(81)   “CREATE A MEMORY……wherever you go!”

Jesus is the most unforgettable person the world has ever seen. Not a day passes without large numbers of people being transformed by the power of His love and life and words. So much has Jesus impacted my life that there was a time when I determined that wherever I went I would have a goal of creating a memory in the lives of people I met. And now in my senior years I am more focused than ever before on this goal. Each day is a gift from God to be able to create memories in the lives of people I meet.
I do this by:-
* determining to be a good steward of the gift of every day that is given to me.
* realising as Jesus did, that my Father God is at work each day, and I want to partner with Him in the great purposes He has for my life. In doing so, I find myself regularly meeting prepared people I never could have expected to meet.
* believing that the Spirit that lived in Jesus lives in me and that He is the most creative person alive.
* knowing that every person is made in the image of God and is a person worth meeting.
* choosing to add value to people by bringing something to the table with every encounter I make.
* keeping my mind in gear and thinking ahead as I walk through the day realising that to whom much is given, much is required.
* praying for my neighbours and people as they cross my path.
* passing on small gifts to people as I am prompted to do so.
* giving two great gifts that are high on my list of creating memories, my time and my attention.
I remember being challenged by a pastor who said, “Everywhere I go they serve cups of tea, everywhere Jesus went He caused a revival.” Living the Christian life should be anything but boring and dull. Even in my relationship with Sue, I have determined that I will not let a day pass without creating a memory with her. Life is too short to waste on trivialities that are of no benefit to others. Start today to live a life of creating memories in the lives of others. It will be the greatest investment you will ever make.
(Dedicated to my wife, Sue who has filled my life with the most amazing memories.)

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(82)  “LIFE IS SHORT”

“What is life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.”  James 4:14
I grew up in a generation where our theme song rather naively was, “I’m going to live forever.” I grew to realise that this is a lie and now in my senior years I find myself like David asking the Lord, “Lord remind me how brief my time on earth will be. Remind me that my days are numbered – how fleeting my life is. You have made my life no longer than the width of my hand. My entire lifetime is just a moment to you; at best, each of us is but a breath.” Psalm 39:4-5
Interestingly, although life is short, Solomon was inspired to say that “God has placed eternity in the human heart.” Ecclesiastes 3:11.
Consequently, it should be a sobering thought to realise that God has given us a short time to live on earth, and yet upon this short time, our eternity depends. And time cannot be hoarded or postponed, it must be spent as we receive it because, “irretrievably, time is flying.” (Virgil)
Moses gives us helpful perspective in the one Psalm he wrote when he said, “Seventy years are given to us! Some even live to eighty. But even the best years are filled with pain and trouble; soon they disappear, and we fly away….. teach us to realise the brevity of life, so that we may grow in wisdom.”  Psalm 90:10,12
So, as one who is now living in what I call the “bonus years” the following are a few tips I have accumulated to pass on to those who as yet have not come to “realise the brevity of life, so that they may grow in wisdom.” For some who are reading this “word”, it may be the biggest and best wakeup call you could ever receive. For we have an enemy who would deceptively encourage us to believe that we are going to live forever.
To understand the brevity of life:
* is one of the most important contributions to living life with perspective (life from God’s point of view)
* helps us to deal with conflicts and regrets while we have time to do so. (I have a friend who recently called me and said, “Rod, I am dying. I have called you to ask you to forgive me for…… I don’t want to stand before Jesus with any unresolved issues in my life.”)
* inspires us to live lives of holiness.
* helps us to understand it is not how long we live that matters, but how well we live.
* reminds us that life is a gift from God and we will have to give an account of the stewardship of how we have used that gift. “Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days. Don’t act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do.” Ephesians 5:16-17
* causes us to be thankful for the gift of every day.
* keeps us focused as Paul was. “But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus – the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God.” Acts 20:24
John Maxwell said that the difference between a career and a calling is that a career is limited, it has a retirement date attached to it, but a calling lasts a lifetime.
May you live your life in such a way that you finish well because LIFE IS SHORT!

