Restorers

Redirecting you to our main blog

noreply@blogger.com (Team Restorers) — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 12:05:56 PST

Dear friend, if you have been on this page and coming back again or this is your first shot, please note that we are having our blog that incorporated our main Web Site. We may not update this blog as frequest as we should be so why don't you join us and remain friend @ http://blog.assegid.com/

Thanks in advance!

The burden of a leader: to become than to fake around...

noreply@blogger.com (Team Restorers) — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 16:17:54 PDT

Great leaders in history had burdened themselves to live their dream virtually before they introduced to their people. They had dreamed, thought, and finally developed the personality, knowledge, and character it would take before they lectured their people. They might have marched to a way no one ever walked and came up with the map. They had flied all along the route and planted the lighthouses that guided and guarded their people from being lost. They had tasted it before they prescribed to their people the greatness of the vision.

They set the standard. They led by example. They didn't just drive, lead, and manipulate their people around. They first had explored the scene before they sent their people. They had a clear picture where they wanted to destine their people and they had grown themselves first before they recommended their people They first walked the talk. These are leaders who were impact-full.

These were leaders who could touch their peoples' heart and commanded the trust and willingness of their people. These were the leaders who had stories to tell that inspired their people to the journey they would march to conquer. These were leaders who developed the immunity against the inflicting challenges along the journey and who knew the prescription on how exactly their people could induce such immunity.

It has been said about the great warrior Alexander the Great that he always fired the first bullet in major wars. Rather than commanding, which he had the call; he showed courage and became exemplary by putting his life on the line. To harvest warriors and courageous fighters, showing courage is the prerequisite for impact-full leaders. To cultivate excellent people, a leader himself should command excellence for his people to copy or even improve it. If our desire is to be impact-full leaders, even if we are not yet there, let's prepare, explore, and train ourselves to the place, status, and territory we aspire to take our people.

One of the dangers in leadership is the overestimation of orator-ship and the overconfidence of knowing the traditional ‘leaders tricks’ to mobilize and influence your people. Leadership is about connecting with your peoples’ heart and relating with their inner core values. This connection cannot be achieved, in long run and in sustainable manner, by using speaking skills alone, tactics, tricks to impress and manipulate the people. These skills may bring some how short-lived influence but if the leader’s desire is to maintain influence, the leader should go beyond talk, methods, skills, tactics, and so on.

One of the powerful realities a leader should know, as early as possible, is that the journey with its people is all about walking with them by being example to the destiny they are willingly committed. To achieve this goal, the leader’s option is to become a person that shoulder the vision and multiply himself within his people who would buy into the vision and own it. For efficient multiplication, the leader should grow up to be the model and the prototype. The more he multiplies himself, the lesser would be the chance to fail reaching their destiny. Who the people will become to achieve their destiny is highly dependent upon the prototype they are made and molded from. Therefore, the leader should work hard to become than to toiling to fake around his people....

Change is due across all systems, views, and more for the 21st C society!

noreply@blogger.com (Team Restorers) — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 18:34:22 PDT

Headlines like “Is Capitalism dead?”, “Capitalism at bay”, and the likes have been crowding the major newsletter media outlets including but not limited to the Washington Post and the Economist. Some Medias made this issue their editorial. The Economist believes that now economic liberty is under attack and capitalism, the system which embodies it, is at bay. It decries that all the signs following the market crisis are pointing in the same direction: a larger role for the state, and a smaller and more constrained private sector. While the Economist admits there should be change and defending Capitalism, the Washington Post tried to define realities and made a prophetic utterance in the direction where the future leads.

The Washington post asks, “IS THIS the end of American capitalism?” It continues to argue that as financial panic spread across the globe and governments scrambled to contain the damage, reality seemed to announce the doom of U.S.-style free markets but it is wrong. However, in its editorial conclusion paragraph, the Washington post admits that the new capitalist model that emerges from this crisis must operate according to more consistent principles and it went to discuss some measures that should be considered to redefine the long standing market rules.

Whether capitalism is dead or wounded or at bay, as main news letters are arguing and debating, signs are clear that this dominant and governing philosophy of more than 2 Centuries needs reform. Not only this is time to confront and define realities, change in this area long due. The meeting between President Bush, the President of European Union, and President Sarkozy on October 19, 2008 was an apparent symptom of global crisis that demanded the cooperation of major stakeholders to redefine the longstanding free market economy and its financial systems. Though President of the US admitted that there were flaws and need to be fixed; he warned that we should not over react and become protectionists in his effort to defend the values of Capitalism. On the other hand, President Sarkozy bought the warning from President Bush but strongly sounded ‘Self-regulation is finished’, ‘Laissez-faire is finished’. The real question lingering is the kind of reforms Capitalism, that embodies free market economy and globalization, needs to make to continue govern in the 21st C and whether there will be consensus among major players?

For France and two-thirds of the European nations, which are interventionist and social democrats, the crisis justifies their ‘social-capitalism’. On the contrary, for US -a leading ‘free-capitalism’ and one of the pioneering privatization nations- the action to bail out banks and aggressively heading to intensify regulations and government ownership in the free market is an obvious sign that capitalism is at bay, if not wounded severely. However, the fate of capitalism doesn’t look like left to be determined by these two major players. The invitation of world leaders for a global submit to discuss the crisis complicates its destiny and brings more stakeholders into play. We know that Europe has a strong sympathy for free-market oriented capitalism than other continents :-)

Though we cannot predict the outcome of the coming mid November gathering of world leaders to deal this crisis, it is understandable that the need to redefine the broken financial systems will be one of the determinations the leaders might make. The resolutions will definitely impact the future prospect of capitalism and the socio-economic systems of the world deep into the 21st C. The decisions will definitely have impact well beyond fixing the contemporary burning issues that it requires careful, well calculated, and far reaching thoughts, scenarios, and negotiations.

Before closing this discussion, let’s remind ourselves that the financial system problem is not an isolated issue. It is not! Like headache, in most cases, is a complication symptom that signals one or more parts of the body might be diseased, the financial system is a reflection and signal of multiple systems breaks down. It should also be clear that change or fix in the financial system doesn’t make the 21st C a progressive Century. It looks like change is due in most systems, views, and fields to maximize the benefits of the Century. The change demands holistic approach! We are lagging behind and failed to receive the era with new wine-skin and the old one is bursting all over and showing how the various systems, views, and fields are too old, outdated, and need to be replaced with new ones :-)

We shouldn’t also forget that the crack is not in the socio-political and economic arenas alone. If we just take the Christian Kingdom in the US, we see that the longstanding conservative view that focuses on moral issues like abortion and guy marriage no more rally this base. There is a division its due time passed long ago. Though the difference was manifested long ago, the 2008 Presidential Campaign brought the rift to light. More and more, in this Century that brought more complex and deadly challenges, conservatives are embracing other causes like HIV/AIDS, Poverty, and Environmental Degradations on top of moral issues and are departing from one party loyalty. The invitation of Pastor Rick Warren two of the Presidential Candidates for a debate in his Church was a plain sign of new order within the conservative base is surfacing. The question is, do leaders in the Conservative Christian Kingdom call for a discussion to unite the base by finding a middle groud before it is too late or wait for complete break down as we have seen in the financial system?

Redefine past philosophies, priorities, systems, theories, and more requires in materializing the 21st C progress. We cannot live in this Century with past brains and discoveries alone :-) Thank God and those heroes and heroines of the past Centuries from whom we inherited a wonderful Century with their blood, sweat, talent, commitment, and sacrifices. This is our turn. It is not time for complacency and satisfying with what we have at hand: broken or outdated systems, curriculums, views, rules, regulations, and more. Time to shake up status quo!

The good news is that humanity has the mandate and the ability to harmonically govern and rule the universe as delegated by God, Who has infinite wisdom, power, and energy to give His kids what it takes to be effective stewards of the planet. There should be no panic about the multifaceted challenge humanity is facing. God has new insights in His store and what it takes is to tap into it. As Solomon said, there is nothing new under the Sun. Therefore, let's go beyond the ‘Sun’ and download from the invisible world for the new change we need to fix the various challenges we have been facing.

Recounting the blessings of adversaries....

noreply@blogger.com (Team Restorers) — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 22:00:18 PDT

Within the same world, two opposing things, views, and happenings have been going on and in the majority of the time; we are comfortable and used to live with it. We might not easily reach consensus about why the world is so polarized but still coexist. What we might agree is that, though not with a greater harmony as we all desire, we are living and still breathing in such tense world of diversity.

Good and evil, love and hate, creativity and criticism, and many more conflicting phenomena are expressed and have been coexisting this way for years. We all might not be on the same page concerning the importance of having these kinds of two contrasting things concomitantly presented for us to make choose. We might not agree the consequences of pursuing either of the paths and the likes. Leaving this kind of difficult arguements aside, let’s talk about how we should respond to adversaries and critics.

It would have been great if there has been a place free from such unwanted friends on earth. The reality is there is no way that we avoid critics from adversaries as far as we are doing something great. We wish if there are vaccines and we are vaccinated to get immunized. Most of us may think that one should always pray to avoid adversities and be careful of adversaries than to deal on how to respond and live with it.

In most cases, we don't want it and if it shows up as uninvited guest, we are dismissive about our adversaries like the voice of Oscar Wilde: “The rule is perfect: in all matters of opinion our adversaries are insane.” We all intend to be either protective or defensive and dismissive about those who oppose and criticize us. This is the main stream approach but for our surprise, great personalities in the past showed unusual grace and confidence when they dealt with their adversaries.

For the astonishment of many, one of the greatest Presidents of the US, Abraham Lincoln stocked his Cabinet with past adversaries. His Cabinet was known as "team of rivals". His friends and allies wondered why he did that ‘stupid’ thing. However, this wise and self reliant man said, “Look, these are the strongest and most able men in the country. The country's in peril. I need them by my side.” He was a person who understood the role of ‘qualified’ adversaries.

If we closely look at the role of adversaries, they play significant role to bring out our potential, courage, and more. We cannot get a pure gold with out the adverse fire. We couldn't have celebrated the three Hebrew boys’ courage without those haters and finally the furious fire furnace. We couldn't have enjoyed the redemption of God from the jaw of lions if there were not haters of Daniel.

For that matter, adversaries are those who create the stage for you to perform your excellence, demonstrate your ability, and show off your heroism. We cannot name a hero without a fight and heroes must have been celebrating those battles that helped them named heroes. We couldn't have a song like David killed 10, 000 Saul 1000 if there wasn't, in the first place, Goliath and Palestine who came against Israel. David couldn’t have been a king- as he was not qualified in his linage - except for that wonderful but dreadful adverse day where he confronted the adversary of his nation, Goliath.

Adversaries are indirect promoters and are blessings in disguise. The promotion of the three Hebrew boys was invoked by their accusers. If the latter were not worked hard to trap them, which brought them to a blazing and furious fire, they wouldn’t have come out of it celebrated and promoted. For that matter, friend, you wouldn’t have been here if there were not some adversaries who were kicking you from the back. Dr John Maxwell said, “When you get kicked in the rear, you know you are out in front.” Rather than over reacting or get irritated when our critics and adversaries pulled our legs that drags us back from our progress, let's get loose and move forward regardless of who is stamping us behind :-)

The whole point is adversities created by adversaries are stepping stones to develop faith, bring out our best to meet their expectations, which they couldn't meet for themselves. This in turn promotes us to exercise victorious life. Haters are watchdogs that prompt our blessings and promotions :-) Not only we shouldn't be critical against enemies and haters, we should also pray for them and pray we might have at least one :-)

Jesus prayed for those who not only hated Him but crucified Him. He said, “Father don’t count this sin against them. They don’t know what they are doing.” Without Jesus’ haters who bugged Him all the way till He was executed on the cross, there wouldn’t have been redemption at all. Stephen also prayed the same prayer for those who stoned him to death. Friends, are your critics more worsen than the above killers? If not, rejoice man!! We have been so much critical against our critics who don't know what they are doing :-) This is time to recount their role to push us forward towards our finishing line......

On the other hand, if we don't have yet adversaries, we might be far away from being up front. If we never have been bitterly criticized, watch it out; we might be well far from our destiny. Therefore, this is time to pray to have one than petitioning to avoid them :-) When I was a kid, I used to hear a saying popular among the elderly people. Actually, it was a prayer to God. It goes like this: “Oh God, please don’t deprive me of accusers and jealousies.” I didn’t get it back then. Now, I came to know that they were smart community :-)

They knew that the sign of accusers and jealousies means there is something big is going on with you. There won't be vultures without dead bodies in the vicinity. Have you ever saw people becoming jealousy and critic about someone without having something to show? Critics are provoked by status, possession, and performance or they are at rest and stand still. The challenge is whether you want to do something and get ready for critics or keep critics and adversaries at bay by remaining dormant.

Aristotle has an infamous antidote for those who fear criticism. He said, “Criticism is something we can avoid easily by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing”. The question is who wants to do nothing, be nothing and say nothing? We all want to achieve something to get fulfilled and there is no way to avoid criticism except to appreciate its role and get along with adversaries. Let's recount our blessings because of adversaries........

Our success or failure rests upon leadership....

noreply@blogger.com (Team Restorers) — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 13:26:25 PDT

There might not be much new things to share than what have been already said about leadership by Leadership experts. However, leadership is needed every where and all the time, which makes it one of the key ingredients in life we should talk about all the time. As leadership is the juncture where things fall or rise, we need to be reminded of its critical role in our personal and corporate life.

If the Sun fails to provide her ultraviolet rays, the whole creation dependent on her influence will definitely be impacted deadly including we man kind. Likewise, any impact on a leader affects, positively or negatively, those who are under his influence. Its catalytic role for individual and corporate success gives leadership a make or break status.

Someone may say, well I am neither a leader nor under the influence of any one and it is not my concern. That looks not an honest and right answer. We are under the influence of someone whether that leader is our parents, a spouse, a boss, etc. Yes, if we have a family we lead, employees to manage, team to lead and so on, the fate of that family, organization, and team depends on our leadership ability. That is correct, it doesn’t hurt to have talented, educated, and aspiring partners and members but it cannot substitute having the right leadership. Of course, we can debate on whether a good team makes up a good leadership or vice versa. However, the latter is not the focus of today's commentary.

