The Choice Driven Life

Procrastination is a killer.

When yu choose to kill time, you begin to kill those gifts and callings which God has placed within your life. The living Bible paraphrase of Ecclesiastes 11:4 reads: If you wait for perfect conditions, you will never get anything done.

The first step in overcoming procrastination is to eliminate all excuses and reasons for not taking decisive and immediate action.

Everybody is on the move. They are moving forwards, backwards, or on a treadmill. The mistake most people make is thinking that the main goal of life is to stay busy. Such thinking is a trap. What is important is not whether a person is busy, but whether he is progressing. It is a question of activity versus accomplishment.

A gentleman named John Henry Fabre conducted an experiment with procrastination caterpillars. They are so named because of their peculiar habit of blindly following each other no matter how they are lined up or where they are going. This man took a group of these tiny creatures and did something interesting with them. He placed them in a circle. For 24 hours the caterpillars dutifully followed one another around and around. The he did something else. He placed the caterpillars around a saucer full of pine needles (their favorite food). For six days the mindless creatures moved around and around the saucer, literally dying from starvation and exhaustion even though an abundance of choice food was located less than two inches away.

You see, they had confused activity with accomplishment.

We Christians need to be known as those who accomplish great things for God - not those who simply talk about it. Procrastinators are good talking versus doing. It is true what Mark Twain said: “Noise produces nothing. Often a hen who has merely laid an egg cackles as though she has laid an asteroid.”

We need to be like the apostles. They were never known much for their policies or procedures, their theories or excuses. Instead, they were known for their acts. Many people say that they are waiting for God; but in most cases God is waiting for them. We need to say with the psalmist, “Lord, my times are in Your hands.” (Psalm 31:15.) The price of growth is always less than the cost of stagnation. As Edmund Burke said, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

Occasionally you may see someone who doesn’t do anything and yet seems to be successful in life. Don’t be deceived. The old saying is true: “Even a broken clock is right twice a day.” As Christians we are called to make progress - not excuses.

Procrastination is a primary tool of the devil to hold us back and to make us miss God’s timing in our lives. The desire of the slothful killeth him; for his hands refuse to labour (Prov.21:25). The fact is, the longer we take to act on God’s direction, the more unclear it becomes.

“No one, regardless of how shrewd or well-advised he is, can stand against the Lord.”Prov.21:30

No chance….there is no substitute for God, nor can we compete against Him. He knows what is right, what is best and what will work. The sooner we accept Him as the final authority and begin to structure our lives, business and country after His laws and principles, the better off we’ll be.

Life is not meant to be difficult - we make it difficult by operating on defiled motives. Motive means the reason or motivation for how and why we do things. Some lie, cheat and manipulate in order to get a deal and then call it “being shrewd.” This does not lead us into the good life, but to moral decay.

Webster says shrewd is “worldly wise, clever or near to the truth.” So it is important that we always seek for the truth. Manipulating the truth or being clever or shrewd will eventually destroy us.

Jesus said there is a broad way that leads to destruction, but also a narrow one that leads to life, or we could say “The truth will make us free.” He designed life to make us grow. A child needs to eat to live and grow; likewise our minds and spirits need to learn (eat) in order to grow. But we have to live on truth, or we’ll become shrewd.

If a child stops eating, he dies; in the same way, if we quit learning truth, we die spiritually, mentally and eventually physically. It’s like riding a bike - when we stop, we fall. When an apple ids green, it is growing; but when it stops growing, it rots. So life is a process and if we want the good life, we must continue to strive for these three things:

1. To become morally correct.
2. To understand people and situations.
3. To grow in the knowledge of God and His laws and the principles He designed for humanity.

The good life when our motives are pure and we follow good principles, taking responsibility for who and what we are. We are like a product: our quality and value is based on the principles of which we are made. When we are honest and our motives are pure, we become open and free with no hidden agendas.

