THE BIBLE IS MORE THAN JUST A ROADMAP FOR LIFE

By Todd Tillinghast

Most of us have heard the saying that the Bible is a “road map for life.”  While this is certainly true it is only descriptive of a fraction of the Bible’s purpose and potency.  In fact, I would argue that continuing to apply such labels to the Bible may sound nice but actually has the affect of diluting our impressions and expectations of what the bible really is and has to offer.  

Does the bible offer answers to our every day lives?  Absolutely!  This is part of its power and continued appeal throughout the ages.  Should we merely view the bible as an encyclopedia or answer book for our problems?  Absolutely not!!  Actually, we shouldn’t even begin with personal application when studying the word.  Allow me to explain. 

It is almost selfish of us to approach the Bible like nothing more than a search engine by which we can acquire the information we need to solve the problems in our lives.   It is not that God doesn’t want to offer answers to our dilemmas.  Of course He does, He is a loving father who has given us a great jewel of knowledge and wisdom by which to live our lives.  The problem with an informational approach to the Word of God is with the approach.  

The Bible is not merely informational it is relational.  John 1:1 tells us clearly that Christ and the word are synonymous.  Christ is the word.  The leather bound volume that you hold in your hand or that sits on your shelf and gathers dust is just a physical representation of what is inside.  The power is in the words, concepts, ideas and principles that are within.  Like all ideas, principles and concepts these are alive.  All ideas, concepts and principles are alive because they are generated in the minds of real living Human beings.  The Bible is even more powerful than any other collection of ideas on earth because these concepts did not originate in the minds of men but in the very mind of God.  

Furthermore, Hebrews 4:12 tells us that the word of God is not only living but it is active.  In other words, it has active power.  When we think about it, meditate on it and prayerfully process it’s concepts they are being applied to our lives.  This process of transformation (RM 12:2) is not just about acquiring enough information to achieve behavior modification.  This is not the connotation of study that Paul was encouraging Timothy to engage in in 2 Timothy 2:15.    

We are to study the word of God and to interact with it, questioning it, living with it, processing it, praying about it, meditating on it and internalizing it’s concepts, themes and principles.  When we do this then our behaviors will automatically change.  We will see that transformation will by necessity be taking place in our lives. 

I fear, that as the modern day church, we have tried earnestly to boil down concepts, themes and principles into bite sized applications.  We’ve done this to our detriment.  Our goal in bible study should be more than just trying to find the application.  The Bible is more than just a motivational answer book. 

When we seek to truly understand it we aren’t just trying to download information but we are building our relationship with its author.  When we spend time in the word (not just leafing through it in order to get what we want out of it) not only will we be transformed but we will fall even more deeply in love with the God of the scriptures.   

How to Love your job everyday part 2: Fearful, forceful or faithful?

By Todd Tillinghast

Without making too much of an overgeneralization I have found that there are basically three ways that I can approach virtually every area of my life whether it’s my marriage, ministry or job.  I can choose to be Fearful, Forceful or faithful.  It’s quite obvious which of these three is the desired and the most effective but what’s not always clear is when I am actually being faithful and not fearful or forceful.  I know that I have spent entire seasons of my life engaged in one various endeavor or another being fearful or forceful and actually thinking I was being faithful the whole time.  Let’s see if the Bible gives us any clear ideas of how to tell the three apart:

1.  Fearful:  Philippians 4:6,7

Many people come to work everyday in fear: 

n      Fear of losing their job

n      Fear of the boss

n      Fear of getting demoted

n      Fear of not being good enough

And what happens is that having a fearful approach can be deceiving because it feels like passion.  But it isn’t.  It’s fear. We won’t get very far in life if our motivation is fear. If our only goal is to do what we need to do so that we won’t get in trouble then we will never be doing our best. 

Is your motivation to come to work everyday fueled by fear of what would happen if you didn’t come or fear of not pleasing your boss or of being a looser in life? 

A fear mentality breeds all kinds of unhealthy feelings and motivations.  If we are fearful then we can pray and ask God for peace.  Just like verse 7 tells us in Philippians chapter 4. 

2.  Forceful:  Philippians 4:5 

 Some people think that the more aggressive they are the more they will get done but this is not true.  Depending on your personality you may be a very forceful person.   Maybe, like me, you have found out that being aggressive and forceful is not always the way to get what you want. 

