Rosaria Butterfield - The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert

Sexuality is more a symptom of our life’s condition than a cause, more a consequence than an origin.

Importantly, we don’t see God making fun of homosexuality or regarding it as a different, unusual, or exotic sin. What we see instead is God's warning: if you indulge the sins of pride, wealth, entertainment-lust, lack of mercy, and lack of discretion, you will find yourself deep in sin — and the type of sin may surprise you.

Homosexuality, like all sin, is symptomatic and not casual — that is, it tells us where our heart has been, not who we inherently are or what we are destined to become.

Sin is not a mistake.  A mistake is taking the wrong exit on the highway.  A sin is treason against a holy God.  A mistake is a logical misstep.  Sin lurks in our heart and grabs us by the throat to do our bidding.

Lorretta Kelley - Dream Stealers

When you commit your works unto the Lord, even your thoughts will be established.

Delay does not mean denial.

You cannot transform another's life - only God can do it.

Fatigue can steal or kill your dream... you gotta learn to say, "No!"

Not everyone will support your dream or vision... you gotta be careful who you tell it to.

Fasting and Keto

From my Virta Dietitian:

There is a rich literature on human recovery following energy or protein privation. In the Minnesota Experiment, lean healthy males who were fed ‘half-rations’ (1600 kcal and 50 g/d protein) for 6 months lost 1/3 of their lean body mass. Once refeeding with adequate protein and energy was begun, it took them over 4 months to approach their original baseline of strength and function, and in so doing, they added excess body fat. In addition to the Marliss study (Errol Marliss, J Clin Invest, 1978), multiple human studies demonstrate that the maximum rate at which a protein-deprived person can gain back lost lean body mass is ¼ pound per day (ie, 4 g/d positive nitrogen balance). So if a day of total fasting causes the loss of ½ to 1 pound of lean body mass per day (depending upon one’s level of keto-adaptation), then it takes at least 2-4 days of full feeding with protein and energy to recover that one day’s loss.

Given the current popularity of intermittent fasting (IF), one would assume that there would be well-designed studies published to demonstrate that its practice does not impair lean tissue preservation, mineral status, or function in humans. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Yes, there are multiple published studies of ‘intermittent fasting’, defined as not eating from morning until early evening every other day, or not eating any protein until the evening meal. There are also a few studies of people eating 75% less or total fasting for every other day. Weight losses are typically about 5% but plateau quickly. At this amount of weight loss, accurate measurement of body composition are problematic, so good data on lean body mass changes are lacking. But many people who practice IF eat nothing or no protein for more than 24 hrs at a time. And more importantly, some people choose to fast for days at a time, assuming that their body can effectively conserve its functional tissue, or make up for it by rapidly recovering lean tissue in the intervals between these fasts. There are other reasons why people fast besides weight loss. Boosting blood ketone levels is increasingly associated with reduced aging and oxidative stress. There are also many reports of energy restriction and reduced cancer growth, but this benefit is not consistently seen in animal models of intermittent fasting (implying that the benefit is in consistent restriction rather than intermittent restriction).

So what does this really mean? Yes, total fasting can cause rapid weight loss, but typically half or more of this will come from lean tissue. And most importantly, depending upon the amounts of protein and energy one consumes after a period of fasting, the rate of recovery of lean tissue will likely be slower than the rate at which it was lost. To be blunt, in the real world, recovery of lean tissue lost as a result of any period of total fasting takes 2-4 times as long as the period of fasting itself.

John Maxwell - The 360° Leader

“He who mistrusts most should be trusted least.” ~ Greek proverb

It takes nine months to produce a baby — no matter how many people you put on the job.

You cannot give what you do not have. In order to develop your staff, you must keep growing yourself.

Max DePree said that it is the first responsibility of a leader to define reality.

When you don’t want to have a difficult conversation, you need to ask yourself: Is it because it will hurt them or hurt me? If it is because it will hurt you, then you’re being selfish. Good leaders get past the discomfort of having difficult conversations for the sake of the people they lead and the organization. The thing you need to remember is that people will work through difficult things if they believe you want to work with them.

p240

Re: The Law of the Niche: All players have a place where they add the most value.

