Relationships – Chapter 35

Posted by & filed under Franks Blog.

One other aspect of communication that I would like to mention in this series is in becoming a more interesting person. Let’s face it, some of us are simply a bore. We seem to have very little to talk about but ourselves, and that can become quite boring. When we talk about this it is bringing in the idea of attitude.

 

Often what we need is a change of attitude. Too often our attitude is negative, always seeing the bleak side of things. This has nothing to do with age. I have seen young people who have been quite interesting to communicate with and older people who I would just as soon avoid. Like Henry Van Dyke said: “I shall grow old, but never lose life’s zest, because the road’s last turn will be the best.”

 

In John 10:10 Jesus said: “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” Do we believe this? Or perhaps what I should say and ask is: Are we experiencing this abundant life that Jesus spoke about? Are we excited about being alive? Do we have an eagerness to meet with God and hear what He has to say? What we need is an enthusiasm for life. Elizabeth Barren Browning said: “What frightens me is that men are content with what is not life at all.”

 

Yes, we do get enthusiastic about sports or some other activity, but what about the things of God?

 

Joseph Hadyn when he was criticized about the gaiety in his church music, replied: “When I think of God, my heart is so filled with joy that the notes fly off the spindle.”

 

Another thing that we need to keep in mind is to learn to talk to our Heavenly Father. To cultivate our horizontal relationships we need to cultivate the vertical relationship with our God. One thing about prayer is that it will begin to change things that need to be changed.

 

A lady came to the sculptor Rodin and asked if it was difficult to work as a sculptor. Rodin replied: “Not at all Madam, you simply buy a block of marble and chip away what you do not want.” One of the things about prayer is that God, through prayer, begins to chip away at things in our lives that He does not want.

 

We find that as our intimacy with God grows – so does our relationship with others. One of the effects and consequences of sin is that it tears down relationships. We see the broken relationship with God and Adam, and then between Adam and his wife.

 

We need to work on this relationship with our Creator and it is through prayer that this comes about. Talking frequently with our Heavenly Father brings us into a quiet place so that when we are dealing with one another in the noise of everyday life we are not so easily ruffled. I have noticed with husbands and wives that when they do not daily meet with God, there seems to be more fighting with one another. This daily or frequent talking with our Heavenly Father and listening to Him in His Word brings us into a place where we see things in their right priority.

 

Communicating daily with our heavenly Father helps us to daily communicate with one another. My prayer for myself, my family and for the body of Christ is to become better communicators of things that matter most in life, and in so doing build real lasting relationships.

 

Relationships – Chapter 34

Posted by & filed under Franks Blog.

Communication – Part 3

 

Thinking about relationships and how communication plays a part in it, we need to sharpen our sensitivity towards others. We might be sensitive about ourselves, but what about others? Are we sensitive to them, their feelings, hurts, pain? How do we come across in our conversation?

 

Albert Moravian of Yale University said that we communicate by words 7%, by the tone of our voice 38%, and by facial expressions, bodily language or gestures 55%. Looking back over my own life I see how true this really is. When I was the director of Operation Mobilization’s ship DOULOS I often saw how I communicated by my bodily language more than what I said.

 

For example, when we came into a particular port I remember leaning over the railing of ship, observing the different maneuvers the deck people were making in order to safely tie us up to the berth. A brother came along and started talking to me. I heard every word that he said, but he didn’t say anything that needed my response as far as words were concerned. When he had finished I turned and walked away. I hadn’t said anything to him. He followed me into the lounge area of the ship and said to me that I had deeply hurt him. I was dumbfounded and so I asked him what I had done. He had felt offended that I did not acknowledge him when he was talking to me. I brought him into my office where I apologized and had a word of prayer with him.

 

What had I done wrong? I was not sensitive to him. Through my body language I had communicated that he was not worthy to listen to. I had offended my brother in Christ. I found the same thing with the tone of my voice. Although I might use the right words, because the tone of my voice is deep it comes out different from what I intended to say. Again sensitivity is needed.

 

We are told in Ephesians 4:30-32 “Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”

 

Being a good communicator means that we will sharpen our sensitivity to others, not that we will be sensitive about ourselves. We need to be asking ourselves questions like: Am I really communicating what I want? Am I sensitive to how I am coming across through my bodily language and tone of voice? Perhaps the family is the best place with your spouse and children to learn how to become a better communicator in order to develop solid biblical relationships.

 

Perhaps this is what God meant when He said that we should let our light be put on a stand to give light to all in the house. Matthew 5:14 “Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.”

 

Isn’t this a problem in many homes today; that of a lack of communication or wrong communication? I know for myself that it has been in the home where I have had to repent and ask for forgiveness more often than perhaps any place else. Might God help us to build a greater sensitivity to one another and to our God.

