KP#3 Law of Harvest or Sowing & Reaping

This is also known as Law of Proportional Returns: "the more you give the more you get"

1. You get a multiplied return
2. You get the same type of what you sow
3. It begins with a seed. Must sow the seed.
4. Sow willingly and cheerfully.... exercise of faith
   
5. You sow from what you have, not what you don't have
6. You sow the seed according to your need.
7. To whom do you sow?

• as the Lord directed
• tithes & offering to the Lord
• people in needs
  
• the business that produce the profits like the farmer keeping the seeds for next harvest. Don't eat your seeds,
  

See the mind-map for details.

See also Wisdom of Proverbs - Cause and Effect

KP#2 The Golden Law for Success

We discussed this rule before in BJ#1 The Golden Rule for Business Success . It is the foundation and applicable to life in general. All other laws and principles stand on this. God must come 1st in our life. We must obey His commands. We are created by God to work as He created us for. Here are some additional thoughts:

 

See also: 

Bible and Chinese Classics 9 on Money & Righteousness 

Kingdom Principles Discussion 03 The Golden Rule for Business Success

(Updated 3 April 2012)

In a message given by Andy Stanley, "A Chinese social scientist who studied the west (Europe & America) to find out what caused it’s success and pre-eminence in the world said they thought it was because of better weapons, or better government, or better economics, but over the 20 years they researched it they discovered the heart of that culture was Christianity. Christian subcultures in China are far better off (morally & economically) than the rest of China." (From http://nickblevins.com/blog/2011/04/27/orange-conference-session-1-andy-stanley-orange11/)

KP#0 Kingdom Laws & Principles

This is a table of content of God's Kingdom Laws and Principles.

For a quick summary, please read 10 Kingdom Principles for Business Success.

When there is a clear cause and effect relationship, I call it the a law. e.g. Law of Sowing and Reaping - you reap at a multiples of what you sold. When the effect is general, I called it a principle. e.g. Principle of Accountability - we must be accountable for the work we do to God who will be our judge.

Jesus' Parables reveal much about the working of the Kingdom of God and will be the main basis for the discovery of the Kingdom's Laws and Principles. The details are:

Working of the Kingdom Principles

For a discussion on this topic, see Kingdom Principles Discussion 01.

We are encouraged to understand the above laws and principles to put them to work. Please read KP#1 Kingdom Principles - Work Them.

Laws & Principles

1. Universal Laws
1. The Golden Rule for Business Mat 6:33
2. Law of Parallel Universes
3. Law of Execution - Walk the Talk
4. Law of Harvests- Sowing and Reaping
5. Law of Seasons - Growth & Timing
6. Law of Reciprocation
7. Law of Greatness -Servant Leadership
8. Law of Perseverance
9. Law of Amplification
10. Law of Humility
2. Attitudes & Mindset
   
3. Realities of Life
   
1. Good and Bad co-exist
2. Fit
   
3. Same Input but Different Outcomes
4. Purpose of Significance
1. Singleness of Purpose - Mission
2. Significance-Giving to Life & Harmony
5. Customers
1. Golden Rule for Service
2. Platinum Rule of Service
3. Go for Non-Consumers
6. Planning & Strategies
1. Plan to Succeed
2. Focus & Priority
3. Watch and Ride the Trend
4. Seize the Opportunity
5. Create the Trend
   
6. Going Back is a Good Option
   
7. Resources
1. Principle of Potential & The Power of Kingdom Influence
2. Principle of Stewardship - Optimization of One's Gifts & Resources
3. Less is More
4. Recycle - No waste - Lean Methodology
8. Leadership & Management
1. Principle of Accountability
2. Principle of Excellence - Zero Defect
3. Principle of HR Development
4. Principle of Continuity
5. Principle of Unity and Harmony
9. Learning from Others: 
1. Entrepreneur Leadership - Kingdom Principles in Business

From Old Testament:

1. Performance Management According to the Ten Commandments
2. Principles & Insights from the Ten Commandments

True Love For Successful Marriage

What is true love?  Love is (1)the other, (2) proactively, (3) unconditionally,
(4) at your inconvenience and (5) all the time.

A couple who invited me to solemnize for their marriage asked me to preach on 1 John 4:9-20 on their wedding day. It is quite different from the standard Eph 5 passage about husband and wife that we usually hear at weddings or from 1 Cor 13 on the meaning of love.

On meditating on the verses, using different versions, I have the following to share about True Love. The New Living Translation uses the term "Real Love". If you are short on time, then read 1 John 4:9-13.

True Love

True Love is benefiting others unconditionally at one own expense all the time.

1. True Love takes the initiative … love 1^st … do 1^st… apologize 1^st…
2. Unconditionally. It enables Covenantal Relationship – 100% relationship vs 50%-50%, not you do your part than I do my part.
3. At our expense, sacrifice, NOT at our convenience. Going out of the way to do something nice for the other. Love will inconvenience you. Love costs you but the love is more valuable than the costs.
4. In Action not in Speech alone. … God sent His Son, to take away….
5. True Love comes from God.

How to have True Love

1. Know that you have God's love in you. v13 God has given us His Spirit & v8 God is love.
2. Know and Taste the Love of God 1^st so that we can love others.
   v10a "since" God loved us that much so we ought to love each other
3. We love each other because He loved us first. 1Jn 4:19

Love increases with Loving

v12 If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and His love is perfected in us. Other versions use make complete, becomes complete, find full expression... His love in us is fulfilled only when we love others - extending God's love to others. In another sense, as we love, we experience the effect of God's love and gain better understanding and passion of His love.