The most important point for now is to understand that we are leaders though the degree and size of our influence may vary. By the same token, we are also followers whether we follow ourselves or other leaders. It may look disguising when we say we are a leader for ourselves, we are and we will discuss it in a minute. In any case, as followers, we should have contributions for the betterment of our leaders. However, we don’t have much influence to change what is going on outside of ourselves. We don’t mean that it is not possible to influence upward; it is possible, but we have much control on ourselves whether to lead our own vision or influence others under our leadership. Our focus, therefore, is on how we should be good leaders regardless of title and size of followers.

There is no an isolated island that allows someone to live alone. Even if someone is single, without any possession or position, lack of leadership is not an excuse. Though it may seem a bit philosophical, we are one and at the same times three. We are calling ourselves I but in reality there is- I spirit, I soul, and I flesh. It would have been specific if we address ourselves as WE than I but it complicates things. If that was the case, every one of us are leaders for that three team members.

Don’t look down on yourself, as a leader, if you have these three team members alone. They are the most difficult followers you would ever have :-) Managing their conflicting priorities and leading all of them in one direction through leadership harmony is the biggest task you will ever have. No great leader came out as a great leader before managing these three but difficult team members. To go out and spread the influence of leadership beyond self takes to harness their potential and training them to synergize their strength towards the main thing.

To lead ourselves or others under our influence, we need to be reminded of the need to nurture our leadership skills on daily basis. All of us are on various stages on this leadership journey. We might not talk in this topic what those accomplished leaders should do to improve their leadership but they need to do so on daily basis; it is beyond the scope of this article. However, some of us are still struggling to lead ourselves towards our call and purpose while some of us might already led ourselves well and hoping to lead some more.

That also starts from small beginnings. Start to prepare for leadership. Read books, go school, have a mentor, and use all chances that give you to practice leadership. You shouldn’t wait till you have one leadership opportunity with large followers and with attached big title. Chance may come soon and you may fail to stand up to the opportunity. Opportunities are litmus papers to check who got prepared. Get prepared and use all chances to lead yourself and practice what you have learned. This is leadership where things rise or fail. This is leadership that makes or breaks. Thus, take it serious......

In Memory of Victims of Pride.........

noreply@blogger.com (Team Restorers) — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 09:19:08 PDT

Some of you might wonder what a memorial for prideful people?! Well, their mistakes documented in the Bible for us to learn from it. For that matter, memorials are not always for eventful happenings alone. The memorial we are talking here goes to those innocent victims too. These victims are those who are so afraid about being prideful and dropped their self worth. These are people who might be taught wrongly about the difference between healthy pride and deadly pride. Of course, the line between claiming self worth and pride is very delicate and someone may cross the line and get in trouble without knowing.

The Bible is clear about pride; it is deadly. From kings of Babylon to Kings of Israel, the Bible left us memorials for prideful kings who paid dare price for their over confidence and trust on their ability, power, and wealth while denying the source and author of true riches, wisdom, and power, that is, God. It was not their claim of what they had; it was their believe that they were the source, author, and they took all the credit unworthily.

The Bible also documented self worth claims of great people who redirected the credit to Him and through the process, they never been victims of pride. While they were enjoying the benefits of claiming their self worth, they were very alert and humble to acknowledge the owner of their self worth. If we take Christ and David, both of them were bold enough to claim their self worth in public. They were accused of self inflation and called prideful by their family members and followers.

Christ, who was humble Himself and the One who taught us to be like Him , never compromised about His self worth. Though ridiculed, He maintained that He was with the Father, One with Him, and was there before Abraham. Jesus had to claim His worth because that was the price God required for our redemption. That the same claim led Israelites to crucify Him thinking that He was unworthy of His claim and they found Him prideful in their eyes. The blood our sin required the blood of a pure, sinless, and authoritative figure, and Jesus was so and He had to claim it. There were no excuses and thank God He didn't get victimized in fear of labeled as prideful. However, what the Israelites didn't know that He walked that delicate line very carefully. Because of his obedience and self awareness and His claim, we are here today enjoying the result.

David had been tearing down his clothes so many times when he was found guilty. He credited his successes to God all the time. However, he never wavered his self worth when he faced Goliath even if his elderly brothers accused of him that his pride brought him to the war front, not their lunch. The fall of Goliath took the appropriate claim of David. In this universe, Word has power, until we claim what we believe, things won't respond. For the words Goliath shouted against David, David should have come up with more powerful claim to slain Goliath. Since David walked that line very carefully, Israelites and those terrorized soldiers enjoyed the results of appropriate self worth claims of David.

Friends, God reads our heart and knows when we are after ourselves and despising Him for His generous gifts without measure. He is also closest than ourselves to our heart and knows how much we value Him and credit Him for His generous gifts of power, victory, rich, health, happiness, peace, wisdom. Let's walk that delicate line boldly and enjoy the benefits of our worth in Him while giving the credit He deserves. Let's not be victims of either category. We don't deserve to get penalized because we are filled with pride and at the same time we shouldn't also fall short of grace and success because we refrain from claiming our self worth in Him in the name of fearing being prideful and the consequences of it.

Pain in the making.......

noreply@blogger.com (Team Restorers) — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 12:43:21 PDT

It should be recorded in the Book of Guinness records if someone out there is living life without any kind of pain. Of course, we are not talking here self inflicted pains. The pains in the making are those that are related to our purpose in life, in helping and reaching others, and pursuing God’s agenda on earth, and so on. This is because, we may be still in pain and stress for so many self motivated ambitions. Pains induced through such motives might give us experience or develop our character and bring rewards but the question is are we going for just output or fulfilling results? This commentary is talking about Pain in the making while we are stretching to fulfill our call on earth.

In life, to reach from point A to point B, there are dots we should connect. There are steps we should pass through. There are people and resources we should network. There are exams we should take. There are tests we should pass. And, there are pains we should pass through too. However, these Points and what involves connecting them varies from person to person, era to era, generation to generation, place to place. The most important thing is to make sure that point B is where God wants us to be. Wherever you are now- Point A, what matters is where you are heading-Point B. It doesn’t matter how much price and pains we should endure and how long it takes as far as we are heading towards that fulfilling and right direction set before the foundation of the earth. It doesn't matter as far as we are navigating the predestined destination God envisioned before we were born.

The other most important factor pain in the making is to understand pains for such sacred purpose are not abnormal or our bad luck. Rather, we should carefully examine our theological or ideological beliefs about pains prearranged to shape us. Most of us might think that, life on earth is smooth, once we accepted Jesus Christ. Some of us might be taught that whatever we claim we get and no price attached like pain. Some of us have been, in His grace and as He waits the right time, have been enjoying the manna and waters from rock season and thought that there is no pain for farming and herding to feed ourselves once we reach Canaan. We have been enjoying the fire pillars and the clouds and we thought we don’t need to face the pain of building a shelter once we get to Canaan.

The reason why we have been thinking that life on earth should be smooth and painless could be multiple. There could be well understood factors for us to underline 'our God shall supply our needs' and scripture like that while under estimating scriptures like 'you shall have troubles in this world' from the mouth of the King of the Kingdom who have passed numerous pains while He was on earth. The most important thing we want to remind you is that the pains you are passing through might not be to destroy or harm you or it may not be your fault and bad luck too.

This article is not to tell you new discoveries about pain and how to go about to be happy while passing through pain. Most of you might have already understood this concept and enduring many pains, which the author never tasted or would have survived if exposed. This article, in the latter case, is to refresh and awaken you guys if in case you start to complain or feeling exhausted about pain lately. Some of us have been just exiting the life of walking on flowers and red carpets and this article may help you prepare once you enter the season of your labor. Some of us might be feeling that we are in too much pain and wondering whether that is the devil or our bad luck and this article is just to encourage you that the harder you are tested and confronted, the more you will become the toughest and fly higher. John Maxwell said, “When You Get Kicked in the Rear, You Know You’re Out in Front." When pain is kicking you hard, it is pushing you forward to achieve your dream with the personality that it takes to handle it.

What would have been life if we all enjoy our seasons of pain and labor? Most probably, all of us might have the same regret like, "If I knew that this thing won't kill me, I wouldn't have lived that season that way." or "If I knew that things turn this way, the pain I endured worth better mood than what I offered while I was in that low valley of pain." and so on...With a few exceptions, most of us try to avoid pain and if we couldn’t, we still murmur while passing through that valley. A soaring adult Eagle never enjoyed the tough training by her mom when she was a baby Eagle. But she would have been flocking on earth like other birds if she didn't pass through that painful moment. To enjoy soaring on high, that painful training prior to flying was a must. If we interview a soaring Eagle, she would definitely node her head and say my mom deserves applaud and now I regret for my being crying and complaining back then :-)

To enjoy the glory His Father set before Him Jesus should have passed the pain of Crucifixion. To inherit the Name above all names and be the King of creations, He endured the unspeakable pain of crucifixion. You all know that Jesus was tempted to bypass the pain but became obedient to His Father's Will. That is a great lesson as we pass through pain and tempted to quit or complain. Rather than avoiding or murmuring, we should submit ourselves and let His making brings the result He desires. He is worthy of our obedience and submission even if we are not comfortable and even not clear of what is going to come out of that suffering. He is all knowing and the Father never tests us more than we do bear. He is the Father never gives a snake or stone...He is the Father who knows what is best for us. He is the Father we should trust more than we do our conscience or others advise....

To kiss an awesome baby, a mom must pass through a painful labor. It is her choice between avoiding the pain of all the precursors (pregnancy, labor, etc) or get the baby regardless. In most cases, it looks like ladies are less worried for the pain and that is why we see every one praying about it :-) It looks like pains in the making got into our brain when it comes to perpetuation of our race :-) Let Him helps us to get how the rest of pains in the making worth of our joy while passing through it so that we pray, at least, to endure and enjoy the pain that comes before we enter into our fulfilling rewards in His Kingdom.

Sometimes, we humans try to help our loved ones pass through some pains that shape their destiny without knowing that that pain is in the making of better loved ones. It looks like we got it when it comes to the pains of studying hard in the making of a genius. What we may need to get is the pains in the making that makes our loved ones enjoy the rewards of fulfillment in God's Kingdom. To enjoy flying, a pupa must pass the pain of breaking out of its shell by itself. If it avoids that pain, it remains a crawling 'fly'. In most cases, we ask unnecessary help or try to find short cuts to lessen the dose of the pain in the making. You all know what happen to a boy who helped a pupa. The boy broke the shell when he saw a struggling pupa with a sense of sympathy. The result was a paralyzed flying object. He doesn’t allow our loved ones to be tested beyond our limits that let’s trust Him and enjoy the season of pain with them. Let's render a hand of prayer and encouragement for them to break through than advising or offering unproductive short cuts or untimely assistance.

This article is not trying to shy away that Pain is painful. Or it is not intended to provoke somebody and pray to get one or dance around when it comes. The message is to encourage us endure & enjoy pain in the making as far as it brings forth a fulfilling result. Whether we get it already or not or whether we like it or not, Pain- as He finds it fit- is part of the process we pass through before we enjoy fulfilling rewards in the Kingdom of God.

The rewards and prices of One step

noreply@blogger.com (Team Restorers) — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 13:44:47 PDT

I remember reading a story how the 1980’s leader of User Interface Xerox, which had been making lots of researches on personal computers than any other firm in the industry, was overtaken by Apple when they were almost just a step away to release the first personal computer to the market. One step from Steve Jobs of Apple to visit the Lab of Xerox and react to the insight he got transformed the personal computer industry. Being the first to release personal computers made Apple Computers over top (Of course, later on Apple too had been over taken by Microsoft). That One timely step made unbelievable impact on both companies future destiny. The point is, One step inaction of Xerox and One step proactive stroke from Apple in releasing personal computers brought an amazing consequence, a shift of leadership in that industry.

Senator Barack Obama got One offer to make a key note address during the 2004 DNC. That one gesture brought an obscure politician into a national stage. What if he declined that One offer? What if he failed to maximize that One moment? We don’t need to remind you that where he is today started then. However, we shouldn’t give this rise for a chance or luck. He must have shown consistency, dedication, commitment, and excellence before the Party elites trusted him for that One critical day and moment. However, it was his instinct, smartness, and preparation that over utilized that One chance. The truth, for our topic, is that he said yes for One offer and took a step to venture into a national political stage and an opportunity with attached challenge for his age and experience.

Imagine, there could be multitudes of politicians ahead of him with similar age and experience profile, and who were in his circumstances in one way or another but failed to believe, act, and venture. It might be possible that many rejected, declined, or hesitated those One seemingly in disguise offer because of many arguably conviencing reasons and excuses. You already knew that Obama had responded for his friend’s one seemingly improbable advice- to run for presidency. Can you imagine what would have happened if he declined for that one wise and timely advise but loaded with untold challenges and probabilities? Could the Democratic Party enjoyed the enthusiasm in this election if he declined that One suggestion? Think about where Senator Clinton could have been if he declined or hesitated that One challenge posed for him to run against the Party's establishment and face two giants-Bill and Hillary? Think about the various scenarios and make future projections to simulate where that One gesture would take him, his Party, and the US.

You might think- by now that- you are neither an investor, a company, nor even a politician and this issue is irrelevant for you as a Christian. Come on men! Rather, the above two stories help us to question our reluctance to respond in favour of so many seemingly One step opportunities we missed in our Christian life. For that matter, God’s people history on earth is full of responses for a collection of One seemingly improbable step at a time. This awesome history gives sense when we connect those single dots. We can try lots of scenarios to see where history could have taken the world, a particular patriarch, Christianity, Israel and more if those all descent obediences for One commandment was not made, offers delayed, and so on. Let’s ask some simple but the other side of a coin kind of questions and try to simulate the consequences. There is no question that the difference is graphically huge and too wide if the reaction was otherwise.

Here are some 'what if' scenarios: What if Adam could resist that One ego centric enticement from the devil? What if Samson kept away from being ensnared by that One lover from his enemy’s camp? What if Joseph failed into that One trap of his master’s wife sexual temptation? What if David refused to take One lunch to his brothers who were in the war zone by giving many excuses that might be legitimate considering his age? What if he trusted the armors of King Saul and accepted his One military uniform offer? What if David bowed down for that One intimidation from his brothers who insulted him as a prideful and arrogant boy?

