How to be A Successful CEO

How to Study the Bible
Ps 101, even though is very short with only 8 verses, contains much wisdom on how to be a good CEO that runs a great company. I will also like to take this opportunity to share about how to do Bible Study. Here are the steps:

1. Read the whole passage.
2. Analyze verse by verse
3. Break the verse down further by concepts.
4. Meditate on the meaning and implication.
   - Rephrase the concepts in as free words as possible
   - Looking at it from the dimension of space - I and others, area of influence,...
   - Looking at if from the dimension of time - the sequence....
   - Try to find the answers for Why, What, Who, When, Where & How.
5. Find the areas for applications - i.e. putting what has been learned into practice.

Recommended Software for Mind Mapping
I find it easier to do with a mind-mapping software.
You can get good free mind mapping software by following the ....

• freemind choose RC-5. This is the original. Very features rich & fast.
• freeplane a new software based on freemind. Even more feature. But in alpha-test stage. So far no problem for me.
• xmind this is a very visual and beautiful mindmapping software. Lots of map formats and formating styles to choose form (stronger than freemind & freeplane). But lack filtering, resources, etc that are available in freemind. But it is a good mind mapping software to start with. One major advantage over others is the availability of a USB drive version so that you don't have to install on your PC or Mac.

Back to the meat of of Ps 101. Here is what I have learned.

How to be a Good CEO

David was speaking as a King. In today context, it could be equivalent to the CEO or the Executive Chairman or just simply a Boss where you run a business with subordinates under you.

A good Boss starts with self. We must be of good character and has competence before we can help others. His first secret is praise God for His love and justice. This reminds us of the many verses that say the "Fear of the Lord" is the beginning of knowledge and wisdom (Prov 1:7). Two key traits of God were experienced by David, love (steadfast - not one off or ad-hoc) and justice. God's love and justice is expressed out in integrity.

A good CEO begines with knowing God's steadfast love and justice and show them out as personal integrity. Integrity is gained by first thinking about the ways of the righteous (blameless) , real meaning and motivation of the heart, and expressing them out in the way of behaviour and establishment of company values and policies and the way we treat others. David was clear of doing them within the sphere of our control. There are many areas that are beyond our control can we should be discouraged or to force others. The walk of integrity also includes putting away the evil things, perverse intention, slandering and gossiping, and arrogance of heart and look (and talk and associated behaviour such as being unteachable and despising others).

A CEO also works with people. He want to have people of good characters working for him. He employs people that are faithful and those that walk blamelessly (righteous behaviour). He constantly review his people and will not hestitate to remove people that tell lies and practice deceits.

Here is the mind map of Ps 101 - How to be a Good CEO

Freedom of Choice and Sense of Right & Wrong

What is the difference between a tiger killing a man and a man killing another man?
Will we say that the tiger is wrong? Why not? Can we ask the tiger to behave like cow and eat grass instead of meat? There is no sense of right and wrong for the hunger tiger. We said it is his nature and he cannot help it. It is the man responsibility to stay away from the tiger.
What is the key reason that we says that we say the man killing another is wrong?
The reason is that man has the freedom of choice. He can decide what he wants to do.
Freedom comes with the responsibility for the choices we made.
Freedom is awesome and we need to exercise it with care.

How is it that man has the sense of 'right and wrong' ?
Can right exist without wrong? Or, can wrong exist without right? Which comes first?
Right is the standard and Wrong is anything short of the standard.
Why does man at large has a sense of right ?
Why does doing good make us happy and doing bad makes us uncomfortable?
We are wonderfully made in the image of the Creator God.

What is REST? Part 2

After a relative comprehensive search (preventing unbalanced, biased & man's opinions) and meditation of the Bible on Rest, we may want to narrow down a certain subtopic and do a greater depth of study.
Firing up eSword again, using TSK (Treasury of Scripture Knowledge) which gives the related verses to the verse you choose, you can find other related verses to the key verse that you want to study further.

Two subtopics interested me ...

1. How to Rest.
2. How to Rest in the midst of Busy Schedule.


How to Rest:
Step 1. Come to Jesus
He welcomes you anytime. He will not reject you no matter how bad you feel about yourself or how you have disappointed him. He promises to lift you up and set you free. (see the mind map for relevant verses)

Step 2. Listen to Jesus
Study the words.

Step 3 Follow & Receive Peace
Do accordingly and Enjoy the Peace in the midst of Storm. Luk 5:48 House built on Rock,
Putting in practice is actually rest - you feel satisfied that you have followed God.
It is the good feeling that you get when helping others,

I am Busy and Have No Time to Rest?:
Time management is about Priority Management. Get your priority right and discard those activities that are not on priorities.

You will give time to things that you feel are unimportant.

If you can't rest, most likely, it is because you don't feel it is more useful or more important that the other things that you should do. Need to study into the benefits of Rest. Resting in Jesus brings refreshed and revitalized life, creativty, wisdom, etc answers to the problems and stresses that you are feeling., The more stress you have, the more Rest you need in Jesus.

Understand that there are seasons in your life. You many need to adjust your time spent on different activities. Nevertheless, practise Rest in midst of your activities.

What is Rest?

A sister in Christ asked about "rest". She believed that when Jesus said "rest" he didn't mean "inactivity" or lazing around, it is a state of being. It should not be something we bounce in and out of. So what is it?
Finding the Biblical Meaning of "Rest"
To have the Biblical Answer instead of ours or famous preachers, we must go back to the Bible and let the Bible tells us.

So, run e-Sword, choose a translation, say ESV, or KJV, and search for the word Rest.
Very quickly, we can find verses that are related to Rest. One main set is Mat 11:28-30 where Jesus speak of rest
Mat 11:28 Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. ....

I will put up a mind-map and break the verses into parts and then meditate on the meaning of each part of the verses.

Here are some conclusions:

• Rest is found in Jesus's presence. He gives us rest.
• Purpose of Rest is to refresh, to strengthen us to be able to carry heavy loads easily
• Rest is a directed effort - "Take my yoke", "Learn of Me". It is like exercise! Except excercise makes your budy tired.
• Rest of Soul (v30) - peace of mind is found in learning from Jesus.
  I think this Rest means not just physical rest but Peace of Mind (pt 4), stress free or worry free or care free. So, I check other translations to see if anyone think like me... Yes
  
  (BBE) Come to me, all you who are troubled and weighted down with care, and I will give you rest.
  
  The Messsage Bible gives a similar one with a new twist - Religious Freedom.
  (MSG) "Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest.
  Is the MSG bible correct? I found one relevant verset in Luke 11:46 Religious Rules Burden.
  
  
• Going to other verses, I discover there are other meaning of Rest...
• I can also look up the orginal Greek word to discover some meaning... and follow the chain of the Greek word rather than the English REST word.

See the attached mind-map for the discovery of the meaning of REST.

and you can conclude .....

So what is Rest? How does it apply to me?
1. To have a stress-free, refreshed mental state, and peace of mind --- learn of Jesus. Rest is obtained by exerting mental learning and heart to heart talk to Jesus.
2. There is a Sabbath rest - time with God - worship and enjoying His presence.
3. There is the Rest of Completion - Work all done by Jesus. We need not try to strive for something we already have. We work it out from the inside.
4. There is time for physical rest; to allow your body to recover.
5. Rest is about going Home too where we are most comfortable .... one day that will be our heaven.
6. Rest is about waiting for the right time.... don't rush, don't fuss,... at the right time, it will happen.

It took me about 2 hours to do all these.

Hope all have learned how to study the Bible to find the right answer.