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(83)  “DISCIPLINE: A GOOD SERVANT AND A MEANS TO AN END”

I was recently speaking with a young man who told me that while on holidays, he would excuse himself from socialising with his friends at a certain time in the evening and retire to his holiday home and go to bed. He had come to realise that he needed a certain amount of sleep each night and had developed a disciplined time table in order that he might rise early to spend quality time with the Lord.
This was a great example of a young man who was committed to growing the hardest person he will ever have to grow, himself. It is called self-leadership. He has already realised that he can’t lead others until he has learned to lead himself. He can’t take others where he has not been himself. The apostle Paul said, “I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified.”  1 Corinthians 9:27
In his masterly book, Spiritual Leadership, J. Oswald Sanders writes that “Without this essential quality (discipline), all other gifts remain as dwarfs: they cannot grow. Before we can conquer the world, we must first conquer the self.
A leader is a person who has learned to obey a discipline imposed from without and has then taken on a more rigorous discipline from within. Those who rebel against authority and scorn self-discipline – who shirk the rigors and turn from the sacrifices – do not qualify to lead. MANY WHO DROP OUT OF MINISTRY are sufficiently gifted but have large areas of life floating free from the Holy Spirit’s control. Lazy and disorganised people never rise to true leadership.”

From the time that Hudson Taylor, the great missionary to China, developed a conviction as a young man that God was calling him to serve in China, he began to prepare for a life that would call for physical endurance. He exercised more, exchanged his comfortable bed for a hard mattress, took on a spartan diet and rose at five in the morning to study languages. He knew that it was too late to prepare himself when the opportunity arose.
One of the great secrets of being a great leader is self-discipline, that starts at an early age. It is to be our servant and not our master, a means to achieving a great end and not an end in itself.
Remember, “Many who drop out of ministry are sufficiently gifted, but have large areas of life floating free from the Holy spirit’s control. Lazy and disorganised people never rise to true leadership.”

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(84)  “THERE ARE NO OVERNIGHT SUCCESSES”

I remember a time when a young man came up to me and asked an unusual question. Apparently, he had found the sermon I had just preached quite helpful and he asked, “Rod, how long did it take you to prepare that sermon?”
I answered rather unusually, “Oh, about 30 years.” My sermon was an accumulation of experiences and study that I had accrued over the last 30 years.
It reminded me of a story of the great violinist, Isaac Stern, who was once confronted by a lady following one of his concerts. She excitedly said to him, “Oh I would give my life to play like you.” He replied, “Lady, I did!”
As I read through the stories of the great leaders in the Bible, I find that God was usually never in a hurry to rush them into positions of great responsibility. In other words, there were hardly any overnight successes in God’s plan of things. The great preacher D. L. Moody said of Moses that he spent his first 40 years in a palace thinking he was somebody, the next 40 years in the desert learning that he was nobody, and the next 40 years discovering what God can do with somebody who found out they were a nobody. He had to wait 80 years for his time to come.
David waited 15 years between the time he was anointed by Samuel to be king and when he actually became king, but in that time of waiting, God was at work shaping him and testing him in preparation for the great purposes that lay ahead of him.
Over the passing of time, I have found myself more and more living in a world of what has been called “instant gratification” which has been described as a habit that refers to the temptation to forgo a future benefit in order to obtain a less rewarding but more immediate benefit. We live in a world of “fast food” and “get rich quick” schemes and “afterpay” and even watch shows entitled, “marriage at first sight”.
Living in God’s kingdom is quite different. Even Jesus said on two occasions that “My time has not yet come.”
John 2:4, 7:6-8. We are told on a number of occasions to “wait upon the Lord”. It is possible to discover God’s will but to miss God’s timing.
Paul said that before he was entrusted with the gospel that God tested him.  1 Thessalonians 2:4. The strength of his character was just as important as the strength of his competence.
Gordon MacDonald in his excellent book, A Resilient Life, said, “Wherever I have gone and talked about the resilient life, I have insisted that one must anticipate that the greatest contributions God has for us to make will happen in the second half of life. (in the fifties and sixties and even seventies)……when wisdom, intellectual vitality, physical stamina and deep spirituality finally come together and produce a person capable of doing great work for the advancement of Jesus’ kingdom.”
It is important for a disciple of Jesus Christ to know that in this world of instant gratification there are no overnight successes in the kingdom of God. Jesus modelled the timely life of a disciple when He said, the Son can only do what He sees His Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does” John 5:19. So a good guideline to follow as we live out the life that has been entrusted to us is to maintain an intimate relationship with the Father and keep in step with Him as we follow Him in His unfolding timetable for our lives.
The best is yet to come!