People will sense the freedom and will not defend themselves against us. They will respect us and will want to do business with us. We cannot trust in our own smarts or shrewdness; if we do, we will be exposed when we get under pressure.

Yes, we must be well advised, but we must see truth and God as our best resource and adviser. This will teach us common sense and practical ways that will work in every area of our lives. Sometimes we educate ourselves until we consider ourselves shrewd and wise. Then we start trusting in our own abilities rather than in our own abilities rather than in God’s good advice and become fools without God.

We cannot function properly without the truth. It will keep our motives pure. To reject God and His ideas is like cutting off the hand that feeds us, for God and truth are synonymous.

Today America has more attorneys per capita than any other country in the world. We have more lawsuits than the rest of the world combined. We write thousands of laws to interpret the ten commandments. Some try to outwit each other by their shrewdness or get head by some million dollar lawsuit.

We have forgotten the simplicity of “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Let’s not kid ourselves. God knows all about our doings and sooner or later He will set the record straight in spite of how shrewd or well-advised we may think we are.

It is important to be well-advised, but let’s make sure our motives are pure and use God’s good advice as a part of our dealings and decision-making. Let’s be wise and listen to what God has to say. Then, we will not be known for being smart or shrewd - but wise.

God never asks you for how much you have in the bank when He tells you what He wants you to do in your life. He doesn’t look at where you are. He looks at where you are going. Besides, God knows that He’s with you and that, with Him on your side, you can do anything.

When God gives you a vision, it’s almost always going to be bigger than what you can do on your own. That’s His way of doing things. You just have to accept it! See your vision in your mind and accept it knowing that, with God, ALL things are possible!

Next, your mouth has to get involved. Don’t fall in the trap of speaking against your destiny. Don’t talk negatively about your dreams because, whatever you speak against, you’ll never get. If you speak against prosperity, you won’t have to worry about being prosperous. You will live broke all the days of your life. If you choose to  speak against healing, you can take it to the bank that you will never be healed. You are going to be sick. And, if you speak against salvation, guess what? You won’t be saved either; the devil will be waiting with a grin when you step across the heated floor of hell.

1. You cannot receive what you speak against! Watch what come out of your mouth! It’s part of having faith.
2. You must look beyond what you can see, even if your senses give no assurance. Making it to your destiny depends on it.

The real enemy of our thoughts is hate; hate steals good thoughts. Hate destroys hope and peace. Hate can twist a man’s mind to such a degree that he loses the ability to be reasonable, even if he started out honestly wanting to do the right thing and make the world he lives in a better place.

What a man believes will affect how he thinks. What a man thinks will affect what he does. So, if a man is passionate about hating, then you can take it to the bank that some conflict is coming! Don’t let that happen.

Your dream, your vision may be so impossible that you want to start taking matters into your own hands. That is worry. That is anxiety. Don’t let anxiety steal your faith in God’s power to make dream happen. Stick it out. Have faith in God. Remember your mental map. Do what you know is right. Sure, God can turn any situation around andd help you move past mistakes if you make them, but it’s better to stay on course.

It’s better to keep the faith and live in peace!
What you are astonished by, the dream that makes you laugh, can happen. So, let the joy of the Lord fill your heart. Let yourself laugh. Don’t laugh in doubt, laugh in astonishment. laugh at your enemy, even if that enemy seems to be in time

Remember, you are going to outlast what you think is in your way. You are going to overcome. God is going to bring you to where you need to be as you trust in Him; He is going to lead you to your divine destiny!

“He that rules his spirit is greater than he that takes a city.” Prov.16:32

Ruling our spirit is managing our behavior or emtions. Behavior is directly affected by our emotions. We are spirit, soul and body. The body reacts to the emotions or disturbances of our soul. That is why the Proverb says, “He that rules the spirit…”, meaning that we can rule it.

Ruling our spirit is not always easy, because it is “what we really are”. Everything that we hear, see, smell, taste or touch is entered into our mind and it analyzes the situations and recommends a response. We (our spirit) then decide to react or respond, affecting our emotions (soul) and in the end our behavior (body).