When I was in high school, I was fortunate to have a coach who understood this. During one of our varsity basketball practices, our coach, Dan Neff, decided he wanted to teach us a very important lesson about basketball. He got the first- and second-string teams out on the floors to scrimmage. That wasn’t unusual—we scrimmaged all the time. Our second team had some good players, but clearly the first team was much better. This time he had us do something very different from the norm. He let the second-string players take their normal positions, but he assigned each of us starters to a different role from our usual one. I was normally a shooting guard, but for this scrimmage, I was asked to play center. And as I recall, our center was put in the point-guard position.

We were instructed to play to twenty, but the game didn’t take long. The second team trounced us in no time. When the scrimmage was over, Coach Neff called us over to the bench and said, “Having the best players on the floor isn’t enough. You have to have the best players in the right positions.”

What’s worse than training your people and losing them? Not training them and keeping them.

p268

If your people aren’t following, you need to listen more. You don’t need to be more forceful. You don’t need to find more leverage. You don’t need to come down on them. If you listen, they will be much more inclined to follow.

p275

I’ve never known a person focused on yesterday to have a better tomorrow.

p276

St. Francis of Assisi said, “Start doing what is necessary; then do what is possible; and suddenly you are doing what is impossible.”

p286

Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be bent out of shape.

p287

There’s an old saying that a smart person believes only half of what he hears, but a really smart person knows which half to believe.

p288

Martin Luther King Jr. said, “The biggest job in getting any movement off the ground is to keep together the people who form it. This task requires more than a common aim; it demands a philosophy that wins and holds the people’s allegiance; and it depends upon open channels of communication between the people and their leaders.”

Megyn Kelly - Settle for More

Chpt 3, Loc 635

Ten days before Christmas 1985, my family was beginning to gather together for the holiday, with Suzanne home from college. Pete was attending college nearby and was frequently underfoot, though on this particular day he’d opted to watch a football game with his friends rather than at home. I wanted to get the same class ring [my friend] Kelly was ordering. Dad said it was too expensive. I kept complaining, and he kept saying we couldn’t afford it.

I wouldn’t let it go.

He’d had it. He turned and walked out of the kitchen. That was the last exchange I would ever have with my father.

I watched him walk toward the living room, and then I stormed up to my bedroom without saying good night or even acknowledging him. I turned out the light and went to sleep angry. The last image I have of my father alive is of him alone on the couch, staring at the Christmas tree. That sight would haunt me for the rest of my life—the picture of a good man, exasperated and alone.

Just before midnight, Suzanne ran into my bedroom.

“Wake up!” she shouted. “Daddy had a heart attack.”

Chpt 4, Loc 857

One year we [Megyn and Jim (college boyfriend)] went to a Final Four championship dinner; the teams included Yale, Loyola, UNC North Caroline, and Syracuse. Each captain gave a speech to a packed hall. The guy from Yale said, “There have been a lot of eyes on Yale this year, a lot of questions about us. People wonder why we do drills the way we do, why we warm up the way we do. . . . The way we wear our socks is very innocuous. It’s all about teamwork and brotherhood.”

Jim gets up there for the Syracuse team and says, “I can’t speak for all the teams, but we at Syracuse did not have our eyes on Yale, and we didn’t wonder about their drills or their socks. But we were wondering what the word ‘innocuous’ means.”

Chpt 17, loc 3153

I've never worked at a place where some star employee—man or woman—was unknown to everyone, tolling away unnoticed. If you believe this is happening to you, ask yourself if you have worked as hard as possible, studied extensively, and made yourself invaluable. If you can’t honestly say you have done all of those things, quit complaining.

Tim Tebow - Shaken

chpt 1, pg 8

“We must accept finite disappointment, but we must never lose infinite hope.” ~ Martin Luther King Jr.

chpt 4, pg 81

I love the saying, “Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work as hard.”

---

Martin Luther wrote, “This life is not righteousness, but growth in righteousness. It is not healthy, but healing; not being, but becoming; not rest, but exercise. We are not yet what we shall be, but we are growing toward it. This is not the end, but it is the road.”

chpt 5, pg 98

One of my favorite quotes is from my big sister Christy. In the midst of her struggles with health and the challenges of being a missionary overseas, she became convinced, “God will never waste pain that’s offered to Him.” I love that. God will never waste your pain. He will never waste your heartache. He will never waste your loss.

chpt 9, pg 177

Don't wait for something to happen or for someone to give you permission to do something right. Just do it. When’s the right time? For the most part, always.

