The Power of HABIT

The Power Of Habit

You may know me.
I'm your constant companion.
I'm your greatest helper; I'm your heaviest burden.
I will push you onward or drag you down to failure.
I am at your command.
Half the tasks you do might as well be turned over to me.
I'm able to do them quickly,
and I'm able to do them the same every time
if that's what you want.
I'm easily managed, all you've got to do is be firm with me.
Show me exactly how you want it done;
after a few lessons I'll do it automatically.
I am the servant of all great men and women;
of course, servant of the failures as well.
I've made all the great individuals who have ever been great,
And I've made all the failures, too.
But I work will all the precision of a marvelous computer
with the intelligence of a human being.
You may run me for profit, or you may run me to ruin;
it makes no difference to me.
Take me. Be easy with me and I will destroy you.
Be firm with me and I'll put the world at your feet.
Who am I?

I Am Habit.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: 15th Anniversary Edition - Unabridged Audiobook on CD By Stephen R. Covey / Simon & Schuster Trade Sales

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families By Stephen R. Covey / Saint Martin's Press

Sam Walton and Church Growth

SAM WALTON’S PRINCIPLES AND OUR CHURCH’S GROWTH:

Sam Walton died in April/92, after becoming one of the richest men in the States. He had extraordinary success in creating and building the Wal-Mart discount chain. The following are “Sam’s Rules for Building a Business”, in his own words:

RULE #1: Commit to your business. I think I overcame every single one of my personal shortcomings by the sheer passion I brought to my work.

RULE #2: Share your profits with all associates, and treat them as partners. In turn, they will treat you as a partner, and together you will all perform beyond your widlest expectations.

RULE #3: Motivate your partners. Money and ownership aren’t enough. ...Set high goals, encourage competition and then keep score.

RULE #4: Communicate everything you possibly can to your partners. The more they know, they more they’ll understand... Information is power and the gain you get from empowering your associates more that offsets the risk of informing your competitors.

RULE #5: Appreciate everything your associates do for the business... Nothing else can quite substitute for a few well-chosen, well-timed, sincere words of praise.

RULE #6: Celebrate your successes. Find some humor in your failures. Don’t take yourself so seriously.

RULE #7: Listen to everyone in your company. And figure out ways to get them talking. The folks on the front lines - the ones who actually talk to the customers - are the only ones who really know what’s going on out there.

RULE #8: Exceed your customers’ expectations. If you do, they’ll come back over and over.

RULE #9: Control your expenses better than your competition. This is where you can always find the competitive advantage... You can make a lot of different mistakes and still recover if you run an efficient operation.

RULE #10: Swim upstrean... If everybody else is doing it one way, there’s a good chance you can find your niche by going in exactly the opposite direction... I guess in all my years, what I heard more often than anything was: a town of less than 50,000 cannot support a discount store for very long.

WHAT CAN YOU APPLY TO... OUR CHURCH?

Before We Can Counsel

Before we can do Christian counceling we must have councelors meet these four qualifications:

1.We must agree that the authority of the Scriptures is foremost. By “authority” I mean that when the teaching of Scripture conflicts with any other idea that is presented, the teachings of the Scripture will be accepted as the truth and the other idea will be viewed as unacceptable. To emphasis this, I mean regardless of the other ideas support from the world’s Psychologists and research that seems to contradict this truth of Scripture.
Example: The world says, homosexuality is an alternate life-style, instead of sinful behaviour. The world says, Alcoholism is a disease, instead of sinful behaviour.

2.We must insist that the Bible is God’s infallible, inspired, inerrant revelation in written form.

3. We must agree that Scripture is to be the guide over our thinking.

4. Since Scripture is our guide and mind of God. We will:
a) spent time in the study of the Bible and not just with humanistic books on counseling. (Read through it)
b) our bible study times will be regular so that we remain fresh in the Word of God.
c) we will have a working knowledge of the basic Bible doctrines.
d) we will be in regular fellowship with a Bible-believing church so we may exercise the Spirit’s gifts as we ourselves grow in the knowledge of our Lord. (Can't counsel if you don't come into the church community)

Obedience-Based Discipleship

My friend, Millar Z. is a Chinese man who has the attitude "git-r-done!" He trains believers all over the world. He is practical and deep at the same time, while always expecting to see God work as he walks with Him.