“He that rules his spirit” means “he who decides to discipline or manage his response.” Someone said that it is jsut as bad to think something as to do it. This is not true, because thoughts alone do not effect other people. It is the action that causes the damage. We all have emotions; we can all get upset about things. But it is extremely important that we learn to calm and manage those feelings or they will destroy us.

Cars are built with motors, brakes, transmissions and steering wheels. They are designed to be used for going places. But if they are not managed or steered properly, they become dangerous. Then, that which was meant to be a blessing turns out to be for our own harm. God has made us similarly. He gave us hands to work, feet to walk, eyes to see and brains to manage all of the body members. Our behavior is to be managed and ruled by our spirit, meaning we can and are responsible for what we do.

The value of a person is based on his ability to control and manage his temper, his habits and all of his emotions. We must understand that we communicate largely by our behavior. People judge us by our bahavior because that iss what they see.

Uncontrolled emotions can ruin our reputation by slamming a door or giving a “mean look” without ever saying a word. Words are important, but the emotion we use to express them is even more important. At least 55% of our communications and impressions that we leave on people are nonverbal. The way we dress, walk and behave tells people if we are in charge of our emotions.

The non-verbal body language we use says as much about our character as our words. When you are tempted to get defensive or argumentative, three ways of controlling your emotions are:

1. Stop abd take a deep breath before you speak.
2. Consciously be aware of your body tension and posture.
3. Think of something humorous to say.

Sometimes our manners and actions speak so loudly that it becomes difficult to hear what we are saying. As someone said, “Let everyone know what you believe and if necessary use words.”

Emotions are like gasoline - they can be dangerous and destructive, but very valuable when controlled or channeled properly. The emotions in us are an energy. If that energy is harnessed, it becomes a valuable asset within us. How many times have we heard someone say, “That guy could be valuable if he could get his act (emotions) together.”

Remember that  people will judge us by how we control our emotions, not just by what we say. The bottom line is - if we learn to calm our spirit, we will be in control of situations, rather than situations controlling us.

Discussion:

• How do you view emotions and their value?
• How do you usually communicate what you are feeling?
• Who’s in charge of our behavior or emotion?

Thoughts to Ponder:

It can be very embarrassing to be wrong at the top of your voice.

Written by Larry Ollison, Ph.D

A few weeks ago I met an elderly gentleman who had lost his left arm when he was a young man. Because of this he had lived his entire life not being able to do everything that others could do. His life had literally been handicapped. When I asked him how he lost his arm, he stood straight and tall and said, “I gave my arm for my country while I was in Korea.”

Even though we were standing in a shopping center as he told me this story, I could hardly keep my eyes from watering. The reality is this man sacrificed his life for me and my family. The thankfulness for him and what he had done, and the respect and honor I felt for him was overwhelming.

Honor and respect are two qualities that have been devalued in our culture. Honor for authority and respect for property seems to be at an all time low. Much of the reason is due to a lack of thankfulness.

As a Christian nation, we should be thankful for the countless men and women who have given their lives for our freedom and for those who are placing their lives on the line each day for our freedom. As Christians we should also be thankful for those who have sacrificed through the centuries to keep the Gospel message alive.

Without thankfulness, there can be no honor and respect. Without honor and respect, there is chaos and confusion and confusion breeds lawlessness. In order for our nation to be at peace, our families must be secure. But our families will never be complete until the spirit of thankfulness is in our hearts. Even in times of great need, we should be thankful.

In Philippians 4:6 the Bible tells us that when we pray, we should not be anxious or fearful, but as we make our requests known to God, we should do so with an attitude of thanksgiving. A lack of thankfulness will affect your prayers. Thankfulness is not an emotion, but it is a decision of the heart.

Over the years I have noticed that people who have an attitude of thankfulness are usually pleasant people with positive attitudes. Their friendships are solid and based on love and caring. They are generally happy people.