One of my favorite sayings is “Oftentimes we don’t dream big enough and oftentimes we don’t start small enough.”

John Maxwell - Developing the Leader Within You

All of the following are from chapter eight, The Indispensable Quality of Leadership: VISION

p143

We see what we are prepared to see, not what is. Every successful leader understands this about people and asks three questions:

• What do others see?
• Why do they see it that way?
• How can I change their perceptions?

p144

Bobb Biehl, in his book Increasing Your Leadership Confidence, says, “Keep in mind the difference between a winner’s and a loser’s mentality. Winners focus on winning big—not just how to win, but how to win big. Losers, however, don't focus on losing; they just focus on getting by!”

Keep asking yourself, “Survival, success, or significance?” Are you striving to simply survive, are you dreaming about success, or are you really out to make a truly significant difference?

p149-150

Successful leaders see on three levels:

• Level 1. Perception: See what is now with the eyes of reality.
• Level 2. Probability: Seeing what will be with the eyes of discernment.
• Level 3. Possibility: Seeing what can be with the eyes of vision.

A futurist lives only on Level 3. A forecaster lives only on Level 2. A follower lives only on Level 1. A leader lives on Level 3, leads on Level 2, and listens on Level 1.

p151

Many visions aren’t realized because of strong, dogmatic people. To be absolutely certain about something, one must either know everything or nothing about it. Most of the time, the dogmatist knows nothing but conventionally says something.

p153

Some people can see a problem in every solution. Usually obstacles are the things you see when you take your eyes off the goal. Interestingly, some people think the ability to see problems is a mark of maturity. Not so. It’s the mark of a person without a vision. These people abort great visions by presenting problems without any solutions.

Cardinal John Henry Newman said that nothing would get done at all if a man waited until he could do something so well that no one could find fault with it.

p155

A prime function of a leader is to keep hope alive. Napoleon said, “Leaders are dealers in hope.”

p158

The successful Level 3 leader will see on three levels:

1. The Perceptible Level: What is now seen—the eyes of reality. A leader listens on this level.
2. The Probable Level: What will be seen—the eyes of discernment. A leader leads on this level.
3. The Possible Level: What can be seen—the eyes of vision. A leader lives on this level.

Questions to Ask about Your Lesson

These questions are from Teach Like a Pirate by David Burgess.

Is there something we can write on the board or shine on our screens that will spark a conversation or create a buzz?

Is there some way we can get our class outside of this lesson?

Where would be the perfect place on campus to deliver this lesson?

Can I inject an activity that will get every student out of there seat at some point in this lesson?

Can I offer some sort of artistic opportunity — a chance for students to express their own art voice?

Can I offer an activity where they challenge each other?

Can I make it like National Treasure where they solve clues and they come to me for the next clue?

Can I use the amazing power of silence? Pictionary? Charades? Little placards that I turn over like in those videos that are strangely engaging?

Is there some way that I can turn this into a contest?

Is there something I can do to myself to immediately spark curiosity as they enter the room?

Is there something I can do to transform my space — can I change my room some way to deliver this lesson?

Can I use the people of my class as props (e.g. make a graph out of people) in order to demonstrate a point?

Death of Saints Precious in God's Sight

Ps 116:15 Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of His saints.

Precious : yaqar ( yaw-kawr' )
- valuable
- prized
- rare
- splendid
- costly
- highly-valued
- glorious
- excellent

Matthew Henry:
Though no man lays it to heart when the righteous perish, God will make it to appear that He lays it to heart.
This should make us willing to die, to die for Christ, if we are called to it, that our death shall be registered in heaven, and let that be precious to us which is so to God.

Tombstone:
Another link is broken
In our household band
But a chain is forming
In a better land

2 Cor 4:17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.

1 Cor 15:36-44

36 ...that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die: 

37 And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain: 

38 But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body. 

39 All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind offlesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds. 

40 There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another.

41 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory.

42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: 

43 It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: 

44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.

Dreams and Visions

Greek - Acts 2:17
men	3495	young men
see	3700
visions	3706
men	4245	presbuteros = elders = overseers
dream	1798
dreams	1797
Hebrew - Joel 2:28
men	970	youth, young man
see	7200	see, inspect, perceive, regard, look after, observe, discern
visions	2384	9x - vision, oracle, prophecy - used re: Nathan's vision to David of Solomon's temple 2 Sam 7:17
men	2205	elders, ancients, senators, old, old men
dream	2492	25x - Jacob's ladder, Joseph's dreams
dreams	2472	55x - ¿seem muddy - not always understood?

