The Purpose & Process of Life

The purpose and process of life can be summarized in 3 steps :

1. connect to Jesus and then to others
2. living out by good behavior and good works
   
3. telling others about the how and why - getting them to connect to Jesus.

Life purpose begins with knowing the creator Jesus and then to establish a intimate relationship with Him. Created being can only understand his purpose by asking his Creator - Why am I created? We are created to enjoy His love, glory and companionship. When we experienced His love for us, we can then begin to relate and to love others. As we connect with others, and taste the good and bad, we learn more about His love for us.

Relying on the inner strength that comes from Christ in us, we are able to live out and show forth the strength through good behavior and good works. Our performances bring glory to God. But our performances must be motivated from the inside by His love. We perform because we are of excellent character. We do not perform to gain glory, or money, or influence for ourselves. We want to gain influence through and for Christ. We are the channels and the stewards where God could show forth His glory.

Our excellent performance will draw people to ask us for the 'secrets' of our success. We are to tell and to share our 'secrets' - Paul called it the "Mystery" - which is the Good News of Jesus Christ.

Our telling comes after our acts of love and performance and not before. Someone says, "No one cares about what you know until he knows how much you care about him". We must tell, but first show forth your action of love and success.

The order, connect first to God and then to others, and then living out and then telling how, is important. We don't tell before we work. We don't work until we know Jesus. We don't work ourselves but with and through Jesus.

Connecting to our creator Jesus is the purpose of life and then life is about living out and sharing the Jesus within.

As an example, the Fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom. All true knowledge and wisdom begins with the understanding of God existence and His ordered patterns of life. Science is not possible without a Creator and a Creator of order. Without a believe in order, there is no science. Knowledge without having an absolute anchor and moral standard will leads to failure, destruction and death in the long term. The secrets of success and a fulfilled and healthy life begins with knowing God and His character. The main cause of the financial crisis is essentially a belief without God and only in Self and greed.

Wolf Cutlure vs Lamb Culture

Recently, in Chinese Businesses in PRC, there is this promotion and adoption of the "Wolves Culture" of doing business. The wolves culture promote wolf-like principles like

1. aggressiveness, ruthless and self-seeking - achieving the ends at all costs ; the ends justify the means; never satisfy - always go for more.
   
2. alertness to opportunities and grab them
3. great team work.
   

In contrast to the Wolf Culture, there is the Lamb Culture which is biblical based, or at least, good moral based, and has love as the center, stressing integrity, humility, sacrifice, dedication and social responsibility. The lamb culture is very much like what is presented in Dev Seidman's "How" and Gary Hamel's "The Future of Management".

The 1st principle is like a new version of an old Chinese book titled "Thick Black Study" teaching people to be thick-skinned and back-hearted to get thing done their way.

Except for 1st principle of ruthlessness, the other 2 principles of alertness-agility and team-work are quite biblical and are covered in Kingdom Laws & Principles.

Some more information on the Lamb Culture Forum can be found here.

Fleshy Work & Spiritual Work

God put His Kingdom Principles and Laws to work in His created universe. Key character traits like honesty, diligence, humility, and integrity make for success. Business people, whether believers or not, when they follow the God established laws will reap the benefits. Such accomplishments are not, work of the flesh, but spiritual work - they are the outcomes of respecting, trusting and following God's Laws.

However, if business people violate God's laws, and use dishonesty to grow their business, then those short-term successes are work of the flesh. It is the motivation and principles that we exert bodily in the fresh to follow that determine the spiritualness of our effort - spiritual or fleshy work.

Don't let anyone deceive you into not working. Spiritual work takes a lot of effort in the body flesh and muscles and our mind too.

See Let Go & Let God - Spiritual or Just Plain Lazy?

KP#21 Watch and Ride the Trend

It is common knowledge that change is the permanent and unavoidable thing of life. Living means growing and changing. However, coping with the changes bring stress and hardship.

The secret of successful and victorious living lies in the following 4 strategies:

1. Watch & Ride the Trend
   Being watchful of the changes, the trends, and then plan to riding on it to success.
2. Seizing the Opportunity in the Crisis.
   Very often though, the changes just happen suddenly; at least to those that have not be watching or to those with lack of knowledge. There is little to plan to cope with the changes. The ability to seize this opportunity, or more precisely, crisis, depends very much one readiness, agility, and responsiveness.
3. Innovate and Create the Trend and Following.
4. Going Back is a Good Option. When there is uncertainty and lack of directions and the present situations is not at all comfortable, going back to the original mission and calling that make the corporate successful in the 1st place could be a good option. We don't always have to do 'new' things.

