Good to Great!

Good to great! That’s certainly a goal worth shooting for.

I work at a university. When the administration changed a couple years ago, these books were key in the approach they took.

I got them  immediately and read them. This was the start of my discovery of the leading motivators of today.

Jim Collins, author of Great by Choice and Good to Great, discusses the idea of having the right people “on the bus” and in the “right seats.”

Are You Going to Set Written Goals for 2013?

Planning for and aiming toward new things with a dream and a vision is what I should be doing. It is what you should be doing. Are you a little afraid? Do you feel like you are not able to make forward progress? Do you feel like you have failed in the past? Could it be that you never really set concrete goals? I always thought my orderly and goal-oriented planning was enough. But as I have listened to podcasts and read motivational blogs, I see that my inconsistency did not give me a strong enough foundation. Really, my goal setting was half-baked!

You would think I would have had this figured out by now. But it has only been since this past summer that I have found these motivational tools. Dan Miller, of 48 Days, has his goals set for the new year by November 15. I have not yet written out my goals. While I do make lists every day, I have always thought of goals for a new year as resolutions, which, for some reason, I took some sort of pride in not setting. How whacky is that!


How about you? Are you going to set some goals?

Faith for Your Goals

Sometimes it is a lack of faith that gets in the way of our reaching goals. When you are trying to reach a goal, you may need to take a look at your relationship to God. If you have accepted His gift of salvation, you have the most powerful sources of help. The Bible, the Spirit of God living in You, and access to God at any time.

Yet, too often, faith is left out of the picture when it comes to setting goals. Somehow it is easier to take full responsibility. Certainly, you must do your part. God expects us to make plans, to be orderly, to seek to be our best, to take care of ourselves, to look to the future. But He is still in control.

I’ve heard this quoted many times over the years. It holds a lot of truth.

“Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you.”

—St. Augustine

If you are a Christian, you should set goals in order to accomplish as much as you can toward becoming the person God wants you to become. Let’s ask:

Does he want met to settle for where I am?
Is it showing discontent to make plans and work toward becoming a better you?
Is God pleased when you are careless, hopeless, and apathetic?
Does God want us to sit back and let Him take us to where he wants us to be?

The answer to all of those questions is no.

It is indeed okay to make plans. You are to make plans.

I do believe it is okay to set goals and make plans to better myself in all areas. 

Proverbs 3:5–7
Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the Lord, and depart from evil.

Note that it says He will direct your paths. This assumes that you in motion, looking for the next step. You are to acknowledge God—bring Him into the picture—as you make plans, as you go through your daily life.

Proverbs 16:8–10
Better is a little with righteous than great revenues without right. A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the Lord directeth his steps.

Clearly, it is okay to plan. Scripture says that man devises his way. But note that it is God who directs each step, opening and closing doors. You see, though, that if you are not approaching doors—looking at new opportunities—you will never know if the door would be opened or closed. And for that part the depends on you, you need to prepare yourself, take care of yourself, do your best to be your best, and be actively in pursuit of goals.

Who Wins?

Is there a struggle within? If you are a Christian, you may have some areas where struggle still take place.When I look back over the years at my efforts at setting goals, I find that I have sometimes decided it’s too much work. Or perhaps I expect that I won’t be able to succeed. Life will come at me and I will have to just muddle through.

As a Christian, I know that it is not God’s plan for me to muddle through. He wants me to accomplish any goal I set that will honor Him. Those can be big goals, God-sized goals. I have usually been a little hesitant to step out and set God-sized goals.

I want to anticipate right now, as I’m thinking about goals for 2013, that the devil will try to keep me from reaching those goals. He will even try to keep me from setting goals by challenging my thinking. We often accept lesser goals because we don’t want to seem like we are not pleased or thankful for what God has given us. Why, if I aim to make more money in 2013, isn’t that ungodly?

From career goals to homemaking and eating right, I will set goals that are beyond my reach on my own. They must challenge me to grow beyond what I think I can accomplish.

If you are attempting to reach particular goals to help you make progress and accomplish more, it is likely that you will be facing a battle with the devil.

Ephesians 6:12
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

What about your goals?
If you find yourself holding back on setting goals, ask yourself what is causing your hesitation?
Is it past failures? Is it a fear that you are showing discontent?
Will accomplishing this goal help you succeed in other areas?
Will accomplishing this goal honor God?
And, what it you do not reach the goal? As you break it down into pieces, can you see that you will be further along to accomplish part of the goal? Do you understand that you are not a failure if you do not do every bit of the goal? Do you see that aiming high and making some progress is better than having no goal at all?