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(85)  “ATTRACTION….THE FIRST PRINCIPLE OF MENTORING”

As a young Christian, I became aware of the value of mentoring, but wondered why no one was ever interested in mentoring me. It was quite by accident, some years later, in my first year of fulltime ministry that I heard a teacher at a seminar who deeply impacted my life. So much so, that by the end of the day, I had a desire to ask him if he would mentor me. The thought never left me.
Some months later I was scheduled to fly to his hometown in Sydney, and so I contacted him in advance to ask if he would give me an afternoon of his time. He agreed. I spent 10 hours with him and in the process asked him if he would become my mentor. Ultimately, he accepted and for the next 31 years my dear friend John Mallison AOM served as my mentor.
It was out of this experience that I came to understand the first principle of mentoring; the attraction of the mentee to the mentor. For in John Mallison I saw a leader who modelled the life and ministry of Jesus in such a gracious way that I wanted to “hang out” with him and be motivated to grow up to be all that God had purposed for me to be.
With the passing of time, I wasn’t disappointed. John was a leader of leaders with a great gift of wisdom. He saw potential in me that no one else saw. He was in demand as a national speaker and occasionally took me with him and opened a door for me to speak alongside of him. He invited me to write chapters in the books he wrote, and I could tell people of the books that “John Mallison and I wrote”. It was a great honour for me to speak at John’s funeral in 2012.
The law of attraction motivated me to approach other leaders who would impact me along the way. I learned to say, “Start at the top and work your way down; they might say no, but they could say yes!”
The great Christian leader J. Oswald Sanders, who wrote the book, Spiritual Leadership, was another person who enriched me. I learned that he travelled to my then hometown of Melbourne every year to conduct a number of speaking engagements. I decided to contact his mission organisation and asked if I could spend a morning with him whenever he came to Melbourne. They agreed and for some years I would regularly spend an absorbing time with him as I brought my list of questions and listened to his great wisdom that had accumulated over many years of fruitful ministry.
The principle of attraction of the mentee to the mentor is the first and foremost principle of mentoring. But it will only work for those who….

• are hungry to learn and grow whatever the cost. (I have travelled overseas to spend time with leaders that I have wanted to meet. Today with all our technology, we can make contact with people in far off places from the comfort of our own offices. In fact, I am now mentoring leaders from other states of Australia in this way.)
• will stop at nothing to get with people who have the potential to add value to them.
• come with a humble attitude and have a teachable spirit.
• come prepared with a well thought out agenda and go away with notes that can be stored and retrieved.
• treat their mentors with honour and appreciation.

A recent study by Thom Rainer concluded that the one thing that great leaders had in common, was their attraction to mentors who added value to their lives. So, what’s stopping you? Start at the top and work your way down, they might say no, but they could say yes!
Remember, it’s your call.

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(86)  “THE GOLDEN RULE…..What did Jesus really mean?”

Jesus said, “So in everything do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.”   Matthew 7:12
There was a time where I understood the Golden Rule to be a rule of reciprocity, where I would do exactly to others what I wanted them to do to me. But then I gradually came to understand that following the Golden Rule by literally responding to people in the way I had wanted them to treat me, did not take into consideration the uniqueness of each person and their felt needs.
On further examination I came to see that Jesus didn’t treat all people the same; neither did He treat them the way they treated Him. He related to impulsive Peter differently to the way He related to doubting Thomas. He didn’t have a “one size fits all” in the way He spoke to people and responded to people.
So what did Jesus mean when he said, “So in everything do to others what you would have them do to you…”?
Gradually I have grown to understand that the Golden Rule means that I treat others in the way I would want them to treat me; with sensitivity and understanding of the unique person God created each of them to be.
Many years ago, I bought my brother a Christmas present of some recorded music (a cassette) of my favourite singer. It wasn’t his kind of music and so he immediately gave my present back to me, for which I was quite pleased. In retrospect, I now see that I failed to treat my brother with sensitivity to his unique musical tastes.
I am now wiser and more understanding and am more convinced of the importance of the Golden Rule that Jesus taught. I have a wife and two daughters with different personalities, different careers, different interests, different tastes, different struggles and different body language. They are….different, and desire to be treated with respect according to the unique person that each of them are.
Some guidelines I have accumulated for the important task of living out the Golden Rule include:

• Work at becoming a student of understanding people and the Golden Rule.
• Read a good book on Emotional Intelligence (Try The New Leader by Daniel Goleman).
• Value each person as a unique, never to be repeated creation of God, so much so that God gave them a unique fingerprint and heartbeat.
• Give special consideration as to how you can add value to each person when you meet them.
• Seek first to understand, then to be understood.
• Practice the art of sensitive listening.
• Ask relevant questions.
• Follow up on the conversation where there is some need or interest you can contribute to.