What if Marry doubted that One incredible news from the Archangel Gabriel? What if Joseph failed to obey that One order to take baby Jesus and seek asylum in Egypt? What if Jesus accepted that One advice of Peter to escape crucifixion? What would have happened if Jesus accepted that One offer from Pilate to speak and avoided crucifixion? What if Saul and later Paul refused to obey that One voice of Christ from Heaven? The question continues. By now, you might have wondered where the world and Christianity could have been if those great personalities couldn't make those One actions that finally gave us great inheritances for us and the coming generation. We don't encourage you to see these examples from thir historic perspective but try to relate with your personal stories. You would have been some where better or worse than today if you have been making otherwise for those decisions, and opportunities you have encountered. The goal is to alarm us how important our action or inaction for One step, offer, challenge is, etc.

The point is, we have been making seemingly simple and silly but a collection of ‘One’ decision at a time, which in turn led us where we are today. We landed where we are now because of those refusals or obedience’s One at a time. Who we will be and where we will end up is a function of how we respond to those One at a time temptations, orders, commandments, offers, and so on. The future is more dependent on our action or inaction, and the subsequent rewards or prices attached to it than any out side force or our knowledge, resource, or connection we have had.

Friend, the above stories are still relevant for your individual life and what you could do and behave in your day to day living. The whole point is to show you how it is important to know where we will be next depend on our response to those seemingly simple One steps at a time. We may benefit or get harmed based on our action or inaction to the challenges and/or opportunities that come our way in disguise of One seemingly simple and insignificant step, decision, action...... The bad news is that there is a reward or a price to pay for each challenges and opportunities. There is no way to live on earth without being accountable and responsive. For that matter, the infamous law-for every action, there is a reaction- still is working as far as we are on earth. There is no free ride but we have One chance, maybe some times more, to shape the destination of the ride. The good news if it is up to us....

This principle of Action-Reaction works in the Bible too. You know the destiny of a guy, from the Bible, who hidden his One talent. He paid dare price for his inaction to trade with it. Do you remember One generous act of a prostitute in Jericho who saved herself and her families life? Of course, we are not here to intimidate you or play fear mongering to scare you to death. We are just trying to be realistic and honest with our friends as we ourselves are always meditating on this issue and pray to get help from God for appropriate and timely action as we are confronted with so many One issue that require obedience, action, reaction, and on time.

Otherwise, our focus is to encourage you to trade with that One talent; render that One help to someone. Who knows where such simple One step may take you the next day when you wake up?! Or take One action to refuse what is wrong so that you may save untold catastrophes against your destiny and/or others. We are here with you, not against you, to inspire you to take that One advice, commandment, offer whose time already due. You might be just one simple step away from the place where you have never dreamed of to land. You might be so close and a phone call away from your dream soul mate. You might be a door knock away to get your next blessing. You might be a prayer and/or fasting away from your next level spiritual enlightenment. Whatever is due, take action and get the reward.

Christianity is a freedom movement led by Christ and its full privilege yet we must fight for: what lesson Christians gain from Obama’s nomination

noreply@blogger.com (Team Restorers) — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 11:37:02 PDT

As an Ethiopian neighboring to Kenya, Obama’s father birth place, watching yesterday’s acceptance speech of Senator Barack Obama as a major Party Nominee for presidency for a super power nation was moving. Though the event and the process it took to reach this point by itself should be covered well, let me share you the insight I gained by linking the American civil right movement that resulted this historic nomination with the freedom movement that gave us a chance to be nominee for eternal life and in turn royal children of the Most High.

The tears, joy, and pride by Americans as Obama accepted the nomination reminded me what our Hero, who led the freedom movement that liberated us from the captivity of devil, said. Jesus said, “I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents.” (Luke 15: 7) I was emotionally connected both into what was going on in the stadium and virtually in heaven to picture what heaven feels when a man or a woman accepts Jesus Christ to be a royal son and daughter of God’s sovereign and everlasting Kingdom. When we repent and accept Jesus as our savior, we accepted the invitation to be nominee to be Ambassadors of Christ on earth and children of God to live in Heaven forever.

Friends, I pray for myself and you so that we may sense the joy, pride, and dancing the heavenly beings experience when a person accepts Jesus. I pray that we remain grateful for the offer God gave us through His Son on the day we accepted the nomination and the joy it induced in heaven. Most importantly, I pray that we may embrace the responsibility that nomination entails and the need all of us must continue to fight till the promises of the movement reaches others.

The impression didn’t stop there. Though I am not a history student, it has great value in my personal and spiritual life. I feel reading my own country history whenever I read a piece of America’s history. The formation of modern US and its ideals and values instilled by the great Americans- the Founding Fathers- greatly impresses me. This is a nation formed by Pilgrims who came to this land in search of freedom of worship. America remains one of the most diversified countries that welcome immigrants from the rest of the world. The US is the first in line in investing on the expansion of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Though America is decorated with these and more colorful attributes, it has experienced ups and downs in her journey thus far. One of the down histories was the era of slavery. Millions from all walks of life, race, and social status fought for the case of liberation movement and corrected the fault. The movement demanded the blood, sweat, and life of men and women who stood for justice. It took also an official and unprecedented apology from Congress on July 30, 2008 to black Americans for the institution of slavery, and the subsequent Jim Crow laws that for years discriminated against blacks as second-class citizens in American society. That is America’s greatness, not because there are no wrongs but the spirit of humility and courage to face and correct them by paying whatever it takes.

The champion of the Union and one of the greatest leaders the world ever has- President Abraham Lincoln- issued Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863 but its full implementation was not possible until the end of the civil war. Even after all ground works were done and slaves were finally free to live their own life, it was widely reported that there were many slaves who never knew about Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation act. Likewise, even if the declaration by God in Genesis 3:15 (he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel) demanded the submission of the devil to Christ and let free God’s people, it took the incarnation of Christ and paying the ultimate price so that the declaration remained effective. Surprisingly, even if Jesus came, paid the price, and declared that man kind is free from the bondage of the devil, still there are billions who never heard or believed that finally they are really free.

If we ignore that particular incident where slaves were not aware of the declaration, the struggle for social justice had been continuing and its peak was during the civil right movement. One of the leaders of that movement, Dr Martin Luther King Jr., had a dream where he said, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” Almost after less than half of a century, the daughter of Dr King appeared during the nomination event and said that Senator Barack Obama was judged by the content of his character and his vision to America than his color to be the nominee of a major political party. However, the fruition of this dream took lots of fights, compromises, and sacrifices.

Yesterday was, for sure, a great day that will remain remembered. This is a history the contemporary Americans and the future generations will be proud of. But does that offer an excuse to anyone to settle as if justice is made and no more fight? Obama himself has been saying that there are many progresses in the area of justice issue but it still demands further struggle and the involvement of all stakeholders from across all races, gender, and age to perfect the union that Abraham fought for. The journey for justice, not only in America but in the rest of the world, continues and it takes the involvement of many stakeholders to inherit a better world for the next generation. I like Obama’s quotation, “It took a lot of blood, sweat and tears to get to where we are today, but we have just begun. Today we begin in earnest the work of making sure that the world we leave our children is just a little bit better than the one we inhabit today.”

We don’t expect a perfect world, before dooms day, but each generation should contribute its share so that past generations vision and dreams to see a more just and fair world come true. We don’t just seat and wait for it. We fight for it and nurture it with more insight and inherit it to the next generation. We cast our share and bring the change that was envisioned by our forefathers while meeting the contemporary challenges. What we do individually at small scale, one day will add up with others effort and in its own time will be harvested by our descendants. That was what the civil right movement showed us yesterday. Let’s saw a seed of joy, tear, and happiness for the next generation. As a higher call, let’s fight to bring the vision God had where man kind is responsible to manage and govern the universe by being a trustworthy and compassionate stewards. We should fight to rescue the world from poverty, environmental degradation, terrorism, war, and other crisis and let’s God once again see down over here and say it is very good: “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.” (Genesis 1: 31)

The struggle to nominate people into God’s Kingdom and as Christ’s Ambassadors has been the result of sacrifices, bloods, tears of our forefathers and mothers in Christian faith. Let’s work hard for more nominations of Ambassadors by continuing to fight until the world enjoy the price Christ and His disciples throughout history paid. He declared the return of the Kingdom of God into our hand. He trained followers to carryout the long journey of freedom from the devil, and He fought for our redemption by shedding His blood. His Liberty Proclamation took His life before we enjoyed it. He saw a seed of salivation for us and joy for heaven, and finished His part. However, the struggle for man kind to get freedom from the influence of the devil and enter into the Kingdom to live in peace and prosperity takes the involvement of all of us.

This is our turn. Let’s not settle, individually, at the nomination state for God’s Great Kingdom royal citizenship. Let’s not, collectively, settle until all humanity hear about the proclamation, let’s fight for its efficacy, and let’s portray our share till God’s vision and His Son sacrifices come to its fullness. As we went back to remember Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr., and millions of freedom fighters when we saw Barack Obama standing in that awesome stadium, let’s think about the sacrifices and prices paid by those who proceeded us and let’s crave to give joy to heaven as we continue to bring new nominees to God’s Kingdom.

What restoration to do with Olympic-Part II

noreply@blogger.com (Team Restorers) — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 12:45:36 PDT

In Part I, we tried to remind you that China must have the whole detail of how to start, maintain, and close the Olympic ceremony. It was beyond our expectations and believe that this is the case for most Olympic fans. We were wondering, if humans could go this far and surprise us, whether we try to go back sometimes and simulate how God showed off His divinely created universe and began the game of life. Any one, who has taken time to appreciate His creation and this splendid universe, won't fail to appreciate the power and wisdom its Author demonstrated. Most importantly, it is mind boggling to think how God has been sustaining the universe and what is in it since the game was officially opened. We know, as far as we are breathing, that the game is still on and we are sure also that we will have a wonderful closing ceremony filled with much more surprises.

For those of us who believe in the Bible, it doesn’t take much effort to understand that God had preplanned every thing before it started. The surprising think about God is, not only for giant creatures and for some lucky men, He has a wonderful plan for each and every one of us. We see that in Jeremiah 29: 11, “For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” We saw in so many places Paul was talking about ho he was called to preach the Gospel to Gentiles before the foundation of the earth. God covered His part by having a plan for each of us, the question is: are we ready to discover and restore it? To be more specific, are we ready to uncover God’s predestined plan for our life, own it, rewrite, and walk on it till the closing ceremony of our individual life?

God is a God of plan and the only way to start, live, and finish our race is through planning. His Son reiterated that by giving wonderful examples, which we Christians try to avoid and find excuses for our failure to plan a head in the name of too much spirituality. Let’s see an example. Jesus said, "Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, saying, 'This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.'” (Luke 14:28–30).

Think about it. If God gave such a parable through His authentic Son, who came to restore His Father’s will on earth, would you think that He started a wonderful universe, has been sustaining it this far and now He doesn’t have any idea about how He is going to finish it? Think about China having no clue before hand about how she would sustain the Olympic and its guests? Imagine China having that spectacular opening ceremony and calls to quit before the closing? The challenge for most of us is, we want medal and titles in His Kingdom but we either don’t have any clue about our life tower and how much it costs or we started it and no clue about how we are going to restore the blue print, sustain, and finish it.

Before we totally forget this season of Olympic, let’s be reminded about how Olympic stars preplanned and trained for their championship. These athletes have their own version plan on how to start and successfully finish the championship. They knew, through training and mentorship, the indicators that assure them that they will meet their desire to take Gold. Michael Phelps, who owns eight golds in 2008 Olympic, must have a clear picture about his championship and he must have known what he should do starting day one. His extraordinary success and world class championship didn’t come without planning and anticipating the end. He was in China just to restore the original plan he have had well before he ever get there.

Friends, have you officially inaugurated your purpose in life and now walking on it? If not, restore God’s preordained plan for your life sooner than later? If yes, well done but make sure you know the end and plan for it. Don’t start it and fail to finish it because you don’t have a plan. God never guessed and made everything orderly. Don’t allow mockers ridicule you when you call quit because you had a wonderful beginning but...... Most importantly, make sure you could be able to finish your race and be able to declare as Paul did during the closing ceremony of your life. Don’t forget for a minute that there will be a closing ceremony of at the end of this world and strive to have a place in that gorgeous ceremony where you might appear decorated with 'golds' and crowned by Christ. Make sure, history writes about you as in the case of David where the Bible says, “he served God’s purpose in his generation.” (Acts 13:36). Let’s take this Olympic season as a reminder to make a grand opening, if we haven’t yet done so, and work hard to make the closing ceremony colorful.

What Olympic to do with restoration? Part I

noreply@blogger.com (Team Restorers) — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 20:44:45 PDT

Watching the grand Olympic Opening in China, what did you feel? We can imagine, as it happened on us, you might have been captivated by the display of engineering, technology, and art to decorate the ceremony. There is no question that China was well prepared than any hosting country in recent Olympic history. The investment compared to the preceding Olympic host Greek, a historic country where Olympic had its very root, was disproportionate. Someone told us that Greek invested around 30 Million USD while China spent over 300 Million USD.

Beside the glamorous ceremony that refreshed and astonished all of us, let’s think about how God opened the ceremony when He created the superb universe and launched 'life game' with humans as the main actors? If Chinese, as humans and copies of God, aspired to have a colorful and overwhelming ceremony, what about God the Creator? If these people invested this much and worked hard to impress their fellow brothers and sisters in the rest of the world, what about the ultimate God who has been the author of surprises? Many places, we see the Bible saying ‘suddenly’. He has demonstrated countless miracles and His ability to surprise His creation is beyond our imagination.

We are not taking you another road of imagination and simulation of those ancient days when God had a magnificent grand opening ever. However, we want to bring your attention towards how Chinese must have well planned and saw not only the opening ceremony but also the closing. For us, yes, it was surprise and new, and we don’t have any clue for the upcoming closing ceremony. We are helpless but ready to be surprised by them. For them, they have had the blue print and it is like walking on it. For that matter, they rehearsed it so many times that it is no more impressive or new to those involving.

Hope, you won’t disagree this reality: they are reclaiming (restoring) what they envisioned, planned, practiced, and fought for. Nothing more! Since we were not part of the practice or no one invited us to be member of the organizing committee or disqualified (at least since we are not citizens) to join participants doesn’t mean that there was no blue print about how the ceremony starts and ends. By the way, though I may not be politically correct, there were lots of resistances that could have aborted what we could be able to see and enjoy. There were lots of skepticism and doubts about whether China could make it, whether the key world players boycott the ceremony, and many more. Finally, what the world saw that day was beyond many speculations and in simple word, surprising.