Daily Devotional

Posted by & filed under Mikes Blog.

Son, listen carefully to what I say. I sent My church on a mission and told them to, “GO.” So why are they not obeying Me? Why are they in a rush for the things of this world? Just listen to what they ask Me for: things of this world and not of My kingdom. My children must remember that obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission is better than offering. Therefore, My children have become afraid, filled with depression and fear.

 

 

When they live for this world they will be deceived and welcome in the one who defies Me; the one who will oppress them. This man will succeed in everything he does. He is a master of intrigue who will rise to power and become very strong, but not by his own power. He will cause a shocking amount of destruction and destroy powerful leaders and devastate My children. In his arrogance he will destroy many without warning. He will even take Me on in battle, but he will be broken.

 

 

Son, the essence of My prophecy is to give a clear witness of who I AM, and prepare My children. For My title is the Word of God. I have been given authority, honor, and sovereignty over all the nations of the world. In My kingdom people of every race, nation and language will obey Me. My rule is eternal-it will never end. My kingdom will never be destroyed. I will give My children thrones and authority to judge. Those who have died will come to life again, and they reign with Me.

 

 

Soon I will sit down and judge everyone whose name is not written in the Book of Life; those who want to be judged by the good life they say they lived. On this day the earth and sky will flee from My presence, and these people will have no place to hide. Everyone great and small will stand before My throne. The books will be opened, including the Book of Life, and they will be judged according to what they had done, as recorded in the books. Anyone whose name was not found recorded in the Book of Life will be thrown into the lake of fire.

 

 

Lord, forgive me, I have not obeyed every one of Your promptings to go and tell everyone who You are. You are so good, so ready to forgive, so full of unfailing love for all who ask for Your help. Teach me Your ways, so that I may live according to Your truth! Give me purity of heart, so that I may honor You, for Your love for me is very great. You have rescued me from this great judgment and have written my name in Your Book of Life.

 

 

Daily Devotional

Posted by & filed under Mikes Blog.

Son, the leaders of your country have not kept My commands that I gave them. Therefore, these leaders buckle under pressure, filled with trembling fear. They say, “Let’s wipe out the name of Jesus from our country, and destroy the very memory of his existence.” Their hearts and minds are puffed up with arrogance. They proudly defy Me, and have not honored the One who gives them the breath of life and controls their destiny.

 

I say, “They have been weighed on the balances and have not measured up. Therefore, I will divide America, until they learn that I rule over the kingdoms of the world.” These leaders know all this, yet they still will not humble themselves.

 

Son, tell My children that soon the world will be drunk with the blood of My Holy people, those who were My faithful witnesses. People will search for ways to accuse My children, but won’t find anything to criticize or condemn them for. So they will conclude, “Our only chance of finding grounds for accusing them will be in connection with their relationship with God.”

 

Son, be a man who handles your affairs faithfully, always responsible, and completely trustworthy. Be a man who humbly prays according to My Word and will always giving thanks. Be a man who trusts in Me and you will prosper in My kingdom.

 

Lord, I long for Your kingdom. There is great joy for those whose strength comes from You, who have set their minds and hearts on You. I know that You will withhold no good thing from me when I do what is right in Your eyes.

Daily Devotional

Posted by & filed under Mikes Blog.

Son, I will come as unexpectedly as a thief! Blessed are all who are watching for Me, and are ready so they will not be ashamed.

 

Listen to Me My children, I am giving you a stern warning. You must not bow down to the thinking and ways of this evil political correctness going on in your country and throughout the world. This type of thinking allows people to follow their own stubborn ways and evil ideas and desires. My children must be prepared, for when they refuse to accept these ideas and lifestyles, people will fly into a rage and demand that you accept what they call normal and good. They will threaten you and say, “If you refuse, no one will be able to rescue you from our lawsuits, and we will take your livelihood and take away your non-profit status.”

 

Oh, that My children would listen to Me, follow Me, and walk on My paths! How quickly I would subdue their enemies! How quick My hands would be upon their foes! When My children listen to Me, they will not be afraid. When they worship Me with all their heart, they will not turn their back on Me. Then they will not give in to political correctness and the life styles of today. They will not worship the god of money, or accept what the world calls good and normal. They will expose evil by standing on the truth and conducting themselves in the way I command them to.

 

My children will not need to defend themselves, because they will know that I am able to save them. They will know that even though I do not save them from what is coming, the world will see that they will never serve its systems and gods. For, they are willing to suffer and die rather than serve or worship anything but Me, the One true God. Who can rescue you like this; that in dying – My children live forever with Me!