I’m thankful to Jesus for introducing me to the Golden Rule and for modelling the way it should be lived out. I commend Him and His life teaching to you.

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(87)  “USE IT OR LOSE IT”

One of the greatest motivations in my life is the understanding that I am a steward of my life and all that I that I possess is a gift from God to be used for His glory. An equal motivation in my life is the principle that what I don’t use I will more than likely lose.

Jesus explained this in a parable He taught regarding three people that were entrusted with money by their master to invest according to their abilities while he was absent on a trip. On his return, two of the servants had doubled their money while the third servant had hidden his money for fear that he would lose it. This resulted in the master taking the money entrusted to this servant and giving it to one of the faithful servants. In other words, because he didn’t use it, he ended up losing it.

This principle is deeply rooted in much of life, and we ignore it to our own peril. If we fail to exercise our physical body, we will lose strength, health and perhaps years from our lives. The same goes for sporting and musical abilities, brain functioning, social networking and spiritual gifts that are given to us by the Holy Spirit to use in our service for God.

Athletes use the term “reversibility” in place of “use it or lose it” which claims that if athletes do not exercise regularly, their heart and muscles will reduce in size, as well as in efficiency. In my senior years I am only too aware of the impact the “use it or lose it” principle can have on my physical health and am motivated to maintain a daily schedule to slow down the use by date of some of my bodily parts

In addition, I am motivated by the parable of Jesus to not give up on using my spiritual gifts in His service by believing that there is such a thing as a retirement age for Christians. And consequently, I end up “losing it” with the result that someone else will step up and “use it”.

I encourage you to take a review of your life with reference to the “use it or lose it” principle with the goal that one day you will be able to stand before God and say as Jesus said, “Father, I have brought You glory on earth by FINISHING THE WORK YOU GAVE ME TO DO.”

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(88)  “PERSPECTIVE”

“It is impossible to stand in the presence of God and be a pessimist.”  Henry Blackaby

One of the keys to a life of impact is that of perspective. Some people look at situations logically while others look at situations with perspective – which I define as looking through the eyes of God. If we focus on our problems and oppositions and challenges through logical eyes, there is every possibility that they will overwhelm us and cause us to retreat or give up. But if we focus on these things through the eyes of God we will gain perspective knowing that “all things are possible with God.” Philippians 4:13

Perspective causes us to face situations with confidence and courage just as:

• David did when as a young boy he confronted the giant Goliath all on his own
• Moses did when he was hemmed in by the Egyptian army on one side and the Red Sea on the other side with no logical way through.
• Jesus did when He faced the cross
• Paul did when he said that “in all things God works for the good to those who love Him.”
  Romans 8:28
• Mary did when she realised that she would have a baby as a virgin, and said to the angel, “I am the Lord’s servant.” Luke 1:38

So how do we gain perspective? Perhaps a good place to start would be to pray the prayer that Paul prayed for the Ephesians. “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the HOPE to which He has called you, the riches of His GLORIOUS INHERITANCE in His holy people and His INCOMPARABLY GREAT POWER for us who believe.” Ephesians 1:18

So, what can you see when you look at your life right now? Are you looking at your Goliaths logically like the Israelite army or are you looking at your Goliaths with perspective like David who realised that Goliath was “defying the armies of the LIVING GOD”?
Ten of the spies who explored the Promised Land had logical eyes and said, “We can’t attack those people, they are stronger than we are”, while only two spies had perspective and said, “do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will devour them. Their protection is gone, but the Lord is with us. Do not be afraid of them.”
People of perspective see their challenges through the eyes of God. People of logic see God through the eyes of their challenges.

Your life will be transformed as mine was, when you stop looking at life through logical eyes and start looking at life with faith filled perspective through God’s eyes. After all, it’s your choice.

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(89)  “WHAT ON EARTH AM I HERE FOR?”

