Leadership Matters

“I have set before you an open door, and no man can shut it…” (Revelation
3:8).

What determines the ability of a leader to function? What is the difference
between a Pastor, Song Leader, Sunday School Teacher, Deacon, Youth Leader,
or a Church Member who is successful and others who are unsuccessful. Is it
their genetics? Is it their family background? What about their birth? What
makes a leader succeed? Is it their giftedness or personality that makes for
success.

No, none of these. The single most factor that makes a successful leader
from an unsuccessful leader is their persistence. No matter the obstacles,
no matter the differences, it is the ability to pursue their God-given goals
by moving forward. The heart is devoted, the face is set, and to do or die,
is not to reason why.

Similar Posts

  • We Close the Door

    “In the first year of his reign, in the first month, he opened the doors of the house of the Lord and repaired them” (2 Chronicles 29:3).

    King Hezekiah began to reign at the age of twenty-five years of age as King of Judah. His predecessors failed to follow the Lord. The condition at the temple was so much like many churches today–closed. Closed doors speak of no access to God and no service for God. While God has set before us an open door (Rev. 3:8), yet we close it by the way we live.

    How do we close the doors of the church? We don’t witness. We don’t pray. The altar of prayer is cold. We don’t sacrifice. We think more of our lives then following the life God intends for each of us. When God looks around He sees plenty of rubbish in the church. No wonder the church of the Living God is so powerless.

    What must be done? There must be a way given–for God wants to prosper His work. God’s heart is to get us to the point of total sanctification-set apart for God. Sacrifice of one’s person to the Lord’s service and a song in the heart leads to the reopening of the doors. God must start with you and me-the preacher and the people. For if God’s servants are not clean, God cannot bless His work.

  • What is Happening in Our Country?

    “Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools” (Romans 1:24).

    How do we explain…

    1.   The massacre in a Florida High School.
    2.   A barrage of sex scandals from Hollywood to Congress to our Seminaries.
    3.   Continued attacks on Christianity.
    4.   The willing slaughter of our nation’s unborn children.
    5.   Growing distrust.  Violence.  Confusion.  Turmoil.

    Nothing that is happening in our world today — not one act of perversion or evil — is an anomaly or an accident. What we see today are symptoms of an accelerating moral and spiritual unraveling of our country and world — the natural result of a nation that has turned away from the absolute truths found in the Bible.

    The only way for change in the direction of America is the change that happens through hearts of human beings, and that catalyst is the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  That change must first happen to God’s people.  W.A. Criswell said it this way, “The nation cannot turn to God if I do not turn to God.  The nation cannot repent, if I do not repent.  God doesn’t win nations or companies or crowds or throngs.   He wins souls one by one.  And the only way we can lift our nation Godward is if I am moved Godward.”

    The true church can never rest and a faithful pastor’s work is never done.  We need to constantly preach to the world and to ourselves the true gospel, and strive for greater clarity and precision — not less.  By so doing, we cultivate our own spiritual growth, we protect the health of the church, and we strengthen our witness.  Salt and light is what we are to be and that is what will retard the leaven of sin.

  • Your Own Meditation of the Bible

    “The Israelite’s did as they were told; some gathered much, some little” (Exodus 16:17).

    What would happen if you and I would read more of the Bible on a daily basis? I believe it would change the way we think, talk, and walk. We get into so many ruts in life that sometimes we need to get into the “rut of reading more” and allowing the Spirit of God to shape us into His people.

    America needs more Christians who would read, digest, and depend upon the Author to imprint His Word upon the hearts and minds of His people. It would literally change us from the inside out. It would turn our lives upside down and right side up.

    The Bible read for significant minutes will become the Essential Everyday Life Commentary upon what we feel, do, and live. Try it and find out how God will speak to each of us on His level. See the wonder of life in His Word and find yourself walking more in His presence. Gather much and you will receive more. Gather little and you will receive more.

  • Do We Fear God?

    “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction”

    (Proverbs 1:7).

    We can tell if we truly fear the Lord. How?

    1. We joyfully delight in the Word of God.

    Psalm 112:1 tells us, “Praise you the Lord. Blessed is the man who fears the LORD, who delights greatly in his commandments.”

    1. We passionately apply God’s Word to our everyday lives.

    Psalm 128:1 proclaims, “Blessed is every one that fears the Lord, that walks in His Ways.”

    1. We place confidence in the promises of God.

    Psalm 147:11 has said to each of us, “The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear Him, in those who hope in his mercy.”

    We need to get back to God’s Word! Anything that takes the place of God’s Word leads to idolatry.

     

     

  • Don’t Lose the Wonder

    “There are three things which are too wonderful for me” (Proverbs 30:18). 

     

    Science may be able to explain the flight of birds, the movements of serpents, the currents of the atmosphere and of the ocean, and human sexuality, but that does not take away from the wonder of it all.
    Life and love are not explained in the laboratory. Experiments or the formulas which are convenient to the experts do not take away the splendor and awe of God’s creation and created order.
    So many times as we go through life, we tend to lose the sense of wonder. We become farsighted and forgetful linked to unthankfulness.  If someone lives near the ocean you can find in any day many who have not been to the shoreline all year. The stars shine above us and yet we forget that they do. The birth of a baby happens and we share stares and looks and comments but it’s “just a newborn.”
    Today look at your salvation you received from God. He created you, gave you breath, drew you to Himself, changed you, remade you, and is coming back to receive you. What a great God who can change a heart into a heart like unto His. Don’t lose the wonder! It’s too precious.

  • Are you Gold?

    “How is the gold become dim! How is the most fine gold changed! The stones of the sanctuary are poured out of every street” (Lamentations 4:1).
    Gold is full of luster, very malleable, and has great value. Gold has a center of gravity and it is not easily rusted. God says of His city and her people they were like gold at one time. But now Jeremiah laments the city of Jerusalem, for she has become tarnished and dulled. Her children, the seed of God’s people, no longer shine for Jehovah God.
    There is change all around us. What was once bright now has become dull. Those that once went after the gold of God’s Word now are seeking the fool’s gold of the world. What once was the wisdom of the ages now has become a book that is hardly touched.
    Where are the fathers that have not changed?  Where are the children that shine as gold? Dads, moms, and grandparents, seem to be out of touch with God. Oh there is a touch but that is about it.
    America used to shine but now she is as brass. What once was gold now has been stolen. So to put on a good act America is borrowed brass that is shined up with fancy patriotic songs that seem to shine. But words can never do the work that only God can.
    Jeremiah is not asking a question; he is stating a fact. And because of his verbal analysis of the state of the nation, he is thrown into jail and into a deep pit left to rot. You know a nation is no longer gold when it rejects its prophets and its preachers. When the people want to get rid of that which is pure you can know that judgment is on the way.
    What once was gold is now but earthen vessels of clay. Dull, lifeless, cracked, and without real value. The gold has been stripped away. The power and presence of God has left that which was once alive and vibrant and expectant.
    Check the facts:  Are you tenderhearted toward God and others? Does the Word of God change you as you read it? Are you growing into the likeness of Jesus? Are your children living for God? Are you as regular in church attendance as beforehand? Does prayer rise in your heart as never before? Are you ready before God to easily repent of sin at every turn? How hard is it for others to get you off the gold path? And how easy is it for God to get you back on it?
    Brass will shine, but it is not like gold. We will either turn back to the gold standard or nothing. We have been robbed of the gold. A cheaper brand of Christianity is with us today. Rather than pay the price we have settled down to being just clay pitchers pottered by our own hands.