Oh God…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXut0HxncvY

• YouTube: Rapture Ruckus – I Believe
• Youtube: WITHIN – 2007 short film by Wade Robson & Amanda Robson
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• No Place Is A Mistake
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The story revolves around a hunter,  a wild boar, and a wolf. The season is in the winter.

During winter, one of a strategies in hunting a wolf by the hunter is like this: First, he captures a wild boar. Then, he’ll stab the boar with a long dagger, and he’ll pull it out, and stab it in, and pull it out… He’ll keep on repeating this movement of the dagger to cover the entire dagger blade with fresh blood. Once this is done, he’ll stick the dagger out in the cold of the woods upside down, with the tip of the lade facing the sky. Imagine a ice cream stick. And then, he waits.

Now, a nearby wolf will smell the aroma of the blood and be attracted to the stick. It’ll observe the stick, and then tries to lick the blood… “Yummy…” Then, it’ll lick again. Again, and again, it licks the blood right off the blade, until the blood is no more. There’s no doubt it’s attracted to the blood. The subtle taste in the mouth and the smell of the fresh blood in the nose was too compelling to stop it from wanting more. It’s addicted.

Being numbed by the low temperature, the wolf’s tongue kept licking for more. Little has it realized there is no more blood of the boar. The “never-ending” taste of blood is now replenished by its very own tongue’s blood!

The wolf is now literally shredding its own tongue. Later on, when it finally decides to leave, it’ll just slowly die off on it own. All along, the hunter was just lying in wait for it to die. The strategy is a success.

What is the principle here? Here, we can learn that when we are exposed to temptation, if we give in to just “try a little bit”, we’ll eventually be drawn deeper and deeper without even realizing the depth of our trouble. Activities of lust may feel good in the beginning, but it’ll ultimately leave us high and dry. It’s not worth it. Temptation… This kind of strategy is exactly what the devil wants of us: to fall into it.

Men, be strong. Grow in Christ. We fell before; now pick up, and walk!

Has this post been useful to you? I’d love to hear from you too!

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Passion

“Years wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul.”
~ Douglas MacArthur

“Without passion man is a mere latent force and possibility, like the flint which awaits the shock of the iron before it can give forth its spark.”
~ Henri Frederic Amiel

“It’s the soul’s duty to be loyal to its own desires. It must abandon itself to its master passion.”
~ Rebecca West

“Enthusiasm releases the drive to carry you over obstacles and adds significance to all you do.”
~ Norman Vincent Peale

“One person with passion is better than forty people merely interested.”
~ E.M. Forster

• Quotes: Self-Preservation
• Quotes: Potential
• Quotes: Perspective
• Quotes: Money
• Quotes: Sacrifice

Planning

“Planning is bringing the future into the present so that you can do something about it now.”
~ Alan Lakein

“Without leaps of imagination, or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning.”
~ Gloria Steinem

“Good fortune is what happens when opportunity meets with planning.”
~ Thomas Edison

“There is never enough time to do everything, but there is always enough time to do the most important thing.”
~ Brian Tracy

• Quotes: Dreams
• Quotes: Preparation
• Quotes: Speaking
• Quotes: Potential
• Quotes: Urgency

Introduction

This teaching and its guidelines are adapted from Mentoring: How to Invest Your Life in Others, by Tim Elmore, and should only be used for private usage.

WHO should I invest my life in? How will I know if I’ve chosen the right person wisely? Apart from God’s direct intervention, there are some biblical wisdom principles that we can employ in our decision.

_____________________________________

F A I T H

F – Faith

Is this person faithful to the commitments they’ve made and to the basics of Christian faith?

A – Available

Does this person have the time, and do they make themselves available to growth opportunities as priority?

I – Initiative

Do they show initiative in their desire tog row? Are they willing to take first step without someone “holding their hands?”

T – Teachable

Is this person willing to learn new truths and be open to change? Do they exhibit a “soft” or a stubborn heart? Will they learn from you?

H – Hungry

Does this person have a passion to grow and be all they can be for God? Do they hunger for intimacy with God?

Mentoring Potential Leaders

GIFT

G – Gifts

Do they exhibit some obvious gifts for ministry or leadership? Do they have the aptitude and potential to be a key influence where they go in the future?

I – Influence

Are they already influencing their peers and groups with whom they associate? Are they often influenced by others or do they, instead, leave their mark on others?

F – Favor

How much do people favor them? Are they liked and respected by others and seem to have God’s hand on their life/ministry? Is God’s anointing on them?

T – Trustworthy

Do they seem credible with their life and relationship? With all the gifts they have, is their character as deep as their gifts? Can they be trusted with responsibility?

SHARP

S – Serving

Are they already serving in some area of ministry? Are they active and involved in the church, or are they waiting for someone to tell them where to turn?

H – Hungry

Are they hungry to stretch and grow from new experience and truths?

A – Aptitude

Do they exhibit an aptitude for ministry? Are they good thinkers? Do they reflect and act strategically when they get involved?

R – Reliable

Do you consider them to be reliable with any instruction or request they received? Do they show a faithful spirit to the things they already know they are to do?

P – Potential

Are they high-potential people? Can you see God’s vision for them and a passion to impact others for the Kingdom? Do you feel certain they will reproduce what you give them?

Dynamics Vital to A Mentoring Relationship

1. Attraction

This is a necessary starting point in mentoring relationship.

Mentee is drawn to mentor for various reasons: perspective, certain skills, experience, value and commitments modeled, perceived wisdom, position, character, knowledge, and influence.

Mentor is attracted to mentee’s attitude, potential, and opportunity for influence.

As attraction increases, trust, confidence, and mentoring subjects develop that will strengthen  the mentoring relationship and ensure empowerment.

2. Responsiveness

The mentee must be willing and ready to learn from the mentor.

Attitude is crucial for the mentee.

Mentee: responsive, receiving spirit

Mentor: attentiveness

3. Accountability

Sharing expectations and periodic progress review and evaluation will give strength to application and facilitate empowerment. The mentor should take responsibility for initiating and maintaining accountability with the mentee.

_____________________________________

Conclusion

“The more deliberate and intense the mentoring relationship, the more important these dynamics are. Why is this true? Because mutual commitment is necessary for change and growth to take place. These dynamics are the ingredients that produce this commitment.”

Sociologists tell us that the most introverted individual will influence 10, 000 other people during an average lifetime! Imagine what kind of influence we might have if we actually pray and choose those individuals intentionally!

Reference:

Mentoring: How to Invest Your Life in Others, Chapter 6, How to Find a Mentee, Page 59, Tim Elmore

• 7 Gifts of A Mentor to A Mentee
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1. Accountability

This involves holding a person to their commitments to God.

It may involve bringing a list of tough questions to the meeting and asking your mentee to honestly answer them.

2. Affirmation

This involved speaking words of encouragement, love and support to your partner, affirming their strengths, their thoughts, their ministry and their obedience.

3. Assessment

This involves objectively evaluating their present state and giving them an assessment on what you see; It enables them to gain perspective from an outsider point of view.

4. Advice

This involves speaking words of wise counsel and giving them options for their decisions. It means providing direction and navigation for their life.

5. Admonishment

This involves giving them words of caution and warnings to enable them to avoid the pitfalls they may not foresee as well as you do. It means providing correction.

6. Assets

This involves giving them tangible resources, gifts and tools – whether it’s a book, a tape, a ministry resource o a personal contact that you can introduce to them.

7. Application

This involves pointing them in the right direction to find places where the can apply the truth they’ve learnt; it means helping them to find a “laboratory” where they can practice.

Note:

All these gifts can be given from the mentor’s own heart and life experience. They become especially valuable based on the time they are given to them mentee. Look out for those teachable moments, and concentrate to give away these gifts accordingly. None of these gifts require you to possess an extremely high IQ, lots of talent, or being good-looking and famous. They are gifts that anyone can give away! As we ought to improve with time and experience, we can start giving these wonderful gifts to the mentees now.

Reference:

Mentoring: How to Invest Your Life in Others, Chapter 6, What If Mentoring Is New to Me, Page 71, Tim Elmore

• How to Find a Mentee?
• My primary love language is probably Quality Time
• One of the sad things in church is that the sheep yearn to meet up with the mentor but the mentor’s too busy

Courage

“The desire for safety stands against every great and noble enterprise.”
~ Tacitus

“Only when we are no longer afraid do we begin to live.”
~ Dorothy Thompson

“One man with courage makes a majority.”
~ Andrew Jackson

“Courage is more exhilarating than fear and in the long run it is easier. We do not have to become heroes overnight. Just a step at a time, meeting each thing that comes up, seeing it is not as dreadful as it appeared, discovering we have the strength to stare it down.”
~ Eleanor Roosevelt

• Quotes: Sacrifice
• Quotes: The Inner Circle
• Quotes: Speaking
• Quotes: Leadership Failure
• Quotes: Forgiveness

Here’s one YouTube video I found. Interesting.

Reference:

• http://www.waderobson.com/
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wade_Robson

• YouTube: Rapture Ruckus – I Believe
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Momentum

“If you’re coasting, you’re either losing momentum or else you’re headed downhill.”
~ Joan Welsh

“We are either progressing or retrograding all the while. There is no such thing as remaining stationary in this life.”
~ James Freeman Clarke

“The great thing in the world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving.”
~ Oliver Wendell Holmes

“Momentum is the most unstoppable force in sports. The only way to stop it is if you get in your own way, start making stupid mistakes or stop believing in yourself.”
~ Rocco Mediate

“Commitment is the igniter of momentum.”
~ Attributed to Peg Wood

• Quotes: Urgency
• Quotes: Courage
• Quotes: Influence
• Quotes: Discipline
• Quotes: Dreams