If you aim at nothing, you can reach it easily. I would rather set up the target—the goal—and miss the bullseye than not even know where the target is or what the goal is.

Do you suppose it is God who is suggesting you do not have goals? Does He want you just sit where you are and let life happen to you?

Spiritual Health

Statistics are mixed on how many churchgoers or how many Christians read the Bible. But as I was beginning to search for stats, it occurred to me that what other people do doesn’t matter much. And even my own report on how frequently I read the Bible is of no great value.

At our church, we have just started a series about reading the Bible. And, though I have been taught similar approaches in the past, I was ready for this fresh reminder. Just “reading the Bible” is not as effective as reading with a specific plan. My past experience with reading with a plan involves a notebook and pencil, several Bible translations, and a Bible dictionary. I love to study the Bible that way—looking up words, breaking the verses down to understand the meaning.

Somewhere along the way, I got this idea that it was not a good idea to “read the Bible” that way. Why, it just takes too much time, I reasoned. And I would even say to others, “When I try to keep up with devotions, or quiet time, I just get so carried away, because I like to study and look things up,” as if it were a bad thing. So I reasoned myself straight out of a regular quiet time.

Quiet time—in whatever form it takes, because I really am allowed to do it in any manner I choose—will be a goal for me for 2013

Bible Food for Thought

The video program we are using at church identifies three dynamics we need to be aware of in our reading plans.

Listen
You won’t be able to understand if you aren’t able to hear the Word—to take it in. Don’t be in a hurry. Plan enough time, or don’t decide ahead of time how much you have to get through in each session. Sit down with time to read, study, and listen for what God can teach you through His Word.

Understand
I very much enjoy the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible. For the most part, it is the version I use for memorization. But I do have other translations that put the Scripture in more modern language. I like the New American Standard Bible because its translation uses the same words that I often hear pastors use to explain a word in the KJV. I also enjoy The Living Bible, for its easy reading.

When you look for a Bible, you just need to know that it is a good translation that is accurate and communicates well. Our pastor mentioned the Holman Study Bible, which you can find at Christian Books, Amazon, Family Christian Stores, and other places.

Respond
This means you take a point you have learned and apply it to your own life. Find a way to live out that point that you just came to understand.


“Apply yourself wholly to the Scriptures, and apply the Scriptures wholly to yourself.”

—Johann A. Bengel, German theologian and scholar

What do the words mean?

Do you need to look them up?

Do you have study Bible?

Do you have a Bible commentary?

Do you have a Bible dictionary?

What do the word pictures mean?

Do you take time to ponder the Scriptures? Meditate?

Have you allowed time for Bible study?

Do you see that a quick reading of a few verses will not have the same impact?

What should you change to make this happen?

Do you need to slow down?

Do you need to change the time of day?

What if you got up earlier?

Are you asking God to help you understand what He is saying?

Do you know that you might come back to this same scripture later and gain new understanding?

Have you made room for God in your emotions?

What kind of evidence would you see in someone who delights in the Word?

I will set a specific goal for Bible reading that will help me to see spiritual growth in my life.

Memorizing the Fruit of the Spirit List

Galatians 5:22–23
The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such there is no law. (RSV)
 
Love
Joy
Peace

Patience
Kindness
Goodness

Faithfulness
Gentleness
Self-Control

Different translations use different words to express the meaning. I like this version for memorizing because it has a pattern. Three sets of words with increasing numbers of syllables.

One syllable: love, joy, peace

Two syllables: patience, kindness, goodness

Three syllables: faithfulness, gentleness, self-control


When my children were little, we wanted to find Scripture set to music. That’s when we discovered Steve Green’s Hide ’em in Your Heart  CDs. Two of them. With songs that taught my children—and my husband and me—the verse about the fruit of the Spirit, as well as all the others on the two albums.

I was not immediately struck by the stylings of all the songs, but the more I listened the more they appealed to my ear . . . and I was learning them—hiding God’s Word in my heart, right along with my children.

I recalled the verse about it, Isaiah 55:11, that says:
So shall My word be that goeth forth out of My mouth: It shall not return until Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.


Please find this music for your family!

This is Volume 1
 







This is Volume 2