The Monday Memo from John Stanko

598: The Month Ahead

I trust you had a blessed Resurrection Day celebration and that you are ready to continue to make room for resurrection power in your life on a daily basis. I just completed a month-long study of time management principles in my daily devotional, and today I begin a month-long series on organization, the fourth of my five Gold Mine Principles. Permit me to share with you some of the highlights of what I learned and how I will apply that in the coming month.

THE MONTH AHEAD  

1. I am working on four book projects that I want to complete this month. When I think of them, I get intimidated and even overwhelmed. So I am controlling my self-talk to manage my anxiety, and I am encouraging myself that I can do all things through Christ who helps me.  I am counting on His help.
2. I teach four college classes in April on Monday, Wednesday and Friday nights and one on Saturday morning. I have never taught three of these classes. I am counting on God's help so I can prepare and deliver so that the students are impacted and changed.
3. I preach three times in the next five weekends in a total of 11 services. God will help me as He always has to speak through me to His people.
4. I faciliate The Pacific Institute IIE seminar two days this month. Those are all-day presentations, along with one all-day faculty meeting. God will provide me the grace to do well and help those present learn and apply the principles.

All this is in addition to my pastoral duties, my nine radio show, 30 daily devotionals, five weekly Monday Memo, and two regular online Bible studies from Romans and other projects and assignments that will undoubtedly present themselves for attention this month.

THE KEY

The key for the month of April will be to control my fear and ask God to ''stop the sun" just like Joshua did in Joshua 10. I am trusting the Lord for the time and energy to carry out the things I believe He wants me to do. As I mentioned in all four items above, I am counting on God's help. Now is the time for the truth of Philippians 4:13 to flow through my life: "I can do all things through Him who strengthens me."

Now if I can attempt all these things in April, what more can you do?  You don't have to do the same things as I or as many things, but I am certain you can do more things than you are planning right now. Don't quote Philippians 4:13 and then have an April iike every other April. Apply the resurrection life we celebrated yesterday to your schedule and write the poetry, compose the song, go back to school or visit your family in that resurrection power.

I am challenged by the April ahead, but I am confident in God, and not my own capabilities.  Yet I am prepared to do my part, which is trust Him and apply myself, and then trust Him for the rest. And I will report back to you the first Monday in May to let you know how we (God and I) did for the month.  Have a blessed week and month ahead.

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EXCITING KENYA UPDATE: You don't want to miss this exciting update on little Mary as she sets out for her new boarding school. I have read it many times already, and I helped write it!  After you have read, allow resurrection power to flow through your giving either by sending a check to PurposeQuest, PO Box 8882, Pittsburgh, PA 15221-0882 or using my website. Thank you for your help, and of course, Mary thanks you, too.

A NEW PAGE: I have added a new page to my website that contains many of my spoken messages from the past along with my archived Saturday morning radio shows. This is my gift to you, made possible in large part by my son's untiring efforts to convert many of my old messages from cassette to MP3 files. Thank you J3!  I hope you find things on this page that are helpful to you.  I will update it from time to time as we convert other messages and as the radio show continues to gain momentum here locally.

597: A Daily Easter

Easter Sunday is next week, so I thought I would represent my Memo I have written in the past concerning the Resurrection.  I hope you spend some time meditating this week on the significance of Easter and what its significance for your PurposeQuest.

A PACKED HOUSE

My church has six weekend services every week, and we are getting ready for overflow crowds next weekend.  People who don't darken the door of a church throughout the year will come to church on Easter Sunday along with some who have returned to the area to visit family, which will make for a packed house. They all sit with the regular attenders, family and friends, and pay homage to the fact that Jesus was raised from the dead. It is probably the same in your church.

We will assemble next week and say by our presence, "Yes, we believe Jesus was dead.  Furthermore, we believe that He was in the tomb for three days.  Yes, we believe that God raised Jesus, who was both fully God and fully man, back to life. And yes, we further attest to the fact that Jesus ascended into heaven, and that our flesh, Mary's boy, intercedes for us at the right hand of the Father."  I hope you agree that those affirmations summarize theruths of Easter.  But is that all the truth of Easter?

It always intrigues me that many will come and attest to these truths yet all too often those truths have no meaning in or implication for their daily lives.  Stop for a minute and ask, "So what if Jesus was raised from the dead?  What difference does that make in my life?"  Those are good questions; let's try to come up with some answers so you can enjoy Easter every day of your life.

MAKING EASTER PERSONAL

If you believe that Jesus was raised from the dead, then you can believe God for anything!  If God raises the dead, which He does, then He can cure cancer. He can provide for your business or ministry.  He can transform you into the person He intended you to be, that person you want to be. If God can take a dead body and give it life, then nothing is beyond His miracle-working power. What's more, you have the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead living in you!  It is not a replica or a portion of that Spirit.  You have the Spirit that raises the dead living in you. Here is what Paul had to say about the implications of this Spirit-resident:

You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you (Romans 8:9-11).