We need to be determined, we need to work hard without a doubt but we need not be pushy, rude and forceful to get what we want. Some people, especially in the market place have an attitude of competition in which it is perfectly acceptable to run over someone else to get to the top.  This is not the way to win with people and gain influence. 

Our attitude needs to be that of trying to win with our fellow workers, serving them and helping them succeed knowing that in so doing we will be helping ourselves succeed. 

3.   Faithful:  Mathew 25:21

God says in His word that His means of promoting is based on how faithful we are with what we have been currently given.  

Do we give our all to what we are responsible for in our jobs now?

Most of the time we think that the way to succeed is to get more and work toward having more:

n      Money

n      Time off

n      Stature

n      Titles

n      Position

And our thinking is usually the opposite from what Jesus is describing here in Mathew chapter 25.  We usually think that we need to just bide our time when it comes to the little things.   We may think.. “I should be the manager and so I am not going to work hard until they recognize what I can really do.”

Be faithful with what you now have and God will give you more to be responsible for because you will have demonstrated that you can handle more responsibility.

“Well my manager doesn’t like me”..  It doesn’t matter, this is a spiritual principle.  This is life.  This is the oldest principle in the world, the principle of seed, time and harvest.  Which is “what you sow you will reap.”  This is always true in every situation. 

If you sow faithfulness to your company and you work hard with what you currently have been given then you will reap the benefits of more responsibility and higher pay and everything that comes with that. 

When you are faithful, have a good attitude and work hard you make yourself indispensible.  If you are reliable then people will rely on you and people relying on you equals job security.  Being faithful means we take care of what we have, do the best we can with it every day and trust God to do the promoting. 

“HOW TO LOVE YOUR JOB EVERYDAY” part 1

By Todd Tillinghast

Here are portions of a talk I am going to give this weekend for a company here in Panama.  I thought it may bless some of you who don't care for your job, hate your job or just feel very unfulfilled at your job.  Based on some of your facebook comments I think this may include a few of you.  And for those of you who are fortunate enough to love what you do,  just read it anyway you might learn something too. Anyway, for better or for worse here it is......

“To love what you do and feel that it matters---how could anything be more fun.”  Katherine Graham

Now let’s face it.  We all have to work.   And my guess is that none of us with the possible exception of self made millionaires or ice cream tasters enjoy every second of every minute of every hour of every day at our jobs.  Even if we are passionate, most likely we get tried.  Most likely there are days that we don’t feel like getting out of bed in the morning let alone going all the way to work. 

I remember the wonderful experience I had a couple of years ago of teaching middle school for two semesters.  There were days when it seemed like the students were getting it, they understood and were participating and I really felt like I was making a difference in their lives. All was well with the world. Then there were other days when I felt like everything I was saying was hitting an invisible wall right in front of them.  

The reality is that there are days like that for all of us no matter what we do for a living.  We get tired, we get bored, we get sick and tired of the same old thing day in and day out.  In fact, we might be surprised to know that recent studies indicate most people feel this way about their jobs most of the time. 

Curt Rosengren from Passion Catalyst says this about the difference between job satisfaction and job passion:

 “only 45 percent of workers say they are satisfied (33 percent) or extremely satisfied (12 percent) with their jobs. At the same time, a much lower number actually feel very "engaged" by their jobs. Only 20 percent feel very passionate about their jobs; less than 15 percent agree that they feel strongly energized by their work; and only 31 percent (strongly or moderately) believe that their employer inspires the best in them.”  

Now maybe it’s a good thing to be satisfied maybe it isn’t.  Maybe being satisfied is what holds us back.  At any rate satisfaction is one thing passion is something else.  I think that you would agree and I know that your managers would definitely agree that a passionate employee is better than a satisfied employee. 

In fact, I would argue that a passionate employee is a more satisfied employee than just a satisfied employee.  In other words, if your goal is to just be satisfied with your job then your productivity and your enjoyment levels will only reach a certain point. 

they will only rise to the place where your job is tolerable and maybe even a little satisfying and that will be enough. So the satisfied employee gets up, goes to work everyday, does what is expected of them and prays for the weekend to get here as quickly as possible. 