 

Lord, we have sinned by turning away from You and have allowed this to come upon our land. Lord, I will worship You and You alone. Help me to faithfully serve You, and to meditate on all the wonderful things You have done for me.

 

 

Daily Devotional

Posted by & filed under Mikes Blog.

“When God reveals Himself to you, He begins by destroying everything else that you trust in.”

 

“When I say ‘I will’ to God, then I will see what God’s will is.”

 

 

Daily Devotional

Posted by & filed under Mikes Blog.

A question for the Church of Jesus Christ: What has our government given to the church that has made them fearful to preach against sin? Their non-profit corporation status! In the coming days if the church does not adhere to “political correctness” the government will take this status from them and make them pay taxes on all the money that comes in to their churches. Does the loss of tax exemption bring fear to our church leaders? Do they think paychecks, programs and buildings will be affected if people are not given these tax deductions?

 

When someone or something can control how you think and live you have become their slave. Their control over you is nothing more than intimidation to make you fearful about what they can take from you.

 

For people to accept living as slaves depends on how long it takes for those who keep freedom alive – to die out. Here in America we have freedom-fighters working against the government programs that are slowly enslaving us by making us dependent on them for all our needs. After the freedom-fighters are gone who will carry on in their place and fight for American liberty? 

 

Our forefathers knew slavery in England and came to this land to start a new life of liberty and dependency on God. They knew that eventually the threat of slavery would come again, so they made a monument to show us how to ward it off, and even come back and be a free people again if we have become slaves in any generation. It is the “National Monument to the Forefathers.” Here are the words that are at the bottom of each statue on the monument.

 

The steps to freedom and how to stay a free people:

 

1. FAITH: in God alone. His written word is absolute truth.

2. MORALITY: you cannot have morality (godliness) without God and His truth. With morality come the prophet and evangelist to reveal immorality (wickedness).

3. LAW: following the laws of God, not the laws of man. With God’s laws come justice and mercy. Without God’s law you will have confusion, not knowing right from wrong; injustice.

4. EDUCATION: to teach the next generation the words and wisdom of God. Learning starts in the family unit with the parents and grandparents teaching their children.

5. LIBERTY: willing to fight tyranny to preserve liberty; knowing that peace comes out of liberty.

 

The road of liberty (freedom) starts with people who no longer depending on what our government can provide for them. History has shown us that in order to make a nation of slaves it will only take 3 generations of twisting the truth and pumping lies into the people. Every generation is responsible to keep truth alive by first knowing what God says, living it out personally and then going public with it. 

 

The people who walk this road of freedom will be men and women who will take on the intimidating giants; they will be over-comers of lies and deception. Our forefathers were freedom fighters, but over the generations we have seen a subtle cowering because it is easier to allow the government to provide for us than to do for ourselves. 

 

The road of freedom is a very narrow road; too narrow for most. It will require us to come out of dependency on government systems, and to depend upon God for everything. The power of God’s freedom is that with Him all things are possible for those who believe. “Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” Hebrews 11:6

 

“A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have.”  (Quote from Gerald R. Ford)

 

“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.” (Quote from Ronald Reagan)

 

“America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.” (Quote from Abraham Lincoln)

 

“Never, never, never give up.” (Quote from Winston Churchill)

Daily Devotional

Posted by & filed under Mikes Blog.

A question for the Church of Jesus Christ: What has our government given to the church that has made them fearful to preach against sin? Their non-profit corporation status! In the coming days if the church does not adhere to “political correctness” the government will take this status from them and make them pay taxes on all the money that comes in to their churches. Does the loss of tax exemption bring fear to our church leaders? Do they think paychecks, programs and buildings will be affected if people are not given these tax deductions?

 

When someone or something can control how you think and live you have become their slave. Their control over you is nothing more than intimidation to make you fearful about what they can take from you.

 

For people to accept living as slaves depends on how long it takes for those who keep freedom alive – to die out. Here in America we have freedom-fighters working against the government programs that are slowly enslaving us by making us dependent on them for all our needs. After the freedom-fighters are gone who will carry on in their place and fight for American liberty? 

 

Our forefathers knew slavery in England and came to this land to start a new life of liberty and dependency on God. They knew that eventually the threat of slavery would come again, so they made a monument to show us how to ward it off, and even come back and be a free people again if we have become slaves in any generation. It is the “National Monument to the Forefathers.” Here are the words that are at the bottom of each statue on the monument.

 

The steps to freedom and how to stay a free people:

 

1. FAITH: in God alone. His written word is absolute truth.

2. MORALITY: you cannot have morality (godliness) without God and His truth. With morality come the prophet and evangelist to reveal immorality (wickedness).