We will cover the 1st strategy - watch and ride the trend.
Jesus uses the Budding Fig Tree Mat 24:32-36, the Evening Sky Mat 16:2-3 to tell us that

• changes can be predicted.
• be watchful wise and know the trend

We must be always on the watch so that we don't be fooled by our present and past success thinking that things will always stay the same. We should not be fooled by things that happen on the surface and go deeper and further. Luke 18-9-14 tells the story of Pharisee and the Republican - who is the one that is saved? self-righteousness or true repentance.

Here is the mind map ....

Next:  Seize the Opportunity

Grace Based Doctrines

It is good to reflect on what we have learned after some years. My growth in Christ goes through several stages. Firstly, I got to know Jesus as my personal savior and then I tried to please Him by trying to be a good Christian and following the Bible as much as I could. Then I discovered the spiritual gift of tongues and experienced the miracles working God of the Bible. After this I discovered that it was God within me, Christ in Me, that empowered me to be the Christian that Jesus wanted me to be. It used to be 'have-do-be'. Now it is 'Be-Do-Have' (see Be-Do-Have Repeat and Grow). I started this blog showing the great love and empowerment of Jesus Christ. Jesus did not just save us but gave us His Zoe life so that we are empowered to live out  His glory. It helped me through my desert time of betrayals, disappointments, and attacks. It enables us to come through all the more confidence in His love and empowerment for us. This is now commonly known as the grace-based doctrine.

What are then the essential beliefs of the Grace Based Doctrines?
Below is the mind map showing the key beliefs.
I wish to quote John Piper's "God is most glorified when we are most satisfied in Him."
Know for yourself that God is delighted in you - just as you are. But He loves you too much to leave you in your present state. He will bring you to greater heights to show forth His glory through you.

What about work?
It is about obedience to the general and unique calling of our lives. Our work of obedience is not for gaining salvation for we have already been saved, but for extending God's Kingdom and God's glory from and through us from within. Our obedience brings the blessings that God has appropriated for us and shows forth His glory to others so that others may be drawn toward him. (updated on 19 Aug 2009)

KP#20 Focus & Priority - Building Strengths more than Overcoming Weaknesses

Parables of "The Hidden Treasures" and "The Pearl of Great Price"
Everyone has limited time and limited resources. The key to effectiveness and productivity is knowing what are the important ones and then concentrating effort and time on doing them. Life is much simplified, stressed free when we identify the things of utmost of values. Jesus taught this principle of "finding the treasure and giving all to get it" in the parables of "The Hidden Treasures Mat 13:44" and "The Pearl of Great Price Mat 13:45-46". It is so important that Jesus uses two illustrations. This principle is put into practice by Paul in Php 3:8 Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ.

1st Find the Treasure
What is the Treasure? What are things that are of importance and value? This is found in our mission statement for the corporation and in our calling for our personal life. The mission gives us the purpose and meaning of existent. We need to spend time to search for it and to craft it. It is the most important thing to do. Do it first. Find the mission.

2nd Give All to Get It
The follow on step is to spend all the effort and time to realize the found mission. To Paul, it is Jesus Christ. He spent his all to get to know Christ in an intimate way and to grow up to be like Him. All others are considered less valueable than that. Knowing our mission and meaning of life, an individual or in a corporation, enables us to work out a priority list. We should use the things of lower value to get the things of higher value.

Core & Context - Work on Building Up Strength more than Overcoming Weaknesses
This concept is well illustrated by Geoffrey Moore in his books when he speak of core and context. He suggested we should spend time in enhancing and building the core of differentiation from the markets and outsourcing our context. In the book "7 Practices of Effective Ministry", Andy Stanley et al use the Baseball game as illustration - a pitcher (his mission) is to spend effort in improving his pitching rather than spend effort in improving his batting. For me, we need to spend effort in improving our weakness to an acceptable level and spend more efforts in improving our strengths. This pre-supposes that we have found a role than utilizes our strengths.

Not all activities are of equal important. Activities that help you move in the direction of your mission and vision are needful. The others are just distortion. Find your treasure first and spend all to get it.

Next: Watch and Ride the Trend

Knowledge Tree of Good and Evil

The two famous trees in the Garden of Eden (Gen 2:9) are the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.

There are people who shorten the description and call it the Tree of Knowledge. The result of eating from the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge was sin and death. Hence, they claimed Knowledge is bad and should not be pursued. They also cited 1 Co 8:1 knowledge puffs up to support their case.