God had everything in mind when He opened life in this universe and He has the clear picture how it should go and ends. For Him, He is just walking what He envisioned, planned, and vowed to bring it pass regardless of doubters and skeptics. He is restoring what He once saw. Our job then is to cooperate and restore what was predestined from ancient days. We all have corporate responsibilities to work together and accomplish the coming picture and restoration of God’s original plan concerning this age.

Remain tune for the next part and please put down your impression about the opening ceremony.....

Winning self, the gateway towards success-Part IV

noreply@blogger.com (Team Restorers) — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 10:49:22 PDT

In the last three sessions, our focus was to address the prime place to start victory. We finger pointed on self and admitted that winning self is the gateway towards colorful destiny. We showed that smart leaders conquered self before marching forward. These people knew where to go when something in their life was going wrong and/or when the organization they led was in trouble. Let's ask you who is in the top wanted list to win your battle on earth and succeed? Where in the list self is? How often do you target self while you are marching forward?

These smart people prefer to blame self than kept at bay from achieving the breakthrough they are desperately looking for. They make a continuous check on self. Winning self is not a one time campaign. As we have seen previously Ralph Stayer as saying, “This is the insight I realized early and returned to often. In most situations, I am the problem. My mentalities, my pictures, my expectations, form the biggest obstacles to my success.” As we have seen in the above quote, Ralph returns to this insight often, which tells us that this is a continuous and persistent exercise one should make for continuous progress and success in life.

The place of your distinction in life starts right from yourself. Let self doesn’t deceive you that it is your smarter companion and a co-author of your next colorful victory. Rebuke it and start from itself, which is the sustainable gateway towards unstoppable success. Once we have a conquered self, the rest is a matter of time. Ride on self so that you may enjoy a non-closed gateway towards success.

We like the way Paul treated himself: “Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore, I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.” (1 Corinthians 9: 25 – 27) What a strategy and an advice from the first Century preacher who laid unshakable foundation for Christianity. There is no doubt that this man’s continuous victory on self sustained for centuries and keeps on impacting the coming generations. He beaten his body, that means, restraining and discipline himself in a continous manner. He made himself a slave before he enslave the devil or other life challenges. A man that fails to enslave self end up being enslaved for failure.

Paul was considering a continuous restrain on him and lived like a man who prepares himself for marathon, not a short distance. He knew that unless he worked on himself and relentlessly, though he might achieve wonderful results in reaching out and changing others, he wouldn’t enjoy sustainable victory without focusing on self. He won self, which is the gateway for envious success and his impact touched billions and remained inheritable to generations well beyond his.

If we are looking forward success that lasts and impacts more than our little world, the right place to start is that little world, self. If we fail to focus in that little domain and scope, we are well away from the gateway of sustainable success. If we fail- to begin with- get focused on that little territory, it is unlikely that we will manage to enjoy success in a wider territory, disarray is inevitable.

Winning self, the gateway towards success-Part III

noreply@blogger.com (Team Restorers) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 17:45:33 PDT

We are in a battle until we win the most victorious one. We are venturing to conquer an entity we might think we have all the available data to easily overwhelm and subdue. However, this self is the most complex being which is physically near but unreachable so easily. Until we get a pretty long time to reflect, we are yet living with a stranger called Mr. Unknown.

Mining precious minerals and oil takes to dig deep and demanding. Likewise, mining true self is a big project and costly. If you have never ventured, welcome to the mining field of riches. You may not find it funny or easy but you won't regret when you harvest the benefits of your golden mining at your backyard.

Three Americans had been in hostage for more than five years in the Colombians jungle and suffered under the brutal abductors before they were freed recently following one of the most successful hostage operations in history. They had gone into the jungle as victims but came out victors and heroes. Not only their families and relatives but all who believe that human life is invaluable and deserves at most freedom, dignity, and respect join together to celebrate them as heroes. There should definitely be long lists to call them heroes. I would add on that long list one important battle they won for which they should be called heroes.

Though they might have many reasons to be bitter and complain, they got a reason to appreciate their time in the jungle where life is very slow and loneliness is a terror. They said, they got quite good time to reflect on their life. I couldn't believe what I heard but heard one of the most amazing exploit an individual could do while crammed forcefully in the most difficult place in the world. I don't know what people in jail, relatively better place, think about it? They revised their personality and redefined their values. Did you read what they said?

These are not people who just came out from college or training institution or something like that and declaring a wish list. These are people who were separated from their wives, kids, and from the culture and freedom they have been enjoying and thrown into the most ugliest place one can imagine living. No wonder how they talked positively like this because they won one of the most important personality that could have been a source of bitterness and complaining, that is, the unguarded and unrefined self.

Though I sympathize the price they paid and the pain they and their beloved ones endured for this long, they confronted the most subtle enemy they couldn’t easily win if they were in the busyness of cities and suburbs. They dug into themselves and refined their values and believes. They rearranged priorities and more. I wish them success, happiness, and peace in the rest of their life.

Friend, when you win self, you are more than half way to go out and win the remaining battles in your life. In that case, not only you get a supportive and trust worthy self as a loyal backer, others will join you in the fight towards success. Senator Barack Obama said, in his speech prepared for the annual NAACP convention Monday July 15, 2008, "I know some say I've been too tough on folks talking about responsibility. NAACP, I'm here to report, I'm not going to stop talking about it. Because as much I'm out there to fight to make sure that government's doing its job and the marketplace is doing its job, ... none of it will make a difference — at least not enough of a difference — if we also don't at the same time seize more responsibility in our own lives." He continued to show how taking responsibility may attract others to get interest as partners in your effort to win life’s battle: "When we are taking care of our own stuff, then a lot of other folks are going to be interested in joining up and working with us and taking care of America's stuff. By winning self, we can harness what is engraved within ourselves and also attract partners in our march to be successful.

Winning self, the gateway towards success-Part II

noreply@blogger.com (Team Restorers) — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 11:51:04 PDT

In part one, we have seen that the gateway towards success was well exploited by some smart people. We said that it is as old as our human history but most of us have been denied of this truth and kept at bay from enjoying its benefits because we are busy trying in conquering others, the world, and the devil. The disarray not to focus on self before ever attempting to step out towards achieving success looks ubiquitous and most people have given it inadequate time. Otherwise, Philosophers like Plato, throughout human history, have been advising to go for the first and best victory. That is to conquer self.

However, winning self takes the step we have been discussing: taking responsibility very seriously. If we fail there, we are defeated by default right there. True confessions for success start from the belief that we are responsible no matter what. That is the first gateway to conquer self and march out to win other territories. Successful people knew this fact from there most being and when something goes wrong, they step aside and re-evaluate their self than going out for full scale war against any force out side of them. Self not only provide self-inflicted damage control but provides the best bet approach to enjoy the war we might have out side of ourselves. If one fails to conquer self, there is no moral ground to think conquering others. If someone fails to subdue self, there is no any other weapon formed as of today for a person to subdue others (we are speaking winning willingly in business, spiritual journey, discovery etc. Otherwise, dictators and fascist have been ruling others by force before they ever gained self control).

King David didn’t strive neither to conquer any one nor accused someone or anything else when Nathan the prophet came to him after he had sinned with Bathsheba. He knew where he should first begin if he wanted to redeem himself and restore his friendship with God and avoid total abandonment of God- his right hand. He determined to conquer himself with the belief that that would be a gateway to win God’s mercy and restore his kingdom. He knew, if he deals himself and humble, that would save him from death, and from more disgraceful consequences. In Psalm 51: 5, David lamented: “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.” David was so honest, he went back as far as his birth and made every one free from responsible but him.

He could have reasoned the possible compounding factors and causes of his fall. He could have enumerated how his upbringing, friendship, what happened that day, etc prone him to sin. He was focused on himself and conquered self by fasting and confessing his sins as an act of being responsible. That brought a new gateway towards successful emission of sin. David brought the one who needed the medicine so the fix was so quick. He knew he should be washed and be cleaned to regain trust and remain in his kingship. In verse 7, he made himself ready for a wash of self: “Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean [ceremonially]; wash me, and I shall [in reality] be whiter than snow.”

Smart people in our history are well aware how they can bring change. Mahatma Gandhi said, “As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world...as in being able to remake ourselves.” This great man conquered himself and 'remake' Indians to stand for their freedom. He restrained himself and stood on a higher moral ground, and caused the Kingdom of Great Britain to shake. He won himself and focused on his own strengthen that lifted him to the position that drawn millions. He never tried to remake Indians or change the British in any way than remaking himself that brought all in effect his vision for his country. If he tried to remake the people or going out first to redefine or remake the Empire, that would have been the wrong approach. The self conquer of one man brought a new remake of history. Friend, to remake or restore your life, family, company, organization, church, or country or even the world, the gateway is at your hand and that is you.

Many kingdoms, marriages, relationships, businesses fail mainly because they fail to makeover within. The wife tries to remake the husband and vice versa. What a marriage it would be if each remakes themselves than to reach out and change their partner. Before going out to remake the business arena in favor of your product, service, what a wise decision to remake the company that definitely prompts partners, customers, and other outside factors change or rethink to fit with the new tempting makeover your company has done? It is possible man!

Winning self, the gateway towards success-Part I

noreply@blogger.com (Team Restorers) — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 12:31:25 PDT

We have had four parts to deal with self, which is the number one threat for our progress. It may be appropriate to flip the title and rewrite the script to say: winning self is the gateway towards success. If self is the trouble maker that deters our progress, winning it should be the very first assignment in line for any dummy person like me. I cannot believe if I am the only dummy and you don’t need this approach :-) Are not you sick and tired of, like I do, how uphill it is to conquer this little self that messes us up?

Though he never made the title of his declaration of war against us, devil must have in his black box a motto that read the same us our today’s title. He believes and is committed to win oneself, which in turn will open a gateway for his successful mischief and demise. If in case you might not yet known, the issue at hand is as old as our human history but most of us have been denied of this truth while we are busy conquering others, the world, and the devil where we forgot to focus on self or given it inadequate time. Philosophers throughout history have been dealing with this issue and it is not something new. Plato said, “The first and best victory is to conquer self.”

Plato’s statement is loaded with so much information and truth about how much critical it is to win self before one ever tries to extend its territory of victory or point to blame anyone for any misfortunes. I don’t think that there will be a single champion who enjoyed any victory in his field of competition before first winning the best battle, self discipline and self training. It was not by chance those pioneers on various professions found a new gateway of celebration without fighting the most important war, convincing self that it is possible to find ground breaking new territory while others self defeated thinking that everything is exhausted, exploited, and thought no room for discovery.

By the way, from the Bible, we see that Jesus was making clear that the first fight is with self. He was suggesting to cut off our eyes and hands if they lead us into temptations (Matthew 5:27-30). Though the context Jesus was teaching is not directly related to what we are now discussing, the point is no excuses for our sinning, failure, and stumbling. He was reassuring that we should pay the price it takes to win the battle of salivation and the first place to focus and conquer is our own parts (self).

The devil may not stop temptations till his time comes. Our responsibility is rather than praying temptation should never show up or cursing the devil who is any ways already cursed, conquering our parts that interface us with the temptations is the prime attention we should give if we are looking for a gateway towards success. Those parts are the gateways for the devil to conquer us and claim victory over our body. Thus, we should either conquer them and march forward to claim more victory some where else or cut them off before they cause ultimate suicidal death by allowing temptation overrule and then sin decay us.

What do you think?

Remain tune for the next part……

The biggest threat for a restorer and of restoration is you! Part IV

noreply@blogger.com (Team Restorers) — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 12:06:24 PDT

This is my hope that, by now, we are on the same page to believe that we are the main threat for our own progress than external factors including the devil. The main point is we should work on ourselves and be in command of our destiny than blaming others. Though we tend to blame friends, colleagues, bosses, leaders, most of us incline to charge the devil- a household name in every Christian family, for anything that went wrong. I believe that, the truth sets each of us free, this is one of the truths I pray that should set us free from finding excuses than taking responsibilities to dictate our progress. I believe that one of the transformations in our Christian journey is when we believe that the devil is not responsible for every script of failure in our life or church or community or nation. That redirect us to take responsibility and work on ourselves, family, community and nation to bring change that we desire.

However, that doesn’t mean that everything will be smooth and no resistance from evil spirits and their agents. The truth is, the devil has no authority since he lost it but chances are high we may put him in charge by fearing as faith doesn’t co-exist with fear. If we read Chapter six of Ephesians starting from verse ten through nineteen, we see how Paul advises us to put on the full armor of God. This part of the chapter advises how we are not struggling with flesh and blood but against the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly realms. That is to advise that we should accomplish our home work to keep the devil and all evil forces at bay. If we fail to read, meditate on the Word day and night; if we fail to shield of faith; if we become reluctant to pray in the Spirit, then we will remain a play ground for wicked spirit and their agents. Don’t forget the theme of this blog: You are the number one threat for yourself. Until we take responsibility and claim our right, we remain blaming the wrong figures and keep postponing our freedom and progress.

The above truth, our failure to read and meditate on the Word of God which is the source of faith and the basis for our prayer, remains the root cause for any fault we might have in our spiritual journey. Devil by himself has no authority on us but plays on us and causes self inflicted defeat and destruction. He doesn’t need to take us to hell or in heavenly places to engage us in fight and finally make us threats for ourselves. He uses our own ground. The story in Matthew 13: 24 - 26 explains how the enemy functions in our battle field: Jesus told them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.”

Let’s see just one example on how our thought is one of the weapons that could be unleashed against our own progress by the enemy. While writing this blog, I remembered reading what Dr John Maxwell advised, “We should be careful about thoughts”. He said, “Our thoughts are fragile at first. They are endangered by pessimism, busyness, insecurity, forgetfulness, and a host of other threats.” He is right! These factors are abundant in the world we live and if we conform to the world and develop these threats in our mind; rather than renewing it, we end up harboring bad thoughts and finally become helpless to utter them. Paul advises that, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” (Romans 12:2)

From the above paragraph we can easily see that there are parts we play like conforming to the pattern of this world, fail to renew our mind, keep thinking destructive thoughts. Our mind is the battle ground as Joyce Meyer hammers this fact almost every day in her Enjoying Everyday Life broadcast. Unless we loss the fight at mind level, we won’t loss the battle on the ground. The logic is simple: Whatever we think, we believe, and speak. The way the spiritual world works, which the Bible made it clear in many places, is that whatever we believe and claim we get it accordingly. To enter into God’s Kingdom, we should believe in Christ and then speak it out to be saved (Romans 10:9). If we want to remove the mountain of our life, we believe and speak it out (Matthew 21:21; Mark 11:23).

