Hagar gave birth to a child named Ishmael: the Middle East and the world are still struggling because of that shortcut today.

A while back, I took some pastors and together we climbed Diamond Head. All along the way, there are these little signs that say, “Stay on the path. Take no shortcuts, it causes erosion.” We should hang those signs in every one of our homes, “Stay on the path. Take no shortcuts, it causes erosion.”

The Lord says, “Please don’t take shortcuts. Don’t take matters into your own hands. I am asking you to be faithful and to scrub your hearts. Stay faithful in whatever I give you to do, even though it might seem like it takes a long time.”

Be careful to not listen to voices that encourage you to take shortcuts. Don’t take matters into your own hands.

Read the full article at MentoringLeaders.com

It’s not a sin to be an under-developed leader.

We all started that way, but it is a sin to remain that way! The under-developed leader can wreck the potential of churches. Underdeveloped leaders are dangerous. They rarely cast vision. They don’t build teams, resolve problems, don’t let things die that ought to die, and they don’t pay attention to the warnings of oncoming diseases. They don’t confront issues that would infect the whole body or call the best out of their people. They maintain than muster, and they defend rather than advance.

We all begin as under-developed leaders. Some remain that way. Don’t.

It’s time for us to end the famine in leadership by starting with ourselves.

Read the full article at MentoringLeaders.com
Watch the video at MentoringLeaders.com

God likens our life on this earth to a breath to remind us of how brief our time is here. And like a test in school, I have to realize that when the period is over, I must turn in my paper regardless of whether or not I have completed the test. Any unanswered questions will go unanswered and any problem I did not attempt to resolve is marked "wrong."

I must try! I must pace myself according to the time limits. I can never lose a sense of urgency for what God has called me to do in such a brief time. I cannot lose focus or be distracted with worldly things. I have been redeemed and given a new life; I am a new creation with a purpose and an eternal assignment. And as Jesus said in Luke 2, "I must be about my Father’s business." He understood that when He was only twelve years old!

Read the full article at MentoringLeaders.com

Hybrid cars are rising in popularity along with rising gas prices. The word “hybrid” can mean the combination of two or more elements that results in a third “species,” such as a vehicle that is powered by a combination of gas and electricity. It can also describe the formation of new words in our English language. Two different words combined can create a third word. For example, the word “television” is a hybrid of tele, from the Greek and vision, from Latin.

And one of those is in our assignment. Read what Jesus says to Peter in John 21. Peter was given an assignment to feed sheep. Jesus spoke to him about his aging years and how he would serve God’s purposes as an elder. But looking at John the beloved, he wondered…

Peter seeing him said to Jesus, “Lord, and what about this man?” Jesus said to him, “If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow Me!” -John 21:21 - 22

Peter wanted to know what John’s assignment was, but Jesus steered him back to his own. Peter could easily become a hybrid of others’ assignments combined with his own. Comparisons and measuring himself by what others were doing would morph him into a new “species.” Then he would resemble others’ callings rather than what God asked of him specifically.

“What has that to do with you? YOU follow Me!”

Read the full article at MentoringLeaders.com

It’s not a secret anymore, but it will remain a poignant lesson for years to come.

It was just after a rousing evening service in 2006 where the worship was powerful and the sermon was stirring. A pastor is accused of soliciting drugs, and for that and the allegation of homosexuality, he would soon be let go by the board. Ted Haggard of New Life Church lived a double life, and religious postures and eloquent words were not a substitute for unresolved inner inconsistencies. All during the wonderful worship and challenging sermons, something was out of place.

"Although they fast, I will not listen to their cry; though they offer burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Instead, I will destroy them …" (Jeremiah 14:12)

As leaders, we are good at leading services, emceeing programs, and making speeches that can motivate people. We can arrange activities for small groups, all night prayer meetings, and all congregational fasting. We put together mission programs and preach moving sermons, as the church would require.

But what does God require more than these? The prophet Micah in 6:8 tells us:

“The LORD has told us what is good. What he requires of us is this: to do what is just, to show constant love, and to live in humble fellowship with our God.”

Who I am in the shadows rather than in the footlights is what God measures.

Read the full article at MentoringLeaders.com

Blackberry jam is wonderful. It goes well with peanut butter and toast or anything else you might have for breakfast. But every once in awhile, I like to eat blackberries just to give me a sense of superiority.

Let me explain.

If you know anything about blackberries, they are ravenous vines protected by a prickly armor that defies you to pull them out. The thorns pierce your hands and they’ll draw blood if you try to disturb their intentions. If you don’t conquer them, they’ll claim your whole farm. And in order to expedite their victory, the blackberries make an alliance with birds. Then after a scrumptious breakfast, the winged mercenaries take flight and drop payloads everywhere. This one act of aerial superiority causes the battle to turn and suddenly, enemy thorns surround you.