Let's take a closer look at the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. What is the keyword here? Knowledge of Good and Evil? Knowledge is the higher qualifier and Good and Evil is the finer descriptor. Knowledge covers a much greater scope than "Good" & "Evil". Or to put it another way, "Good & Evil", Moral, is only a small part albeit a very important part, of knowledge. We cannot drop the finer descriptor of "Good and Evil" and just talk about knowledge. Just talking about Knowledge would be wrong - it is too generalized. The key descriptor is about a specific kind of knowledge of "good and evil".

A better descriptor for the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, given by others, include "Tree of Laws ", "Tree of Knowledge of Sin" or "Tree of Moral". The Tree of Life is compared to the Tree of Laws as "Grace" vs "Laws" for salvation.

Some preachers remarked that man, after eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, got to know that there are good and evil things, but they lack the discernment to tell the good from the evil. God gave the Laws later to reveal the sins. But in Romans 2, we know the sense of right and wrong is built into our conscience and man can't argue that they don't know.

For me, I prefer to name the tree, the "Tree of Knowing Good and Evil", to prevent it from being just shortened to knowledge. The Chinese version of the Bible has, I think, a better translation, as the "Tree of Discernment of Good and Evil"(分别善恶的树). Eating the fruit of this Tree shows that man wants to be the judge of good and evil. Man wants to be his own judge of what is good and what is evil. God is kept out of the picture. This, to me, is the greatest rebellion against God. The true judge of all should be God and not man. The created being, man, cannot be the judge. Only the Creator, God, can be the judge.

Is Knowledge Good or Evil?
Knowledge should be judged as good or evil by the content. Any knowledge that excludes God or exalts against God is bad, worldly, and even demonic. The knowledge that originated from God (e.g. Bible ) and Truth is good and Godly. Jesus tells us that we must know the truth and the truth will set us free. Knowledge from the Devil is bad and evil. Knowledge from man cannot be judged that way but must be by content.

Back to 1 Co 8:1 "knowledge puffs up". If you read accurately, and from the context, you will realize that not all knowledge puffs up but only a particular kind of knowledge. Which kind? It is explained in the next verse 1 Cor 8:2, the kind that thinks he knows everything. The ESV translation qualifies with "This 'knowledge' puffs up". ALT also qualified with 'such knowledge'. Knowledge does not puff up. It is the person who thinks he knows all gets puffed up.

The foundation of knowledge, or true knowledge, begins with acknowledgment of God.

• Pro 1:7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

• Isa 33:6 And wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times and strength of salvation: the fear of the LORD is his treasure.

Knowledge should be Judged by Context not just the Source
The knowledge that comes from God - the Bible is good. There is not much argument against it. But if the knowledge comes from man, can we, conclude from its origin, that it is therefore no good and worldly? I don't think so. 

The existence and nature of God can be seen from His creation. Man in pursuing the truth will be able to discover a portion of the truths of God. The golden rule of love, taught by Jesus, can be found in many cultures. We can find many teachings of Lao Tze and Confucianism that agree with the Bible. Putting it in another way, Biblical Knowledge extends the teachings of Lao Tze and Confucianism. The Lao Tze' and Confucianism discovered the laws or way of the universe and human behavior but did not discover the giver of the order and the personification of the dao (The Way) in Jesus Christ. They will be thrilled to have known Jesus. 

Pursue Knowledge and learn to discern the good and evil. This is maturity.

See also Knowledge Tree of Good and Evil - Looking from Tree of Life

Yin Yang and the Bible

A typical difference between Eastern and Modern Western thinking is about options.

Modern Western thinking believes in choosing either Option A or Option B depending on an evaluation function.

Eastern thinking believes in holding both options in balance - the concept of Yin and Yang.

In Confucius' teaching, holding both in balance is called the dao of the middle 中庸之道 or Golden Mean - the course between two extremes.

Boldness is the middle between cowardice and violence.
Love is the middle between hatred and pampering.
Faith is between unbelief and presumption.

Christian living is holding the balance between relying on God and man's effort.
We have

• Option A: "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling" Phi 2:12
  
• Option B: "For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." Phi 2:13

Option A - we do the work. Option B: Let go and Let God.

While God does the initiating, we have the responsibility of listening to God and being obedient.
If we don't spend time studying the bible and praying (talking with God), we can't hear God too clearly.
Our sensitivity to God comes from time spent talking and studying His Word and our obedience to what we hear.

Revelation of God comes easily and frequently when we study the Bible. Revelation also comes in our worship and prayer. Take away our effort in pursuing God, and God will seem far away. On the other hand, it is always God who initiates the communication with us. Without God's initiation, no matter how hard we try, we will not hear God.

So while we need to understand the extremes, we maintain our walk in the middle. On one hand, we let God lead us and on the other hand we strive to accomplish what God has revealed and instructed us to do. Grace - God's empowerment only comes when we initiate actions. It takes two to accomplish the work and word of God.

