The Craig And Greg Show: Good, Better, Best

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It’s good to be good, but good is never great. As leaders we have to consciously work to avoid the trap of good. Join Greg and me as we discuss how to make your good better, and your better best.

  • [0:15] I share a poem my grandma taught me. 
  • [1:09] What happens to our leadership if we become satisfied?
  • [2:10] Striving for perfection is also a terrible trap for leaders.
  • [4:12] What happens if leaders settle for merely “satisfied”?
  • [5:40] How to send the message to your team that we’re going to keep raising the standard.
  • [8:17] Some people are looking for excuses to remain complacent.
  • [9:59] At some point, leaders will have to take a risk to raise the standard.
  • [10:49] Why do people want to cut corners? How do we avoid this trap?
  • [13:19] How do we get motivated to go farther?
  • [15:45] A couple of great examples of leaders who pulled people to excel.
  • [17:36] We have to keep working or it’s going to be more work!
  • [19:10] A quote from Charles Sorenson that is insightful.

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Links & Quotes

King Solomon has two phrases that help us keep a biblical perspective. If we miss this, Solomon says, we are going to experience a lot of frustration. I have lots of new content every week, which you can check out on my YouTube channel.

The angel told Joseph what he needed to do, and Joseph responded immediately. This is how we should live too—No complaints, no excuses, just obedience. 

“If we as leaders do not model, we lose moral authority. … The goal of teaching and preaching is not to inspire, but to transform, and transformation at the spiritual and moral level can only be instigated and maintained if the speaker is authentic. We cannot call others to abide if we do not abide, to holiness if we are not holy, to sacrifice if we do not sacrifice, to evangelism if we do not evangelize, or to Jesus if we are not with Him ourselves. … The steady legitimacy of our deeds prove the worth of our words. We demonstrate our words are worthy by living them.” —Dick Brogden, in Proverbs: Amplified and Applied

T.M. Moore writes, “In ancient Israel the tithe was a uniform rate for all people, regardless of income, social standing, or need. Everyone was expected to bring a tenth of his wealth—much of this in the form of property (animals or harvests)—to be administered by priests and Levites for the upkeep of the spiritual life of the nation. In our country, graduated tax rates, accompanied by a variety of flat taxes, have become the means for creating an ever-expanding central government and an entitlement society in which nearly half the population pay no income taxes at all and, thus, receive many services from the State at the expense of those who do pay taxes. (As an aside, it’s interesting to note that one of the early arguments for a graduated income tax appeared not in The Federalist Papers but in The Communist Manifesto.) It’s not difficult to see how such a system of taxation can be used to curry favor and purchase political power.” Check out all of T.M.’s posts in this excellent series.

J. Warner Wallace proposes that we should look at the fact that our Earth is “just right” as evidence of an intelligent Creator.

No Excuses

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…so my mouth was opened and I was no longer silent (Ezekiel 33:22). 

Ezekiel had been mute for two years, as God was using Ezekiel as a very vivid illustrated sermon.

Ezekiel had been mute, but he hadn’t been silent. 

After God had taken away his voice, Ezekiel picked up his pen and wrote chapters 25–32 as prophetic warnings. It was after all of these warnings were written down that God renewed His call to Ezekiel to be His watchman (33:7 and 3:17). 

How many times do I want to check out because I am not able to do things as I had been doing them before? Any one of us can fall into that all-or-nothing mindset—if I can’t do everything as I have been doing it, I won’t do anything at all. 

Ezekiel teaches us three important lessons: 

  1. No complaints to God 
  2. No excuses for discontinuing his ministry 
  3. Full obedience to God’s call on his life

What an outstanding lesson for all of us! 

►► I dive deeper into this topic in a video that I shared exclusively with my Patreon supporters. Would you please prayerfully consider supporting this ministry? For just $5 per month you will be supporting all of the free content I make available on my blog, my podcast, and my YouTube channel, and you will be getting access to all of my exclusive content too. ◀︎◀︎

All Means, Um, All

allWe started a new Sunday evening series called “All.” At least that’s the abbreviated title—the full title is “all the church taking all the gospel to all the world all the time by all the means necessary.”

Jesus said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:18-19). I am more and more amazed and disappointed in how this gets watered down…

  • “All the church can’t mean me because I’m nothing special.”
  • “All the gospel only means the part about ‘getting saved,’ right?”
  • “All the world is only for people who are called to be missionaries.”
  • “All the time is just for special ‘evangelical outreaches.’”
  • “All the means is just whatever happens in a typical church service.”

I checked Webster’s Dictionary and all means “wholly, entirely, completely.” I even checked my Greek Bible dictionary and discovered that all means, um, “all.” I think the problem comes from another word in that verse: therefore. If I don’t believe that I belong to Christ, then I’m not operating in all of His authority. If I’m not operating in His authority, I will more than likely find all the excuses I can to avoid being a part of the all Jesus intended.