He put some notes down on his discipleship thinking that are worth looking at:

"Genesis to Revelation tells us what God wants man to know about.

Question: Are we obedient in the way we are approaching communities with the gospel?

Matt 21:33. Parable of the vineyard owner who left the country. After some time sent back a servant to check on the vineyard. Beaten and sent away. More sent. More beaten and some killed. Finally sent the son. Killed. Question Jesus asked, “What will happen to the tenants?” Destroyed. Vs. 43, speaking to Pharisees. Fruit means many things - people saved, churches established, mature believers, etc.

Expectation of God is that we produce fruit.

If not, the pronouncement is that what we have will be taken away and given to someone who will produce fruit.

Question: “Are you producing fruit?” “Are you winning the lost, starting new churches, leading believers to live mature Christian lives that transform their communities?”

Word is clear. If not, everything will be taken away.

Our responsibility as leaders is to help our leaders produce fruit. We must produce. Are we making disciples, starting churches, reproducing ourselves into others?

Definition of leaders includes people who produce more leaders. Leaders produce leaders. If you’re not producing leaders you are an administrator, not a leader. We are looking for leaders.

Likewise real churches produce more churches. A church that does not produce more churches is not a church, it is a Christian club. By definition churches produce more churches.

Obedience results in churches reproduces churches on a regular basis."

Millar puts the weight where the weight should be. These are great questions to ponder and even greater commands to obey!

"...He made the Stars also!"

Moses is the Prophet of God who records the very revelation of how the LORD created. Moses pens out in the beginning words of Genesis the work of the Lord. He gives a list of what God was doing each day during creation.

Genesis 1:16 Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also.

With ONLY FIVE WORDS he tells of the one of God's most powerful display of power. Only five words!



The Eagle Nebula is an amazing example of the mighty hand of God.



Here are some posts of some amazing photos of the creative power of the LORD.








If this is some of the things our God has made can you imagine what He is like? How awesome and breath taking He must be. No creature can stand before Him in pride, all must kneel to His authority and strength.

LORD< I kneel! Praise Your name.

Thanksgiving is Here!

With the world enconomy in the state it is in there can seem that there is little to be thankful about BUT this wouldn't be true.

It becomes more important to have a thankful heart in hard times than even in good. So many people are hurting it is good to be their encouragement.

Here are so famous quotes of thankfulness:

God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today. Have you used one to say "thank you?" ~William A. Ward


The Pilgrims made seven times more graves than huts. No Americans have been more impoverished than these who, nevertheless, set aside a day of thanksgiving. ~H.U. Westermayer


Gratitude is the memory of the heart. ~Jean Baptiste Massieu, translated from French


Silent gratitude isn't much use to anyone. ~G.B. Stern


If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, "thank you," that would suffice. ~Meister Eckhart


You say grace before meals. All right. But I say grace before the concert and the opera, and grace before the play and pantomime, and grace before I open a book, and grace before sketching, painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing and grace before I dip the pen in the ink. ~G.K. Chesterton


If a fellow isn't thankful for what he's got, he isn't likely to be thankful for what he's going to get. ~Frank A. Clark


Grace isn't a little prayer you chant before receiving a meal. It's a way to live. ~Jackie Windspear


He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has. ~Epictetus


There is not a more pleasing exercise of the mind than gratitude. It is accompanied with such an inward satisfaction that the duty is sufficiently rewarded by the performance. ~Joseph Addison


Who does not thank for little will not thank for much. ~Estonian Proverb


Gratitude is the fairest blossom which springs from the soul. ~Henry Ward Beecher


Only a stomach that rarely feels hungry scorns common things. ~Horace


When eating bamboo sprouts, remember the man who planted them. ~Chinese Proverb