In case you have missed it, more than 600 readers have accepted my Purpose Challenge. They took the assessment on my website and have accepted the Challenge to improve their score 15 points by year's end. Have you accepted the Challenge? There's still time to take the assessment and catch up on back Memos to absorb what you need to improve your purpose score. Are you up for the Challenge?
It occurs to me this week that King David, before he was king, would have made a bad Christian. What would have made him a bad Christian, you may ask? Something he did? Some egregious sin? Something he said? Well, it's not exactly what he said but how he said it that could disqualify him in many Christian circles today. If you want to know exactly what I mean, you will have to read on.
BRAGGADOCIO
Braggadocio sounds like an exotice lettuce in a salad, but it's not. It is an empty boasting or arrogant pretension, and that's exactly what it would seem like to some when you read what David said to Goliath when they met for a duel:
David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hands, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. This very day I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds and the wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give all of you into our hands" (1 Samuel 17:45-47).
Let's look at what David did not say in his response to Goliath's taunts.
- "If it be God's will."
- "Lord willing"
- "If the Lord helps me."
- "I'm seeking the Lord about doing something bad to you."
- "I am asking God for wisdom in this matter."
- "As soon as I have finished my college degree, I will kill you."
- "Not me, but God's grace with me."
- "I am praying about slaying you."
- "I hope to slay you one day in the perfect timing of God."
- "The Lord rebuke you."
David was specific and direct, and promised victory in the name of the Lord. He said what he was going to do with confidence and clarity. Because he used the pronoun "I" and because he did not hedge his words, some would hear David talk today and say he is arrogant and boastful, aka a bad Christian.
A GOOD CHRISTIAN
Is it wrong for someone to speak as David did, with such confidence and boldness? In some sense, David had a goal - Goliath's destruction - and he was specific and to the point. David promised God was going to help him bring down Goliath by cutting off his head and parading it all over town.
Can you use a little more of David in your goal-setting? If who you are has not helped you obtain your goals to this point, may I suggest you need to change something, like your words, your confidence and your faith? Goal setting is not what you hope to do; it is what you are going to do with God's help, but you must count on that help like you already have it. That is why David could talk about what he was about to do. David reached into the future and pulled it into today and that is why he was able to do great things.
Your objective this week is to set some goals like David's. Stop fretting over whether they are exactly right or if God is with you. Assume that He is, state your goals like they will be accomplished this week, and then take steps to make them happen. A good Christian is not one who talks nicely, but one who speaks his or her faith and then involves God in accomplishing the end result. It's time to slay some of your Goliaths and that may mean sounding less like you think a Christian should sound and more like David did. Have a great week!
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Two hundred dollars came in for Operation Chicken Coop but no donations came in this past week for the Sophia Fund and Deborah Foundation. I received the email below yesterday from Alice Kwendo, founder of the Each One Touch One Orphanage - EOTOO
(Alice is pictured to the right next to me last August, and smiling with the children at left two years ago).
Have belatedly read you blog post. For all your appeals to support the orphanages, centres and the widows that you touch, l can only pray that with positive response we shall change for the better the lives of the beneficiaries.
Our EOTOO children have made very good use of the Deborah Foundation books and games equipment. With the help of EOTOO parents and our friends, all the jumping ropes, balls, writing material have been well used up. The children - those able - have read most of the books [you brought], which l believe will continue to be of use to them and we hope to the community at large.
God bless everybody who puts their thoughts and investment in your-our projects.
Alice
If the Monday Memo has been a blessing to you this year, please consider a token of appreciation that will help HIV/AIDS orphans and widows in Kenya as we approach this holiday season. Read how you can do something significant for them here and here. Thank you!
P.S. I will be back in Kenya November 27 to conduct more seminars for The Pacific Institute. Make plans to invest in your future and self-development while I am there.
Hi Dr Stanko!
Bravo!!! as I was just contemplating....this is timely!Thank you! and God Bless You!
Posted by: Sharon Tan | November 11, 2010 at 09:05 PM
thanks alot for the insight
Posted by: lilac | December 16, 2010 at 12:40 PM