Now I know that managers aren't interested in hiring someone like that. There are no satisfaction level employees in job interviews.  A potential employee doesn't say to his potential employer in the interview "oh I want to tell you that I will promise you that I will do just enough for me to be satisfied, nothing more and nothing less."  But life has a way of wearing us down and just the sheer routine of our jobs begins to take their toll and cause us to become mediocre just trying to get through the week and get to the weekend. 

There is something that I believe can turn your working attitude around.  It has the potential not only to raise your production level making your boss happy but also of making you happier which will make you happy.  And the added bonus of injecting this ingredient into your daily work life will afford is that it will make your entire work environment better which will make the people you work with happy.

--It all comes down to one simple word…… PASSION

Now you may be thinking, "Passion, that's not a word that belongs at work.  Passion is a word that applies to things like:"

-        Soap operas

-        My boyfriend

-        My girlfriend

-        Food

-        The internet

-        Movies

-        parties

-        Friends

-        Family

-        Church

You may still be thinking " When I am at work... well I’m not even supposed to be passionate am I?  That’s why I have all of these other things in my life outside of work that I am passionate about because all week long while I am at work I'm  board out of my mind."

So the great working man's (or woman's) 64 million dollar question seems to be;

"How can I be passionate about my work when I'm not passionate about my job?" 

Actually I am going to submit to you that in order to be passionate don’t try to be passionate at all.  That’s right, I am telling you that if you really want passion in your life you can’t focus on passion. Passion is the fruition of something else. We can never produce passion by trying to generate it out of thin air.

Rather than trying to be passionate about something that you aren’t already or inherently passionate about why not learn to connect what you are doing at your job with the things that you already care about, the things that you are already passionate about? 

To illustrate this I will use an example from my own life. I  hate dishes.  I can’t stand doing dishes.  But guess what?  My wife doesn't like doing them either.  So we have an agreement that whoever cooks at any given meal the other person gets to do the dishes. So usually both of us try to be the one to cook because neither one of us likes cleaning up. There are times when we are very busy and neither one of us are able to get to the dishes and they may build up in the sink for a few days. 

Now let’s just say that I am walking through the kitchen one day and I pass this stinky, smelly sink full of dishes.  Now what do I do? Well you know and I know that I don’t like doing dishes.  So maybe I should leave it for my wife to do because certainly she must remember that I was the last one to do the dishes a few days ago.  So it’s her turn! Let her stick her hands down into that disgusting mess, it serves her right! Or the loving thing for me to do as a loving husband, rather than making my wife run the risk of breaking a nail ,  I should get in there and get it done.

So how am I going to get motivated enough to really get in there and do a passionate job on these dishes?  Can I convince myself that I really want to do the dishes?  Of course not, that day will never come. I will never, ever want to do the dishes. Can I go to my happy place and pretend that I am really giving some cute, adorable puppy a bath instead of doing the dishes?  Not likely.  

Maybe I should just rush through the job and throw all of the dishes in the garbage and just clean the sink.  That way I won't have to wash them.  I'm sure that would make my wife as happy as a peach aren't you?  

No, what I do is, I don’t focus on the dishes, I focus on my principles or the things that matter the most to me. What matters to me in this situation is not doing the dishes but my wife.  I am passionate about her and my relationship with her.  So I can do the dishes to the best of my abilities and actually be passionate about it because I know that by doing the dishes I am:

-       Being a good husband

-       Making my wife happy

-       Showing her my love for her

-       Making her life easier

-       Demonstrating leadership in my home

-       Making the home environment more pleasant to live in

When I can make those kinds of connections and those kinds of commitments everyday to do my best because I value excellence or because I value character or I value my family whom I am providing for then suddenly the circumstances surrounding my job are not as important.  It doesn’t matter!  My job actually becomes a means to an end not just a means to a paycheck. 

In other words, My job and my work become the stage from which I can live out my values and principles producing the passion that will create the excellence in productivity that my boss wants and the increase in enjoyment that I want.  

Why wait any longer.  Start being passionate about your life now. Wherever you are, at work or at home.  Tap into the values that really make you tick and live them out.  