Other points of balance include :
Denying oneself to follow Christ vs Prosperity & Health as one soul prosper
Salvation by Grace and Faith only vs God's workmanship created for good work. see James 2:17-18 Faith without work is dead.

Another point of view is "Both sides of the Same Coin".

A key point in maintaining balance is to get the boot sequence right:

God is 1st, Jesus is the Source and end-point and man just follows and then spirals to greater and greater height. Yin-Yang is the 2D view of the 3D spiral of growth into the image of Christ.

This duality or dichotomy can be seen in Ecclesiastes 3
 ¹ There is a time for everything,
   and a season for every activity under the heavens:  

² a time to be born and a time to die,
   a time to plant and a time to uproot,
 ³ a time to kill and a time to heal,
   a time to tear down and a time to build,
 ⁴ a time to weep and a time to laugh,
   a time to mourn and a time to dance,
 ⁵ a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
   a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
 ⁶ a time to search and a time to give up,
   a time to keep and a time to throw away,
 ⁷ a time to tear and a time to mend,
   a time to be silent and a time to speak,
 ⁸ a time to love and a time to hate,
   a time for war and a time for peace.

For related, see Chinese Classics & The Bible.

See also The Doctrine of the Middle and Christian Values

Corrective vs Preventive Theology

A highly recommended book is "David - A Man of Passion and Destiny" by C Swindoll. It was a gift from a friend. The greatest benefit from reading the book is the many lessons that we can apply to our lives.

In chapter 18, Swindoll discussed "Corrective vs Preventive" Theology citing Gal 6:6-8. It is a key message for the "Grace-Doctrine" hearers. It clarifies some of the misconceptions that "Grace Doctrine" hearers may have.

We have emphasized too much on confession and repentance of sins - the corrective effort (1 John 1:9) but very little on the preventive effort - Rom 6.

The whole purpose of God's grace to us is not just the forgiveness of sins but the empowerment to live beyond the passive demands of the laws in victory and doing God-glorifying works (Eph 2:10).

Rom 6 tells us we are set free from sin and become slaves to righteousness (Rom 6:22); spent much time arguing against using grace as a license to sin.

Rom 7 speaks of struggle with the flesh, 7:19 But the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing but ended with the secret to victory - Rom 7:25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

Rom 8 gives us the encouragement that God is for us and will lead us through and to victory all the way. The secret is "Grace Power - Christ in Us".

Gal preached against justification by laws and stressed that salvation comes only through faith in Christ. Yet it reminded all that God's laws shall not be mocked - we reap whatever we sow. There is forgiveness for sin but not saving from the consequences of our sin. God's grace enables us to learn and walk through the consequences.

Let's follow after the Holy Spirit and be empowered by grace inside to lead a God-glorifying life. We do not have to waste time committing and then repenting from sins. 

Preventing is not trying not to sin but to pursue righteousness leaving us no time to sin.

Summary:

From Gemini:

Key Points Summarized:

• Misconception of Grace: Many Christians overemphasize confession and repentance (corrective) while neglecting the power of God's grace for overcoming sin (preventive).
• True Purpose of Grace: God's grace is not merely for forgiveness but also for empowerment to live a victorious Christian life.
• Balance: While acknowledging the need for repentance, the focus should shift towards pursuing righteousness and allowing God's grace to prevent sin.
• Key Passages: Romans 6-8, and Galatians 6:6-8 provide a solid foundation for understanding the concept.

By ChatGPT:

Applying this to your context of teaching and intpersonal interactions, the focus shifts from merely correcting wrong behavior to encouraging and empowering others to live righteously. By fostering a preventive approach, individuals are motivated to pursue righteousness actively, reducing the need for corrective measures. This aligns with the idea of leading by example, showing grace, and fostering an environment where righteousness is the goal, leaving little room for sin.

This preventive approach can transform how you guide and teach others, emphasizing the empowerment of grace and the pursuit of a God-glorifying life, rather than merely avoiding wrongdoing.

DeepSeek: Your Concluding Maxim: The Best Summary

"Preventing is not trying not to sin but to pursue righteousness leaving us no time to sin."

This is the practical gem. It echoes Paul's "walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh" (Gal 5:16). The focus is positive pursuit (Eph 2:10's "good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do"), not negative prohibition. A heart and life filled with the fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, etc.) has little room for the works of the flesh. It's displacement, not just resistance. 

Obedience Brings Freedom

In John 8:31-34 we have the flow of concepts...

31 If you abide in my word
32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
34 everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.

The word 'know' is the original 'ginosko' meaning "to know (by experience, or effort)".

