Real Life Discipleship–Part 3
A Crucial Question When talking about discipleship, a question that must be answered early on is “what is a disciple?” Many different definitions have been offered, and most of them are not particularly right or wrong. A disciple is a learner. The Greek word for disciple, mathetes, at its base level means a learner. A disciple […]
Real Life Discipleship–Part 1
Introduction I have been thinking about discipleship. Discipleship is a word that we hear a lot in “church circles”. Sad to say, many believers do not understand what God intends when it comes to discipleship. Too often we think of discipleship in terms of “us” and what we do for God. “I am a disciple […]
Leadership Lessons From Nehemiah–Part 9
Where We’ve Been We are nearing the end of our evaluation of leadership lessons from the life of Nehemiah. We have seen so many valuable insights from this man who committed himself to following God’s desires and leading God’s people towards growth and change! Today I would like to focus on the opposition that Nehemiah faced. Every […]
Leadership Lessons From Nehemiah–Part 8
Cathching Up We have been walking through excerpts from the book of Nehemiah and making observations regarding lessons in leadership from his example. Last week we focused on how Nehemiah took his plan and made it public as he went before the king to seek permission to return to Israel and rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. We pick […]
Leadership Lessons From Nehemiah–Part 7
Leader’s Lead A pastor friend of mine, one who has been a mentor to me in my own ministry, has told me that “leader’s lead.” The phrase sounds simple and maybe common sense, but the concept truly is profound. We have many “leaders” in our world today, but not all leaders lead. A difference exists […]
Leadership Lessons From Nehemiah–Part 6
An Honest Prayer As we continue our study in the beginning of the book of Nehemiah we come to Nehemiah’s prayer. What a completely simple and honest prayer in which God’s servant lays out his heart before God! As we think about the prayer of Nehemiah, I find several significant items in this prayer, and […]
What Seminary Did Not Teach–The Burden of Ministry
Introduction From time to time on this blog I will feature articles under the label of “what they did not teach you in seminary”. Usually these are random or miscellaneous items which I have learned through “on the job training” and not necessarily in the classroom. This is not to fault our seminaries or critique […]
Leadership Lessons From Nehemiah–Part 5
Romans 15:4 reminds us: For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that through patience and through comfort of the scriptures we might have hope. This verse is true in the life and account of the man Nehemiah. We have so much to learn from this godly individual who stepped out and stood up to follow God’s leading […]
Leadership Lessons From Nehemiah–Part 4
As we continue our journey through the life of Nehemiah, we have noted how he led the people in the vital task of supporting the remnant in Jerusalem and rebuilding the walls. I noted last time that Nehemiah was moved to bring this matter before the Lord. We talked about the importance of prayer in general, and how we need leaders who bring the burden of leadership before the Lord. As we think about […]