Ecclesiastes 5:3 For a dream cometh through the multitude of business, and a fool's voice is known by multitude of words.

To believe = to be persuaded

“First, To be a Christian indeed is to believe on Christ’s name; it is to assent to the gospel discovery, and consent to the gospel proposal, concerning Him.” - Matthew Henry

- to acknowledge that He is [the King of Kings, the Savior, the Anointed One]

- to acquiesce in it [consent with enthusiasm]

Greek "pisteuo" means "to be persuaded"

- St Jerome, latin, "credo" (from "cor do": I give my hand) not "opinar" (I have an opinion)

- In 1611, "believe" meant "be loyal to a person to whom you are bound by promise or duty."

- Now, "belief" is more like an "intellectual assent"

Serving

Notes from a Weds PM class at Hillcrest Christian Church... The word "serve" is one of the biggest themes in the Bible and the preferred title of saints. "Serve" or "servant" are mentioned 1100 times in scripture. "Servant" was the coveted title of many from Abraham to Paul.

Gen 16: The God Who Sees

A few interesting topics or sermonettes in Gen 16:

• The first (possible, but weak/sketchy/slight) mention of sex slavery
• the angel asking Hagar, “Where’d you come from and where are you going?”
• Hagar’s name for God: “The God Who Sees [me].”
• Hagar’s name for the well: “The Well of the Living God Who Sees Me.”

Thom S. Rainer - Simple Church

p26
To have a simple church, you must have a simple discipleship process. This process must be clear. It must move people toward maturity. It must be integrated fully into your church, and you must get rid of the clutter around it.

p33
People have come to know Christ, and they have stayed at the church. They have gotten plugged into ministry and are contributing to the body of Christ.

p43
[Re: Mk 2:27] Programs are made for man, not man for programs. If the goal is to keep certain things going, the church is in trouble. The end result must always be about people. Programs should only be tools.

Divine Providence, by Mrs. M.A.W. Cook

In some way or other
The Lord will provide;
It may not be my way,
It may not be thy way,
And yet in His own way,
The Lord will provide.

At some time or other
The Lord will provide,
It may not be my time.
It may not be thy time.
And yet in His own time,
The Lord will provide.

Despond then no longer,
The Lord will provide;
And this be the token—
No word He hath spoken
Was ever yet broken.
The Lord will provide.

March on, then, right boldly
The sea shall divide;
The pathway made glorious
With shoutings victorious,
We'll join in the chorus
The Lord will provide.

I Have a Problem

Source: Ray Comfort's facebook page.

“FATHER, I HAVE a problem. It’s weighing heavy on me. It’s all I can think about, night and day. Before I bring it to you in prayer, I suppose I should pray for those who are less fortunate than me—those in this world who have hardly enough food for this day, and for those who don’t have a roof over their heads at night. I also pray for families who have lost loved ones in sudden death, for parents whose children have leukemia, for the many people who are dying of brain tumors, for the hundreds of thousands who are laid waste with other terrible cancers, for people whose bodies have been suddenly shattered in car wrecks, for those who are lying in hospitals with agonizing burns over their bodies, whose faces have been burned beyond recognition. I pray for people with emphysema, whose eyes fill with terror as they struggle for every breath merely to live, for those who are tormented beyond words by irrational fears, for the elderly who are wracked with the pains of aging, whose only ‘escape’ is death.

“I pray for people who are watching their loved ones fade before their eyes through the grief of Alzheimer’s disease, for the many thousands who are suffering the agony of AIDS, for those who are in such despair that they are contemplating suicide, for people who are tormented by the demons of alcoholism and drug addiction. I pray for children who have been abandoned by their parents, for those who are sexually abused, for wives held in quiet despair, beaten and abused by cruel drunken husbands, for people whose minds have been destroyed by mental disorders, for those who have lost everything in floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, and earthquakes. I pray for the blind, who never see the faces of the ones they love or the beauty of a sunrise, for those whose bodies are deformed by painful arthritis, for the many whose lives will be taken from them today by murderers, for those wasting away on their deathbeds in hospitals.

