisfied!) with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions and calamities for when he was weak then he was strong!

In the world economy (world kingdom), work is a struggle and is very stressful.

 In God's Kingdom or the God's economy, work is joyful and productive. In world economy, there are pressures for people to perform. They are to do whatever within legal restrictions to produce a desired outcome. But due to man's sin nature, man can legalize morally wrong thing e.g. abortion.What is legal may not be morally right in God's view. Competitive forces can cause people to go beyond the limits of ethics. Men and women can become work-a-holics to meet business targets. How can this struggle and burnt-out be prevented ? By innovation and creativity given by God. By the productivity of the resources used that are blessed by God such as in the land, weather and seeds.


God's Kingdom operates differently from World Economy. We must understand Kingdom's operating principles and apply them to lives here on earth to get the benefits. The 1st principle of Kingdom Operation is Mat 6:33 and later stated again by Paul in Rom 14:17. This is best shown below:

To gain better understanding, we need to reverse Gen 3:17-19. There are other verses like Ps 127:2 and Mark 4:27 that shows us it is God who will provide for us as we obey Him, as follows:

Conclusions:

• Do NOT follow the Worldly System of stressful work - working for a living; working for a promotion; be involved in the office politics.
• Trust God's providence and His Kingdom Principles - work for a giving and blessings to others in God's ways glorifying God. God will reward you.

Satisfying & God Glorifying Work

Work is Ordained by God to be a Blessing
Is there any difference between Christians and to-be-Christians attitudes toward work? There is a common misunderstanding that work is the curse and result of Adam's sin. Work is actually ordained by God before Adam's sin. Below is the mind-map giving additional details:

Purpose of Our Work
The main difference then for Christians: work is fulfilling the calling God has for us. We do not work for a living but for glorifying God with our life. Work is our worship to God. Our work is work of faith and obedience to God. The details are shown in the mind-map below:

How Should We Work
If our work is to glorify God and fulfilled our unique calling, then how shall we work? The Bible gives us very clear teaching including the things that we should do. See the map below:

In summary, we work to glorify God and leave it to God to reward us. It is God's responsibility as Father to provide for us and it is us as children to obey our Father in doing excellent work to glorify Him.

Please see next posting Joyful vs Painful Work