God Himself operated this way. As we saw in the beginning of Genesis, He created the universe by speaking. Surprising it might appear for some, the perfect heavenly beings were made by His Word: “By the Word of the LORD were the heavens made” (Psalm 33: 6). Jesus withered the fig tree by speaking. By the way, we will be judged based on our words, as the Bible says, not by what the devil might accuse us. Jesus said, “You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. But I tell you that men will have to give account on the Day of Judgment for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned." (Matthew 12:34-37) This example shows us that whatever we process in our mind, which we speak out and that in turn will be used to judge us. The devil knows this principle and as he is crafty, he plays on our thoughts to produce the threat that brings his evil desire on our life. I don’t know about you but I see that the devil is not totally responsible and there is ample authority to guard ourselves from being victims of his cheating and tricks.

Therefore, who we are and who we will be including our destiny in eternity is attached on what we think, believe, and speak. This consolidates what we have been saying: we are the number one threat for our own progress and destiny than any other outside force. I earnestly believe that the right place to start the long and twisted journey of success is by evaluating ourselves than pointing on someone or something else. I like the way Ralph Stayer, president of Johnsonville Foods, once confessed. He admitted, in most situations, he is the problem. He continues to write, “My mentalities, my pictures, my expectations, form the biggest obstacles to my success.” His statements describe the place where his problem harbored-his mind, and it has to do with his thoughts and imaginations, all of which are within himself.

For that matter, the very target of the devil and any external factor to change our route and destiny is by attacking our thought process as it is the ground where you develop faith by meditating on the Words you heard. It is good to pray in tongues, rebuke the devil on daily basis but we must guard our thoughts as the battle ground is our mind and you won’t accomplish that by just praying and fasting. Once we are failed there, the rest is a matter of time to utter words contrary to God’s Word, which in turn opens the door for attack and alter our envious destiny. If there is a priority of prayer, until we conquer the battle in our mind, is to pray for our faith not fails us. At a very sticky point in Peter’s life, prayer for his sin be forgiven because he disowned his master was not the priority for Jesus. Jesus prayed, as the soon would be High Priest in the Holy of Holies, for Peter for his faith not to be attacked. "Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers." (Luke 22:31- 32)

It may be appropriate and our duty to be self made righteous but it is not enough. Because faith is the foundation and the Bible says, “If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?” (Psalm 11: 3) The whole argument is that what is in us is greater than what is in the world. Our progress and destiny is attached to what is going on inside than what is going on outside including what the devil is plotting or men are designing to fail us. The emphasis is to know that we are the number one threat for our progress than external factors. If we finish addressing self inflicting threats within, then we may rearrange the list of threats where the devil may be the next in the line and on top of the list. Till that day, first thing is first!

The biggest threat for a restorer and of restoration is you! Part III

noreply@blogger.com (Team Restorers) — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 13:33:05 PDT

Last time, we have seen that Job had a share of responsibility on what happened in his life and his families. Not in a sense that he had sinned or did wrong but he had fears and what he had feared happened on him. Everything written on the Bible is for our lesson; therefore, we should learn from his story to pray and meditate on the Word of God to increase more faith to combat fear and negative expectations (In the near future, I would like to further explain from the Bible and based on researches made on how speaking and expecting negative things are dangerous considering how we were made and the universe is operating). The more we read and dwell on the Word of God, the more we become like Christ that includes how He dealt the devil and overcame all of the difficulties He had faced on earth.

My effort is not to tell that there is no devil or his temptations. It is not to distract you from watching the snares the devil plants. It is not also to tell you that you can ridicule the devil by your own power and fleshly. Even the Son of God didn’t boast or ridicule the devil; He quoted scriptures to battle with the devil’s temptation. The confidence I would like to build in me and you should not come from self or worldly wisdom but as the Bible says, “But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.” (Romans 8:37) His love makes us to be above all creations including the devil. Especially, this generation is lucky because the Holy Spirit is in us, who teaches, coaches, mentors, and trains us on how to use the weapon- the Word of God – in our daily life and in our fight against the devil. The minimum I am expecting from myself, from this blog and this specific topic, is to believe that we are no more victims of the devil because the one who is in us is greater than the one who is in the world (1 John 4:4) and the devil is in the world.

There should be a reassurance to Christians that the devil we have here on earth and after his fall is not omnipresent and no more in his splendid power and beauty. He has been cheating the people of God of his identity until the Son of God showed up passing all the slaughters the devil engaged to deter Him from exposing his class. Jesus came to show us in which class he is: a beggar that asks to dwell in pigs. Mark 5: 12 "Send us among the pigs; allow us to go into them." Jesus restored our class and we are above him in the Name Jesus left with us. However, we have a troubling partner- our tongue-that makes us victims of circumstances.

We have seen from Jesus' life that the devil didn't have any authority over Him including His crucifixion. The devil had role on this but to execute the will of God in offering Jesus as a sacrificial lamb to erase our sins. Other than that the devil was not near to dictate the destiny of Christ, who is the first born of God. His Father and our Father wants us to resemble Him in every way He lived on earth. I like what Jesus said, to nullify the role of the devil and others in laying down His own life: "The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life - only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and the authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father." (John 10:18) We may not have authority received to lay down our life when we want and take it back again but definitely we have many authorities given by the Father and Jesus Himself, which we should exercise than subcontracting it to the devil.

The devil might still have his power but with attached time table, which is running out. One thing is sure; the devil has no authority to lay our life down or dictate our destiny, or the way we live on earth! However, he might manipulate us to utter words that dictate the way we live on earth. He might steal the right Words from us so that we may speak negative things that come on our life and/or that open the door for him to act. How we live on earth and what would happen on us is a choice and our birth right given from God who wanted us to choose life and this is not the devil that has authority if we happened to choose otherwise. We have the right to choose life, success, prosperity, peace, love and more. If it happened that we ended up 'dead spiritually', failures, poor, at war with every one, and more, the reason could be complex but surely we have the lion share than the devil.

I will come back to discuss more on this topic but, at least, I would like to conclude by emphasizing that each of us should take responsibility and put ourselves (mostly our tongue) at the front line as the most threatening figure than the devil. If we observe closely, we will come to know that most of the tags we put on the devil as responsible for calamities and setbacks in our life are excuses for our own mistakes or weaknesses, failures, resentfulness’s, complacencies, and so on. I am not saying the devil is a zero factor. He is always out there to mess us around but we should be aware that, in one way or another, we are the one who open the door for the devil. This could be either through committing sin that keeps us at bay from the protection we have (until we confess it). Or we may utter some words against the Word of God that might authorize the devil to have a free ride on our own territory. Or we are cheated by the devil who could know in which areas we are ignorant. We know how the devil tempted to cheat even Jesus as we saw in Matthews 4.

The devil was so rude that he tried to offer a gift of kingdom and its splendor to the very Creator of Heavenly Kingdom and the owner of everything devil suppose to show: “the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor” (Matthews 4: 8) Can you imagine the devil to cheat Jesus and gain His worship so that he might take away His destiny as the ruler of all Kingdoms? In most cases, the devil cheats us with very silly things to get the most worthy ones from our hand. In any case, let’s reclaim our responsibility that we are the very most threat for ourselves.

There are many sad stories from the Bible for which God was not the author, or some forces and the devil or anything but because of mistakes and failures of individuals. We know how Moses was buried before entering the Promised Land for which he invested his whole life. He was like god to Pharaoh and demonstrated dreadful miracles. He saw the face of God and God punished many for his sake but more than Pharaoh or Egyptians, or Israelites or devil or any factor, Moses denied himself from entering Canaan. Of course, Israelites provoked him to disobey God and drifted away from His order but he was the one responsible to fail executing the command of the Most High and accept what was due for such act.

We know how the Israelites died in the wilderness and couldn’t inherit the promise land. It was not Moses, the devil, the giants, the thirst or the hunger, or lack of shoes or medicine in the desert or sword that killed millions in the desert. It was their complain and murmur against God and His true promises where in the end they got what was attached to such behaviors. We know what happened on Samson, King Saul, and so on. God was not responsible at all! Devil was not the author behind those and many more unpleasant finishes. There could be many factors for such bad finishes but the main players were the individuals.

My prayer for myself and you my friend is to get wisdom, strength, and determination to stick on the Word of God and embrace the Holy Spirit who is capable enough to lead us to all the truths, show us who we are in Christ, our true worth, and save us from making wrong choices, decisions, and mistakes that could alter our destiny.

Remain tune!

The biggest threat for a restorer and of restoration is you! Part II

noreply@blogger.com (Team Restorers) — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 09:32:15 PDT

Last week, we saw how Christians are the number one threats for Christianity than any other force out side of the four walls of the Church. We also saw how UNESCO figured out that the source of both war and peace could come from human mind than any where else in this gigantic universe. This put man kind the very first in the row as a threat for man kind itself and beyond while the good news is that it is the one in the front row as a remedy. For those of us who are accustomed to the Bible and know how God empowered man with incalculable power and authority when He created him after His own image, it is not a rocket science that man can be such a pivotal player in this universe. The difference is on how man uses that the same power and authority.

For those of us who have been in the Church, it doesn’t take a Lab research or no need to send a satellite to appreciate how powerful Christians who understood its authority. What is less known was how much the same group has been the most threat for its own progress? Hope, we have got some insights from the previous blog about how Christians are the number one threat for Christianity. The question, however, is how to mitigate this impact if we are looking for expanding the Kingdom message to the world? The other issue is on how to deal with the distraction in considering the devil and other forces of darkness as the main threats for the Christianity than we ourselves? There could be many more questions like how to redirect the energy and effort spent on the wrong figure, the devil and its forces, to bring real progress for the message of Christ? These and similar issues may be addressed some other time.

For now, I would like to focus on how each of us is the most threatening figure for our own self progress. Taking the story of Job from the Bible, one can easily see how we are the one who open the door for anything to happen in our life. Job said, “What I feared has come upon me; what I dreaded has happened to me.” (Job 3:25) I used to feel pity for Job and gnash my teeth against the devil on how he dared to hurt a good man :-) Like I did, many Christian friends believe that the sole responsibility for Job's misery was on the devil. We should not be blamed for our being always pointing at the devil for anything went wrong whether on our own life or in the Church; we have been taught that way. Of course, it is easy to do so than to take responsibility. Some point in his life, Job feared on what would happen on him and his family. As he feared, what he expected happened on him. What so ever the proportion the devil own in causing the calamities in Job's life, Job had a share- maybe a lion share.

By the way, I have been changing how I rate on the cause of those bad and unwanted things that happened on me. I used to give the devil the maximum rate while excusing myself from taking any responsibility. The more I study the Word of God and watch closely the cause and effect scenarios in my own life, the devil becomes less responsible while my own share is inflating. I am hoping that, as I grow in knowing God and His Word, I would reach the level where devil won't have any or insignificant share at all. Can we believe together that, until we are done on earth, he will remain in roaring and roaring forever state but never come closer to take hold of authority on what would happen in our life? The challenge is how much could we be able to reduce the role of ourselves as a threat against our own progress? At least, knowing and understanding the question is half way from the true answer.

The point I am trying to make is that there is a very significant part we play in becoming a threat for ourselves and prone our position for setbacks. As the poll I quoted in my previous blog indicated, rather than the forces out side of the four walls of the Church, it is the Christians who worship and dwell there are the most threatening factors. Similarly, rather than blaming external factors and especially the devil, we should better know as early as possible that we are the most threatening actor for our own failures and misfortunes.

By no means, will I ever undermine that we have an ever alert and wicked adversary, the devil. However, he has less authority than we do have. Yes, he has power but without authority. He walks around to find a hole opened by our own fear or ignorance or misspell of God’s Word before he devours us. Peter knew the devil and said “the Devil goes about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” (1 Peter 5:8)

I am well aware that there is a constant effort from the devil side to attack the saints but I am not comfortable to the extent some Christians adore and exaggerate the devil. I have heard many Christians blaming the devil for everything (I do sometimes and until the Spirit of God deals with me). It looks like the devil they know is the one who was before fall. I doubt that they read Isaiah 14:13-14 “You said in your heart, I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain.” Maybe they stopped there, believed what the devil wished, and haven’t read the next verse: “But you are brought down to the grave, to the depths of the pit.” At least for now, let's meditate on the last verse and believe that the devil is virtually brought down to the grave and helpless no more to be a threatening factor for our success, unless we render a hand to resurrect him so that he might have a say on our progress.

Next time, I will come back to show more on the real status of the devil in our progress, how he even tried to cheat Jesus, how our Lord restored our position back above the devil, and more truths from the Bible that reinforce what we have discussed thus far.

The biggest threat for a restorer and of restoration is you! Part I

noreply@blogger.com (Team Restorers) — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 17:14:49 PDT

I read an article on March 06 2008, following a poll conducted by New Man to identify the greatest threats to American Christianity. With prejudice, the pollster enlisted the known predators of Christianity without suspecting that a new breed of foe to Christianity came to existence with more power to paralyze the cause of Christianity on a Christian land. His preliminary lists, from which participants were supposed to choose; of scariest rivals were Cults, New Age philosophy, Atheism—along with several other scourges. However, he admitted that he almost, as an afterthought (that must be the Holy Spirit who convicted the author to incorporate the biggest threat that prevented Him to operate and advance the Kingdom of God), added a category that seemed far less hostile: spiritual indifference and complacency.

The poll result showed that nearly 60 percent of the participants chosen “spiritual indifference and complacency” as the greatest threat. Seeing the overwhelming self-imposed result, the author has agreed with his participants. The poll simply showed that the biggest threat to American Christianity is not some dark and gathering force beyond the walls of the church. Rather, the biggest danger to Christianity is … Christians!

Are you shocked? I was not shocked but got a contemporary confirmation from a trustworthy institute that has good record of conducting such polls. God's agendas, per generation, on earth have been threatened most by His own people though most of them had been resisting His will out of ignorance and/or blind zeal. Our King and Lord, Jesus Christ, was loved by sinners and tax collectors. They found mercy and restoration to God's Kingdom while He was threatened and finally killed by the religious elites, those who claim were insiders and religious. They were arranging many traps and dug many pits for Jesus to fall into. They argued with Him when He was a 12 year boy. They tried to stone Him. They accused of Him treason. They scoffed on Him as a person who possessed demons. They accused Him of Blasphemy just because He claimed who He was.