Hence, freedom comes from learning about the Truth (taught by Jesus) and then obeying them by putting them into practice, and then tasting the real experience of freedom. ... Know-Do-Have-KnowMore-cycles to greater and greater freedom.

So we have this interesting truth of "Obedience brings Freedom". Freedom comes not by doing whatever you like but only by following the Truths. Sins and bondage come from disobedience of the truth. If we are trapped in bondage, being forced to do things then we must know that we are following a lie. Discover the truth to reveal the lie and then follow after the truth and you can break free.

This is not difficult to understand. We are built, like machines for an example, to work in a certain way. If we operate not according to our instruction manual, we will malfunction. Only when we follow our operating manual will we find the effectiveness, joy, and fulfillment of life. 

To be free, learn and obey our operating manual - the Bible and receive the Savior and Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus the reason for this Christmas season.

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ChatGPT provides the following interesting points:

Obedience Brings Freedom

Your insight that "obedience brings freedom" is profound. Freedom in Christ is not the license to do whatever we want but the ability to live as we were created to live. Obedience to God's truth leads to a life of purpose, fulfillment, and true joy, as opposed to the emptiness and dissatisfaction of a life lived in sin.

The Path to Freedom

To break free from bondage, one must:

1. Identify the Lie: Recognize the false beliefs and practices that lead to bondage.
2. Discover the Truth: Engage deeply with the Bible and the teachings of Jesus to uncover the truth.
3. Obey the Truth: Put into practice what is learned, leading to experiential knowledge and greater freedom.

Doubao:

The idea that freedom is derived from knowing and adhering to the truth as taught by Jesus is compelling. It emphasizes that true freedom is not about unrestricted license to do as one pleases but rather about aligning one's actions with a set of guiding principles and truths. The "Know-Do-Have-KnowMore" cycle proposed suggests a continuous process of learning, applying, experiencing, and further deepening one's understanding, leading to an increasing sense of freedom.

The comparison to a machine operating according to its instruction manual is quite insightful. Just as a machine functions optimally when used in accordance with its manual, humans are suggested to thrive when they follow the spiritual and moral guidelines provided in the Bible. This view implies that disregarding these instructions leads to malfunction or bondage, similar to a machine operating outside its prescribed parameters.

KP#19 Strategy - Plan to Succeed

All project begins with a plan - either in the mind or best layout on paper (or soft copy in computer).
There is the old saying that “a failure to plan is a plan to fail. This is emphasized twice by Jesus in the Parables of "Building a tower" and "Waging a War" in Luke 14:28–33.

The Steps are:

1. sit down - spend the effort
2. count the cost
   a. for the total project
   b. make sure it is enough to complete and to overcome the obstacles- Luke 14:28, 31
3. If not, Come out with alternatives to complete the project - Luke 14:32
4. Commit all your resources in fulfilling your plan (eg Calling by God) - Luke 14:33
   Half-hearted commitment is not able to bring success.

Never start any new thing without counting the costs for completion. The most basic is the total commitment of heart to learn, to think , to source, and to overcome any obstacle in the way. Apply the Kingdom Principles to your business.

Next:Focus & Priority

Advanced Doctrine - Covenant of Grace

In the posting Laying of Hands, we covered the 6 basic doctrines. The 6 doctrines only take 2 verses to cover. What is the advanced doctrine that Paul wanted to cover and spend the entire book of 13 chapters of Hebrew to do it? (There are dispute about who the author of Hebrew was. Most believe it was Paul.)

I think it is the "Doctrine of Grace" or "The New Covenant of Grace". The 6 basic doctrines are actually covered in the Old Testament. The new, more excellence Covenant, the once for all and eternal, the desires and aims of the OT, is accomplished and brought about, by Jesus Christ, the true Great High Priest.

We need to spend lot more time understanding and living out this new covenant of grace. Paul went through great extent explaining the why and how for our benefits that we may focus on Christ, empowered by Christ, put our faith in Christ, run and complete the race before us, following our leaders, encouraging and loving one another, doing God glorifying works to testify the goodness and love of God, and enter into the rest and rewards that Christ has gone before us to obtain for us.

The details are in the mind map Growing Up in Grace.

A comparison of the old and new is shown below:

	Old	New
mediator	High Priest	Christ
with	Animal Blood	His Blood
frequency	Every Year	Once for all
effect	cannot perfect the conscience Heb 9:9	purify our conscience Heb 9:14
result	dead work	God glorifying work
justification	obey the Laws	By faith in Christ's work
purpose	payment for sins	payment + new life
power	no power	Grace Empowerment CIU
effort	manual - follow the laws	Laws within Heart & Mind

Be-Do-Have Repeat and Grow

In "Be-Do-Have" of Grace Based Doctrine I wrote about the grace-based doctrine of be-do-have and the conventional performance-based doctrine of have-do-be.