I trust you plan on being at your local church fellowship next weekend.  Don't go as someone merely giving mental assent to the historical fact of the resurrection, go celebrating the truth that God is alive in You  Then find how to release that resurrection power into your life, relationships, work and purpose. If you can believe that God raises the dead - and you should - then you can believe God for anything.  Have a great resurrection-power-filled week filled with a daily Easter!  Happy Resurrection Day!

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EASTER GIFT FOR KENYA: I posted two emails from Kenya, one giving thanks and the other making a request. Please read them here and then consider a special gift this Holy Week for the urgent needs represented there. You can give through my website or by sending a check to PurposeQuest, PO Box 8882, Pittsburgh, PA 15221-0882.  Thank you in advance.

MONDAY MEMO ANNIVERSARY: In honor of the Memo's 12th anniversary, attached is my free gift of the twelve best Memos from the archives as my way of saying thanks for your faith readership.

Download Best 12 Memos

596: A Dangerous Prayer

This past week, I had the opportunity to once again facilitate a seminar with material on cognitive learning from The Pacific Institute.  It was a great class, and those present connected with the material in a special way that I know will impact them for the rest of their lives.  During the seminar, I read a prayer I found in a book entitled Chazown:  A Different Way to See Your Life by Craig Groeschel.  I urge you to pray that prayer, if you dare.  I already did and it works, but not in the way you may think.

DISTURB ME

The prayer was first prayed by Sir Francis Drake, who sailed around the world for England in 1577.  The prayer goes like this:

    Disturb us, Lord, when we are too well pleased with ourselves, when our dreams have come true because we have dreamed too little, when we arrive safely because we have sailed too close to the shore.

    Disturb us, Lord, when with the abundance of things we possess, we have lost our thirst for the waters of life; having fallen in love with life, we have ceased to dream of eternity; and in our efforts to build a new earth, we have allowed our vision of the new Heaven to dim.

     Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly, to venture on wider seas where storms will show your mastery; where losing sight of land, we shall find the stars. We ask you to push back the horizons of our hopes; and to push into the future in strength, courage, hope, and love.

Now you see why I cautioned you about this prayer.  It is dangerous!  As I travel and talk with many people, however, it is a prayer that many desperately need to pray, perhaps even you.

SHRINKING BACK

I have been looking at a passage in Hebrews 10:35-39 that address the issues raised in the prayer:

So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.  You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.  For in just a very little while, 'He who is coming will come and not delay.  But my righteous one will live by faith.  And if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him.'  But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved. 

Many will say they are living by faith, but perhaps that is because they are living so small. Their goals are timid, their fears overwhelming and their vision limiting.  They are not doing anything big, so of course it appears that they are living a full life.  Instead, they are living woefully below what God has for them.  They have shrunk back to their comfort zone but describe it as only a place of respite.  In actuality, it is a place of refuge from which they have little intention of venturing out.

I hope you aren't among those whom I describe in the previous paragraph.  If you are, however, and you know it, now is the time to do something about it. It's time to set some goals and live by faith once again. The beauty of doing this is that you don't need to have any idea how you will do those things; that's where the faith comes in.  If you've decided, however, that faith is just too demanding or stressful, then you may be guilty of shrinking back and incurring God's displeasure.

So the choice is clear:  have faith and please God, shrink back and displease God.  The choice is yours and I do hope you will choose wisely. If you choose faith, then go back to the beginning and pray the "Disturb Us" prayer every day this week.  As you do, I know God will hear you and will certainly disturb you with new visions and dreams before very long.  Have a great week!

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KENYA UPDATE: As I try to do every week, I have posted the latest from Kenya so you know what's going on and can have a chance to contribute. Thank you to all who did last week.  I am sending Mary's tuition to her (we raised almost $750), we have $750 for Peter's van and a few other donations came in.  Plus, I saw a whole mound of stuff at church that will go toward our next shipment.  God is good, and you are wonderful.  You can give this week through my website or by sending a check to PurposeQuest, PO Box 8882, Pittsburgh, PA 15221-0882.

MONDAY MEMO ANNIVERSARY:  In honor of the Monday Memo's 12th anniversary, I am once again attaching below 12 of my best Monday Memos.  Thank you for your faithful readership and support.

Download Best 12 Memos

595: A Gift of Snow

This month I am focusing my daily devotional on time management. They are part of a larger devotional called Purpose Pearls, which are all devoted to the five Gold Mine Principles of purpose, goals, time management, organization and faith. You can check them out and even subscribe to receive them daily on my personal blog site.

This past Wednesday we had a snow storm that dumped about 12 inches of snow at my house, while delivering considerably less in other parts of my city. That snow was a gift from God for me!  Why do I say that?  To get the answer, you will have to read on.