  

 

“GOD’S INVESTMENT MANAGERS: BIBLICAL STEWARDSHIP. “

By Todd Tillinghast

When we start from the foundational understanding that everything we have has been given to us by God and that everything else is under the ownership of God then we can begin to grasp the biblical approach to stewardship.   I like what randy Alcorn said, “God owns every treasure.  I am, His investment manager.”  This is an easy thing to say but much more difficult to believe and subsequently apply to our lives.  Think about it.  God owns everything.  We really don’t own anything.  Even the money that we earn is His because He gave us the ability and the strength to work to get it and He owns the job where we work and the actual physical money that we earn.  This is difficult for me to comprehend but I think that when I am able to embrace this concept it is easier for me to understand stewardship.

Stewardship is managing what belongs to someone else.  So the obvious implication is that what is being managed is meant to be used for the purposes of the one who owns it not for the purposes of the one who is managing it.  This is especially difficult to grasp when the person who owns it is not physically present.  Not only is God not physically present (though He certainly is spiritually present) but He is not a micromanager.  In other words, He does not correct us immediately for mismanaging the resources He has entrusted into our care.  Rather, He allows the natural consequences of a mismanaged life to teach us the much needed lesson.  By taking this approach to leadership God empowers us to become the self motivated stewards that He desires us to be.

Contentment is a hallmark trait for anyone who will be a good steward of their resources.  Embracing and internalizing the truth that it doesn’t matter how much you’ve been given but what you do with what you have been given is what is essential.  Most people, myself included, spend so much time worrying about the amount that they have and obsessing over the inherent injustice that it is not comparable to what someone else has been given that they fail to manage and multiply (through correct investing procedures) what they do posses.

 

Churches in the first century manifested an understanding of the laws of giving.  This is seen in the church in Jerusalem (Acts chapter 4) and the church in Corinth (2 Corinthians chapter 8).  We would do well to study these chapters and emulate their liberal approach to giving themselves and their money for the use of the kingdom of God.

          

I also believe that part of the giving of our time involves giving one day a week as a Sabbath to the Lord.  Even though we are giving it to Him we are reaping the most benefits from it.  In our harried, hurried and stressful culture we rarely take time to rest.

In the end analysis stewardship comes from a heart of obedience to God.  When we recognize that He is Lord and owner of everything and that everything we have has been lent to us for the purpose of investing back into His kingdom then we can begin to live a lifestyle of biblical stewardship.  

Prayer cannot be legislated away.

By Todd Tillinghast

     Prayer may be the most powerful thing in the world and it is most definitely one of the simplest.  It actually costs nothing.  You don’t have to leave the privacy and comfort of your own home to do it.  And you don’t have to gather publicly to do it either.  In fact, you don’t even have to open your mouth in order to engage in prayer.  You can pray anywhere, at anytime in any place and people don’t have to even know you are doing it.  The simple fact is that prayer is prayer whether we are gathered together so the whole world can watch us or if we are alone kneeling at the side if our beds.  Whether we are shouting to the high heavens or whispering under our breath,  prayer is prayer!  In fact, there is some biblical evidence that may lead one to believe that the quiet unassuming prayers are the more powerful ones.  Maybe these ones are the ones that God really pays attention to the most.  We see in the famous story that Jesus relates in Luke 18:11-14 two very different forms of prayer displayed.  The Pharisee rather loudly and in the temple (a public place) “prayed to himself” and went on to unabashedly fire off to God all of his most admirable traits no doubt keeping one eye open to see if an audience was gathering.  The second man, the publican, stood afar off and would not raise his eyes to heaven and cried out for God’s mercy.  Jesus clearly puts His stamp of approval in vs 14 on the second form of prayer. 

In light of the recent court ruling that the national day of prayer is unconstitutional we would do well to take a brief brake from our protesting to examine our hearts and ask ourselves why does this ruling make us so angry. What are we really fighting for?  This ruling has not done anything to hinder the power of prayer in any way.  What is it that we are afraid of losing? Is it The opportunity to publicly express that we are better than the people who don’t pray?  Or maybe it’s the pomp and circumstance that surrounds this day that we will so desperately miss.  Or, possibly, we don’t have the right understanding of what prayer really is and what our attitude should be in regards to it. 

I am not against public prayer gatherings in any way, shape or form.  In fact, my wife is attending the Global Day of Prayer conference in South Africa next week.  She is attending as one of the regional prayer coordinators of prayer movements for all Of Latin America for Campus Crusade For Christ.  I think that days of prayer and global prayer movements are important and necessary but I think that prayer is more necessary.  The purpose of these events is to offer a public reminder of something that all Christians should be doing on a regular, consistent and humble basis without any fan fare. 