Perfect love cast out fear v18

The greatest stress for many people is Fear - Fear of loss of love, health, wealth, friendship, and worth.
The only way to cast out such fear is the unconditional and therefore unchanging True Love. You're loved not because of your performance but because of the Love of your Lover for you. In contrast, the world only knows conditional love - the Counterfeit Love.

Counterfeit Love
It is love with Conditions – I love you because … you are pretty, rich, nice to me, capable, make others admire me etc. This love is self-centered and not other-centered. If it is conditional, then it is temporary. When you are not what I love you for; when you fail to live to my standards (which is changing with time), I don’t love you anymore!

Conclusions
Have True-Love from spending time with God.

 Love (1)the other,
         (2) proactively,
         (3) unconditionally,
         (4) at your inconvenience and
         (5) all the time. 

Practice it. Be the Right One for the other (this is not an option but a command).

When one of you asked the other 5 years from now, “Do you love me as much as at our wedding ?”, the answer should be - "No! ..... But much more." True Love increases with Time through loving…. May both of you truly love one another with the True-Love of God and build up an increasing loving and binding relationship with each other.

See also The 5C's of Marriage

Preparing for Christ 2nd Coming

In my post onThe Meaning & Power of Holy Communion we cover 4 points about Holy Communion - 1 Unity in Christ, 2 Healing, 3 New Covenant Life and 4 Getting Ready to Receive Christ.

I want to cover a few points on getting ready. My daughter recommends a very good speaker to me. He is Don Carson. Please follow the link to Don Carson's messages for more of his good exposition on the Bible, Revelations, and other topics. He provided a balanced and yet very in depth view of things. Here are 4 main points of the preparation that I learned. This explained how we can be occupied till He comes.

1. Expect Jesus to come back anytime and be ready, all the time, to receive him. Mat 24:43 & 1 Th 5:2 He comes like a thief in the night and Luk 12:40 when we think not!
   
• I am not talking about confessing sins all the time. Our sins, past, present and future are forgiven by Christ's death on the cross 2K years ago. I am talking about maintaining an intimate and dynamic relationship with Jesus all the time. Know His thought, His feeling and His will for us. Enjoy conversation with Him. Get comfort, assurance, and strength from Him. If he so tells us certain wrongs and bad habits that we need to correct, then face the reality; acknowledge them; ask for grace and wisdom to overcome them.
  
2. Prepare for a Long Haul as if His return would be delayed.
   
• There is not a contradiction with point one - expecting His sudden return. If we are faithful, we go about our work diligently whether our bosses or Master watch us or not. We make plans and behave he would not come immediately. Mat 25:13 no one know the day or the hour of His 2nd coming.
  
• The moral of the 10 virgin parable is about getting ready if the Groom delays His arrival. It is not the parable to support Partial Rapture Theory or other interesting but distorted interpretations. It is just simply we must be prepared for the long-haul and not just think short-term.
  
3. Be Accountable
• The parable of the Talents, immediately after the Virgins parable, are about preparation for His coming ( the long time in coming). When He comes, we have to give accounts. There is the bema seat of Judgement for rewards. 2Co 5:10, 1 Co 3:12
  
4. Increase the Assets of the Master.
• The objective that of our life on earth, as His purchased slave/friend is to optimize and increase His asset base. We are to apply the talents given to us and to return more to Him. But be not worry, it is Him who give us the ability to do the things He has called us to do. We just need to be connected to Him and follow Him.
  
• Col 2:10 we are complete in Him.
  
• 2 Ti 1:12 for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.
  
• Php 2:12-13 12 ...work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
  13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
  

See also

1. Preparing for Christ 2nd Coming - Part 2  
2. Bible Study 2 Peter 3 Living in End-Times

Spiritual Truths and the Elephant

If we believe that the universe is created by God and the creation is reflective of the nature of God, then we can say the natural world is filled with spiritual truths. Some famous preacher used stronger words that the nature is impregnated with Spiritual Truths.

• Heb 11:3 and Rom 1:20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made

It is therefore not at all surprising that all religions and philosophies of the world, including Science, could have some spiritual truths in them. The only error, howbeit a very major one, is that each religion or philosophy think that its discovered truth is the ONLY Truth and nothing but THE Truth.

This is like the blind men trying to paint the elephant each coming to his own conclusion of 'truth' wall(body), spear(tusk), tree(leg), snake(tail), fan(ear).

What has that got to do with us Christian ?

Firstly, we see that there are nuggets of truth in all religions and philosophies. We cannot just condemn them as wrong. We need to connect the discovered truth and lead them forward to discover the ultimate truth - Jesus Christ.

Seemingly conflicts can only be resolved at the higher level of truth. We can understand this better with the famous illustrations of the Flatland. The conflicts that Flatland people see are easily resolved by us in the Spaceland world.

Appreciate and discover the truth of other religions and philosophies and bring them to the higher truth of Jesus Christ. Spend time on the connection first. Confusianism teach people how to live the good life based on love and moderation. Jesus Christ gives us the new life to live as we should. Lao Tze, Tao De Jing, discovered the Way of the universe. Jesus Christ tells us that He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. The universe is not passive but active with love of God. Buddhism understand the danger of evil desires. Jesus Christ nailed the evil desires unto the cross and gives us the right desires. There are tremendous similarities in the teachings about living a right kind of lives on earth. Let all of us be empowered by Christ( in You) to lead this good life on earth.

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.