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I was reading the results of a survey which said one of the top traits for exemplary leaders was: They keep their word.
But don’t we really mean, “They keep their word most of the time”? After all, we do allow those who have a track record of integrity an “out” for unusual or unexpected circumstances. And we would still say that leader had honesty and integrity.
God always keeps His word. He never needs an “out” because nothing is ever unexpected for Him! He is always the Promise Maker and the Promise Fulfiller (Isaiah 42:9, 46:10, 55:10-11; Jeremiah 1:12).
I like the way Jesus sums up these statement from His Father: For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled (Matthew 5:18 NKJV).
Ajot is the smallest Hebrew letter (yodh). In Greek the word is iota. This tells us that God is concerned about the smallest of details.
A tittle is the precise difference between Hebrew letters like cheth and he, between daleth and resh, and between beth and kaph.
All of these are fulfilled—brought to their perfect completion (Luke 1:37, 22:37)!
When we see any of God’s promises made and kept, we need to ask ourselves three questions:
What did it mean then?
What does it mean now?
What does it mean for me today?
For example, look at the promise that was made about people living in a very dark place seeing the Light of God. The prophecy is first made in Isaiah 8:19-9:7 that the people of Zebulun and Naphtali would get to see and experience the light of the Messiah.
Matthew 4:11-17 tells us that after Jesus endured the temptation of the devil for 40 days, He went to Capernaum—the region of Zebulun and Naphtali. But before He arrived there, He was first rejected by the folks in His hometown of Nazareth (see Luke 4:14-31).
Our God who knows the end from the beginning never makes a mistake; nothing is ever random or inconsequential. We should develop the habit of praying, “Now that this is happened, what would You have me do?” As Jesus was rejected by the people who should have been so excited to see His ministry flourish, He wasn’t dismayed or discouraged, but He directed His steps toward Capernaum.
In my heart, I may plan a course for my life, but I must trust God to direct my steps. My life has a purpose. Just as the Holy Spirit directed the movements of Jesus, He is directing my steps.
Even when God seems to have directed my steps into a dark place, He has sent me there as His light. I am sent on purpose. I walk a path Jesus has already walked, and a path that He is still walking with me—He guides me in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me (Psalm 23:3-4).
I don’t walk into the darkness in my own strength or as a way to fulfill my own plans but instead I trust that “the zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this” (Isaiah 9:7)!
Because Jesus is fulfilling every jot and every tittle, I can live confidently in Him!
If you would like to follow along with all of the messages in this series called Jots and Tittles, you can find them all here.
God’s blessings are not primarily for me, but they are through me for His glory. This is a short clip from an exclusive video I shared with my Patreon supporters. Become a supporter today! I have lots of new content every week, which you can check out on my YouTube channel.
“What to do with a mistake: recognize it, admit it, learn from it, forget it.” —Dean Smith
Until the mid-1800s, the historicity of King Sargon II (mentioned by Isaiah) was in doubt. Not only has archeology again affirmed the historical statements made in Scripture, but “the way Isaiah spelled Sargon’s name is an indicator that the prophet lived at the time of Sargon II, and that the book was not penned hundreds of years later.” Check out this archeological biography of Sargon II.
And then there is this archeological report about the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Fascinating!
How sweet and gracious even in common speech,
Is that fine sense which men call Courtesy!
Wholesome as air and genial as the light,
Welcome in every clime as breath of flowers—
It transmutes aliens into trusting friends,
And gives its owner passport round the globe. —James T. Fields
“A person always doing his or her best becomes a natural leader, just by example.” —Joe DiMaggio
Not using the spiritual gift God has given you is selfish. He gave you these gifts on purpose so that His kingdom could be made more visible and desirable.
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
Have you ever been going through a difficult time in your life and wondered to yourself, “What in the world is going on here?” I might have a different way for you to think about that!
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
Can we trust our Bibles? There are some things that skeptics point to that we need to be able to defend—even in this model prayer that we have been studying. We come to the last verse of this prayer, which many of you probably learned or heard as, “For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.” Yet some Bibles have a footnote here that notes that this doxology is not seen in all biblical manuscripts.
We don’t have the autographs (original writings) but we have manuscripts (copied by a trained scribe from the autograph, and then copied from by yet another reliable scribe, and so forth). The oldest calfskin manuscript we have goes back to 1500 BC, and the oldest papyrus manuscript goes back to 2400 BC.
The scribes were incredibly talented and disciplined men. They became a recognized group called the Sopherim (scribes) in about 500 BC. By AD 100, the Talmudic scribes eclipsed them, and then the Masoretic scribes—the most stringent scribes of all—dominated from AD 500-900.
Let’s turn our attention first to the manuscripts that compromise what we call the Old Testament. What did Jesus—and others that lived in His time—call those 39 books of the Old Testament? They were called Scripture. Those books were not in doubt even before Jesus was on earth.
