Skip to main content

What To Do First to Make a Profit

The PF Women Team at our Annual Team Retreat  ~ 2018 Today on Seth Godin's blog, he said: It's tempting to decide to make a profit first, then invest in training, people, facilities, promotion, customer service and most of all, doing important work. In general, though, it goes the other way. Yes, it does. If you are waiting to make a profit before you do these things, in my experience you're  not going to make a profit. So many organizations, ministries and churches are struggling with financial issues. I know your pain. As anyone who follows our story knows, our ministry was in a ton of debt four years ago when I came on as director.  Since that time, we've gotten out of debt and turned a profit every year.  God has done amazing things through out team, for which we give Him the glory! I find that what Seth is saying here is absolutely true, with one disclaimer. For Christian leaders, spiritual disciplines must always be first. Before we started inve

The call of discipleship - being one, making them


Today My Utmost for His Highest says: "Jesus Christ did not say, "Go and save souls" (the salvation of souls is the supernatural work of God), but He said, "Go . . . make disciples of all the nations . . . ." Yet you cannot make disciples unless you are a disciple yourself. When the disciples returned from their first mission, they were filled with joy because even the demons were subject to them. But Jesus said, in effect, "Don’t rejoice in successful service— the great secret of joy is that you have the right relationship with Me" (see Luke 10:17-20 ). The missionary’s great essential is remaining true to the call of God, and realizing that his one and only purpose is to disciple men and women to Jesus."

This is the cry of my heart ~ to be a true discipler of people. I feel like so much gets in the way of that. So much stuff that I never ask for but feel powerless over. I do not mean just tactical work, but I speak of distractions that call me away from discipleship. Not planned tasks or initiatives, but the tyranny of the urgent that so often creeps in, and years later I have nothing to show for those precious hours. I am asking God to help me know what do do about that. I have a feeling it's going to come in the form of some armor bearers that will help me to keep distractions at bay.

My one purpose is to disciple men and women to Jesus - starting with my family - emanating out to the world around me. Remaining true to THE CALL.

First I do want to be more of an effective disciple myself. I know what that means. More time in the Word, more time in prayer, and coming more under the control of the Holy Ghost. I am asking God to help me to align myself with Him daily, not to align Him to me, but to bring me into perfect harmony with His desires.

I already finished reading Night. I'm giving it to Dustin tonight. We were riding to take him to the store for gadgets to go with his PSP and also to dinner, and while he was sleeping in the car, I held my cell phone up to the pages in the dark and read them. I was so incredibly intrigued by the book. Wow. This is a life changer. Why in the world did I never hear of this book before? Every American should read it. I brought Joyce Landorf book with me to read but truthfully all I want to read before bed tonight is the Word. I think I'll finish the Landorf book on the plane. Good stuff but honestly as I read it, it's bringing up painful things for me to deal with and so I'd rather take it in smaller doses, and work through it.

Dustin and I practiced a few times but I'm still a bit raspy. Things will get better by tomorrow. I'm sleeping as long a I want to. A rare luxury although Larry has given me 2 sleep in days lately to try and get my strength back. I miss him. He and Jordan are watching a movie at home and he is IM'ing me right now. I can't wait til' our next day off together. We need it. So much has been going on we haven't had a day together in a few weeks, but our time is coming. 

In the midst of all that's happening, I find myself saying, "God please make me your disciple more and more on a daily basis. Because if that's not what I'm doing, I've truly wasted the last 20 years and blown it if my goal is anything different than truly being your disciple.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Some people will never understand this...

And that's okay. Just let us be as we lavish love upon the fur-kids of the world. It doesn't mean we don't care about people. We do care. In fact most of the people I know who are great pet lovers are also the greatest philanthropists. If you're not a dog lover, you might not understand the overwhelming intensity that many of us felt about Tank's reunion this past week. You might think we've lost our marbles. That's okay, we think you've lost your heart. ;)  Before I go on with this post, let me say that we were delighted that CBS 10 posted the video and article about Tank and his Celebration Church reunion yesterday. Click here to watch it. (But then come back!) If you haven't realized it, there is a revolution in America about dogs. Dogs have always been loved and known as the most loyal companions ~ "man's best friend". But things have gone way beyond this. Dogs aren't just dogs or friends anymore. They are family me

Fifty Shades of No Way

This weekend, the Fifty Shades of Grey movie will be released and millions of women are expected to flock to the theat er s.  I will not be one of those women.   As a leader of women , some have asked me about this movie. The following is my thoughtful response. Fifty Shades of Grey has topped best-seller lists around the world. The book series has sold over 100 million copies worldwide, and been translated into 52 languages. It set the record as the fastest-selling paperback of all time.   Is Fifty Shades of Grey just a harmless book or movie? Although n o one seems to be debating this fact, let’s first establish that it’s pornography.  And not just porn, but a genre that is even more dangerous for women. The book glorifies a female character that is controlled and abused by her partner.   Who is excited about this book and mov ie? Hmmmm….you might be surprised. Many women and girls in our churches have read it. Sadly, I am even aware of

Relevant Church doing something...

incredibly RELEVANT!

I just heard some news today that really inspired me. A church here in Tampa, Relevant Church is doing a new thing this month called the "30 Days Sex Challenge." (I've never visited the church but Pastor Trinity - our children's pastor - has visited or has met some people from this church and he was very impressed.) Realizing that this is a major element missing from some marriages (the frequency factor) their lead pastor, Paul Wirth, has issued a challenge for all the married couples to have sex for 30 days in a row. At the same time he has issued a challenge for all unmarrieds to completely abstain from sex. Of course we know the Bible says that those who are unmarried should not have sex in the first place but the point is, a lot of unmarried's aren't obeying the Lord's command to abstain and this is just one pastor's way of trying to get them to see that indeed, there is a better way! (God's way!) At the same time, many married couples are not