The art of communicating

 

Image by Olena from Pixabay

I watched as people streamed into the auditorium to listen to a much-respected and well-known preacher. There was a lot of excitement in the audience, and expectations were high. This was the first day of a three-day conference, and the speaker bombed. His sermon fell flat, and the audience left disappointed. The next morning, he spent in conversation with the local pastor before isolating himself. That evening, the congregation dragged themselves into the church. The chattering and shuffling of the night before were gone. There was an air of inevitability. The sermon and meeting as a whole was a resounding success. What changed? The preacher was the same, the venue was the same, and the audience was the same.

In the modern world, communication has become a science all on its own, a necessary subject to master if you wish to be successful. You need to be able to communicate if you wish to sell something, advertise, write, teach, lead, or even apply for a job.

To be or not to be...rich

 

Image by S K from Pixabay

“There’s Mr. Smith. I wonder how he made all his money?”

“God alone knows!”

“Ah, that’s why he always looks so worried.”

Business is all about making money, profiting, and increasing one’s wealth. If ever there was anything that evokes un-Christian thoughts about a successful person, it is business. The joke at the start of this article is typical of what people think of successful businesspeople – they must have done something wrong to get where they are, or, nobody can make money doing business without doing something wrong. They must have committed some other sin to get where they are, or as someone once said to me, ‘I must remove my Christian jacket before going to my place of business or people will walk all over me and I won’t make any money’. But it is written:

Thus saith the LORD, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; I am the LORD thy God which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go. (Isa 48:17)

A meaningful life

 

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Richard was dead. For forty years I had been planning to look him up and apologize for my reaction to something he had said as a joke. When I did eventually look for him, I discovered that he had died ten years after the incident and that shocked me and had me scratching about in the past: photographs, messages, and school yearbooks. Names and faces had my brain racing. Was I ever that young? Some names made me smile, some I remembered with displeasure, some I did not.

Thirty of us sat in a classroom forty years ago, and I don't recall one of them trying to contact me since then. I don't blame them. I am not an easy person to get along with. I am not one who would be remembered. I would call very few friends even though we spent five years in the same classroom. Still, I wondered what had become of them.

Christian bashing

 

The_Death of Stephen
 by Gustave_Doré

Christians are lambasted these days as idiots and buffoons. They are ridiculed, laughed at, and mocked. In some countries, Christians are persecuted, hunted, imprisoned, and executed for their beliefs. Christian bashing has become vogue among people who fear the truth about God, life, and death and feel the need to protect their own belief system or religion. It is easier to rant and rave and drown out anyone who threatens your religion or lifestyle than it is to admit they’re wrong. But let’s be honest, the unbelieving world is the last that should be throwing stones at Christians because their vitriol is filled with the same arrogance, malice, and lack of knowledge they accuse Christians of.

Christians all over the world bemoan these attacks and claim that it is getting worse. They point to the 'great falling away’ and wonder, like Elijah, if they are the last generation to hold onto the faith. Elijah was to learn that there were still many who believed. When these attacks come we, like Elijah, feel alone and isolated but take heart that we are not.

Heb 13:5b … for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.

The oldest profession - politics

 

Image by Marcin Paśnicki from Pixabay

           Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For   there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.

          Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.

     For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same:

For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. (Rom. 13:1-4)

In its broadest sense politics is the art and science of government (Concise Oxford Dictionary) but, when applied to the individual it encompasses how one governs i.e. sagacious, judicious, expedient, or even craftiness and cunning. The politics of leadership would therefore refer to directing, guiding, and leading using various means, such as wisdom, patience, fairness, or guile to achieve a goal or purpose, in other words, to put it bluntly, politics is the art of persuasion, of convincing people to follow a certain path or direction.

It's not how much we give

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

 Giving can be a pain and extremely hard to   do. One Sunday during a service some years   ago, at collection time, I found myself nervously   fingering the money I had brought. How much   should I give? The collection plate was being   passed along the pews and I needed to do my   sums quickly. What did I need to buy at the   shop on the way home? How much could I give and not feel guilty? What about later in the week, would I have enough to get through? I made my calculations and never gave that week or the next. It was only later, a long time later, that I took the time to consider my dilemma in church, and it dawned on me that while considering my own needs, I gave no thought to the needs of the church or congregation. Every Sunday I sit in relative comfort, in a clean building, with electric lights and running water. How many of these things could be maintained with the paltry amount I had held back? It had never occurred to me that the preacher might not have enough to feed his family or service his car. What about the cleaner, the groundsman, the property tax, electricity, and water accounts, all these needed to be paid, and the building needed to be maintained.

Death and life are in your words

 

Start training your brain.

After investigations, which included experimentation on cats, scientists in the 1940s and 50s made the astounding discovery – the human brain can be programmed to be more alert and attentive in certain areas.

There is a part of the brain known as the Reticular Activating System and it has an important role in deciding your success or failure. Lori Rothstein describes it as ‘starting above your spinal cord and it's about two inches long, it's about the width of a pencil, and it's where all your senses come in.’ ⁱ

Stedman’s Medical Dictionary defines the reticular activating system as:

The part of the reticular formation in the brainstem that plays a central role in bodily and behavioral alertness; its ascending connections affect the function of the cerebral cortex and its descending connections affect bodily posture and reflex mechanisms.ⁱⁱ

The Christian Militant

The martyrdom of St. Stephen
 by Juan Correa de Vivar 

...for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword. Mat 26:52

From the outset, the Christian church has been under attack. Stephen was stoned, James beheaded, and the apostles beaten and imprisoned, yet there was no retaliation, no revenge, and no counterstruggle, at least not a physically violent one. Their methods of combat were prayer, compassion, and preaching because they believed:

2Cor.10:4  For the weapons of our warfare are not fleshly, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, and yet:

Acts 6:7  And the Word of God was increasing. And the number of the disciples in Jerusalem was multiplying exceedingly; even a great crowd of the priests obeyed the faith.

For the next three centuries Christians were persecuted, murdered, used for circus entertainment, set alight as human torches, and fed to wild animals, and yet:

Acts 12:24...the Word of God grew and increased.

Over the years Christians were attacked by Romans, Jews, Persians, Muslims, Vikings, pagans, and even other Christians, and yet:

Acts 19:20  So the Word of God grew mightily and prevailed.

Christianity has been at war since the birth of Jesus when Herod sent his army to kill the babes of Bethlehem. Its weapons of resistance have always been the Word of God and prayer. It was a war won with the blood of martyrs, some of whom gave their lives voluntarily. The endless attacks eventually spilled over into physical retaliation. 

Sea Fever by John Masefield

 

I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,

And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by;

And the wheel’s kick and the wind’s song and the white sail’s shaking,

And a grey mist on the sea’s face, and a grey dawn breaking.

 

I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide

Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;

And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,

And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.

 

I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,

To the gull’s way and the whale’s way where the wind’s like a whetted knife;

And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,

And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick’s over.

Don't fear the dark

 

The call.

A short while ago I received a desperate and urgent call from a friend who wanted to talk to me. When I arrived at his house, I found him shaken and upset. Taking me by the arm, he led me away from the house so that his wife could not hear what he had to say. Then, in a voice that trembled with worry and fear, he told me of his experiences the night before. At this point, I must add that my friend is a normal, hard-working, practical man who is not spiritual or involved with the supernatural. He attends church every Sunday and does his bit for the congregation when there is a function or event. At that stage in his life, he was having financial and other related problems. He insisted that he was wide awake and did not dream the events he described to me.