And in the process of doing the preliminary work for this weeks content, things got changed up I hope you enjoy this. This will be about a couple of my favorite books that I've read this year. It's about how you can practically apply the lessons taught, not only to your personal life, but to your business life as well. So we're gonna start with a book called Not by Sight, True Stories from an Amazing Journey by a lady named Deborah Green.
Well, miss Deborah Green is a customer at my bookstore. As I've told you, if you listen to me long enough, you know that I also own a bookstore. And she has been a customer for several years now, and what makes Miss Debbie, so awesome, is that Debbie is blind. She can't see a thing. And she is a remarkable lady.
When she comes in the store, obviously, she has to have someone that drives her there, that walks her in, that walks her around the store, that tells her what is availalbe and when she's looking for a gift for someone, she wants to hold it in her hands. She wants to touch it and she wants it described to her. But when we first met her years ago the store was in a different location. And Miss Debbie Green would walk from her house to our store BY HERSELF!
She learned how many doors down in the mall area that we were in and which door was ours. So you would see her walking down the sidewalk, counting the doors till she got to our store. Absolutely amazing. So in addition to that, (if that wasn't enough) what also makes Ms. Debbie amazing is that she works in the church office at her church she attends.
When I called her today to ask her permission to tell you about her and to discuss her book a little bit, I said, "Ms. Debbie", I said, "the goal of sharing a little bit of your book is because I want to encourage these people because we have some people who work in the church office that really just struggle with they don't know ~ if they can do the job ~ they don't know if they're good enough ~ all types of excuses. They feel somebody else would do the job better. And can you please tell me Ms. Debbie, with you being completely blind and can't see a thing, how on earth do you work in the church office? How do you do it?" And she shared a little bit with me, but she said "It all comes down to connections."
She said, "when I need technology, when something has to go, you know, technologically. God always brings somebody to help me do that. But the rest of it, I do because I make Connections with people. With our senior adults, I make phone calls. I send group texts. I communicate with them. I get to know them. They know that I care about them. They know this." And she says "it all comes down to building relationships and connections."
And I thought, you know what? That right there is the bulk of it.
So today, we're going to talk about how vital those connections are to you to help you do your job with excellence, and we're going to talk about three types of connections.
We're going to talk about your connection with God. How you communicate with yourself. How you communicate with others.
How you communicate with God
Obviously, The most important communication and the most important connection and relationship that you will ever build is your relationship with God Almighty.
And I did read a Charles Stanley book, which was called The Ultimate Conversation. This is actually an older book written in 2012. but I'm just now reading it. I tried to make myself not buy as many new books this year, which was really, really hard. So, I did go to the bookshelves and I pulled this one out. And it's really good. On the synopsis from the back of the book, just to briefly summarize, it says,
Have you ever considered what it means to talk to God? Is it really possible to communicate with the Creator of all that exists and be able to understand His plans and purposes for your life?
Perhaps there are questions you desperately need answered. Maybe you are facing a trial that is too large or difficult to face on your own and you yearn for divine direction. Or it could be that you are simply curious about what He would say to you.
So, there were three things that spoke most to me. Well, to be honest, there were a whole lot more but I'm going to narrow it down to three, okay?
So, the first thing when I talk about communicating and making that connection with God is that:
God is the God who answers, A quote from the book says, "God is saying, here is your choice ~ either do as I instruct and discover all the outstanding things I will accomplish through you OR spend the rest of your life wondering what I could have done if you had submitted to My wonderful plans." That phrase right there just made me pause because I think that over and over and over in my business and in my service to the local churches, I feel God has instructed me do what I do. And I can either let Him do the work through me OR I can spend the rest of my life wondering what I could have done If I had submitted to His plans.
So, this may be something that you struggle with. Whether you are serving in the local church as a volunteer, you're a staff member or you're a business owner serving the church through outsources services ~ Is God calling you to serve the local church? If He is, you've got two choices. You can either do as He says and wait to see the totally cool things He's going to do through you or You could spend the rest of life you're wondering, what would have happened had you allowed Him to do as He wanted?
I decided many years ago after I read a book called Coulda, Shoulda, Woulda that I was not going to live the rest of my life in regret wondering what if I had of submitted to this thing I felt God wanted me to do. Even though I'm afraid, even though I'm scared, even though I don't see how on earth it's going to work ~ I'm going to do it anyways. So, that's one way that you connect to God.
2. Listening to God, Walking with God
Another thing that Stanley talks about in this book is... "Never say, "what do you think I should do?" Instead, always ask, "what does the Word of God say I should do?" " And that definitely should be applied to church finances because you can go around the room to your church members, to your board members, to your team members, And I can almost guarantee you that in a room of twenty people, you're gonna get at least twelve to fifteen different answers of how they should spend the money on the budget this year. How much should they include in it? etc. It just is what it is. So, the next time you're in a budget meeting or a team finance meeting. Don't say, "what do you think we should do? What do you think that we should include in the budget? What events do you think that we should Plan for this year. Where should we do the church giving? Where should we do missions?" Instead say, "what does the word of God say we should do? What is the Holy Spirit leading us to do?" Alright? I just think that's just simple and that's all I'm going to say on that one.
Our Helper in Prayer.
And Dr Stanley actually challenges us To begin each morning with a prayer that goes something like this. It says...
Father, I want you to guide me and lead me today. Speak to my heart. Make me sensitive to your promptings and to what is happening around me in the lives of those I meet. Fill me with your supernatural joy and use me today for your purposes. I surrender fully to you.
And that's going to lead right into my second point. After we've connected with God, we need to watch our connections and our communication with others.
We will continue this conversation next week and finish up with communcation with others and ourselves. I hope you'll join me then.