thirtyonethree

I have found and subscribed to several blogs recently by Campus Crusade staff with their thoughts on how to see movements everywhere become a reality in the Campus ministry.

• Shane Deike’s Movements Everywhere Rant
• Leadership for Movements Everywhere by Rich Swanson
• On Movement done by several contributors.

Last week, I helped my former team leader Gilbert Kingsley set up a blog for his coaching tips. In his own words, “Coaching Tips are intended to help our staff be more effective in helping to launch and resource new ministries on other campuses and within other communities on campuses with existing ministries.”

A colleague gave me some very good advice last week. She said that I needed to be more disciplined and plan out my week with all the different projects I am involved in. Otherwise I will not get anything done. Even that day I saw that prediction be true. I recognize one of my weaknesses and an area I need to grow in as a leader is discipline and planning.

Here is some good perspective that I came across through another colleague’s’ blog.

Chain Bridge and Matthias Church
Originally uploaded by Jeff Bridgforth.

This is one of the many photos I took this summer in Hungary. God provided a really nice day for me to take some pictures in Budapest.

I have been thinking about God’s glory a lot this week. I am reading a book, Revolution Within and I listened to a message by John Piper on Tuesday. I have read several of Piper’s book and God’s glory is his biggest theme. I have been thinking about Piper as I have read this other book.

Both the book and the message have really impacted me this week about living for God’s glory as being the central motivating factor in my life. I liked that Revolution Within had some very practical insights that helped me to think about what focusing first on God’s glory would look like in my marriage, my work, my parenting and my responses to the difficult and challenging things in life. It is hard to describe how this is impacting me but I feel like it is really penetrating my heart and will lead to life change.

I am currently reading Dwight Edward’s book, Revolution Within. Dwight is a descendent of Jonathan Edwards. We did a Bible study this summer in Hungary based on this book.

This week, I was reading in chapter 3. He talked about focusing on God’s glory as the main motivation in our lives. It was a very practical chapter. Dwight says that there are 2 ways to approach our spiritual lives. The first is to live for God so we can fully exploit His blessings. The second approach is to live for God so we can fully reveal His name. I liked the way Edwards describes the differences in these approaches. The first asks, “what must I do to gain God’s blessing?” The second asks, “what can I do to better reflect God’s glory?”

I pray that God changes me so that I approach my spiritual life with a focus on His glory. I am just beginning to see how this approach would bring a different perspective in response to things like suffering.