Eric Liddell was an Olympic runner whose story was told in the Oscar winning film, Chariots of Fire. Liddell who later became a missionary in China once said, “God has made me for a purpose, for China. But He also made me fast, and when I run, I feel His pleasure.”
Eric Liddell knew what on earth he was here for and also his God-given strength to fulfill that purpose. How sad it is for a person to go through life not knowing that they had been created for a purpose and not being able to fulfill that purpose over the course of their lifetime with the gifts God has entrusted to them.
In my own life, I was deeply impacted one morning in my devotions as I read the words of Paul to the Colossians (1:28-29) “So we tell others about Christ, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all the wisdom God has given us. We want to present them to God, perfect in their relationship to Christ. That’s why I work and struggle so hard, depending on Christ’s mighty power that works within me.”

Sue and I had been married for just a few months. But six months after reading the words of Paul we had unexpectedly resigned our jobs in our home city and taken a step of faith which resulted in us relocating to another state in Australia. I had received an unexpected invitation to join the ministry team of a large church as Pastor for Youth and Young Adults. God was at work. And so began a life calling that still continues today in my senior years with my ministry, EQUIPPING THE NEXT GENERATION.

There is no greater discovery in life than that of understanding that God has created each of us for a relationship with Him and a purpose for which He has shaped us, so that we can each answer the question: “What on earth am I here for?” Jesus lived such a life. Near the end of His life, He was able to say,
“Father…..I have brought You glory on earth by finishing the work You gave me to do.” John 17:4

Pastor Rick Warren from Saddleback Church in California wrote, “If there was no God, we would all be ‘accidents’, the result of astronomical random chance in the universe……But there is a God who made you for a reason and your life has profound meaning. We discover that meaning and purpose only when we make God the reference point of our lives.”
To obtain a copy of Rick Warren’s excellent mini book, What On Earth Am I Here For? you can contact him on https://store.pastorrick.com/what-on-earth-am-i-here-for-mini-book.html

Feel free to let me know if you are desiring to discover God’s purposes and plan for your life.

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(90)  “YOU DON’T GET A SECOND CHANCE TO MAKE A FIRST IMPRESSION”

A psychologist at the Harvard Business School, Amy Cuddy, has been studying “first impressions” for more than a decade. According to her research, 80% to 90% of a first impression is based on two subconscious questions we and the people we meet ask ourselves:

• Can I trust that this person has good intentions towards me?
• Is this person competent?

In other words, if a person’s first impressions of you are friendly, competent and trustworthy, they are more likely to feel comfortable around you and open up to you. And it can happen in as little as three seconds.
Some practical guidelines to making a good first impression include:

1. BE PREPARED : Do your homework before you meet a person. If they are known to you, take time to recall your last meeting and think about the world in which the person lives. At times, I have done an online search regarding the person before I meet them.
2. BE PRESENT : Give your total attention to each person while you are with them, make eye contact with them and avoid distractions. And, keep your phone out of sight.
3. BE POSITIVE : Speak encouragingly, smile, compliment, use positive body language and check the tone of your voice and where possible affirm the person.
4. BE PERSONAL : Remember that the person you are talking to is a unique, unrepeated, valued creation of God and worth knowing and understanding. Don’t underestimate the value of beginning a conversation with small talk.
5. BE A GOOD COMMUNICATOR : Listen more than you talk so that the other person feels heard. Ask open questions and don’t interrupt when the other person is talking. Remember that people need to feel understood.
6. BE EMPATHETIC : Don’t just listen to words but empathise with the other person’s feelings, particularly when that person is confident enough to share something deep and personal with you. People usually remember how you made them feel.
7. DRESS APPROPRIATELY : What you wear has consequences. A study from the Research Council of Canada found that people are affected by your appearance, whether or not they realise it. So don’t overdress and don’t underdress.
8. BE YOURSELF : Be a first class version of yourself, not a second class version of someone else. Emotionally intelligent people know their strengths and weaknesses, their limits and their impact on others.

So how friendly and competent and trustworthy do people you meet consider you are? Interestingly, much of it has to do with first impressions. And your competence doesn’t matter unless people first come to trust you. It is never too late to work on developing the art of first impressions because first impressions can be lasting impressions, and you may not get a second chance to make a first impression.
QUESTION : What steps can you take right now to radically improve your first impression skills? Who can you ask for feedback that will assist you?
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