"A Leadership Mandate".... from a friend

My friend and fellow blogger, Dan Black, has just released his first book. Dan has dedicated his adult life to the study of leadership and has been blogging on the subject for over four years.

Check out his blog here. 

In his book, The Leadership Mandate, Dan presents a profound mandate in simple writing. He reminds us of the truth that we are all leaders due to the influence we have on those around us. When we understand this idea then we can begin to be conscious about building and improving our influence. Dan doesn't leave us alone on that topic either. After convincing us that we are leaders he gives us 10 essential tips on how to develop that leadership and that influence.

This book is a short read but it brings a much needed understanding of leadership to its readers. If you are interested in providing a lasting change in your world around you then this book is well worth the buy.

You can find the book on Amazon here.

Education - Training the Next Generation

Train up a child in the way he should go,
And when he is old he will not depart from it.

Proverbs 22:6

Often we seem to think that education is the cornerstone of society. We think that everything starts and ends with education, yet this is the last in the list of the seven spheres of society. There is a reason for this being last. Education is extremely important because it is preparing the next generation to carry on and expand the legacy of the current generation. It is preparing the leaders of tomorrow. However it is last on this list because until we start living by these principles, the next generation will not listen to as we teach them to live by these principles. Education needs to be an addition to what is already being lived and taught in the family, at church, and even through the government. It should be an expansion on the other areas of society, not a replacement. That being said education is a very important area of society and there are definitely Biblical principles to apply in education that will help us to turn are society around.

Truth:

First of all we need to teach truth. There is a new idea becoming prominent that truth is relative. Truth all depends on what you believe. This teaching is devastating as it goes into the belief on right and wrong. As we teach that there is no such thing as absolute truth we are teaching that there is also no such thing as right and wrong. Biblical commands like "you shall not lie", "you shall not commit adultery", and "you shall not murder" lose there authority because all of a sudden we are telling are kids that they must decide if lying, committing adultery, or even murder is right or wrong in there situation. In our society we have allowed morality to become relative which allows for immorality to run rampant.

Inspiration:

Secondly, education should be inspiring children to keep learning. Proverbs 1:5 says "A wise man will hear and increase in learning..." Education only starts in the official schools and we need to be inspiring our children to continue the lifelong process of learning. We should be challenging them to study things out on their own and constantly seeking out new knowledge. We should be inspiring them to have great dreams looking forward into the future. 

Living Examples:

Finally we need to be living examples of what we teach. The concept "do as I say not as I do" does not work. We must live out what we are teaching. If we are not excited about education then neither will our students be. If we don't live out the concept of right and wrong our students will follow suit. We need to live out what we are telling the next generation to do so that they can see it in practice and see that it works.

It's Time to Celebrate!

Many people seem to think that Christianity, and religion in general, is boring. They even think that God is there simply to take our fun away. If your catholic then you spend time in confession to get forgiveness for all the 'fun' that you had. In truth it is the exact opposite. God is the creator of fun, He is the one that originally celebrated and has continually directed His people to celebrate. Read Leviticus, once you get past the dry details you will realize that those details are outlining feasts that the Israelites were supposed to have every year. God was planning parties for His people! The problem is that everything God creates, the devil tries to counterfeit, and in this case the devil has been quite successful. He has propagated his version of fun so well that millions of people throughout the world feel that it is the only way to celebrate. But as the Bible says sin is only pleasurable "for a season". (Hebrews 11:25) God knows how to have lasting fun, fun that won't make you sick, or get you thrown in jail.

Partying God's Way

So how do we party God's way? We can start with the obvious, don't get drunk and don't do drugs. The Bible shows what is already clear in society, getting drunk leads to 'debauchery'. Debauchery basically just mean immoral behavior. We lose control of ourselves and do things that are stupid, harmful, and wrong. You don't need alcohol to have a good time, and you definitely don't need to get wasted to have a good time.

Another principle that leads us to partying God's way is don't have fun at the expense of others. Proverbs tells us that 'death and life are in the power of the tongue'. In other words, what you say can either kill someone or bring life to them. Often we think we are 'just joking' or 'just having a little fun', but what we are really doing is emotionally killing the person we are talking about. This is not the way to have fun.

Celebration in Society

So how is celebration an entire sphere of society? First of all, the way our holidays are celebrated is often directed by our society. In the United States our holidays are often directed by commercialism. Rather than remembering and focusing on the reason for a particular holiday we are directed by the stores and advertisements to buy whatever the new item is that the stores want us to buy. Think about what is often the first thing to come to mind when we think of holidays:

Christmas = gifts, Thanksgiving = food, Easter = candy eggs, Valentines day = candy hearts and pre made cards, etc.

You can always know what holiday is coming up by looking in our stores. As Christians we need to make it a point to remember what the point of the holiday is. It's okay to buy things but let's not have that drive our celebration. Holidays are meant to remind us of something much more important than what we can buy.

Other Forms of Celebration

Other forms of celebration in society include sports, movies, t.v., music, plays, etc. In other words, entertainment. We need to demand Godly principles in our entertainment. Over and over we are seeing morality in movies and t.v. decrease and decay. This directs our society. We need to demand morality in what we watch and listen to and we need to stop watching and listening if it's not edifying or building up. Be careful what you let in to your spirit because without realizing it you will follow it.