Five Minutes a Day

"I never pray more than five minutes at a time, but I never go five  

 minutes without praying." 

 
-Charles Spurgeon

 

gladness of heart

These are exciting days…I heard the hits on the web are over a 1000 yesterday and probably will triple today…that is such a blessing…I have Jen coming to help today and Debbie if needed…please call her if you think you need 5 people in the office….i also asked Jared to help in the afternoon if needed, if the phones are too much to handle for the five of you….let’s see how the day progresses.

            My reason for writing to you this morning is because of my devotion this morning, and how God spoke to me…so this is more about me than you, but I sensed you may be going through some similar feelings of being overwhelmed…this may be presumptuous…hopefully you will be challenged and encouraged.  I was reading in Deut 28:47:

            “Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joyfulness and gladness of heart, because of the abundance of all things, therefore you shall serve your enemies…”

This verse so convicted me!!!  “Oh Lord God, please help me, and the entire staff at Lamplighter today to serve you with gladness of heart and joyfulness…so that we enjoy serving you and others.”

Jen, thanks for helping!

turn light on...

Michal are you aware that your church is going to partner with Lamplighter for the month of September for our Turn the Light On, TV Off campaign?

Hope all is well,

Mark Hamby

 

Mark

No, I didn't know! Are you talking about Colonial or Summit? (We have been going to Summit Baptist, a local church in Durham). My parents still go to Colonial and I still do graphic work for Stephen Davey, their pastor.

What is the campaign? Is it something new this year?
I hope all is well!!
Michal

 

Michal:

Colonial Church in NC…

This is how is started..

Nancy Leigh Demoss from Revive Our Hearts and Dennis Rainey from Family Today, both interviewed me on their radio broadcasts promoting Lamplighter books and our mission…Nancy’s two day radio broadcast was on last Thursday and Friday; Family Life Today’s broadcast is on today and tomorrow…this launched a national campaign of getting churches to covenant for 30 days to turn off all forms of entertainment media…Family Life is doing it for August, we are doing it for September, when Hollywood launches their new season’s programming.  We have chosen 5 Lamplighter books that have an inspiring message for family reading…But the best part is that after families read these books, they will be praying about who they are going to give them away to…neighbors, friends, family, co-workers!!!  We have already heard about how God is using these books in the lives of the unchurched…a great way for evangelism and discipleship…all in one…let your church know…you can go to www.turnthelighton.org

If this is as successful as I believe it is going to be, there is just no telling how far reaching and life changing it may be.

Blessings to you and your family…please say hello to Chris,

Mark

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The Making of an Expert

The following excerpt was found in a monthly newsletter that my son Jonathan sent me from Grubb and Ellis, a California based realestate brokerage:

The Making of an Expert I read a great article in the Harvard Business Review (July-Aug issue, 2007) about what it takes to become an expert. The information for the article came from The Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance, a 900-page-plus handbook, with contributions from more than 100 leading scientists.   The conclusion of the study, based on decades of rigorous research using verifiable and reproducible scientific methods, prove with overwhelming results that experts are always made, not born. That doesn’t mean that the development of genuine expertise happens overnight. It typically takes 10 years of struggle, sacrifice, and honest, often painful self-assessment.  And there are no shortcuts. Research shows that in order to become an expert, one must: practice intensively, study with devoted teachers, and have enthusiastic support throughout their development. What is an expert? Real expertise has three requirements:  First, it must lead to performance that is consistently superior to ones peers.  Second, real expertise produces concrete results.  And third, expertise can be replicated and measured in a lab…  Because, if a skill can’t be measured, it can’t be improved. Practice Deliberately Not all practice makes perfect.  When most people practice, they focus on things that they’re already good at. Sam Snead, the champion golfer, believed, “It’s human nature to practice what you can already do… it’s a hell of a lot less work and a hell of a lot more fun.” But if you want to be an expert in your field, you can’t just practice, you have to practice deliberately. Deliberate practice involves making a considerable, specific, and sustained effort to improve upon the things that you can’t do, instead of simply focusing on the things that you can.  Give a Concentrated Effort Many people believe that the more you practice, the faster you improve.  This statement is only partially true. Though consistent practice is necessary for growth, experts believe that you should only do as much as you can accomplish with continued concentration.     When looking at a wide range of experts, including athletes, novelists, and musicians, very few people can sustain high levels of concentration for more than four or five hours at a time.  Two hours a day, typically in the morning, seems to be the ideal amount of time for working on new ideas. An investment of two concentrated hours a day, would give you over 700 hours a year toward improving your skills. Just think about the advantage that you’d get over your competition with that amount of effort.  Keep Growing Business people who reach a high level of performance often find themselves responding to situations automatically, using their experience as a way to almost go on ‘auto-pilot’.  This type of habitual response can lead to difficulties when facing a rare or atypical situation.  By not seeking constant growth, one can lose their ability to quickly analyze problems. The opposite can be said for those who maintain the discipline of a daily practice regiment. Research states that a 60-year-old musician, with 10 hours a week of deliberate practice, can match the speed and technical skill of a 20 year old when asked to play an unfamiliar piece of music. Find Coaches and Mentors The quality of your growth is based on the quality of your practice, which helps to explain why nearly every expert in the study, showed evidence of having a coach or mentor.  Coaches can help to accelerate the learning process, organizing information in a way that is much more accessible. The best coaches will not only improve upon your current skills, but will also be preparing you for what’s to come. Different coaches are needed at different stages of an expert’s development. And much like a good parent, who encourages their child to leave the nest, a good coach should help their student learn how to rely upon themselves.  Each time that you can generate ideas on your own – recalling from previous lessons, interactions, and experiences – you’re that much closer to becoming an expert yourself.  Debunk the Myth Before practice, coaching, opportunity, and luck, can be merged together to create an expert, each one of us has to debunk the myth that experts are born, not made. This notion can be so deeply ingrained in us, that we risk letting fear keep us from beginning our journey toward improvement.  We all have what it takes to become experts. And each one of us – regardless of natural ability – needs deliberate practice, concentration, and guidance to get us there.   Even Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, a child prodigy and musical genius, needed the tutelage of a skilled composer and famous music teacher (also his father), starting at the very young age of four.