“Most of all, I cry out for the millions who don’t know the forgiveness that is in Jesus Christ . . . for those who in a moment of time will be swept into hell by the cold hand of death, and find to their utter horror the unspeakable vengeance of eternal fire. They will be eternally damned to everlasting punishment. O God, I pray for them.

“Strange. I can’t seem to remember what my problem was. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.”

When Lust Conceives

John Gill -
Then when lust hath conceived…
A proposal of pleasure or profit being made, agreeable to lust, or the principle of corrupt nature, sinful man is pleased with it; and instead of resisting and rejecting the motion made, he admits of it, and receives it, and cherishes it in his mind; he dallies and plays with it; he dwells upon it in his thoughts, and hides it under his tongue, and in his heart, as a sweet morsel, and forsakes it not, but contrives ways and means how to bring it about; and this is lust's conceiving. The figure is used in (Psalms 7:14) on which Kimchi, a Jewish commentator, has this note; ``he (the psalmist) compares the thoughts of the heart (Nwyrhl) , "to a conception", and when they go out in word, this is "travail", and in work or act, this is "bringing forth".''

Matthew Henry -

As holiness consists of two parts-forsaking that which is evil and cleaving to that which is good, so these two things, reversed, are the two parts of sin. The heart is carried from that which is good, and enticed to cleave to that which is evil.

"Their sin lies at their own door, and therefore their blood will lie upon their own heads."

Then, when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin; that is, sin being allowed to excite desires in us, it will soon ripen those desires into consent, and then it is said to have conceived.

Robertson's Word Pictures -
Then (eita). The next step. The lust (h epiqumia). Note article, the lust (verse 2 Peter 14) which one has. When it hath conceived (sullabousa). Second aorist active participle of sullambanw, old word to grasp together, in hostile sense (Acts 26:21), in friendly sense of help (Philippians 4:3), in technical sense of a woman taking a man's seed in conception (Luke 1:24), here also of lust (as a woman), "having conceived." The will yields to lust and conception takes place. Beareth sin (tiktei amartian). Present active indicative of tiktw to bring forth as a mother or fruit from seed, old verb, often in N.T., here only in James. Sin is the union of the will with lust. See Psalms 7:14 for this same metaphor. The sin (h amartia). The article refers to amartia just mentioned.

Things You Never Hear in Church

(Seen on facebook)

1. Hey! It's my turn to sit in the front pew.
2. I was so enthralled, I never noticed your sermon went 25 minutes over time.
3. Personally I find witnessing much more enjoyable than golf. 
4. I've decided to give our church the $500 a month I used to send to TV evangelists. 
5. I volunteer to be the permanent teacher for the Junior High Sunday School class. 
6. Forget the denominational minimum salary, let's pay our pastor so he/she can live like we do. 
7. I love it when we sing hymns I've never heard before! 
8. Since we're all here, let's start the service early. 
9. Pastor, we'd like to send you to this Bible seminar in the Bahamas. 
10. Nothing inspires me and strengthens my commitment like our annual stewardship campaign! 
11. I couldn't find space to park outside. Praise God!!

The Lord is My Shepherd — That’s Relationship!

You may have seen this gem before in a chain email or on the internet. It's been around long enough you might even find a copy tucked inside an old family Bible. The author is unknown.

The Lord is my Shepherd
— that’s RELATIONSHIP!
I shall not want
— that’s SUPPLY!
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures
— that’s REST!
He leadeth me beside still waters
— that’s REFRESHMENT!
He restoreth my soul
— that’s HEALING!
He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness
— that’s GUIDANCE!
For His name sake
— that’s PURPOSE!
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil
— that’s PROTECTION!
For thou art with me
— that’s FAITHFULNESS!
Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me
— that’s COMFORT!
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies
— that’s HOPE!
Thou anointest my head with oil
— that’s CONSECRATION!
My cup runneth over
— that’s ABUNDANCE!
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life
— that’s BLESSING!
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord
— that’s SECURITY!
Forever
— that’s ETERNITY!

Adversity's Blast

And ye, who have met with Adversity's blast,
And been bow'd to the earth by its fury;
To whom the Twelve Months, that have recently pass'd
Were as harsh as a prejudiced jury -
Still, fill to the Future! and join in our chime,
The regrets of remembrance to cozen,
And having obtained a New Trial of Time,
Shout in hopes of a kindlier dozen.
- Thomas Hood