Let’s not give the world another reason to see us as militant protesters out there constantly attacking everything we disagree with.  Let’s pick our battles.  Let’s not go to war over the fact that one public day of prayer has been taken away when we are perfectly free to pray at anytime and anywhere else we choose.  I have a feeling that even if the T.V. cameras don’t show us in our best devotional postures with hands raised and eyes closed on national television that God will still hear our prayers.   

WHAT DO I REALLY WANT????

By Todd Tillinghast

--Socrates said “know thyself.”  Philosophy, Psychology and every great religion throughout history has understood both the importance and the difficulty of knowing ourselves.  Yet in most of this literature, one can only derive simple techniques to understand our personalities, strengths and weaknesses a little better.  Psychology has delved deeper yet into the exploration of how the soul has been shaped by past experiences and relationships. But the one question that seems to continue to go unanswered is:

“What do I really want????

As soon as we think we have arrived and we have what we thought we wanted; a great job, a great relationship, a new car, we realize that it wasn’t exactly everything we thought it would be and that that nagging want is still there.  The great “wanting” that is common to all humanity seems to be nebulous, difficult to understand and nearly impossible to satisfy. 

The question is not only what do we want or need but where do we go to get the answer?

Do we do some deep soul searching to find out what it is that we really want?  Do we really think that we ourselves are the best source for the answer to this question?  Jeremiah 17:9 says “The heart is deceitful above all things.  And desperately wicked; who can know it?”  I don’t know about you but this does not sound to me like a reliable source of information. Why would I go to a source that would deceive me and in which I cannot understand for answers to questions that are extremely pertinent such as what do I really want out of life or who do I want to spend the rest of life with?  The heart deceives us in to thinking and believing that we need, want, desire and are entitled to things that are not really important and that aren’t what God wants for us.  The reality is that we are confused and very unsure of what we really want.  We have been conditioned by society and we have been misled by our own hearts.  It is difficult to decipher the difference between our true desires and those imposed upon us by sources outside of ourselves.     

I still remember the day after we closed on our first home. On the day before when we went to the house they gave us the key for the first time and I could have leapt over the moon.  It was our house! It belonged to us!  But the next day I woke up just like every other day and two realizations hit me like a ton of bricks.  The first one was that not much had really changed.  I still had to go to work and I still had to deal with life.  And the second realization was that now I had a hefty mortgage payment every month!!  Sure we loved that house.  It was a blessing.  But it wasn’t everything and in the end it didn’t make the “wanting” go away.  Soon, as with everything else, we began to find reasons to complain.  The house wasn’t big enough or it didn’t have a great view. 

After many years of dealing with this roller coaster ride called my desires I have finally began to come to the understanding that the “wanting” is never going to completely go away this side of heaven.  It’s not supposed to.  It doesn’t matter how much money I throw at it (Which probably won’t be much) or how many accolades I obtain in life.  I may be able to temporarily satiate the “wanting” but it will never completely go away.  We were created to want something more than anything on this earth can fulfill.  The Bible tells us that we are “strangers and pilgrims” on the earth (Heb 11:13).  We are just passing through.  This is not all there is for us.

In 1^st Peter 1:3-6 the Apostle admonishes us as to what our hope should be in.  He talks about our inheritance which is incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away.  And guess where it is waiting for us?  In heaven, not on this earth, in vs. 6 he says that “In this we greatly rejoice even though for a little while we are grieved with various trials on this earth.”  This is a great message of hope for all of us longing, wanting people reaching for something that we can never quite grasp. 

Everything on this earth will fade; our good looks, our health, and our money, all of it.    Some things will light up brighter than others and some will last longer than others but in the end all things are still mere flashes in the pan.  This life is a vapor but the life to come is out of this world.  I believe that God has given us many things on this earth to enjoy and I intend to enjoy them. But I try to remind myself that I am not entitled to anything.  The people in my closest relationships, the government or anyone else don’t owe me anything.  Even if they were to give me everything I want or think I want I have a feeling I wouldn’t be happy for long anyway.  When I put my hope and trust in things on this earth I will be disappointed every time.  Temporal things cannot hold up under our demanding eternal appetites.  Thank God He has made a provision for those desires to be satiated for eternity. God give us the strength to wait on you and rejoice in what we now have as we eagerly await what is to come!!! 