3. LAW: following the laws of God, not the laws of man. With God’s laws come justice and mercy. Without God’s law you will have confusion, not knowing right from wrong; injustice.

4. EDUCATION: to teach the next generation the words and wisdom of God. Learning starts in the family unit with the parents and grandparents teaching their children.

5. LIBERTY: willing to fight tyranny to preserve liberty; knowing that peace comes out of liberty.

 

The road of liberty (freedom) starts with people who no longer depending on what our government can provide for them. History has shown us that in order to make a nation of slaves it will only take 3 generations of twisting the truth and pumping lies into the people. Every generation is responsible to keep truth alive by first knowing what God says, living it out personally and then going public with it. 

 

The people who walk this road of freedom will be men and women who will take on the intimidating giants; they will be over-comers of lies and deception. Our forefathers were freedom fighters, but over the generations we have seen a subtle cowering because it is easier to allow the government to provide for us than to do for ourselves. 

 

The road of freedom is a very narrow road; too narrow for most. It will require us to come out of dependency on government systems, and to depend upon God for everything. The power of God’s freedom is that with Him all things are possible for those who believe. “Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” Hebrews 11:6

 

“A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have.”  (Quote from Gerald R. Ford)

 

“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.” (Quote from Ronald Reagan)

 

“America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.” (Quote from Abraham Lincoln)

 

“Never, never, never give up.” (Quote from Winston Churchill)

Relationships – Chapter 33

Posted by & filed under Franks Blog.

Communication – Part 2

 

Communication is a must for developing relationships with our wife, husband, children, colleagues and friends. In the last chapter we looked at the four essential proponents of communication. I would like to look at how it is essential to build common interests that in turn helps to have meaningful communication. In other words, the more we have in common the more communication we can have.

 

My wife and I were in Finland on the Operation Mobilization’s ship M/V LOGOS II. There I had a great time with the leadership of the ship. We had real communication because of our common interests. Having previously lived on the OM ships I knew the problems as well as the blessings in the ministry onboard.

 

It is stated that 50% of marriage will be without children. One of the reasons for divorces among people who have been married for 30 years or more is because after the children are grown there are no other common interests and if both parties have gone their own way in interests, divorce is a sad reality.

 

For many couples, when the children were at home the common interests understandably were with the children, but after the children are gone if husbands and wives don’t have any other common interest there is the natural tendency to separate. How much do we have in common with our children, spouses and even people in our own fellowships?

 

One of the things that we need to do is move towards more involvement with one another. One would think that this should be easy within the family of God and that there would be many things that we could be involved with, but often this is not the case!

 

There are some things that we as God’s people should have a common interest in: God’s Word, prayer, worship, world evangelism, all the things that pertain to God and who we are in Him. We all should have this in common as our firm foundation in our life, but there are also other things in life, other than our children, that as husbands and wives – we have as common interests; things we enjoy doing together, that interest us.

 

When I was the director of Operation Mobilization’s ship, the M/V DOULOS, people often wanted to know how we could have unity with such a variety of people. Among the 300 people on board we had people of 40-50 different nationalities, different denominations, different upbringing, etc., yet in the midst of such diversity we had a tremendous unity because we had a common interest: world evangelism, and this brought us together so that we were able to overcome all the different things that could have separated us.

 

One of the things breaking up families today is that among the different family members there is no common interest. Each member has gone their own way and developed their own interests, and consequently there is a lack of communication; then relationships suffer and are hindered from growing strong.

 

One of the things that I am learning is that it takes time and effort to develop common interests, and this is a must in order to be effective in communicating with one another.

 

Might God give us creative ways to develop common interests within our families, with friends, etc. in order to be effective communicators.

 

Daily Devotional

Posted by & filed under Mikes Blog.

Son, I AM the first to rise from the dead, ruler of all the kings of the world. I AM the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I AM the One who is, who always was, and who is still to come – the Almighty One. I died for one and all, but I AM alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and the grave.

 

I love you and freed you from your sins when I shed My blood for you. I know all the things you do. I have seen your hard work and your patient endurance. I know you get upset by evil people and that you hate what I hate.

 

But, Son, do you love Me? Then do all that I ask of you. I know that to be faithful to Me in this world will cause you to suffer, and you may lose things of the world, but you will be rich in My kingdom if you remain faithful! So don’t be afraid of what is coming; remain faithful, and I will give you the crown of life.

 

LORD, I rejoice in Your presence every morning! For You are a father to the fatherless, defender of widows. You are my Father and Defender! Each day I know that You carry me in Your arms, because my time with You is awesome!