The general public was after Him where they even tried to crown Him as their King. Three of His disciples, who were not religious originally, begged Him to build Him of a mansion so that He might have a permanent place of residence with Elijah and Moses at the mountain of transfiguration. The ladies from the Royal Palace were backbones for His Help Ministry. Some Roman officials astonished Him with their faith and were desperately looking for Him to heal their sicks. The toppest government person Pilate was challenged for the first time in his life and came closer to know the Truth; he was ready to free Him. Let alone the humans who were in desperate need of a saviour, animals and the none-living things like the water, fishes, winds and storms obeyed and respected Him. Those sicks, sinners, and the decaying physical world was in need of Him and still thirsty of Him through us until everything is renewed in His own time.

Apostle Paul was beaten, stoned and roughed by religious guru. He was a sought after debater, speaker, and teacher for the Greeks and gentiles while persecuted by the religious men who claimed to be zealous for God. They were planning an ambush to kill him; they brought him before out siders and finally succeeded to put him in house arrest and accelerated his death. Most of the persecutions Christianity faced were from within. The list continues.

The point I am trying to make is that, not only in the US but also all over the world, the greatest threat Christianity have had and would face from within itself. Though I don't have data at hand to back it up, it may be the Christians who are the source of repulsion for non-believers to join the Kingdom of God than any other causes that are believed to be attracting towards and distancing them from God's House.

I believe that, like the above author did, if we give it a little bit of thought about why Christianity is not impacting the world , as it should be, and bring forth the Heartfelt desire of God in the 21st C, this must be me and you who are Christians that failed to resolve spiritual indifference and complacency for the sake of the Higher Cause. The cause of redeeming the world from its decaying should have been the prime preoccupation to Christians that have been engaging in self inflicting indifference and plagued by oversleeping complacencies while the situation on earth, a territory we are assigned to take care of, is desperate and getting more more worsening.

Though I have talked in length about the most threatening enemy of Christianity in the US, my focus is on how the same analogy works for every restoration act we need. The effort is to change our listing of trouble makers from out side of us to within. For every effect we are complaining about individually and collectively, the cause may not be far as the solution is within us. For instance, to restore peace, mind is the starting ground as it was for war and conflict. UNESCO (United Nations Education and Science organization) preamble affirms that "Since wars begin in the minds of men it is in the minds of men that the defenses of peace.” That is innovative; there is no doubt that changing the mind is the only sustainable way to bring the most desperate need of human race, peace.

For that matter, it is one of the innovative discoveries someone would have ever when he/she believes that most of the critical troubles and answers are laid within us. I was convinced long ago that both troubles and solutions are within us, humans, than any where in this physical world. Whenever I am challenged, stuck, frustrated, felt dizzy, what have you, I know that it was first started in my mind and it is there I should first fix the problem. In some cases, the cause may not be within us but definitely, the answer is within us if we know that we are the carriers of God’s image. In one hand, we know that we are awesome creation with unlimited power and wisdom where there won’t be any challenge we won’t fix. On the other hand, we are the very threatening figure for our own restoration and beyond.

Remain tune to read the second part of this series, the biggest threat for you is you!

Restorers, you are called to Redefine your moments-Part IV

noreply@blogger.com (Team Restorers) — Tue, 27 May 2008 22:40:51 PDT

I didn't expect that this series, redefine your moment, would be more than one or two parts. I tried to show how individuals and groups redefined their moments and achieved unbelievable results and how this effort is not cheap. However, it becomes more and more interesting and now we are in our fourth part and I am wondering whether I would be able to finish my thoughts in this session. At least, I shouldn't quit talking about this subject before bringing to your attention two examples from the Body of Christ who brought tremendous changes and a destructive act of redefining global 'racial constituency' by Hitler, and how redefining moments is a very desirable thing in the corporate world.

Without those women and pro-women activists struggled to redefine the then play ground rules where women were second class citizens, we wouldn’t have the critical role of women in every nation, company, ministry, and so on. We would have been far worse than where we are now as human being if the role of women was not redefined. I heard Joyce Meyer as saying that, let alone the outsiders, some of her own close family members and colleagues were not comfortable of a woman preacher. Rather than buying the defined belief that women are not for preaching, she stepped out and disproved many skeptics. If she was a victim of the defined role of woman in the Church that confronted her to redefine her moments to pursue her destiny, we wouldn’t have Joyce Meyer Ministry International and its international impact (especially, I am grateful for her charity work in my home country); we wouldn’t have her life changing and practical teachings, and dozens of books and other products that have changed the lives of many women and MEN too. Today, though the challenges are still there, her redefining effort has brought a better chance for many women called into preaching.

In the church of the late 15th and early 16th C, challenging the defined rule of papacy authority over the Bible as infallible source of religious authority and advocating that all baptized Christians under Jesus have universal priesthood, was unthinkable and too confrontational. However, Martin Luther redefined the limiting man made regulations and restored humanity to enjoy salvation which was a free gift of God, received only by true repentance and faith in Jesus as Christ the Messiah, a faith given by God and unmediated by the church. His restorer role inspired the Protestant Reformation and changed the course of Western civilization. Millions upon millions including myself enjoyed that sacred redefining and restoration act of one person who came out to confront a barrier that kept souls at bay and deprived of intimacy with Christ and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. I could not help it but to thank God for raising such a reformer and I have a great reverence to Luther who paid the price to redefine the playing ground and in favour of us so that we may tap into the excitements and salivation we and the coming generation would enjoy freely. What a manner of man!

At this point, I think, it would be important to underline that not all redefinition of the existing and governing rules, conducts, and realities are constructive and guarantee transformation for good. Luther’s ideological re-definition of salivation, the re-instituting of the authority of the Bible and re-positioning the role of the Church had a base or a reference-the Bible. That is to precaution that we shouldn’t end up bringing our version of every thing in the name of redefinition. Let’s see one sad and terrible version of a faulty redefinition effort by the notorious Hitler.

We know that Hitler pursued a social policy to redefine the structure of race where he planned to come up with a redefined superior race. His social policy was to redefine the ‘racial hygiene’. To implement his redefinition of race, he bought the faulty ideas of Arthur de Gobineau (a pseudo-scientist) and social Darwinism to breed humans as if they were farm animals. He exploited his oratory gift and the crisis in Germany defined by nationalism, anti-Semitism, and anti-communism. To execute his faulty dream, he redefined the power base by assassinating many of his opponents, re-structured the state economy, re-armed the armed forces, and became a dictator in his bid for territorial conquest and racial subjugation. Though Hitler’s dream of redefining the ‘hygiene of race’ ultimately failed, his effort of redefinition caused the deaths of tens of millions of people, including the various ‘undesirable’ populations. He hoped to destroy, according to his redefinition attempt, those whom he thought disqualified for existence and sub-human. His redefinition about a higher class of humanity brought one of the unforgotten tragedies on earth and in human history.

However, though the incidents like the above have been sad to think about unproductive and ugly redefinitions, humanity has been plagued by many challenges that should be redefined. We should not have phobia of reforms though we should always strive to pay greater tribute to redefinition efforts for good by avoiding unworthy changes in the name of redefinition.

On top of individual redefining moments that are productive, individual companies have been continually relying on redefining their services and products to lure their customers and survive competitions, without which they couldn’t continue profit and strive. These are the companies that survive and profit continually, companies which redefine their processes, products, and/or services. Those companies that have been extinct were those that failed to redefine the moment to respond for desperate needs of dynamic and on time redefinitions. One of the reasons once giant companies went bankrupt and/or extinct because they were not effective, responsive, and flexible to redefine their moments according to the timely demands of their customers and fierce competitions from their rivals. The law of the fittest survive works where those which are continually redefining themselves remain relevant in the market place while some are extinct as they failed to sense areas that require redefinition and on time.

Smart companies hire consultants and continually ask if they need to redefine their processes, strategies, services, and so on. Such companies not only engage outside forces to help them make on time and dynamic reforms, they motivate and engage their employees. They reward those employees who would save money for the companies by redefining some processes, procedures, and so on. Most companies have a consistent record of rewarding such employees who are always looking to redefine. These real Restorers, rather than totally bought by the existing processes, designs, strategies, and workings, they try to see where they could redefine and shape the performance of some process that saves millions of dollars.

In some companies where designing is a key to prosper, those gifted designers who could come up with new designs have been rewarded and paid back for their relentless effort to redefine the existing designs. Even if the current design is on market and receiving many compliments, these Restorers have their own way of looking forward to see a better design that would also bring more compliments. They don’t settle, continue to redefine. Friend, you are a candidate to redefine situations around your life, at your home and family, in your company, and wherever you are part of.

Restorers, you are called to Redefine your moments-Part III

noreply@blogger.com (Team Restorers) — Thu, 22 May 2008 10:18:42 PDT

Hope, you have already read Part I and II of this series, Redefining your moments. This week, we stretch the discussion to cover some of group redefining moments. We have multitudes of team of two or more people who determined to redefine their situation and left us great examples. These are patriarchs who, unlike their contemporaries, did not bow down for things and situations that constrained their freedom, progress, and happiness. It takes courage, far-sightedness, and more for some group of people to redefine moments their contemporaries accepted as if it was their luck and destiny.

One ideological concept I should clarify is that, by encouraging collaboration as a group, I am not a supporter of political ideology that ties individual destiny with group. In ideologies like communism and its variants, individuals should submit their destiny for the will of majority; that was a failed scheme. There is individual destiny each of us should fulfill, for which we would be accountable before God. And there is group destiny as a family, community, nation, for which we collaborate based on common our vision and destiny. Though I believe there should be collaborations among individuals for common causes, I am not in favor of a scheme that enforces individuals to grow, think, share, and believe as a group as extreme as denying or undermining individual rights and destiny.

From the Bible, we see that God has both individual fulfillment assignment for individuals like He did in case of Abraham, Moses, Gideon, and He had also group assignment like the one given to Adam and the rest of humanity- to dominate and rule the creation (Genesis 1: 28). Israelites as a group were given destiny to be a nation for God and priests for His Kingdom. The 12 Disciples of Christ were sent to the world to preach the good news. That is to say, there are individual moments we should keep on redefining while we are restoring ourselves until we fulfill our destiny. Likewise, there are group assignments we should team up at work place, market place, Church, and so on to achieve common goals by redefining things that constraint us to move and inherit our common destiny. However, care must be taken to find the balance in pursuing both individual and group destiny.

The reality on the ground in every generation, however, is not what we have seen always happening where individuals commit themselves to pursue both individual and group destiny. There are individuals who strived to identify who they are and lived after their uniqueness to pursue their destiny while there were individuals who didn’t bother about fulfillment where they lived without trying to redefine moments to shape up their destiny; they lived as defined for them. We have seen some part of a community stood to redefine moments and shape their common destiny while others died without making such efforts thinking that they are victims of the situation that defined their boundaries.

If we take the case of the Pilgrims who faced the fierce ocean, uncertainties of the unknown, to establish the modern USA, there were multitudes in their situation that were denied their religious freedom. While the rest accepted the defined boundaries and lived up to its expectations, these brave people determined to redefine their moment. To fulfill that common destiny in search of freedom, they sailed leaving the past behind to establish a new moment and boundary somewhere, a place they never been at all.

While other Israelites who were in exile found themselves to get defiled by the food of Babylonian king, the four Hebrew boys determined to redefine their moment (Daniel 1: 8- 20). They thought that it was possible to redefine their moment- a reality where they were to join others to defile themselves while they were in the palace. I believe that, knowing how rude and ruthless the king was, it looked like reckless for these boys to think, let alone to ask permission not to live as per defined rules that applies to everyone. We have many such examples from the Bible we could be able to find some group of people who determined to redefine their moment by taking greater risks unlike their contemporaries who accepted their moments as defined.

It would have been easy for those who redefine their moments to get some help from others who bow down for the circumstance they find themselves in. In most cases, such group of brave individuals have been challenged and discouraged by their contemporaries. Many people love to redefine their moments but not ready to withstand resistances and despises from their peers and contemporaries. I can imagine how their relatives, friends, and colleagues ridiculed the pilgrims when they stood and said we must redefine this situation that deterred our freedom of worship. The other Hebrew exiles must have rebuked these boys and warned them of the consequences of challenging the defined rule within the palace of the king of Babylon.

Whatever the intensity and depth of the redefinition might be, as I said earlier, it takes courage, far-sightedness, and most importantly faith. For disciples like Tomas who was a doubter, it was a ridiculous and reckless attempt by Peter even to think about it, let alone to step out of the boat to walk on the water that could be able to redefine that particular moment the team faced and beyond (as he also redefined the law of buoyancy force). When the twelve Hebrew spies where sent by Moses to check out the promise land (Numbers 13: 17 - 20), two of them redefined the reality of the giants living in the land while the remaining accepted the facts they saw and determined to live up to what they saw than to believe the promise of God and redefine the power imbalance between them and the giants in that land. That is to say, whether it is an individual or group effort to redefine our moments, there is a challenge and risk we should take.

Remain tune!

Restorers, you are called to Redefine your moments-Part II

noreply@blogger.com (Team Restorers) — Sun, 11 May 2008 18:56:27 PDT

The contemporary civilization is the result of many great inventors and entrepreneurs who refused to bow down for the reality they were born into. They determined to redefine the reality to come up with new discoveries and findings. Since they had a different outlook than their contemporaries, they could be able to bring the transformation their society, community, company, family, and country desperately needed. Without people who happened unhappy about what is defined by the past generation and the reality at hand, we won’t be here. Without the hope of new persons who would redefine some of the sectors where redefinition must be employed, the next generation doesn’t have much better hope than what we have been enjoying.

There should be efforts from each individual to find ways to redefine situations that cause stagnation so that one continues to progress. Those crisis at individual, community, and global level, which have been tolerated as normal or undefeatable need to get a redefining new approach to improve the situation for better. Whether it is religious or non-religious sectors, all need new redefinition for their own challenges and expectations; we cannot afford to seat and relax based on the scenario defined previously. The challenges of the 21st C are too high and demand fresh look and approach from all stakeholders. We have long way to march.