In this post, I want to bring up the reinforcing effect of doing and have-ing on the be. By doing so, we get to understand our identity better. Having strengthens our faith and gives us confidence in our 'be-ing" that was there originally. This is growth. Big accomplishments are achieved through repeated small steps.

If we do and we don't have the success of "have" then we need to check on the method and process of our do. 

• Did we have the right motive?
• Did we hear God correctly?
• Did we have the right methods,?
• And very often, did we give time for the effects to be seen.
  The seeds that germinate inside the earth, growing its roots are not seen until the stem and leaves sprout out of the earth. Being persistent and patient is a quality of maturity, especially towards people. On the other hand, we must be alert and flexible to adopt a new strategy if the situation has changed. Life has such interesting variations that make for real joy and challenge in living.

Reconciliation- A Better Term for Salvation

In an earlier posting, Salvation Re-visited - Relational View we said that salvation is actually about bring people back to God. A shorter term for the rebuilding of relationship between two parties is 'Reconciliation'.

Death is not cessation of life but disconnection from God. Man rejection of God resulted in amity between God and man. It takes Jesus' substitutional death on cross to remove this amity. However, while Jesus makes possible the way back to God, it is still up to man to choose to be reconciled to God. It is a free will decision.

The Main Secret of Success - God's Part & Man's Part

The main secret of success is given in Joshua 1:1-9. It started with God taking the initiative again - this time with Joshua after the death of Moses. It also shows God's plan for mankind does not end with the death of a person. His plan continues with the election of a new person to take over. It is easy for God to speak to Joshua as Joshua had been with Moses most of the time when God talked to Moses. Joshua has a relationship and a heart for God. (Exo 33:11, Deu 31:14).

Step#1 Have a Relationship with God through Jesus Christ
The 1st step is to get connected with God. God has taken the initiative of sending His Son Jesus Christ to come to this earth and die for us so that we may get connected back to God the Creator and the Source of Life. It is God who seeks after us to have a relationship with Him.

Step#2 Receive Your Calling from God
God told Joshua about his mission in life - lead His people to inherit the promised land Jos 1:6. Each of us has our calling from God - to impact the world around us for His glory. God may also call us out to another area of influence. But whatever it is, God promised you the support to achieve the mission He has given you. His mission for us is for good success - Jos 1:7,8.

Step#3 Be Assured of God's Support & Promise
God said he would be with us whenever we go to Jos 1:9; He will not fail us for He is ABLE and He will not forsake us for He is WILLING. We are given assurance in John 14:16 - forever with us and Heb 13:5 and 13:6.

Step#4 Arise & Go - Start
The keywords used are "NOW", "ARISE", "GO", "POSSESS the LAND".... simply "JUST DO IT".
God has done His part- calling, empowerment, commission, accompaniment, assurance, and the detailed instructions in the Bible.

Step#5 Follow the Bible
The detailed instructions are given in the BOOK - the BIBLE. Joshua was taught how to read the Bible too

1. Not depart from the Mouth - i.e. speak the word, confess the word.
2. Meditate on it Day and Night. - hiding His Word in our hearts all the time.
3. Follow it Exactly - Take it as the Standards for Living. Not to turn to right or left; Not try to be smarter than the Word. Do not try to take shortcuts. Don't be corrupted by the world's teaching. Stick to the Word and act on it accordingly no matter what even looking foolish to the world.

Step#6 Stayed Connected.
This is implied in meditating on the Word of God day and night. Read, Study, and Talk over the Word with the Holy Spirit as a teacher with the attitude of willingness to obey and execute the Rhema Words received.

Our Part
The secret to success is simply to Know God and Follow Him. God has taken the 1st step in reaching out and telling us how. It is up to us to put it into action and realize the success that God has intended for us.

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Gemini: Additional Thoughts

The text could be enriched by incorporating additional biblical perspectives on success, such as:

• The concept of stewardship (Luke 12:48)
• The importance of character development (Proverbs 22:1)
• The role of adversity in building resilience (Romans 5:3-5)
• The significance of serving others (Matthew 22:37-39)

KP#18 Customers Services & More

The Golden Rule of Customer Service is "Empathy" - Seeing things from Customer's view point and treating them as they would like to be treated. This is the famous Luke 6:31 Do as you wish others would do to you. There are criticisms against this verse - citing it as too self-centered ( I think empathy is implied in the verse) and propose other versions. Here are the summary:

1. The Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would others do unto you.
2. The Platinum Rule: Do Unto Others as They Would Have You Do Unto Them.
   (Do they know what is best for themselves?)
3. The Rhodium Rule: Do unto others as Jesus would have us do unto them.
   (Love as Jesus; for their benefits from God's viewpoint. e.g. an alcoholic would like to have more alcohol and that is not good for them).