On the other hand, people who are not thankful, usually gripe and complain about everything. People who are unthankful do not respect authority and have problems submitting to authority. An unthankful person never sees themselves at fault but sees everything that is wrong in others.

Now don’t take me wrong, I’m not implying that a person should be thankful for all things. Of course, you are not thankful for sickness, or poverty, or the attacks that come in life. But as a Christian, we can be thankful in spite of these things. Our lives should not be ruled by what we see around us, but instead should be ruled by the promises of God.

Even though it may look like the enemy is strong, we stand thankful for the promise of victory from God. When David looked at Goliath, everyone said, “Goliath is too big to hit.” David said, “He’s too big to miss.” See your problems through the eyes of victory and not through the eyes of defeat. As Christians we have the victory.

The Bible says in 1 John 5:4, “This is the victory that has overcome the world-our faith.” What is faith? Faith is believing that God will do what He said He would do and believing it so strongly that your words and actions are based on His promises instead of being based on what you see. If it looks like defeat is coming in an area where God has promised victory, you must believe His Word regardless of what you see.

If you are a Christian, you can be thankful in this. The God who spoke the universe into existence said that “No weapon formed against you will prosper.” When the enemy says you can’t make it, God’s Word says, “You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you.” When the enemy says, “I will overpower you,” God’s Word says, “Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.” When the enemy says there is no way out, you say, “God’s Word says I get what I say, and I say, “Victory is mine!’”

The world is full of negative words, doubt, fear, defeat, and unthankfulness. Do not allow yourself to be caught up in this. As a Christian, even though you are in the world, you are not a part of it. You live in a higher Kingdom, above the negative kingdom of fear.

We have just completed one of the most intense presidential elections in the history of our country. You must respect the office and honor the position with an attitude of thankfulness regardless of whether your candidate won or lost. Although you are not responsible for who won the election, you will be held accountable for how you voted.

The Bible tells us that God has placed before us life and death. With life comes blessing and thankfulness. Remember, thankfulness is not an emotion, but it is a decision of the heart. Choose wisely.

And set a deadline! In Habakkuk 2:2 the Lord tells the prophet, ..write the vision and make it plain upon tablets, that he may run that reads it. This is the most important key here to goal-setting revealed here in this scripture.

First, the vision must be written down. When you keep the vision in your mind, it is not really a goal; it is really nothing more than a dream. There is power in putting that dream down on paper. When you commit something to writing, commitment to achievement naturally follows. You cannot start a fire with paper alone, but writing something down on paper can start a fire inside of you.

God Himself followed His Word here, by taking His vision for uss and having it put down on paper in the form of the Bible. He did not just rely on the Holy Spirit to guide and direct us; He put His goals down in writing. We are told to make the word of the Lord plain upon “tables” (the key word is “run”. God desires that tablets) so that it is clear and specific as to what the vision is “..so that he may run that reads it.”

The key word is “run”. God desires that we run with the vision and goal in our life. As long as we are running with the vision, we won’t turn around. When you walk with a vision, it’s easy to change directions and go the wrong way. You can not stroll to a goal.

In proverbs 24:3,4 (TLB), we read: any enterprise is built by wise planning, becomes strong through common sense and profits wonderfully by keeping abreast of the facts. Simply stated, effective goal-setting and planning provides an opportunity to bring the future to the present and deal with it today. You will find that achievement is easy when your outer goals become an inner commitment.

Even though we have the Holy Spirit, we still need to prepare; we are just better equipped to do so. God’s first choice for us in any situation cannot be disorder and waste of funds or resources. That’s why proper planning is so important. Plan to the potential. Believe for God’s biggest dream. When you plan, look to the future, not the past. You cannot drive forward by looking out the rear window.

Always involve yourself with something that’s bigger than you are, because that is where God is. Every great success was at the beginning, impossible. We all have opportunities for success in our lives. It takes as much energy and effort for a bad life as it does for a good life; yet most people live meaningless lives simply because they never decided to write their vision down and then follow through on it. Know this, if you can’t see the mark, you can’t press towards it.

