Positive Minute

Make Peace with Your Wilderness

“Moses agreed to stay with the man, who gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses in marriage. Zipporah gave birth to a son, and Moses named him Gershom, saying, ‘I have become a foreigner in a foreign land.’ ” – Exodus 2:21,22 Nobody wants to be in the wilderness. Such was the case for Moses, who after murdering an Egyptian man, fleed to the desert. He tried to cover his tracks, but realized that he had been seen by several of his Jewish countrymen, so he ran because Pharaoh was after him. Leaving behind his birth family and privileged life, the Bible tells us that he landed in Midian, which is neither Hebrew nor Egyptian. Once settled in Midian, Moses began to live as if the previous season of his life never existed. After he rescued a group of sisters from aggressive shepherds as they were watering their father’s sheep, their

November 27, 2023 1 Comment

You Can’t Serve Two Masters

“One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people. Looking this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.” – Exodus 2:11,12 When I look at the story of Moses, it’s fascinating to me that he grew up in two different worlds. On one hand, he was Pharaoh’s grandson so he had the best of everything. He was popular, prestigious, and enjoyed all of the finer things of the world. On the other hand, he was a Hebrew who identified with the plight of his people. His mother’s influence was likely very strong growing up, so he felt a strange dichotomy between the two parts of his life, especially as he watched his fellow Hebrews

November 26, 2023 No Comments

Drawn Out of Death and Into Life

“When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. She named him Moses, saying, ‘I drew him out of the water.’ ” – Exodus 2:10 As fear of the Hebrews taking over Egypt gripped Pharaoh’s heart, he commanded that all Jewish baby boys be killed. Certainly that would stop their population from increasing (or so he thought). Moses’ mother tried hiding him for three months, but ultimately obeyed Pharaoh’s command and threw him in the Nile River, but not to drown. Instead, she placed him in a basket and hid him among the reeds. Miriam, the baby’s older sister, kept an eye on that basket. Miraculously, the basket was discovered by Pharaoh’s daughter, who immediately fell in love with the Hebrew child. She sent her servant to retrieve the baby and then decided she was going to raise him and call him her

November 25, 2023 8 Comments

Pressed Down But Not Defeated

“Now Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation died, but the Israelites were exceedingly fruitful; they multiplied greatly, increased in numbers and became so numerous that the land was filled with them. Then a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt.” – Exodus 1:6-8 Moses was born into a world that was dominated by the Egyptians. It all goes back to Joseph, who was sold into slavery by his brothers because they were jealous of his favor with their father. A long journey led him to a prison in Egypt where he gained the attention of Pharaoh, and after interpreting his dream, he was elevated to a place of power and influence in the land. Since Joseph’s family grew up in the Egyptian world, there was a large Hebrew population in that nation. However, as generations went by, Joseph and the Pharaoh who

November 24, 2023 1 Comment

Practice Giving Thanks

“Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song.” – Psalm 95:2 Happy Thanksgiving! This is one of my favorite holidays because it gives me an opportunity to pause, take a break from the routine of my busy life, and simply practice gratitude. Did you notice I said practice? You see, though it’s great to have feelings of thankfulness, they bear fruit when we express them. This is especially true in our relationship with God. When we raise our hands and hearts in praise and worship to Him, something amazing happens. As we give Him our troubles, pain, and despair, He lifts the heaviness off our shoulders, takes it upon Himself, and sets us free to run. He replaces our burdensome load with a generous measure of mercy, compassion, glory, and most importantly, His amazing love. In fact, consistently giving gratitude to Jesus stirs within

November 23, 2023 No Comments

Practice the Positive No

“Whoever walks in integrity walks securely, but whoever takes crooked paths will be found out.” – Proverbs 10:9 Practice the positive no. The positive no is a concept that originated with William Ury, who wrote the book Getting to Yes, and it’s important for everyone, especially leaders. What it means is that anytime you are going to say “no” to something, you precede and follow it with a “yes” to keep it positive, kind of like a sandwich. For instance, if your boss asks you to work late on Friday night and you already have plans, although you intend to say “no,” you surround that negative with positives. You might respond by saying, “Yes, I’m happy to work extra hours, but I have plans to see my daughter’s play at school, so I won’t be able to work late that night. However, I’m happy to come in another time.” Taking

November 22, 2023 No Comments

Inspiration vs. Manipulation

“We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.” – 1 Thessalonians 1:3 Simon Sinek says that there are basically two ways in which people influence: manipulation and inspiration. Now, remember that manipulation is not always a negative or pejorative thing. For instance, if I pay someone $50 to mow my lawn, that’s a form of manipulation; I’m getting that person to do what I want by making payment. I’m not going to inspire a response by listing all the benefits of mowing lawns and making a YouTube video about it — I need a definitive way to get the job done! Discipline can also be considered a form of manipulative influence, yet it is entirely necessary. Parents have to punish their children, and teachers or bosses may be required to

November 21, 2023 2 Comments

Don’t Push

“Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.” – Matthew 7:6 The third tip for leaders is don’t push. As Jesus continues the Sermon on the Mount, He gives an example to not give a pearl to a pig because the animal would think it was food and try to eat it, or even worse, step on it. This would have been an abomination since the pearl was the most treasured and valuable possession one could obtain in ancient culture. Consequently, in the Bible, it’s always synonymous with the Kingdom of God — the most sacred thing we can inherit. The practical application from the story is: others will not hear what they are not ready to hear. We can be full of wisdom, knowledge, and insight,

November 20, 2023 1 Comment

Don’t Pretend

“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” – Matthew 7:3-5 I want to talk about the second tip for being a good leader: don’t pretend. Straight from Jesus, the message — to not act holier than we really are — is crystal clear. If we were listening to Jesus speak in Aramaic as He did when He originally gave the Sermon on the Mount, the humor in His story would have been apparent. Jesus paints a vivid picture of a

November 19, 2023 No Comments

Don’t Presume

“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” – Matthew 7:1,2 Dallas Willard said good leaders don’t presume, don’t pretend, and don’t push. I want to look at what it means to not presume when we lead. When Jesus taught us not to judge lest we be judged, we often interpret it to mean that we shouldn’t make judgments about others, because if we do, God will make a judgment about us. But perhaps in teaching us not to judge, our Father was trying to spare us the pain of being judged by our friends and neighbors in return. Wisdom says that if I come down hard on someone without knowing their story and they get wind of it, they are going to come down

November 18, 2023 7 Comments

Make Peace with Your Wilderness

You Can’t Serve Two Masters

Drawn Out of Death and Into Life

Pressed Down But Not Defeated

Practice Giving Thanks

Practice the Positive No

Inspiration vs. Manipulation

Don’t Push

Don’t Pretend

Don’t Presume

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