History losses taste unless redefinitions are underway and new things are happening than the usual routines. If you are a redefining guy, you are a history favourite man, who would motivate generations to come. People would look back, even if you are passed away, what you have done and pay tribute for your venture to come up with something that contributes where they would find themselves. History was full of such people and trustworthy to pay back his favourites by recording their redefining tasks and passing it to the next generation. The Bible is also full of people who redefined their personal and communal moments to leave us legacies that still lift our faith up and motivate us. The coming weeks, we will try to shed light on those individuals and groups who redefined their moment. Let's see an example for this week.

While they were in the midst of chaotic situation and closer to drowning, Jesus showed up walking on the water! Wow! Do you blame them because they were trying to ‘redefine’ the new moment and screamed at Jesus and said here we are again faced a ghost? The whole attention on the storm diverted to the new moment and these experienced fishermen who have been on such stormy situation more than once, I guess, faced with a new moment they had never been before, someone walking on violent and roaring water. They had been scared to death and redefined the stormy moment into another terrorizing moment to worry how the ghost might attack them and many worries in this regard.

However, Peter was the only one who could be able to redefine that new moment by asking “Lord, if it is you, tell me to come to you on the water.” (Matthew 15: 28). Rather than pity party and ashamed of the wrong guess, he demanded a very difficult question in his favor to redefine the discovery that this was not a ghost but His awesome and ever surprising Master whose appearance overridden both worries about the storm and the ghost. He asked Jesus to call Him so that he might redefine the law of buoyancy force and enjoy a new freedom. Forgetting the moment and those all prior terrors of the storm and the ghost, Peter redefined the moment and exploited it to a newer dimension, which left us great legacy.

Wherever we find ourselves in a situation for which we are not comfortable, scary, and so on, try to redefine the situation and enjoy the benefits than cursing the devil or others or our bad luck. Most of us remain victims of the situation we are confronted with and blame people, devil, and what ever we think a culprit behind that unexpected moment. The ability to calm down and redefine the moment takes our faith walk with God, if we desire to enjoy every moment that confronts us though it might be unpleasant for awhile. How best we live our future determine how dynamically and effectively we redefine each seemingly unproductive and bad moment. The collection of such redefining in our life propels us forward to a better future and position to deal more moments for our benefits and beyond.

We will continue next week to appreciate some collective redefining moments. There are many individuals and groups of people who redefined moments against all odds in their favor. Remain tune!

Restorers, you are called to Redefine your moments-Part I

noreply@blogger.com (Team Restorers) — Sun, 11 May 2008 19:03:03 PDT

The definition of redefine is broad and open to exercise some freedom. Redefine means, to give new or different name. For a given existing item, subject, and entity, one can redefine it by giving a different name than what has been earmarked or come up with a new one. Which ever may be the case, redefining is a serious business because it takes to justify why someone desires to change the already existing or come up with a new one. It would be more difficult when the stakeholders are many and their consent is required. Even for your own circumstances, you should convince yourself before you challenge the status quo.

In both private and public redefining moments, it takes the mentality of a Restorer to venture in such businesses like challenging status quo and redefine moments, circumstances, laws, systems, cultures, and so on that are perceived counter productive. Of course, redefinition includes to reintroduce a new touch on the already existing or start from afresh for a situation that no one has a definition for. In the latter case, you are not only giving a new name to the situation but will be called a discoverer!

Redefine is almost synonym with the word reform and it is the most popular term in the socio-political realm. For the sake of avoiding a political tone, I prefer to stick with redefine. Redefining personal moments towards productive direction is a challenge, let alone public ones. Redefining some unproductive orders in a family may spark war among family members. Redefining how some procedures should work in a company may drag stakeholders into the court house. To redefine some of the icons of the existing constitution of most countries may take years and not an easy task at all; it takes a real fight. In some places where changes like redefining part of the national order are not exercised peacefully and following constitutional orders, it may lead to violence. So, redefining at a higher level is not an easy and simple task but it is part of change and a sign of, in most cases, progress where Restorers should always keep in mind on how best to exploit moments to better redefine them.

Redefining at any level is not a straight forward thing all the time, for which we develop a formula. Of course, no one successful Restorer could be able to bring meaningful public redefinition before conquering to redefine some private moments. That is to say, a place to start redefining is from self. In my personal case, some of the issues I should redefine based on the situations I find myself are very challenging and it is big time. How much we are sensitive, bold, and flexible enough to redefine our situation on time and in consistent manner determines our ability to enjoy the fruits of doing so.

The challenge we have, in this very unpredictable and complex world, is that most moments come without warning and we may not have specific experience to handle those fresh moments and challenges where they overtake us before we get time to respond and redefine them. Those that are there for long, the effort and energy it takes to redefine them takes a real determination as there are lots of resistances from all stakeholders and no one easily give up for any redefinition until they make sure what is in it for them. This takes real leadership skill and the ability to mobilise all stakeholders by showing the long term benefits of your efforts of redefinition. Whether it is within a family, church, club, school, community, nation, or multinational institute, there are many things to redefine to maximise efficiencies, productivity, fairness, progress, performance, and many more. If we ignore big scale redefinition, fine tuning some of the processes and procedures within these institutions brings a lot more of qualitative and quantitative results that might also benefit this and the generation to come.

The issues in the coming few weeks address how Restorers should know that we are called for both private and public redefinition for the benefit of both self and the community we are living in. We are going to see various metaphorical examples that might help us in our journey to exploit the benefits of redefinition and some other attached factors. Get ready to identify those areas for which you are authoritative to redefine.

Restorers, get out of the Box!

noreply@blogger.com (Team Restorers) — Fri, 02 May 2008 10:27:16 PDT

The data shows that the majority of life changing inventions were by Christians. This tells me at least one thing- they were tapping into the invisible world through prayer and meditation. Most of the biographies of great scientists reveal that they acknowledged the Almighty who is the Wisest of all wises, for their breakthrough discoveries. That is why such discoveries have been transforming the world. Not only they raised the bar in their field of specialization but dictated the progress of other territories as their invention opens up the outlook of other inventors.

The world still waits for the revelation of such great minds. The world is trapped with status quo and no more enjoying groundbreaking discoveries as it used to be a couple of decades back. I don't mean that there are not discoveries these days and I am not also questioning whether those now and then discoveries are not worth of celebration. I am questioning the intensity and the degree of discovery in comparison with what happened, at least, some decades back where we enjoyed tremendous life changing discoveries. Would that be because most of us are limited by the bars raised and theories suggested during that period? Would that be because we are looking insights from within ourselves and/or our Lab or in side of our Boxes?

Solomon looks like suggesting that if we need new things as a result of outstanding revelation, they are not under the sun (Ecc 1: 9) or at the physical realm. The question then is, can we find some who might despise where we are now? Can we have some who dare to look 'beyond the Sun' and enter into the realm that could guarantee new things- discoveries that accelerate the advancement of human race in the 21st C? Can we find people who are not fenced by former things and could say like Paul "forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead"? (Phil 3:13) God is a God who always does new things and would like to remember His people not to dwell on the past; "Forget what happened in the past, and do not dwell on events from long ago. See, I am doing a new thing!" (Isaiah 43 18). Can we find people who flow with God's heart and look forward for new things in their area of specialization and cooperate with Him than imprisoned with the prearranged boxes (theories, assumptions, expectations, standards, and so on)?

What is frightening is that more people seek more of spiritual miracles from Heaven than using their creativities using the God-given talent to resolve challenges that are under our domain while we are living on earth. I fully agree in what Jesus said, "A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it." (Matthew 16: 4) I don't have personal problem on people who are open to rely on miraculous way of solving everything to fix problems and I am not against miracles as far as the kind of miracle we are looking for is aligned with God's will. However, we shouldn't be obsessed in looking miracles and signs to believe and also to make smooth our earthily life.

If God wanted us to live that kind of spoon feeding life style (even Israelites who were spoon-fed from Heaven while they were in the wilderness had enjoyed Manna for their food, cloud as a shelter during the day, and pillar of fire as a guidance in the night until they entered their promising land Canaan (Joshua 5:12). Afterwards, they ought to have fed themselves) which is dependent on miracles and solutions from High all the time, then, I don't get why God still keeps us on earth and even why He sent His Son who told us a parable to occupy till He comes (Luke 19:13). He should have gathered us long ago, if not now, and kept us in heaven where all kinds of spiritual miracles and wonders are abundant, and where there are no any worries and problems that needs our creativity. That is not His intention! However, we should know that there are some spiritually gifted people- according to the will of the Holy Spirit who grants Spiritual gifts, who should bring out the Spiritual miracles we need for those issues that are above our creativity while the rest of us should engage our talents and gifts in bringing out miracles in other sectors. That way, humanity would be perfected holistically as all parts (body, soul/mind, and spirit) of each of us exercise its talent and role to the full.

Today's topic doesn't discuss the spiritual dimension of miracles. We might remain committed to demand miracles from God for those things that are beyond our shoulder and mandate while rolling up our sleeves to execute those that are under our jurisdiction and scope with higher excellence and continual discoveries. The question to us Restorers, have we looked around to identify those areas where we can discover new things (miracles) under our denomination and capacity as humans? I believe that we are either engrossed within ourselves too much or accepted status quo and/or bow down to limits set by the previous generations (we are over enjoying past discoveries as if they are the final). We look like forsaken our responsibilities as rulers on the earth to bring down discoveries to solve our problems and/or advance our civilization on earth as far as we are on it and until we leave it. It looks humanity is postponing what it should enjoy now and on earth to Heaven. There is no such expertly deficiency there :-) Heaven is perfect and not our territory and domain to exercise dominion and creativity. Let's maximize our territorial influence and dominion before it is too late.

I am convinced that the more we perform our talent and calling in a creative way and full of discoveries, that is a sign of tapping into the different world and when we do so the out side world cannot help it except to take note of that and even reward it. The four Hebrew guys were found 10 times better than all the magicians and wise men in Babylon and its kingdom in every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king questioned them (Daniel 1: 20). Watch the highlighted phrase, in every matter of wisdom and understanding. There shouldn't be any field and area Christians should fail to excel! I have been dismayed to hear and observe how some Christians have bad attitude towards science, research, and other field of studies than spiritual gifting. There might be worst cases where some Christians might think that 'every matter of wisdom and understanding' than preaching, healing, or evangelism are from the devil or irrelevant for fulfillment. The latter may not be a dominant opinion but, at least, there is less teachings that encourage the serious engagement of Christians into various fields such as research, science, diplomacy, politics, and so on. During those ancient periods, there were not as such defined field of specializations but for all of the issues concerning the then super power kingdom, these Hebrews were better than the best of the land. Whether your gifting is in science, medicine, diplomacy, preaching, teaching, leadership, business, and so on, you are expected to excel.

I do believe that God doesn't have any trouble by our civilization unless we are trouble makers as those old day guys who wanted to build a tower to reach heaven and erect a name for themselves (Genesis 11: 4). God, the majestic creator who performed outstanding and Divine art to create and sustain the awesome universe and what is in it, created us after His own image and expect us to copy Him in this regard too, creativity. We may not create divinely like Him but we can use His creation using His own gifts within us. Galileo Galilei said, "I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with senses, reason, and intellect has intended us to forego." He has a point!

It looks like people have either of two choices: abandon everything and just focus on your spirit and gifts related to spirituality or forget about spiritual things and stick with your sense organs and mental abilities. Either of the options are not productive. There should be a blending! While we should use what God gave us including our sense organs, reasoning abilities using our mind, we should tap into into the greater wealth of excellence in God using our Spirit man and through prayer and meditation. We need to tap into His Spirit as the Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God (1 Corinthians 2: 10). I feel, am sure I am not the only one, that there is less effort to engage God's Spirit to bring down new things and revelations that could end up breaking many deadlocks humanity facing and transforming the advancement of humanity in this Century. One of the stumbling block, which I am trying to address in my today's blog, is the influence of the past, the limitations of boxes, and status quo. These are limiting factors for new discoveries, and I am calling Restorers to get out of the box and reclaim new discoveries!

While I was in this mood, one documentary video I saw a couple of weeks ago came into my mind. There was a narrator who limits reasons within the scope of a wallet and asked his audiences to give him acceptable reasons from where a given dollar bill came into being in the wallet. He disregarded all answers from outside of the wallet though those all could be reasonable answers. Some of the reasons were, someone put it there and still others pointed to this and that happened and the bill ended up there. All answers were disqualified because all are beyond the scope of the wallet and outside of it. The smartest reasons left were two: either the bill was as old as the wallet itself and generated by the wallet itself or there were some papers in that wallet that evolved to become the dollar bill.

It is easy to appreciate, by seeing the detailed artistic sophistications, hidden marks, pictures, and how things put in order so that everyone in the world to agree in one voice for the identity and value of that one dollar, that it was not the wallet that birthed such a complex dollar bill than the wallet itself. It is insane if I should think a wallet made of leather birthed a dollar bill. The wallet itself was made and sold empty for itself. It is clear also that no one misses the point that ordinary papers put randomly in the wallet, self assembled, and finally evolved to become a beautiful one dollar bill. Even if we find a dollar bill within a brand new wallet, we agree that there must be someone generous or forgetful from out side of the wallet, which is intelligent and responsible than the wallet, who put the bill. The difference among us might be who that person is?

The point the narrator was making was that, if we take the wallet as the universe, how comes it produces something sophisticated like a cell, let alone a human being. [Those of you who have had a chance like I do to observe the cell in a microscope and studied microbiology and other fields of science, pardon me for not being able to write more about the complexity of a cell. I leave that for my readers.] How it gives sense some dead things like molecules assembled themselves randomly and over time to produce the incredible and sophisticated living things. The scientific discoveries have shown that the universe is a product of a big bang and has a beginning. If the universe has a beginning, there was someone out side of the universe who initiated its birth.

Like the wallet itself was made by someone intelligent than itself and someone had to put the bill there before we find a bill in side the wallet, the universe was created by someone outside of it and that creator put the things within it in order. There may be numerous questions circling around who put the dollar in (like who let the dogs out :-), but there is no question it was not of from the leather wallet or assembled from formless papers. Similarly, the argument in creation should have been who was the creator of both the universe and the stuffs in it and look for Him to uncover more discoveries than accepting the limits that pressurize us to look inside of our boxes. Even if there might be debate among the rest of human community about who the creator is, we Christians know the truth from the Bible and shouldn't be engrossed by the limitations and think the answer of our challenges or the advancement of humanity could be found within the Box alone!