Ponder the path of your feet and let all the ways be established. (Prov.4:26) You will find that what you learn on the path to your goals is actually more valuable than achieving the goal itself. Columbus discovered America while searching for a route to India. Be on the lookout for the “Americas” in your path. Put God’s vision for your life on paper and begin to run with His plan.

Here’s a question from a reader – an engineer. (We’ll call him Bill)

I’m at a job that I hate mainly because I feel like every day I’m set up to fail. There’s no job satisfaction. I go to work and try my best but the bosses and organization demand excellence in everything that we do. That is a good goal to have but there’s no way to accomplish all that needs to be and do it perfectly. ………So why would God place me in a situation like that for 8yrs??

Bill, be very careful about asking “Why did God put me in this place?” I certainly believe God is omnipotent – but I don’t think He micromanages the little details in our lives. I think our own decisions lead us to where we are. But that’s hopeful, because you can make new decisions that put you in a different place. Don’t wait for supernatural movement — just start by seeing what you can do to move yourself in a new direction in the next 30-60 days.

When I found myself at the negative end of a business deal a few years ago with $430,000 owed to creditors I’m sure I could have asked, Why did God do this to me? But instead I looked back at the series of decisions I had made that put me in that position. Yes, in reading Proverbs each day I was amazed to see the biblical principles I had violated in getting me to that unfortunate crisis. God had not done that to me. I simply made decisions that resulted in that end result. And I very quickly made decisions to walk out of that horrible experience.

Sometimes we assume that our current situation reflects random, individual, disconnected events. But seldom is that true. Rather, we are where we are because each decision we make is a step in a particular direction. And over time that direction determines our position in our work, our finances, our health, our relationships and our spiritual well-being. If you think God did this to you, then it justifies doing nothing until God changes your situation. And in doing nothing I see people open the door to blaming, resentment, anger, guilt and depression. I think God deserves better from us.

You can look back and see how the path you have been following has gotten you to where you are. If you don’t like the direction it is taking you, what are you willing to do to put yourself on a different path?

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God is not a respecter of persons; if you know somebody who God has blessed beyond your own thinking. He will do it for you. But, you have to change your thinking. Remember the vision of this blog:

• Choose Your Thoughts, for they become Words
• Choose Your Words, for they become Actions
• Choose Your Actions, for they become Habits
• Choose Your Habits, for they become Character
• Choose Your Character, for it becomes Your Destiny

So, make a quality decision to act on these steps; you should apply them in sequence otherwise they will not work.
The more you allow a thought to stay, the more it becomes part of your own vision for your future. You begin to see yourself do things in your own mind. This is called mental mapping.

Then you make a choice to step beyond your thoughts. You start talking about it. “You call those things that are not as they were.” (Romans 4:17) So, now you not only picture what you believed is comes part of your destiny in your own mind, but you also begin to speak out the dream with your mouth. It becomes part of your prayerlife. Find scriptures for your situation and quote them to yourself every day. Refuse to speak anything else about yourself. Choose to look ahead and speak about you future, as Romans 4:17 says and decide to push yourself toward your destiny.

At this time you might not be doing things in the natural yet, because you are still working in the area of thoughts and words. To put it in biblical terms, you start living by faith and not by what you see…because nothing is happening that you can see in the natural world. It is all still inside of you.

You might get some spiritual resistance at this point when you get determined in your thoughts. You see, many people don’t believe don’t believe in the devil, but that doesn’t change the fact that darkness most certainly exists in this world. This is one of the basic precepts of the Christian faith. There is a devil. The spiritual world is real. Whether somebody believes it or not doesn’t change anything.

Ephesians 6;12 says it best: 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. In other words, problems don’t come from people, we don’t want to wrestle or fight with people. We fight with principalities, powers and the rulers of darkness in this world - we fight against what is dark in the world.