Servant Leadership is not synonymous with “scared to death!”

By Todd Tillinghast 

In our ever changing and difficult world the words of Howard Hendricks ring true, “The key to leadership is endurance.”  Leadership is not for the faint at heart.  It’s difficult on many levels.  It requires the ability to manage complexity as well as deal with critics and nay Sayers.  It involves making tough decisions on a daily basis and being held responsible for the outcomes of those decisions.  It takes tough skin and a gentle heart and the ability to not allow the two to get rearranged.  A capacity to stick to the task at hand even when the accolades aren’t forthcoming and things are difficult defines the true leader.

In our overly sensitive, pluralistic, politically correct and tolerance addicted society we have emasculated strong leadership.  In our overemphasis on “servant leadership” we have epitomized leadership as something so soft and gentle that it is almost non existent.  In fact, in many places the idea of “silent leadership” is held up as the correct pattern.

The problem with this sentiment is that we have miscalculated and misinterpreted the true meaning of servant leadership.  We see the word servant and we start thinking of a lowly, mamby pamby, Casper milk toast , sniveling individual who wouldn’t dare make a decision or stand up for what he or she believes in.  So the pressure is placed upon leaders to “act like servants” which is just another way of telling them to shut up and sit down.  This is not the kind of leadership we see exemplified by Christ.  In Philippians 2:5-9 we see the ultimate picture of a servant leader.  Paul paints us this portrait of our Lord and Savior.  Yes in vs. 7 we see that He took the form of a bondservant which in biblical times meant a willing slave.  But in the previous verse we see that He did not think it robbery to consider Himself equal with God!   What does that mean?  That He knew who He was.  He knew He was God!  Even a cursory perusal of the gospels would lead one to the obvious conclusion that He was very vocal about this knowledge and understanding.  It didn’t seem to bother Jesus that people called Him blasphemous when He told them that He was the son of God.  Today we would gasp if a leader was so forthright in their understanding that God had called him or her to lead.  We would say that person wasn’t being humble.

 

Then back in vs 7 we see what true leadership and consequently true servant hood is.  It’s making ourselves of no reputation.  That was what Christ did.  In other words, He didn’t care what people thought about Him.  He said what He needed to say and He did what He needed to do.  He did say that He came to serve and that is exactly what He did.  But there were many people who believed Him to be anything but a servant.  They hated Him so much that they killed Him.  Does this mean that He wasn’t a servant?  Does it mean that He wasn’t a servant because He was confident in who He was?  Does it mean that He wasn’t a servant because He had a reputation among many as being someone who was trying to draw attention to Himself through His words and miracles?  I fear that in our modern concept of servant leadership Jesus would not pass the test.  Leadership is not for the weak.  Servant hood is not synonymous with “Scared to death” and humility does not equate humiliation. 

 If we were to be honest with ourselves many of us would need to admit that our main motive in being “servant like” is for the purpose of gaining the reputation of a servant.  How many times do we take a quick glance to see who is looking before we engage in an act of service?  Most of us play the game.  We know that the more humble we can make everyone think we are the more likely we will be considered for leadership.  So servant hood by in large has been down graded to acts of service no longer measured by heart attitudes as it should be.  So we become experts at opening doors for young ladies and mopping floors and cleaning toilets all the time knowing that we are gaining brownie points with the servant leader crowd.  

 I’m certainly not saying that acts of service are wrong.  But let’s make sure that our motives are right.  I have a sneaky suspicion that the most humble and servant like among us go unnoticed.  They may even be people that we have assumed are arrogant.  We may have no idea of how much money, time and energy they give because they do it secretly without public recognition and accolades.  We may even be surprised to realize that some of the strongest and most confident among us are also the greatest servants but because they care so little about impressing us we never even know it.  And they are content to let many of us think them to be arrogant and pompous rather than showcase their humility.  

We live in a world that is desperate for strong leadership.  Leaders who will serve, not to be recognized and applauded as a servant but who will stand up for what is right no matter what people think or say about them.  This is the true mark of humility and it is the true test of leadership.  Are you up for the task?