“You cannot change Truth, but Truth can change you” MFC

“Methods are many,principles are few.methods always change,principles never do” is a quote I will never forget hearing at a conference I attended at 19 years old.  There is only one Truth for salvation and that is Jesus Christ and that Truth can be learned about by the infallible word of God , the Bible.  All good principles in day-to-day living also have their roots in the bible as well.  Fortunately for the last 4 years I was given the chance to learn about many principles that have changed my LIFE and  I thought today I would give a few ideas on resources for books etc that can help with great principles on topics such as character, purpose, attitude, programming, gameplanning,keeping score, family, friendship, financial management, leadership, conflict resolution, systems thinking,anxiety, depression, forgiveness, handling adversity, and legacy. These are some of my favorites for sure. Orrin Woodwards book “Resolved” has been the most influential on principles for me and Tim Marks book “Voyage of a Viking” is a biography I will never forget.    If anyone has any other great resources for great principles feel free to comment. god bless

 

             

I also “of course” recommend the 90 Day Mental Fitness Challenge for a chance to have someone to be accountable to for growth!   www.90daymentalfitchallenge.com/

Resolved to Change

A couple of days back I had another birthday and was able to celebrate it with my family and have been reading Resolved by Orrin Woodward, which has me wondering if I am really living a Resolved LIFE. Orrin writes about the resolutions of 3 great Americans Jonathon Edwards, Benjamin Franklin and George Washington. ” A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line”.C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity  I guess the best part of the reading has been comparing my own squiggly line to these mens straight lines and desiring to be better.  32 is by no means old but I have now lost those years to do great.. and pray that the next 32 is a more RESOLVED LIFE.  Just when we think no one is watching how we live, out of the corner of our eye we see our  kids/spouse/family/friends/business partner/neighbors and more importantly our father in heaven watching to see how we choose to live. Today in the age     of “what you do in private is your business”, I am 100 pct convicted it might be just you and God that know, but it has ripples everywhere.    What a better gift to celebrate Jesus’s Birthday than to give your friends/family/self  a book about living by principles. God bless cody

Jonathon Edwards was, as Randall Stewart wrote, “Not only the greatest of all American theologians and philosophers but the greatest of our pre-19th century writers as well,” making his gracious humble spirit even more impressive.  He didn’t fight for his rights; instead he merely accepted the ruling as God’s Will, taking a position as missionary to the frontier Indians. Edwards consistently displayed a grace-filled spirit of forgiveness to his many detractors, some who, years later apologized for their involvement in the misinformation spread. Can one imagine the infamy of being associated with the congregation that dismissed one of the best theologians and philosophers in American history? But Edwards, in his final years, never missed a beat, writing several classics of Christian literature, leaving an enduring testament to the power of character-based resolutions to transform a person from the inside out. Edwards faithfully lived his principles externally because that is who he had become internally. Specifically, he didn’t just give lip service to his resolutions, he truly lived them.

Can man fix himself?

“FAITH”

A couple of months back I passed up reading a book from the All Grace Outreach series in the Life Leadership program from Pastor Stephen Davey .  I think I passed the chance to read it because it was under 100 pages long and kind of looked like a cartoon book.  Having 4 kids under 7 I read enough play books “I thought.”  It is titled “Overcoming the ME Attitudes” and boy did I need to read it. He is going through the Sermon on the Mount found in Mathew Chapter 5. It is a great short book about the understanding of how morally bankrupt man is aka, totally depraved. Jesus says “blessed are the poor in spirit” which doesn’t mean “feeling bad about self, always looking sad, broke financially or weak physically.  The word translated poor is poctos, which is extremely descriptive of facing total bankruptcy.  Poverty in spirit is best explained later on by Paul in the book of Romans 7:18 “for I know that in me [that is my flesh] nothing good dwells,for I have the desire but not the ability”.   The big idea as  here is that man cannot fix himself or another man cannot fix a man without the aid of the Holy Spirit.

Now, what field do you guess has the top rate of suicide?  Most of you already guessed it, it is Psychology.  When reading page 31 in “Overcoming the Me Attitudes” I was astonished at the time and began a study of why.  Here is a few nuggets on My personal belief of why it is at the top.

Psychology literally means “the study of the soul”.  Sigmund Freud, the Father of modern psychology, was an unbeliever, or humanist and devised psychology as a substitute for religion. Modern psychology can be summarized in several commonly held ideas that have their root in humanism. Trying many methods and behavior modification to have man help themselves become happy.  Here is a few Dr. MacArthur states

• Human nature is basically good
• People have the answers inside them
• The key to understanding and correcting a person’s attitude and actions lies somewhere in that persons past
• Individuals problems are the result of what someone else has done to them
• Human problems can be purely psychological in nature, unrelated to any spiritual or physical conditions
• Deep seated problems can only be solved by professional counselors using therapy
• Scripture, prayer, and the holy spirit are inadequate and simplistic resources for solving certain types of problems

Christian Psychology has tried to become an intercessor between what the Bible teaches  and what Freud taught and caused confusion with believers that “this is how Jesus would counsel”.  I do believe there is many things man can do to make life better on himself but that ability does not come from himself . Jesus taught proper thinking on the Sermon the Mount and it flies in contradiction to psychology. Do not get me wrong though Christian Counseling is very important Proverbs 11:14 “Where there is no counsel, the people will fall; but in the multitude of counselors there is safety”. Christian Counseling and Psychology differ in where they get there information from , the Bible or Freud

 Seeing the crowds, Jesus went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him.