A DAY AT HOME

When I teach about time, I always go to the story in Joshua 10 where Joshua asked the Lord to stop the sun so he could finish the task at hand. In other words, Joshua was asking for more time. God answered his prayer and stopped the sun in the sky for about a day.  Joshua had faith for more time, prayed accordingly and God heard him. 

I then challenge my listeners to have faith for the time they need, just they would have for money, ministry or other miracles. This past week I was asking God to 'stop the sun' because I had a book manuscript for which I needed time to finish. I did not see where that time was coming from, but I had the manuscript ready to work on whenever God opened the door.

Then Wednesday came, and I worked about 12 hours on the book, finishing the first draft.  Now I will edit, write the introduction and conclusion and I will send it off to the publisher.  Yet this snowy gift did not work as it did if I did not have the manuscript ready, if I did not prepare in faith for the time I knew was coming. Wednesday worked because I had faith and something ready to fill the time.

YOUR SNOW GIFT

Are you ready for a snowy gift like mine, to help you get done what is before you?  Or do you now know what to do with those time gifts when they come along?  The key for last Wednesday is that I didn't try to find something to do on that day; I had something ready to do on that day. I had the faith, but my faith led to action.  I did what I could do and God did the rest.

How would you use a gift of a day like I got last week?  Do you know? If not, then start preparing in faith for just such a day.  But don't waste it on just busy work, but rather invest it in a high priority project that will have significant long-term returns. I am still thanking God for that gift of snow and it's almost a week later. His gift of time has enhanced my worship and now I have faith for another project and I can't wait to see how He will reward my faith this next time. Be blessed and have a great week!

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WHAT SHOULD I TELL PASTOR FRANCIS? I pose this question in this update from Kenya.  Let me know how I should respond by sending your gifts to PurposeQuest, PO Box 8882, Pittsburgh, PA 15221-0882 or by giving through my website.

LAST CALL FOR THE PACIFIC INSTITUTE:  I start the TPI training this coming Thursday here in Pittsburgh. If you are interested, you need to write me right away.  I have 12 people, so there is always room for one more. God used this seminar to change my life and He can and will do the same thing for you.

594: 12 Years

Trumpets and drum roll, please!  This month the Monday Memo turns 12 years old! From humble beginnings in 2001, the Memo has gone on to impact thousands of lives and inspire many to purposeful living. On this special occasion, please allow me to muse and reflect on these last 12 years.

WHY?

I started the Monday Memo because I was launching a website and wanted something that would 'drive' people to the site, something that would cause people to remember that the site existed. I read the author Seth Godin, who still impacts my life and work, and he talked about permission marketing, through which you created something of value that people gave you permission to send. While speaking at a conference in Ohio, I asked how many would like to receive something like the Monday Memo and eight people signed up. The rest is history.  If anything, the Memo has become the main attraction and the website a sideshow, supporting the audience I reach through the Memo. Who would have thought?

When I first started, I didn't know what I would write or how people would respond.  I never thought that I would be writing 12 years later and it has been a faith step to sit down every Sunday night for 12 years, sometimes not knowing what I would write. Yet when I would start, something would always come and I am grateful to the Lord for His help in creating and maintaining this project.  In 12 years, I think I only missed writing the Memo about 25 times.

WHY NOT?

Every year at this time, I reflect on whether or not to continue the Memo. The readership is not as large as it once was, for when I started the Memo, there were very few other regular email offerings. Today there are a myriad and I would like to think I encouraged some of them to start. Yet 6,000 people still receive every week and I get feedback regularly that the Memo still inspires and mentors many people. Also, I have used the Memo to create awareness of my work in Kenya and many people have contributed to the needs there, which is a source of great joy for me and those we help.

So why not continue the Memo for another year?

In honor of this special event, I am attaching a gift - a document containing the 12 best Memos from the last 12 years. These Memos got the most feedback and actually a few of them appeared more than once as reprints. I hope you enjoy them again as much as I did writing and now compiling and editing them.

And of course, I want to challenge you to do what's in your heart to do. The Memo was in my heart, I wrote and God blessed.  If He did it for me, He can do it for you. But He can't work with what you don't produce. So go for it and, as you do, celebrate with me God's goodness in your life over the last 12 years. Have a great week and Happy Anniversary, Monday Memo!

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THE PACIFIC INSTITUTE:  I am going to host my annual seminar TPI here in PIttsburgh on March 14 and 15 and then again on April 25 and 26.  What is TPI? The training offered is the best I have ever encountered and has made me better and more effective at everything I do. The cost is $400, so it represents an investment in yourself, but it will pay dividends for the rest of your life!  If you are interested, write and I will send you more information.

KENYA: You can read my latest updates from Kenya that include a thank you from some widows (pictured right) and a list of needs from a children's' ministry. Please read and then give as the Lord leads, either through my website or by sending a check to PurposeQuest, PO Box 8882, Pittsburgh, PA 15221-0882. Thank you (and the children thank you, too).

Download Best 12 Memos