by mondayslife | Sep 22, 2014 | Mondays Life
For the past few months I had the opportunity to work with a great group of individuals to work on my Pastors’ 30th anniversary. I was asked to be apart of the team to work on the graphics and media. We have never worked together before and did not know each other personally. Every meeting we had was full of laughter and excitement. We got things done and stayed focus on the assignment.
To be honest, I was not trying to be on the team because of past experience I had with working with groups in church. I got hurt and talked about to the point where I did not want to participate in any planning event in church. But after this event, I would love to work with them again. Everybody brought something different to the table and because of individual expertise, we were able to learn from each other (Iron sharpens iron- Proverbs 27:17). We all are sharpened and improved by the interactions and examples of our peers. Even though I spent hours and hours on this event, I would do it again. The best payment that I can receive is to see the smile on my Pastors’ face of thrill and excitement and to know that everything went smoothly because we came together and supported each other in every aspect of the event.
Team work does make the dream work! We had the opportunity to fulfill God’s will by celebrating the work of our pastor. It was through God’s Will that our Pastor was able to make it to 30 years and for us to celebrate accordingly. In Romans 15:5-6, “May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Working in harmony glorifies God and He is pleased when we work for one common goal and that is to carry out the will of God. This is a kingdom principle of working together (Hebrews 10:24-25). It allows individual growth and edification of gifts and talents and to adapt skills to fit the gaps that the kingdom needs. Everyone needs love and encouragement and what a great feeling to receive it from people you work with in the kingdom.
by mondayslife | Sep 8, 2014 | Mondays Life
I had a series of dreams where I was talking to friends about God and having good fellowship and then I was called into the office to be confronted of an issue. I over-reacted and began to act out of character. I could not understand why I had this dream until all these events starting happening in my life. A few days later I had a spat with a neighbor but I did not react in the way I wanted to because something in me would not let it happen. I went into my house upset and started going at it and God said it’s how you react to the situation. I could have went off and called names, but the Holy Spirit in me would not let me. I may one day have to witness to that person or a person they know. They can say don’t listen to her she fake because a few weeks ago she went off on me, so she is not a Christian. People are always watching you and they judge the Jesus on your life. You may be the only Jesus they will see in their life. I was in a meeting yesterday and every time we get together, we are talking about people (throwing shade). After a while, I got tired of it and sat there in silence. God has been really dealing with my heart concerning talking about people. So who are you representing?
In the Matthew 5:16 says, “let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” There is no way that you can shine your light if you are speaking darkness and evil to your brethren. Darkness and light cannot co-exist. It must be one or the other. If our goal here on earth for the kingdom is to bring others to Christ (Matthew 28:19) we have messed up by allowing the words of discouragement and tear-down come out of our mouth. It doesn’t matter if you didn’t say it in their face. The fact that you have released the words into the atmosphere, it can affect them in a negative way. The Bible tells us that life-giving power is released when God’s people speak words of life. But we can also release words of death.
That is why our heart needs to be sensitive to the people around us because we don’t know who is of the Kingdom. I remember being talked about and how much I was hurt. Suicide is on the rise in the body of Christ and we must be mindful of what we say to one another. I believe the worse talk we can do is another believer tearing down another believer. We should be able to understand where a person is in life. We were not born perfect so we should not treat others any less. Everyone has to go through a process in life and everyone are at different stages. Instead of talking about them, pray for them and yourself. For we all have growing to do.
by mondayslife | Sep 2, 2014 | Mondays Life
I realized a few days ago that I suffer from road rage! When I am on the road, I am an entirely different person. One problem that I realize I do all the time is when I am driving at a certain speed and someone in the other lane wants to get over, I would speed up in order for them not to get over. I think the reason why I do is because I feel that they would slow me down or the fact someone is trying to hop in front of you makes me so defensive. They can’t take my spot and mess up my flow. God says to me, you need to let that go. I never thought it was a problem until God said something about it.
So then I said to myself why do I do this? Then I thought even harder and said why do people in ministry do the same thing? We stop people from getting in front of us because we feel they may stop us from getting where we need to go. We feel that they may take our spot. What I am talking about the mentoring and leadership. A leader teaching a student to become a leader, the leader should not feel afraid that the student would be better than them and will take their spot. This thinking is caused by insecurities and paranoia. We see this a lot in churches where leaders should be training up leaders to take their position down the road. On the opposite we see leaders not taking the time out to teach others and the leaders end up dying in their position. Who is capable and trained to take that position. No one. Because many fear the fact of someone taking their position. It is not about who is the best in preaching, teaching, leading worship. Leadership has nothing to do with achieving positions, but partnering to achieve a specific task (1 Corinthians 3:9).
A perfect example of a leaders training up their student to take their position is Paul and Timothy. Paul was not worried about Timothy taking his position, matter of fact, Paul was training Timothy to take his spot. In the New Testament, the apostle Paul recognized the value of developing Timothy into a more effective minister of the gospel. Paul carefully selected Timothy to work with him in the ministry, equipped him for ministerial tasks, empowered him for success, employed him in a challenging work environment, and communicated to Timothy the value of their relationship. It is important the the church do the same. We should be able to effectively communicate with one another the principles of Jesus Christ which is “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age (Matthew 28:18-19).” We have a responsibility to raise up new disciples to go out. We are not eternal beings so lets stop holding our positions like we are. It is time to pass the baton. God has entrust us to work together to carry out this mission and to be his co-laborers. This takes maturity, a full understanding of The Great Commission, and knowing that we are one body.
“Don’t be afraid to let someone take the lead. Especially if you have trained them. It’s not about positions but being co-laborers to achieve the greatest work. That is to lead others to Christ.” – Monday’s Life