Dr. Peter Flint notes, “The biblical Dead Sea Scrolls are up to 1,250 years older than the traditional Hebrew Bible, the Masoretic text. We have been using a one-thousand-year-old manuscript to make our Bibles. We’ve now got scrolls going back to 250 BC. … Our conclusion is simply this—the scrolls confirm the accuracy of the biblical text by 99 percent.”
In the New Testament era, the disciples of Jesus went out in pairs. Their oral transmission of the news of Jesus and the quoting of Scripture was verified by their traveling partners. Even for those who happened to be by themselves (e.g. Philip in Samaria), there was always follow up by other church leaders.
So the New Testament epistles were written to verify the spoken words—James was the earliest (probably AD 45). The number of manuscripts we have of these New Testament words are simply astounding!
After the canon of the New Testament was completed, the church fathers quoted so much of the New Testament in their letters and books that we could completely reconstruct those 27 books just from their writings.
With this many manuscripts in existence, is it likely that there would variations in manuscripts? Yes. But none of the variations ever discovered have been fundamental enough to change anything in the meaning. Josh McDowell states, “Compared with other ancient writings, the Bible has more manuscript evidence to support it than the top ten pieces of classical literature combined.”
So how do we handle these places where scholarly footnotes tell us of a discrepancy in the existing manuscripts?
Get the context—does this fit with what is happening around it?
Is there corroboration—can we cross-reference it from elsewhere in the Bible?
In the conclusion of the powerful model prayer Jesus has given us, the closing words appear to be a doxology. But I think we can trust this because for three main reasons:
This doxology seems to come full circle with how the prayer begins in: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name, Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven (vv. 9-10).
These words are found almost verbatim in the words of David: Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is Yours. Yours, Lord, is the kingdom; You are exalted as head over all (1 Chronicles 29:11).
As we have noted throughout this prayer series, the focus of this prayer is two-fold: It is both an acknowledgement of the awesome, praiseworthy glory of our God, and it is a petition for our lives to be empowered to help others see our glorious God and Savior for themselves.
For these reasons, this doxology, I believe, is an indispensable part of this majestic prayer.
Many of the examples Jesus used to tell us about the Kingdom of God seem like such small things. But those small beginnings have irresistible growth potential!Check out more thoughts in my series of posts called Kingdom Praying. I have lots of new content every week, which you can check out on my YouTube channel.
My wife is a school teacher and I also work quite a bit in our local schools. I think T.M. Moore is spot-on in his analysis of the breakdown in our current educational system: “This commitment to the Law and Word of God as foundational to the education of the young was everywhere practiced throughout the pre-revolutionary period in colonial America. It was unthinkable in the colonies that young people should be submitted to any instruction for any length of time without being taught the commandments and statutes of God, including the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Parents insisted on it, colonial and local statutes required it, and local school boards dutifully saw to it in all their schools.Since the middle of the previous century, assailed by specious invocations of ‘the separation of Church and State,’ educational policy in America has increasingly denied a place to God, His commandments, and His Word in the public-school curriculum. Generations of American children have grown up in a ‘disenchanted’ world (Charles Taylor), a world in which God, spiritual things, and the Law of God are deemed to be irrelevant if not oppressive, or at least a nuisance. The present crisis of morality, culture, and social upheaval is only the most visible consequence of that policy.”
David Mathis shared some thoughts about the healthy pace of ministry Jesus demonstrates for us. He said, “Let’s sit together at the feet of Jesus, and consider the pace and patterns of His life and ministry. He was not idle. Nor was He frenzied. From all we can tell from the Gospels, Jesus’s days were full. I think it would be fair to say He was busy, but He was not frantic. He lived to the full, and yet He did not seem to be in a hurry. In Jesus, we observe a human life with holy habits and patterns: rhythms of retreating from society and then reentering to do the work of ministry. Even as God Himself in human flesh, Jesus prioritized time away with His Father. He chose again and again, in His perfect wisdom and love, to give His first and best moments to seeking His Father’s face.“ These words resonate with me, because they are thoughts that I considered quite extensively for my book Shepherd Leadership.
I love reading stories like these that show how a relationship with Jesus utterly transforms a person’s life! “Opal W. Eubanks joined the Mississippi Highway Patrol during the race riots of 1964. A large, broad-shouldered white man, he relished the opportunity to strike fear in the hearts of African-Americans who were in trouble with the law. By his own admission, he was a foul-mouthed sinner who liked ‘rough stuff.’ A radical conversion to Christ in the early 1970s altered the course of Eubanks’ life, and his hardened heart became tender toward African-Americans in his rural community. He and his wife, Thelma, ultimately pioneered an Assemblies of God congregation consisting mostly of African-Americans, which they pastored for 21 years.”
The Greek word for “teaching” in Mark 9:31 means an ongoing dialogue. It’s an imperfect verb here because it is an activity that is never fully completed. Jesus wants us to abide with Him—to dialogue with Him—to continually learn from Him. The New Living Translation says it this way, ”For He wanted to spend more time with His disciples and teach them.” This is just as true for us today!
J. Warner Wallace addresses the claims that the Old Testament prophets actually foretold that Jesus would be the Messiah. I love considering the apologetics for the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and this video will become an added resource for me in the future.
