Thoughts on Christ and His Word

We all experience stress - too much to do in too little time and usually without the proper resources. BURNOUT occurs when stress accumulates in us over time. Burnout affects our motivation and desire to keep striving towards the goals and ideals we once held onto so closely. Many times burnout leads to depression and a sense of hopelessness and helplessness . Christian leader Mike Foster says "My biggest indicator of burnout is how I treat people...What's most unfortunate, and probably not a unique situation, is that I take out my stress on the people I love the most...my wife and kids..." Many times we burnout because we are on the road to success. We are pursuing our dreams so fast and furiously that we don't see the "self-destruction" warning light blinking crazily on our dashboard. Pastor Wayne Cordeiro said of his burnout experience "Unknowingly, the road to success and the road to a nervous breakdown became the same road." Burnout i...

Problems and leadership go together. Read what happened to Paul. We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. 9 Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. 10 He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, 11 as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many. 2 Corinthians 1:8-11 One of God’s greatest goals in working with his leaders is to keep them humble and dependent on Him. So in order to develop this dependence on God, He sends trials into their lives. Paul says he suffered “hardships” and was under “great pressure” which led him to ...

Recently a teenager wanted to know how she could stay “on fire” for God. “Good question”, I thought. Over my 30 years of being a Christian, I have seen many young people (and old as well) come to Christ, only to be sucked into the world shortly thereafter. I think it is very hard to live for Christ as a young person and doubly so in today’s modern world with so much peer pressure to do wrong and the easy availability of evil media. So after thinking of HOW TO STAY “ON-FIRE” FOR GOD , I suggest the following practices: 1. Prayer As a young man who was just appointed king, Solomon prayed: "Now, O LORD my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David. But I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties. 8 Your servant is here among the people you have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count or number. 9 So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong....