Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible. Check out the video content in this post by clicking here.
On a recent episode of The Craig and Greg Show, we talked about the underutilized leadership practice of journaling. Here is one idea I was able to capture and implement because of my commitment to keeping a journal.
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible. Check out the video content in this post by clicking here.
Journaling is more than just something for women in rom-coms, it’s a practice that has been utilized by many important people throughout history. In our country the journals of the Founding Fathers are full of writings that became the basis of the government we still have today. While your journals might not be the beginnings of a new country, they are still a valuable tool that can help enhance your leadership. Join Greg and me as we discuss the leadership-enhancing power of journaling.
[0:00] Introduction
[2:13] Greg highlights some values in journaling.
[3:48] When did I start journaling?
[6:07] Let’s clarify what journaling isn’t.
[7:58] How we can use our journals to leverage our ideas.
[10:16] Writing and thinking are powerfully linked.
[13:07] Greg has an interesting way he discovered to generate thinking points for his journal.
[14:58] History often repeats itself so journals can help us rediscover successful strategies.
[16:22] Journals can help us do new things better.
[18:47] Journaling can help us not get stuck on the busyness treadmill.
[21:27] I share a quote from Tim Tebow.
[23:03] Make journaling work for you.
[24:39] How I turned journal entries into an impactful book.
[25:47] Greg shares a quote about how he journals.
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
We meet a godly man named Ananias only once in Acts 9, but his story is reiterated again on two other occasions. But of even greater importance is the role Ananias plays in the life of a key figure in church history.
Ananias provides important details in the story of Saul’s conversion. Without these details that Luke records for us, skeptics could easily chalk up Saul’s experience to a hallucination or even madness, as Governor Festus claimed in Acts 26:24.
I shared a post a couple of years ago about how all of the different individuals who experienced Saul’s encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus helped confirm the historicity of the account. But what about the confirmation that Saul would need to keep doing what Jesus had commissioned him to do?
I think Saul—who would later change his name to Paul—was grateful that he had this confirmation. Especially as he faced numerous difficulties—like imprisonment, being stoned and whipped by the Jewish leadership, shipwreck, hunger and exposure, and more. It would have bolstered his faith to know that he wasn’t alone in hearing God’s directive for his life, but that Ananias had also confirmed that message to him.
Has this kind of confirmation ever happened to you?
I know I have experienced numerous times where I have felt the Holy Spirit was prompting me to say something, make a certain decision, or undertake a challenging task. Perhaps these thoughts came to me while I was studying my Bible or praying. Then a friend, with whom I hadn’t shared any details, approached me with a question or a statement that confirmed what God had already been speaking to my heart.
I am so thankful that God has graciously confirmed His directives to me. He always speaks in a way that is affirming, especially when others come along with a confirming word.
This is one of the reasons why I am a huge proponent of journaling. It has been so powerful and beneficial for me to write down things that the Holy Spirit speaks to me while I am prayerfully reading my Bible. Sometimes it is almost immediately and at other times it is a long delay until there is a confirming word. With my journal, I can go back to see if the word my friend is sharing with me truly confirms what God had already spoken to my heart.
We see these kinds of confirmation throughout the entire Bible, and I know from personal experience that God continues to speak this way. When He speaks a word to your heart, He will also confirm it through His Word or through a God-fearing friend.
When the Holy Spirit shines His light on a biblical promise, and you turn that into a prayer, write it down! You may need to go back to this again and again. When God answers your prayer, write it down again! This can become a testimony journal that you and others can use to recall God’s provision.
“The pathway to maturity and to solid biblical food is not first becoming an intelligent person, but becoming an obedient person.” —John Piper
“Somehow or other an extraordinary idea has arisen that the disbelievers in miracles consider them coldly and fairly, while believers in miracles accept them only in connection with some dogma. The fact is quite the other way. The believers in miracles accept them (rightly or wrongly) because they have evidence for them. The disbelievers in miracles deny them (rightly or wrongly) because they have a doctrine against them.” —G.K. Chesterton
“At every moment, we always have a choice, even if it feels as if we don’t. Sometimes that choice may simply be to think a more positive thought.” —Tina Turner
Every day should be a day of thanksgiving!