The Extra-Mile Service
How is a person delighted and thrilled by your service ? By going beyond his expectation. This is the teaching of Mat 5:38-48. When customers complained, don't fight back. Listen to his grievances and see things from his view poins. Could you do more to help solve his problems. Go the extra mile and seize back the initiative. If you think this is the best, let me share with you that you are only reacting to his demand.

The Higher Level Pro-active Service
A higher level of service is able to foresee his needs and when he realize his needs and it was already taken off, he will be trule impressed --- "they think of everything for me!" Mat 6:8 Be not therefore like them: for your Father knows what things you have need of, before you ask him.

Caveat
If you are not making money to serve the extra-mile customers, then drop them ... you are not designed to serve them. This could be due to inappropriate Business Model (pricing, service model ). e.g. Budget Airlines does not compete with SIA on service. Othere reasons are: processes wrong, jobs spec wrong, staff's competence wrong and staff's motivation wrong.

Go For Non-Customers
We tend to fall into myopic's trap - only seeing our present customers and trying to keep them happy and emotionally engaged with us. Another part of our business should be reaching out to people that are not our customers yet. How can we reachout to this larger pool of non-customers ? The Parable of the Wedding Feast Mat 22:1-14, Luke 14:16-24, tell us to look for those with needs that we can fulfill and at a profit. If you think it can't be done, look at Google's model, micro-loans, village phone services. Ask God for wisdom where you can have a breakthrough business and not a compromised business.... Charity at a Profit!

Next: Plan to Succeed

KP#17 Purpose of Significance - Giving to Life & Harmony

What makes for 'Significance'?
I think it is life - making alive, vitalized living. Gen 2:7 ... God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. Life is fulfilled by having relationship - with God and others. Relationship is built up by Giving and Sharing of love, care, joy, and things.

Significance is therefore related to Giving and Supporting Life and Relationship. It also involves in creating and preserving the environment for sustaining life and living. Generosity is key attribute of Significance. God set the example in the parable of 'laborers in the vineyard' Mat 20:1-16. It can also be named "God's Pay System".

The mindmap below gives the details:



The value of Generosity, the Principle of True Giving, unconditionally and expecting no reward, is illustrated in the Parable of the Host in Luke 14:11-15 and illustrated negatively by the Parable of the Rich Fool in Luke 12:16-21. See the mind map below:



Corporation of today measure the 'Triple Bottom Lines' of

1. Profit to Grow the Business
2. Environmental Sustainability
3. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) of being responsible for and giving back the community.

If you do these, you will get the objective of the High Performance Organization ( HPO ) objectives of becoming the choice of customers, employees and investors and I want to add a fourth, the model and envy of your competitors.

Next: Customers

Should We Attend Church Now with Availability of Internet

In today digital or internet world, we can gain immediate access to the messages of the best preachers. We can read the scriptures with lots of aids and commentaries. We can communicate with each other through email, live chat, myspace and many others. We can even get connected wirelessly anywhere and anytime. Is there still a need to attend the Sunday Worship services, or in normal terms, attend church on Sunday?

Purpose vs Activities
To answer this question, we need to back to the basic definition of Church. What makes a Church ? What is its purpose ? What are the activities ? We need to differentiate the activities from the purpose. Purpose does not change with time and situations but activities do. How do we make use of the better technology to do church-activities and thereby fulfill the Purpose of the Church more effectively.

Definition of Church
Church is an assembly of Believers in Jesus Christ for the purpose of representing Christ on earth and therefore to the building each other up in maturity to conform to the image of Christ. Christ is the head of the Church his Body on earth Col 1:18, Eph 1:22. Church is made up of people and not things or activities. The purpose is Christ on earth - behaving and showing Christ on earth. But we don't get to maturity in Christ immediately. So we are to organized ourselves together where such caring and building-up can take place.

Church is NOT Christ & Me only
We can immediately see that Church is not made up of One-Person. It is not Christ the head and Me the body. It is Christ the Head and We the believers the Body. We cannot do church alone and we must be linked to a community of believers.

The Organisation of Church
Eph 4 gives the purpose and the 5 fold ministries in a church. Any healthy church should have the 5 roles staffed and played out. See the mind-map for the details. Rom 12 and 1 Cor 12 added additional gifts and roles. It is possible, as some people proposed, that the gifts are related to the ministry. e.g. Gifts of Exhorting, Showing Mercy are for Pastors. Miracle workers are related to Evangelist and Apostles.