I heard somebody say once and I agree with that, that principalities work through personalities! Not that somebody giving us trouble is full of the devil, but some people are motivated by dark thoughts or dark whatever. Problems are usually thrown at us is just to steer us off our course, to break us down and to make us give up!

But, you and I will not give up!! Never! Do we need encouragement to go on and not give up, of course we do! We need to fill ourselves up with the word of God and surround ourselves with friends and family, who will encourage us. So, come back next time and read some more. ok?

by David Barton

Over the past several years, President Barack Obama has repeatedly claimed that America is not a Christian nation. He asserted that while a U. S. Senator,  repeated it as a presidential candidate, and on a recent presidential trip to Turkey announced to the world that Americans “do not consider ourselves a Christian nation.”  (He made that announcement in Turkey because he said it was “a location he said he chose to send a clear message.”  Then preceding a subsequent trip to Egypt, he declared that America was “one of the largest Muslim countries in the world” (even though the federal government’s own statistics show that less than one-percent of Americans are Muslims.

The President’s statements were publicized across the world but received little attention in the American media. Had they been carried here, the President might have been surprised to learn that nearly two-thirds of Americans currently consider America to be a Christian nation and therefore certainly might have taken exception with his remarks. But regardless of what today’s Americans might think, it is unquestionable that four previous centuries of American leaders would definitely take umbrage with the President’s statements.

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While attending a funeral recently I glanced up and down just my row to see several people Twittering and checking emails in the last few minutes prior to the beginning of the service. It’s now common during sermons and seminars to see people with their heads down, busy passing on tidbits of information instantly. This morning I read that one million people are following Ashton Kutcher on Twitter.

I suggest that this massive addiction to information leads us away from wisdom, not toward it, creating what author Shane Hill calls “a permanent puberty of the mind.” Recognize that information, knowledge and even intelligence do not necessarily lead to wisdom. The overload of information in fact encourages the opposite of what creates wisdom – stillness, time, reflection and solitude. With the internet, TV, email, FaceBook, Twitter and cell phones, there is no waiting. There is no such thing as stillness or quiet personal reflection. Meaningful experiences and the path toward wisdom can be diverted by constant information.

I am not anti-technology. I love having instant access to useful information. But this is much like having a bowl of peanut M&Ms in front of me. I tend to eat them just because they are there. At some point I will have to remove myself from the bowl or my initial pleasure will turn to misery and sickness. And I believe allowing a constant diet of unlimited information and data into our brain will also ultimately turn from being a useful treat to something that will cause our mental lives to become bloated and deprive us of the characteristics we desire most. We have to decide when to push back from the table of information overload – where it leads to our emotional, social, philosophical, and psychological sickness rather than being a useful addition in our quest for wisdom. I have made strategic decisions to not be on Facebook or use Twitter. Not because they are bad but because I have to chose which tools that I can use effectively.

Increasing the rate of information input to your brain may make you a candidate for Jeopardy but it probably has little to do with increasing spiritual characteristics like love, trust, compassion, faith, courage — and wisdom.

Want to increase your wisdom?
•    Practice reflection, meditation and introspective thinking for 30 minutes each morning. Many who allow constant input are keeping themselves in the shallow end of the wisdom pool. Don’t be one of them.

•    Turn off the TV for at least two hours every evening

•    Read your email at set times during the day – perhaps once in the morning and once in the evening. Don’t allow yourself to be interrupted with every new incoming message

•    Spend four hours on Saturday without your cell phone or computer

•    Plan one day a quarter on an “information fast.” Get away from your computer, your cell phone, TV and the newspapers. You’ll be amazed at how your creativity will increase – you may get the one idea that will change your future

•    Read one good non-fiction book each month. Chose carefully from the wisdom of the ages.
Incidentally, according to a new Nielson report, 60% of Twitter users sign up and drop out after one month. And I seriously doubt that following Ashton Kutcher is going to increase your wisdom.

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