The other 11 disciples didn’t stop believing in Jesus, because of the actions of Judas.
Even, when they scattered momentarily, Jesus found them together worshipping and praying after the Resurrection.
If someone’s actions wreck your faith, then you must ask yourself, “Was my faith in Jesus, or other people?”
Good leaders understand the uncompromising value of personal integrity and honor.
When you always shoot straight with your team, there is no need for secret meetings and gossip behind your back.
Integrity means I will not speak ABOUT you until I speak TO you, and then I will only speak FOR you and never AGAINST you.
At some point, every leader will be misunderstood.
People will say things about you behind your back (or to your face) that aren’t true. People will judge your motives and get it wrong.
Sometimes you’ll only be allowed to say certain things in public, not because you’re being secretive, but because revealing all the information would make others look bad or would be breaking confidence. So instead, you look bad.
That’s just the territory of leadership.
Leadership is a bit like parenting. You have to do the right thing even if it’s not the popular thing.
I’ve been there many times as a leader (and as a parent).
WHAT IT IS: Church splanting is when a pastor plants a new church by splitting the mother church.
While many church plants are born out of a passionate call of God on a person’s life, on occasion a church plant has less noble beginnings.
In spite of Jesus’ Call for unity among His followers, at times the Church struggles to achieve it.
HOW IT HAPPENS: Anger & bitterness grow in the pastor’s heart at the circumstances in their church, and all of the sudden they develop a call to become a Church Planter.
Often motivated by frustration or hurt they declare “God is calling them to start a new church,” not in another town or state, but just down the street.
READ MORE: https://www.glichurchplanting.com/church-splanter/
The Feeding of the 5,000 was almost certainly an insurrection attempt.
1. Jesus & the disciples go to the desolate side of the Sea of Galilee before Passover Week, a known MUSTER POINT FOR REBELLION PLANNING outside Rome's gaze.
2. The crowd saw the "signs" he was doing with the sick, making him the LIKELY MESSIAH to overthrow non-Jewish rule & set up the Throne of David.
So thinking there is a rebellion afoot, men come from everywhere to join. Josephus indicates these musterings happened yearly.
3. The texts only count the MEN IN ATTENDANCE. If you are going to insurrect, only the total number of men would matter.
There were more men, by far, in the area during Passover than any other time of year.
Passover week was always, "Now or Never!"
4. When they sit, Mark and Luke tell us that they sat in groups of 50s and 100s.
i.e,, military-type ranks and formations.
They were there for a purpose, and it wasn't a lecture and a meal.
5. Why so many leftovers? Sometimes you have to make a choice of what you are going to carry away from your run-in with Jesus:
It's always Forks over Knives.
You can't carry both. Jesus gives them weapons of meal rather than mass destruction.
Think I'm crazy?
This is how John ends the story:
"...When Jesus saw that they were ready to force him to be their king, he slipped away into the hills by himself." — JOHN 6:15
They didn't want leftovers, they wanted Barabbas.
What a day, what an honor at the church I love.
I will not take for granted what God is doing here.
“We each carried out our servant assignment. I planted the seed, Apollos watered the plants, but God made you grow.”
(1 Corinthians 3:6)
Photo Credit: Kristie Kaptures
In 1971, Phil Knight was teaching accounting at Portland State University.
One day, he overheard a graphic design student say that she couldn’t afford to take a painting class.
Knight paid her $35 to design a logo for his start-up shoe company.
When he saw the design, he said,
“I don't know if I like it, but maybe it will grow on me.”
Knight didn’t have time to fuss over the logo. "We had a deadline," he explains. He had signed a contract with a factory to produce 3,000 pairs of Nike's first shoe. "Production was starting on the shoe that Friday."
Before then, they needed a logo.
“You don’t like it?” Knight’s chief operating officer asked of the student’s design.
“I don’t love it,” Knight said, “but we’re out of time. It’ll have to do.”
Takeaway 1:
It's said that if not for constraints and deadlines, nothing would get made.
George Lucas, for instance, worked on drafts of the first Star Wars for years. "I never arrived at a degree of satisfaction where I thought the screenplay was perfect," he said.
But then he struck a deal with a movie executive from United Artists—"At that point, it became an obligation," Lucas said.
"If I hadn't been forced to shoot the film, I would doubtless still be rewriting it now."
Takeaway 2:
At Nike's IPO in 1980, Phil Knight gave the student who designed the Swoosh 500 shares.
She never sold.
Since the IPO, there have been 7 stock splits. So those 500 shares have become 64,000 shares. At the time of this writing, Nike is at $110/share.
$110/share x 64,000 shares = $7,040,000.
It makes me think of something Robert Greene once said:
“Above all else, focus on acquiring knowledge and skills. Knowledge and skills are like gold—a currency you will transform into something more valuable than you can imagine."