 

 

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Strangers part 2

“…missional communities are called to cross society’s boundaries, to eat as Jesus ate, to be a people of openness and acceptance, of gratitude and generosity.  Missional communities of hospitality do not seek the homogeneous oneness hoped for by modernity, nor do they celebrate the fragmented diversity of postmodernity. They welcome and nurture the incredible richness and particularity of perspectives, backgrounds and gifts but always within the embrace of God’s reconciling unity.

            Modern communities maintain a façade of unity and harmony by eliminating the strange and cultivating the familiar, by suppressing dissimilarity and emphasizing agreement. The traumatic and tragic events of human life are glossed over, ignored, or explained away. Those who are strange—other than we are—are either excluded or quickly made like us. ‘People with whom we cannot achieve intimacy, or with whom we do not want to be intimate, are squeezed out.’ These images portray homogeneous communities of retreat where persons must be protected from one another as well as from outsiders, and where reality is suppressed and denied due to fear and anxiety.

            Missional communities, shaped by faith in Jesus Christ…represent a different image. Rather than seeing themselves as one more civic institution offering religious goods and services to individuals (or society), such communities take the time to create gracious and caring space where they can reach out and invite their fellow human beings into a new relationship with God…Hostility is converted into hospitality, strangers into friends, and enemies into guests. In a world increasingly ‘full of strangers, estranged from their own past, culture, and country, from their neighbors, friends and family, from their deepest self and their God,’ missional communities such as these evidence the good news of Jesus Christ. The welcoming news of the reign of God shapes them into welcoming communities, open to all creation.”^[1] …particularly the stranger.

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^[1] Guder, Darrell L., Missional Church, pp.179-180

Strangers part 1.

            “The stranger represents an unknown and ambiguous figure: friend or foe, resource or thief, giver or taker.  Yet three key events in the New Testament—Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost—all recount the coming of a divine stranger. In each case the newcomer brings blessings that both disorient and transform. ‘The child in the manger, the traveler on the road to Emmaus, and the mighty wind of the Spirit all meet us as mysterious visitors, challenging our belief systems even as they welcome us to new worlds.’  When despondent travelers on the Emmaus road extended hospitality to the stranger who had joined them, ‘their eyes were opened’ and they discovered that he was none other than the resurrected Christ (Luke 24:13035). The stranger plays a central role in biblical stories of faith, and for good reason. ‘The religious quest, the spiritual pilgrimage, is always taking us into new lands where we are strange to others and the yare strange to us. Faith is a venture into the unknown, into the realms of mystery, away from the safe and comfortable and secure.’

            Christian hospitality that represents the reign of God includes but is not limited to the offer and aid and comfort to the visitor or outsider…Strangers not only challenge and subvert our familiar worlds; they can enhance and even transform our way of life and our most intimate relationships. By honoring others precisely in their otherness, we embrace the new, the mysterious, and the unexpected:”^[1] “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.” (Heb. 13:2)

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^[1] Guder, Darrell L., Missional Church, pp. 178-179