The Beatitudes      —– blessed is translated from greek word makarios meaning, happy or fortunate.

YOU CAN EXCHANGE HAPPY FOR BLESSED IN THE SENTENCE IF YOU WISH!

2 And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:

3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

5 “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

11 “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Jesus came along and said “happy” people are actually bankrupted, unappreciated, persecuted , reviled, needy, weeping, downtrodden, confessing people, who all know they themselves cannot fix themselves but only a true God can.  Happiness is not about our possesions, our past,  anything else, it’s about our positioning with our Savior. Romans 15:13 “now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the holy spirit” The  Psychology  field has many suicides because it attempts to fix what man was never meant to fix “himself.”   If we were meant to fix ourselves then God wouldn’t have needed to send down a savior from heaven “his only begotten son”  to save us from ourselves.  God bless Cody 

Vision,Faith and Purpose Driven Leadership

I met Hans a couple of years ago in his quest to grow, change and become all God meant for him to be in his LIFE. He and his wife are great students of the Life Leadership program and All Grace Outreach. We have discussed many things about the bible, leadership, family and finances.  We have discussed many issues that I learned prospective from my mentor Tim Marks, my dad and mentor Bill Newton, and my personal pastor, Kelly Randolph about what it takes to be a Bible centered Leader. After the learning process started he began the second stage, PERFORMING, and it scared him to death.  I have personally watched him face fear and keep moving.  Hans and Elly are a couple who I respect because of their convictions and more important,  because of their courage to move forward with their God-given convictions in the face of opposition and FEAR.  god bless Cody

   “You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing you think you cannot do.”– Eleanor Roosevelt

The thing that I have probably gotten most from the LIFE Team is a vision. As Andy Stanley would say, “a vision for what could be and should be.” To be more specific, a purpose. And actually, I didn’t get my purpose from LIFE; it just helped me discover my purpose and the fact that God had created me for a purpose. I’ve heard people say before, “God made me to be an engineer,” or “God made me to be a teacher,” or “God made me to be…[whatever].” I disagree. I believe that when God formed us in our mothers’ wombs, he fashioned us for a purpose, not an occupation. And before I was introduced to LIFE, I was not living for a purpose; I was just…living. As I believe Henry David Thoreau once said, “Most men die at the age of 25 and wait until the age of 65 to be buried.” That was me. Coincidentally enough, I was 25 when I saw the LIFE Team and I had become complacent in life. Most days, it was home to work, then work to home, and then an evening of the latest TV shows or movies with my wife (not exactly her idea of quality time).

The first book I read that gave me a sense of purpose was a book I received through our AGO series entitled The Principles and Power of Vision by Dr. Myles Munroe. This was an awesome book that made me realize my overall purpose—to lead people to Truth. The most recent book I read on purpose (no pun intended) was Visioneering by Andy Stanley. What an amazing book! A few things in particular stood out to me. He goes through a process to help one discover his or her purpose, but most importantly, to achieve a God-given purpose, he says one must have moral authority. Stanley says, “Moral authority is rooted in a desire to please God rather than man.” It is doing what’s right because it’s right and not even just for the sake of leadership or influence. Have moral authority in all your relationships, beginning in the home (which is a big one I’m still learning). “Moral authority is the overflow of character, not leadership ability.” So devote yourselves to what is right (Philippians 4:8). “There will always be people who won’t believe what you believe. But don’t give them grounds to doubt that you believe what you claim to believe.” Stanley says this is also extremely important because on the road to accomplishing your purpose, you will meet opposition. And if you’re like me, moving forward in the face of opposition does not come easily. But it is through LIFE that I have learned to act with courage rather than cowardice—not all the time, mind you. But as Bill Lewis said on a recent leadership audio, “sometimes, courage is the little voice at the end of the days that says, ‘I’ll try again tomorrow.’” What I pray every day is that I’ll grow in my courage to live fully committed to my God and purpose. “An audience can disagree with a position, but they can’t disagree with the reality of a conviction lived out.” Were it not for LIFE and the mentorship of Cody and Tara Newton, I don’t know exactly where Elly and I would be, but I imagine we’d be in a bad place getting worse. Today, I’m nowhere near fulfilling the vision God has placed in my heart. I still have a ton of growing to do and I certainly don’t claim to have perfectly applied all the principles above, but I do believe I’m on the narrow path. Thanks be to God for rescuing me and for the grace He gives me on a daily basis that I still have breath to move towards accomplishing what he planned for me before time began. “Everybody ends up somewhere in life. You have the opportunity to end up somewhere on purpose” (Stanley).

 Hans 

“Missions exists because worship doesn’t”

-John Piper, in Let the Nations Be Glad