We have a little farm in Oregon where my two daughters and son-in-law live. Blackberries are common up there. They are opportunists. Like turkey vultures waiting for something to die, they hang around the fence lines. You can shoo them away, but by evening, they slide back into place. If they are not eliminated, they begin their advance and conquer our gardens and yards. I had to spray our fields this summer to get rid of the blackberries. I cannot sow seed until I clear the thorns.

New seasons require clean ground. Otherwise we work against ourselves.

This is what the LORD says to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem: "Break up your unplowed ground and do not sow among thorns." -Jeremiah 4:3

You have to clear the thorns before you can expect a new season.

What are the areas of your life as a leader that needs to be revisited? What about your health? Marriage? Family? Mind? Values? These need to be maintained and guarded, because if you turn your head, you’ll soon feel thorns at your back.

Today, I think I’ll go eat some blackberries.

Read the full article at MentoringLeaders.com

You communicate in three ways: through your words, your gestures, and through your spirit. Which do you think is most important?

I bet you guessed it. Not through our words, but the spirit with which we speak those words. That is what gives our words meaning, depth, credence.

But our spirit can flag. We become fatigued with the daily-ness of leading, and we end up still doing the deeds but they are done “absent of spirit.” Zephaniah teaches us a leadership lesson that would do us well to heed:

“It will come about at that time that I will search Jerusalem with lamps, and I will punish the men who are stagnant in spirit … (Zeph 1:12)

I need to stay current with the Holy Spirit as He renews my spirit every morning … for my family, my ministry, my physical health, my speaking and teaching. They will all go stale if I do not renew my spirit. Otherwise, I will go “stagnant in spirit” and I become dull to God.

That is why my time in the Word each morning is a non negotiable. I must renew my spirit for what is before me.

For today. For this weekend. For life.

Read the full article at MentoringLeaders.com

Did you know that the last word in the Oxford English Dictionary is Zyxt? It’s an obsolete Kentish word that is the second singular indicative present form of the verb see. Although Zyxt is the last word in the English dictionary, do you know what the last word is in God’s eternal Kingdom? The following scripture from Isaiah gives us a huge clue:

“The Lord of hosts has sworn saying, “Surely, just as I have intended so it has happened, and just as I have planned so it will stand” (Isaiah 14:24).

Sooner better than later, we need to realize that the last word is this: God will always have the last word. We may think we do, and we might even think that we can change His mind, but in the end, whatever He says, goes. No “if’s”, “ands,” or “buts” about it. That’s the bottom line; the final analysis; the movie is over and it’s time to roll the credits.

The Scripture confirms this in Matthew 15:13. Jesus said, “Every plant which My heavenly Father did not plant shall be uprooted.”

It occurred to me that in order to save time and hear God’s last word, the best thing for me would be to find out what God would like, and then do exactly as He says. I think it would be better to take more time in discerning His will so I am sure that I am following His plans and not some pie in-the-sky pipe dream that I conjured up, and now I am trying to convince myself (and others) that it was from “God.”

The best way to do so would be to take a few more minutes in seeking His face, discovering His heart, and then following through exactly as He desires.

Read the full article at MentoringLeaders.com

Doing the will of God does not always come catered with peaches and cream for dessert.

Sorry!

It might instead, arrive with a generous helping of persecution or broken expectations. It might come wrapped in struggle paper with a side of “let-down.”

But when that happens, it doesn’t mean that God’s promises have been thwarted. The writer of Hebrews charges us to stay the course.

“You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. For in just a very little while, He who is coming will come and will not delay. But my righteous one will live by faith. And if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him.” But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved” (Hebrews 10:36-39)

We get duped into thinking that if we serve God, then everything will be absent of problems, and blessings should come catered on a daily basis. Sort of like the old song from the musical, Oklahoma!, we think the Christian’s national anthem should be “Oh, what a beautiful morning, Oh what a beautiful day, I got a beautiful feelin’, Ev’rything’s goin’ my way.”

Dream on.

That is why Hebrews tells us that when we do the will of God, keep enduring and persevere. There will be times that obedience will be attended by the absence of “beautiful feelins.”

But the righteous will live by faith… not always by feeling.

Read this article at MentoringLeaders.com

Hudson Taylor, founder of the Inland China Mission, understood that a repenting man was a healthy man, and a repenting church would be a strong church. Yet we shy from repentance because it will always be preceded with some measure of correction.

He would greet people in an unusual manner. When he would come across a colleague, he’d say, “Have you repented yet today?” I am sure it caught many by surprise and left a few bewildered.

He may have learned that from Paul when he encountered the Cretans. Look with me at Titus 1:12:

“…one of their own prophets has said, “Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons.” This testimony is true. Therefore, rebuke them sharply, so that they will be sound in the faith.”

I laugh every time I come across this verse.

Read this article at MentoringLeaders.com