The 21 st C will be a Century endowed with great scientists and inventors, who will stop looking within the Box even if conventional systems put scope on them. Humanity, once again, should step out of the Box and enjoy its capacity to surprise all living creatures (we cannot surprise God though :-). What ever is your field of specialization, friend, there is more out there that don't listen to people who limit your thinking in side of a Box whatever that Box is in your case. The world have not yet known the majestic and ultra creator God fully at the physical realm. You are His representative to show off in His behalf. As Ambassador in the area of your specialization, enter into a new era of discovery by tapping into the unseable realm than toddling around down there within the Box. You are from a higher class with a brand that should be reflected on your outputs!

This principle shouldn't be limited to discoveries in the area of physics or math, it should be applied to other fields that include entrepreneurship, medicine, management, diplomacy, socio-economic affairs, environment, and so on. As a restorer in one of the various field of studies, you are called to get out of that Box and use your creativity if you are intended to restore with excellence! Of course, not all of us are called for discoveries that some of us should also think the support and maintenance help we might give for the advancement of civilization. But at least, please let's don't pressurize our kids or friends or colleagues to think in side of the Box. If we refrain from setting limits and scopes against others, at least, we have done a great job for our generation and beyond!

Eye openers to pray and engage in the Restoration of America's spiritual journey

noreply@blogger.com (Team Restorers) — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 07:29:01 PDT

Last week, I discussed about how visualizing a restoration is important. Here is an excerpt from my previous blog entitled 'Visualising the Restoration of America's Spiritual Journey': "...The restoration of America should be followed the same pattern where there should be restorers in various fields that demand restoration (My next blog talks about some of the areas that require restoration). The question to all of us who are praying for America, are we with God in all along the journey and until America’s spiritual journey is restored to its fullness? Are you a restorer who would collaborate with the Almighty in those areas you are best fit and called for?"

As you have seen in the bracket, I promised to talk a little bit about some of the areas that might need restoration so that my readers could be able to get some tips that might help them to visualize and then engage in an effective prayer. Of course, the topics I am going to address are not in order of priority and just tip of the iceberg. I am not also claiming that this article is comprehensive except to provoke your thinking so that you may identify the area you are called to cooperate with God in the restoration of America’s spiritual journey. More than this article, when we pray, fast, and meditate about this issue, God will show each of us from where we can pick the restoration baton, how to run with it till we are done with our turn, and when to transfer it to the next restorer in the line. Our God is a good God for those who work with Him!!

Before I take you to some of the areas that need your attention as restorers, let me just remind you that the Pilgrims established the first colony as a spot for the advancement of the Christian faith. This can be found from the Mayflower Compact: “…Having undertaken, for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian faith, and honor of our King and Country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia, do by these presents solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God, and one of another, covenant and combine our selves together…”

The Founding Fathers ideal was clear from the Declaration of Independence document. To Thomas Jefferson who wrote the Declaration of Independence and the other Founding Fathers, inalienable rights (life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness) were something inherent in the nature of man itself. The Declaration of Independence begins with a summary of those inalienable rights that are the self-evident basis for a free society and for all the powers to protect those rights that a just government exercises.

By the way, we may not need to share the denomination of the Pilgrims or the Founding Fathers to share their vision. The Pilgrims were described as men of the same faith with Calvin by the American historian Richard Bancroft. The Founding Fathers themselves were members of various denominations. George Washington- Episcopal Church (debatable), Thomas Jefferson- Protestant, Benjamin Franklin- raised as an Episcopalian but was a Deist as an adult, and so on. There is no point to argue that America remains one of the nations that protected individual rights of its citizens but from restoration point of view, a question of restoration should be like: is there a compromise or deviation from the ideal of the Pilgrims and the Founding Fathers lately?

For this question, many Christian leaders including Pastor Rod Parsley and Dr James Dobson argued that the Founding Fathers had a Christian vision for the nation and that the separation between church and state is no more than a myth invented by "activist judges" in the past half-century. In one of his rally, Dobson said that "for forty-four years the Supreme Court has been on a campaign to limit religious freedom. It goes back to 1962 with Bible reading and 1963 with prayer in the schools, both prohibited." David Barton brought into light that SAT scores had been stable from 1952-1962 but after 1963, following removal of public school prayer in two court decisions in 1962-1963, declined so rapid that it appeared they were tumbling down a steep mountainside. These leaders are claiming that the deviation from the vision of the Founding Fathers has been costing America and it should be restored? Do you agree? This is one of the areas restorers should pray and also see what role they should have to support the efforts of these great Christian leaders.

Some people may say, well America has passed many transformations and it is irrelevant to complain about the past and it is better to live with it as there might be even more changes in the future. Someone might also be skeptic and say, well the First Amendment prohibits the establishment of a national religion by Congress or the preference of one religion over another or religion over non-religion and the claim by religious right is against this amendment and is infeasible. I don’t think that the religious rights are looking to reverse this amendment or claiming that Christianity must be state religion. They are concerned about the excessive efforts to totally disassociate America from its Christian faith and Godly root.

By the way, this is not just a concern of a few leaders. Statistically, among Evangelicals, 99.5% support public displays of the Ten Commandments; 99% support keeping the phrase “In God We Trust” on the nation’s currency; 96% support keeping “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance; 86% support teaching Creationism in the public school classroom; and 94% oppose allowing the use of profanity on broadcast television. I pray with my conservative Evangelicals who have been in continuous battles to maintain the spiritual heritages of their forefathers. And encourage you to join hands with this group, during this prayer season.

Of course, on top of praying, Evangelicals and other conservatives should work hard to maintain their influence on decision making processes at all level so that their interest is respected. It is needless to mention that many Christian organizations have been formed but gone so I am not advocating to establish another one to influence. The sustainable way of maintaining the influence is to raise a generation that involves in the decision making processes than depending on lobbying and/or relying more on formal organizational set ups. Yes, it has been a success since Christians moved their interest into the Republican camp since 1979. However, it is not enough to solely depend on third party. There should be grass root level awareness creation to raise proactive and well equipped value voters. Most importantly, significant number of Christian politicians should take offices both at Federal and State level so that they might have meaningful influence on decision making processes.

For those of you who think the above kinds of claims are religious and you are exempted to pray any ways, I encourage you to see the movie entitled (Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed) by Ben Stein that exposed the widespread persecution of scientists and educators who are pursuing legitimate, opposing scientific views to the reigning orthodoxy (Darwinism). These groups of scientists and educators are not from the same religion or there is no one single religious institution that has been sponsoring them. They have not been advancing any religious agenda. Ben blows the horn on suppression to show how Science and Education has expelled smart new ideas from the classroom. This move is to alert that a staggering amount of new scientific evidence has emerged since Darwin’s 150-year-old theory of life’s origins. The documentary film tried to reveal that Darwin had no concept of DNA, Microbiology, The Big Bang, and Einstein’s Theory of Relativity or of the Human Genome. For that matter, Darwin was hoping that new discoveries in the area of Archeology might back his theory but there is no fossil evidence that shows the transition from one form to another. Rather, thus far, discoveries are betraying his theory and many scientists and educators are starting to question the authenticity of Darwinism. I wish he is still alive and comment on his theory that has been costing many people of their job and freedom. I hope, he would have been nicer than his followers :-)

I saw the movie last Sunday and applauded to Ben, who brought this very important topic while we are praying for restoration. This is just an example where you could be able to see that there might be informal way of denying the rights of individuals that alarm you to pray and act following appropriate ways so that the vision of the Pilgrims and the Founding Fathers is maintained and/or restored. The film alarmed that this informal persecution will have larger implications than just on some scientists, educators, and at the class room level. I encourage you to see for yourself the movie for further insight and to identify what you should do about it.

We know that many preachers warned that moral values are declining and America should be careful of God’s Judgment. Of course, ReignDownUSA’s effort to bring all concerned for a repentance prayer is to get God’s mercy for our sins. For some, these kinds of warnings are downplayed as if these are some preachers’ way of employing fear and labeled them as fear mongers. These calls are from the Bible and are very serious that deserve the attention and collaboration of all concerned. Besides, many authors have been writing about this moral issue and called the public for action and reversal of unproductive cultures. It should be noted that such calls are not concentrated and limited within the four walls of churches. I have many examples but let me just give you one.

In New York City’s Time Square, hundreds of teens surrounded by flashing lights, honking taxis and rushing pedestrians staged a rally against U.S. pop culture on Friday February 08, 2008. The rally highlighted teens’ concerns about how today’s pop culture is promoting harmful ideas of what is “cool,” such as substance abuse, violence, premarital sex and Internet porn. Teens were waging a so-called “reverse rebellion” against a culture which they said is hurting their generation. These young participants represented some 400,000 teens of the Teen Mania movement, a Christian mission organization for the younger generation. “I want my generation to understand how important it is to stand up and take action if you see something you don’t believe in,” said rally participant Brittany Serra, 14, in a statement. These are real restorers who deserve your prayer and partnership.

On top of praying, rallying to gain attention, and get heard, restorers should work hard towards sustainable solutions by working at the grass root level. We know that culture is not something that pops up in a few years' behavioral changes. It is a result of many years build ups and restoring it takes years too and the involvement of multiple stakeholders. Of course, it should be started some where and now. For the sake of simplicity, I just take one institution and one example. One of the areas where change of culture begins is at the family level. This is because family is like a culture media a Lab Technician uses to harvest microorganisms, like bacteria and fungi, for various purposes. It takes the appropriate media to culture and get the kind of bacteria or fungi a Lab technician is looking for. Likewise, we should provide kids the kind of culture media to grow up and reflect a culture that is productive. However, there is an alarm that family crisis is increasing. One of the signs, though there are many other compounding factors, is the increasing rate of divorce that leaves children raised without both parents. To cultivate the desired culture, lots of things should be done over time and by many players but having both parents at home and playing their role is significant. The bad news is that, as The Barna Group research results have been showing, divorce within the Christians community is as high as in the world. I believe that if all stakeholders march together (such as each individual, organizations that work in this regard, the church, government bodies), it is possible to restore Family crisis and achieve the desired change. Family restoration could be one of the areas you as a restorer should pray and take appropriate actions.

Someone might, by now, felt that all the areas indicated above are not his concerns or he might have felt that he is not a restorer for these areas. I couldn’t find the source while I was writing on this issue but I remember once reading an article that warned that America reached the peak of its civilization cycle and may regress as other civilizations experienced by taking many historic evidences. What about this? Don’t you feel you have enjoyed the results of America’s civilization wherever you are? My friend, this is not about religion or is not the only concern for conservatives. This needs prayer so that America’s civilization transcends and passes beyond the demand of this generation so that she remains to play her key role in the advancement of human civilization in the 21 st C. Of course, one thing that should worry everyone is we don’t see outstanding life changing discoveries as it used to be.

By the way, 90% of life changing inventions were made by Christians, who are 33% of the world population. Those all great scientists like Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, Galileo Galileo, Louis Pasteur, and so on were great believers in God. Einstein believed in God who exists Himself in the harmony of what exists which actually motivated his interest in science, as he once remarked to a young physicist: "I want to know how God created this world, I am not interested in this or that phenomenon, in the spectrum of this or that element. I want to know His thoughts, the rest are details." That was why he remained one of those extraordinary scientists the world ever enjoyed. Still today, we have great scientists who hold prestigious positions in the field of science and are passionate in their belief in God. One of them is Dr Francis Collins who is Director of the National Human Genome project. Dr Francis was awarded a Medal of Freedom, which is the Nation’s highest civil award, established by Executive Order in 1963. However, it looks like the number of enlightened scientists have been declining and we need more of such scientists that could contribute towards the civilization of humanity. Therefore, we should pray and play role to regain those God believing scientists for the next transformation in human civilization through life changing inventions. Who knows, you may be one of those for whom we are praying.

By the way, America is in an alarming state when it comes to science and engineering. Students are less motivated to pursue science and engineering fields though the lack of qualified teachers in the area had been raised as a compounding factor. On March 12, 2008, in a hearing commemorating the Committee's 50th anniversary, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates testified on the state of American innovation and competitiveness, as well as the future challenges. Bill Gates advised Congress to reform the United States education system. “I believe this country stands at a crossroads,” he said, adding that if these issues are not addressed, then innovation, the engine of economic progress in the United States, will shift to other nations that are more committed to technological excellence, costing the country many high-paying jobs. Therefore, one of the areas for prayer and action is the area of science, research, and education that will restore the leading role of the US.

Last but not least, the restoration of America’s leading role in the spread of Christ’s Gospel that needs your prayer and contribution. It looks like America’s missionary leading role has been naturally decreasing as we see that more and more mission fields have been becoming self sufficient to lead their spiritual movements from in-house servants of God. There is one new development which has been observed since the 60’s and 70’s. More and more spiritual leaders from various parts of the world, not only spreading the Gospel in their respsective country and continent, they are also contributing towards America’s spiritual revival and that is encouraging. One shouldn’t forget that America’s early missionaries paid numerous prices including their lives in the spread of the Gospel in many parts of the world and America needs to get paid back :-). We may not need to pray when we look at the trend for America’s missionary lead in those mission fields that are already making impact in their locality. However, one thing we should not forget and contribute towards is that America’s spiritual institutions, churches, and Bible schools are still playing a great role to assist mission fields. It is believed that 85% of Gospel related resources, for the last 200 years, to the rest of the world is from USA. Therefore, there should be a prayer for America’s leading role in the spread of the Gospel of Christ and continue to increase her share.

In the end, I would like to remind you how one of the restorers from the Bible- Daniel approached God for the restoration of Israel. He went on to argue with God based up on the prophesy told by Jeremiah (29:10), which indicated that Israelites would be restored back to their land after 70 years exile in Babylon (Daniel 9:2). Daniel returned to God and pleaded with Him, reminding the fullness of the 70 years exile, in prayer and petition. During this restoration prayer season, we present our petition based up on the above and similar evidences at hand to plead with God for the restoration of America. Let's confess our sins, present our petitions before God so that He may remember the forefathers of this nation, and the contributions the nation has been doing to humanity and the spread of Gospel. God is merciful to forgive our sins , restore, and bless America!

Don't forget to vist the ReignDown Web Site and get updated. The prayer date is on April 26, 2008. You may find the nearest spot to join the prayer or view live from GodTV and other channels, which you might find from ReignDown Web Site.

Restorers, finally as I conclude my blog on this topic, I remind you not to forget praying and portraying your share for the restoration of your respective country while joining this time ReignDown to pray and play your parts for the restoration of America.

May God bless America!!!