The Activities
Act 2 tells us that the early Church met in Temples, Public Places, and in Homes day by day (Not just Sunday! Church is not Sunday at a location but Church is wherever and whenever we are.). They attend to the Apostles' teaching (i.e. Bible Truth), fellowship, breaking of bread, prayers, giving thanks and praising God. They were glad and generous hearted people. Consequently, they have favors with all the people and God added to their number day by day.

They met at public places to receive teachings and to share the Gospel (Act 4:4). They met at their home for fellowship ( which might include the application of teaching in every life; the corrections and learning in practice), sharing of joy and sorrows. There were centralised activties and there were home group activities.
There were people in different leadership roles (e.g. 5 fold ministries) and there were the larger group of people who lived out the truth in their market places - work of faith, labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ 1Th 1:3.

What About Technology
Technology is related to the activities. Technology helps us to carry out the activities with greater effectiveness and ease. We should therefore make good and better use of them. We should change our activities to make better use of techology to accomplish the purpose of the Church. Teaching and Fellowship are all aided by internet technology. Use them. It allows us to more effective. There is only caution. Easy and Wide availablility also means easy and wide access to garbage and wrong doctrines. Need to know how to filter out and choose those that are good.

Do We Attend Church?
What are the activities that enables us to accomplish reflecting Christ on earth better ? How do we grow up into maturity conforming to the image of Christ? How can we organize ourselves better so that we can have a greater impact on our society for Christ? The basic things for believers are:

a. get connected with a Group of Believers
b. where others can help you grow and be accountable
c. and where you can help others grow and be accoutable
d. and living out the Christ in us through connecting with God, studying and obeying His will for you.

If you have such a group where Christ is the head and all are members accountable to one another and living out Christ daily, then you have a Church. Attending Sunday Worship at a Church building may be or not be one of the activity that the Church has to do.

Follow the mind-map below for more details.

KP#16 Singleness of Purpose or Mission

In Luke 16:13, we are taught that we could not serve two masters - we cannot serve God and money. Our purpose must be single - we must always make one choice - which or who is the highest priority of our life. Once that is fixed, there are three principles we need to follow:

1. we can use the things of lower priorities to serve the highest priority.
   e.g. using money to serve God.
2. we cascade the objective downward
   e.g. we show love of God through loving others that God loves.
   we show love of God by obeying His commandments
3. we maintain a list of priorities and ensure a balanced life.
   e.g. devotion to God is 1st and highest priority but we cannot just spend our time totally with God and neglect caring for our wife and children, job and ministry.

The lack of single-mindedness will result in James 4:8 - Double-Minded -> indecision -> delay or inconsistent decision making and creating confusion.

Loving God is not specific enough for each person. Each person is created uniquely by God to fulfill a specific calling and role in the grand design of God for human. Each of us may need to seek God to discover our calling. We will cover what are "Significance" in life created by God in the next posting. Phi 4:8 may be a start or a check list for us. The mind map below summarized this posting:

KP#15 Realities of Life - Same Input but Different Outcomes

Sometimes we tried very hard and yet the outcome did not seem to commensurate with our effort put in. At other times, the outcomes were beyond our expectation - we put in so little and yet the result was wonderful. The parents tried their very best, prayer, teaching, love and care and yet their children were not responding according. The managements tried all ways to encourage their staff and yet there weren't any corresponding actions from staff. In those depressive time, we blame ourselves for not trying harder and we even blame God for not helping us.

The Parable of the Sower

It give us a good explanation and an important teaching. The seeds sowed were all of the same high quality of God's Words. Yet the outcomes, some eaten, some dried up, some choked up, some 30 folds, 60-folds and 10o-folds return. The reasons are:

Internal Self-Responsible Factor

1. The Soil of the Hearts.
2. The path-way,
   
3. the rocky,
   
4. the thorny and good-soils.

External Factors

1. The birds (devils),
2. the sun of tribulation and persecution (pressure, push),
   
3. the temptations and distractions of the world(the lures and the pull) and

The Success Factor

1. the hearing & understanding and put-into-practice of the Word.

The Greek for "Understanding" is G4862 to put together, that is, (mentally) to comprehend; by implication to act piously. Hebrew's knowing and learning, unlike the Greeks, is more than just 'playing in the mind' but to know intimately with experience by practicing it. The outcome depends on how much we learn from the Word and putting the learning into practice. In John 15:1-5, we find the need to prune for more fruits which is the secret from getting the 30 fold into the 100 fold.







Application to Business - Types of Staff

Next: Singleness of Purpose - Mission