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
If you are a leader in your organization, there are a couple of often overlooked actions that are sending clear signals to your teammates. The question is: Are those signals telling them how valuable they are to you and your organization?
Check out this short clip from The Craig And Greg Show where we discuss how performance reviews can be a great opportunity to move your team forward.
If you would like to watch the full Craig And Greg Show episode on performance reviews, check it out here.
You may also be interested in two previous blog posts where I unpack some ideas on how to improve all of the relationships that are meaningful to us—Missing Ingredient and Be All There.
We’ve added things that we think should be in our prayer vocabulary. But kingdom praying should be as natural as talking to the most loving Father you can imagine! Check out more thoughts in my series of posts called Kingdom Praying. I have lots of new content every week, which you can check out on my YouTube channel.
“Obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.” —Michael Jordan
In the post-Flood rock layers, fossils are often found of animals that were much larger than are currently observed. This has been called giantism. “Evolutionists claim that adaption occurs as random mutations make some organisms better fitted for their environment, and the less-fit organisms then die off. … This supposed, random, trial-and-error process requires long periods of time waiting for the ‘right’ random mutation to occur. In contrast, ICR gives credit to Jesus. He designed organisms with built-in sensors that enable them to detect changes in their environment. Internal genetic programming then allows these organisms to rapidly adapt to these changes in predictable ways. Such adaptation is often too rapid for natural selection to be the correct explanation. This design-based paradigm of adaptation is called continuous environmental tracking (CET).” This is an excellent article.
“If the stone falls on the pot, alas, for the pot; if the pot falls on the stone, alas for the pot.” —Jewish proverb, based on Psalm 118:22 and Luke 20:17-18
…ears consecrated to hear God’s voice and the voice of the people
…hands dedicated to ministering in love and obedience
…feet that only walk in God-directed paths
Godly leaders don’t minister to please people, but to lead people to God. So godly leaders are ever aware that in all they do, they must hear God say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
Listen to the audio-only version of this podcast by clicking on the player below, or scroll down to watch the video.
Do you need to have a coach? If you answered “yes” then you’re already on the right track! If you said “no,” Greg and I would like to challenge you a little. Join us as they discuss how coaching isn’t just about correcting mistakes, it’s also about maximizing your existing skills to the highest level possible.
[0:52] Does everyone need a coach?
[2:10] Having a coach doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with you.
[3:48] There’s great fulfillment in helping someone reach greater success.
[5:13] Proactive coaching versus reactive coaching.
[7:19] A good coach won’t micro-manage, they will train you, and then “put you in” to play the game on your own.
[8:24] Coaches can deliver a 10,000-foot view to highlight your greatest areas of strength.
[10:14]] An outside coach approaches your situation with a fresh perspective.
[11:12] Greg discusses Michael Jordan’s best skill.
[12:38] Coaching isn’t about highlighting your negatives, it’s about maximizing your strengths.
[13:13] If a particular area makes you defensive you really need to be examining it further.
[13:55] Maximize can help coach you! Please reach out to us at Maximize Leadership.
[14:55] Greg discusses a psychology experiment.
[15:42] Not being coachable is a huge impediment for leaders.
[18:30] Good competition pushes everyone around you to be better.
[19:21] Greg shares advice from Rich Devos.
[21:45] Good coaching is proactive and reactive.
[23:13] A quote from Tom Landry on the job of a coach.
[24:17] Greg discusses the investments that were made in his life in his book Sage Advice.
[26:24] We don’t have all the answers, but we can help steer you in the right direction.
Check out this episode and subscribe on YouTube so you can watch all of the upcoming episodes. You can also listen to our podcast on Spotify and Apple.
Craig T. Owens 
Links & Quotes
February 24, 2024 — Craig T. OwensWe’ve added things that we think should be in our prayer vocabulary. But kingdom praying should be as natural as talking to the most loving Father you can imagine! Check out more thoughts in my series of posts called Kingdom Praying. I have lots of new content every week, which you can check out on my YouTube channel.
“Obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.” —Michael Jordan
In the post-Flood rock layers, fossils are often found of animals that were much larger than are currently observed. This has been called giantism. “Evolutionists claim that adaption occurs as random mutations make some organisms better fitted for their environment, and the less-fit organisms then die off. … This supposed, random, trial-and-error process requires long periods of time waiting for the ‘right’ random mutation to occur. In contrast, ICR gives credit to Jesus. He designed organisms with built-in sensors that enable them to detect changes in their environment. Internal genetic programming then allows these organisms to rapidly adapt to these changes in predictable ways. Such adaptation is often too rapid for natural selection to be the correct explanation. This design-based paradigm of adaptation is called continuous environmental tracking (CET).” This is an excellent article.
“If the stone falls on the pot, alas, for the pot; if the pot falls on the stone, alas for the pot.” —Jewish proverb, based on Psalm 118:22 and Luke 20:17-18
Godly leaders don’t minister to please people, but to lead people to God. So godly leaders are ever aware that in all they do, they must hear God say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
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