“We are strangers on Earth; our homeland is in Heaven. Our walk is here; our hearts are there.” —Dr. Henry Halley
I have already shared the first two posts in the latest archeological research on the biblical city of Jericho. Here is part three.
“Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice, and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do.” —Pelé
“The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one who gets people to do the greatest things.” —Ronald Reagan
When we pray the closing words of the prayer Jesus gave us—“For Yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen!”—we are both acknowledging God’s awesomeness and we are asking for our lives to display this reality.
“He who loves iniquity does not love his fellow man, for ‘he who loves iniquity does not love, but rather hates his own soul.’ And certainly he who does not love his own soul will in no way be capable of loving the soul of another.” —Aelred of Rievaulx (1109-1167)
Steven Lee shows us the biblical principles that God forms us through failure. One passage especially stood out to me because it is a central thought to both of my books. Lee writes, “God measures success according to faithfulness: ‘One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much’ (Luke 16:10). Do we strive for success as defined by God? Are we seeking to be faithful with all that he has entrusted to us—time, talents, and treasure? Or have we adopted the lying weights and measures of our world? Will our labors result in hearing the words ‘Well done, good and faithful servant’ (Matthew 25:23)? Put aside striving for the world’s facade of perfection.”
“The measure of who we are is what we do with what we have.” —Vince Lombardi
T.M. Moore teases us with this: “The most important question we can ask guides us in answering many other questions besides, questions such as, ‘Whom should I marry?’ and ‘How can I stop wasting time?’ and ‘What’s the best way to use my wealth?’’ Any question that helps us answer those and a myriad other questions that might arise during the day must be pretty important. Indeed, it must be the most important question any of us could ask.” What is that most important question? Check out his thought-provoking answer.
“Life is not a spectator sport. If you’re going to spend your whole life in the grandstand just watching what goes on, you’re wasting your life.” —Jackie Robinson
When God gives you a victory, write it down (see Exodus 17:14). When God gives you a promise, write it down. Then read it regularly so you don’t forget it. This will keep you grateful, it will keep you expectant, and it will keep you dependent on the victory-giving, promise-keeping God.
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Have you ever walked through a door that God so obviously opened just to get smacked by the people on the other side? Let’s talk about the lessons we can learn from that.
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On a recent episode of The Craig And Greg Show, Greg and I talked about the importance of leadership habits. In this particular clip, Greg asks me about my most important leadership habits.
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
After speaking with some ministry interns, we wrapped up our time with a Q&A session. I had lots of very thoughtful questions, but this one seemed to really resonate with everyone. I was asked:
“When you’re contemplating resigning from a ministry position, how do you know that God called you to this position in the first place and it wasn’t just me calling myself here?”
I know when the going gets tough it’s natural to think that it is time to move on. Before you submit that letter of resignation, there are a couple of things to consider first. Check out this short video…
There are some long-lasting benefits in keeping a journal. Here’s one benefit I shared with some ministry interns. If you haven’t already done so, please check out my YouTube channel for more great content.
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is causing problems for Big Bang proponents. In a recent post from the Institute for Creation Research, some of these problematic areas were laid out. “As noted in a previous Creation Science Update and Impact article, data from the JWST show that distant galaxies look more ‘mature’ and ‘developed’ than predicted by Big Bang theorists. Big Bang astronomers assume light from the most distant galaxies took almost 14 billion years to reach Earth. Although this may sound reasonable, creation scientists think this assumption is open to challenge. But in any case, by Big Bang reckoning, we should be seeing these very distant galaxies—not as they are now, but as they were almost 14 billion years ago. Hence, these galaxies should appear very “unevolved” and ‘immature.’ Yet, this expectation is routinely contradicted, and data from the JWST are making the disagreement even worse.” One thing the JWST has definitely done: It has shown the beauty and the power of our Creator!
John Piper said, “One of the greatest hope-killers is that you have tried for so long to change, and have not succeeded.” This is an encouraging word for anyone who has prayed, and prayed, and prayed for a breakthrough. “Take heart, struggler. Keep asking, seeking, knocking. Keep looking to Christ. If God gets glory by saving robbers in the eleventh hour, he surely has his purposes why he has waited till now to give you the breakthrough you have sought for years.”
This is pretty compelling evidence for the global Flood that is described in the Book of Genesis—
