Taking Ownership

Most of us have experienced bad service at a major store. Lack of service happens frequently at big stores. This is because the owner of a smaller local store cares for his customers - there is an understanding of where his money comes from. Imagine if a local cafe owner slapped the occasional customer who didn't order correctly?

Employees often seem careless and don't know their products. They make fun of customers and brag to each other when making customers pay more than they should. Some are paid by commission and their hunger is obvious. You feel they only care about the getting the sale and have little interest in you.

Such employees are too far removed from the boardroom to have a sense of ownership. They're wage slaves who do only the minimum of what is required of them. Some companies try to rectify this with pep rallies or training programs. Sadly the results often reflect more bad service and indifference; employees mostly assume their pay comes from the boss - but it really comes from the customers.

Do you have a sense of ownership about the Kingdom of God? Or are you a “wage slave”? Is your attitude "I'm a Christian so I have to (grudgingly) fulfill a few requirements to look or sound like one?”

We actually inherit the Company (Kingdom). God calls us Sons and Heirs. But it seems we are reluctant or embarrassed to share this good news with others. We get upset about new staff (people) sharing the work in church and rocking the boat. We ignore our training or make little effort to study our "product knowledge". But we love getting money out of people for our pet projects.

Imagine you own the store (because together we do) and examine how you could make the effort to make your service attractive to new customers. Remember we live to serve, but we need to take ownership to serve with excellence.

Born Again to what?

For many Christian believers being “Born Again” is like receiving a special “Gold-Card” that provides immunity from some rather unpleasant consequences and becomes the ticket to attend (when the mood strikes) various functions as a card-carrying member of “The Christian Church.”  At least that is how they function in the sight of those who have had a different experience.

When I read the Bible description of “Born Again” I notice that the experience begins with a death; a death to our own life and our own choices. Those who have truly died need to be born again. When they are born again it is to take up a whole new life that is not their own. All choices and self-determinism are gone. The old nature does still surge to the surface to seize control but only briefly because such people ultimately have no desire or even ability to follow those urges.

Actually we are born into a new family of like-minded people and our whole devotion, passion and commitment becomes centered on them. Every church has a minority of such people who are often viewed by the majority as being “over the top” and need to “get a life.” They are really “the usual suspects” who actually do all the stuff.

People either find themselves gently and gradually drawn into that family of dedicated believers for whom church and the things of God have become their life’s passion or they drift away to other things; their own things. They still have “their life”.

The close-knit family of any church exhibits a love for the things of God because they are born again into it.  Happily this addiction is available to everyone and because it comes from the Lord to open hungry hearts.

Breaking the Mold

At best, people can remember a maximum of 20% of any message preached for a maximum of 10 days; unless they find a way to integrate the message into their daily life. The Church of the Western World has adopted the methods of the Scribes of Jesus time: They taught with illustrations, quotes, ear-tickling detail and often passionate eloquence.

Jesus taught in a different way “the crowds were astonished at His teaching because He was teaching them as one who had authority and not as the Scribes..” Matthew 7:28-29. He used brief powerful stories and parables because he knew the limitations of the people; that they could not retain things unless they were expressed in the simplest everyday concepts that they could relate to. He always included a command to action.

I once heard Juan Carlos Ortiz say: “Don’t preach a new sermon till the last one has been done!” Very few have tried this approach (and survived), it was not popular. People’s expectations are for nice meetings and new teaching.  Somehow we must re-direct this expectation toward a new task or command of Jesus that we must all embrace in order to move on. This would involve a radical re-think of the way we do church.

The enemy of our souls comes to church also… to prey. He wants to snatch the word away from us in case we actually do it! In Matthew 7:21 Jesus warns us that we will fail to enter His Kingdom unless we DO the will of God. He goes on to give the illustration of the house built on sand or rock.

We resent anything that breaks into the pattern of our independence and traditions but the commands of Jesus always do. Are we building a system of church life that neatly sidesteps our responsibility to act upon those commands? Please think about this before things change. 

Can you fit in Heaven?

Revelations 21:15-16 reads as follows: "The angel who talked with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city, its gates and its walls. The city was laid out like a square, as long as it was wide. He measured the city with the rod and found it to be 12,000 stadia [that is, about 1,400 miles or about 2,200 kilometres] in length, and as wide and high as it is long."

This represents a space of 496,793,080,000,000,000,000 cubic feet; allocating one half of this space for the Throne and the Courts of Heaven, and one half of the balance for streets; this would leave a remainder of 124,198,270,000,000,000,000 cubic feet.

Then divide the remainder by 4,096 [the number of cubic feet in a room 16 feet square] and this will produce 30,321,843,750,000,000 rooms of the size indicated.

Conservatively calculating that the world contains, and has always contained, and always will contain 1,000,000,000 inhabitants, and that there are three generations to each 100 years. This gives the total number of inhabitants each century as 3,000,000,000.

Now, let's assume that the world will last for 1,000 centuries before the return of the Lord [or 100,000 years]. This would give a total of 3,000,000,000,000 inhabitants for this period of time.

We then must make an unlikely assumption that if 100 other worlds of the same size and duration, and containing the same number of inhabitants as Earth were to also find their way to Heaven, there would be more than 100 rooms of the size indicated for each person. Do you think it will be roomy enough for you?

A National Conscience

Restoring a National Conscience

It would appear that conscience has “gone out of style.”  Most people exhibit no signs of ever having a conscience? They sin with ease, not even aware that they have transgressed. When confronted, they are surprised! Many who are conditioned by a good upbringing and who do the same stuff, go through a Hell of remorse, their conscience beating them like a club.

Is Your Halo Too Tight?

A fellow visits his doctor with a raging headache. The Doctor asks a few questions to identify the cause: Drink? No! Smoker? Absolutely not! Watch late night television? Never, all those sleazy movies and stuff! Eat bad food? Wouldn't dream of it, my body is a temple of the Holy Spirit! The Doctor asked: is it a shooting kind of pain? Yes, that’s it exactly. The Doctor replied the cause is simple; you have your halo on too tight!