Thursday, January 30, 2020

Growing in Intimacy with God Essay Example for Free

Growing in Intimacy with God Essay Introduction The beginning of our relationship with God is from the moment we accept and believe Jesus Christ as our Lord and savior. As it gets personal, it grows daily until it becomes deeper and intimate. Intimacy generally refers to the feeling of being in a close personal association and belonging together. It is a familiar and very close affective connection with another as a result of a bond that is formed through knowledge and experience of the other. In this lesson, we will learn and understand the work of God in our lives for us to be intimate with Him, yet it doesn’t require full force of effort from us. The following insights will help us to set ourselves to submit in the Lordship of God until we reach personal intimate relationship with Him. How would you complete the following statement? The most essential ingredient to living the Christian life is to†¦ †¢Fill your heart and mind with Scripture †¢ Pray as much as you are able. †¢Attend Christian meetings for inspiration. †¢Get involved in ministry. †¢Choose to do what is right and Godly. †¢None of the above. Each of the above choices are important to living the Christian life, but none of them qualifies as the â€Å"most essential† because they all fail to adequately deal with the primary obstacle Christian must overcome. This obstacle not only makes the Christian life difficult to live, but impossible to live. Why we can’t live the Christian Life? The primary obstacle that hinders Christians is the Sin Nature. Contrary to the belief that we are all born innocent, Scripture teaches that we do not become sinners, but that we are already born sinners. Psalms 51:5 The following Scriptures describes this problem Romans 3:10-12 Mark 7:21-23 Romans 8:7-8 Because of our sinful nature, not matter how many Scriptures we know, not matter often we pray, no matter how many inspirational meeting we attend, no matter how involved we are in ministry, or no matter how strong will to do right, our best efforts will fail because we do not deal with the main problem. When done in our own strength, these activities simply produce Spiritual pride! But God has provided a solution for us. God’s Solution God’s Solution to our Sin nature is to give us a New Nature! He did this by putting His Holy Spirit in us at the moment we received Jesus Christ! The following Scriptures describe this miracle. John 3:5-7 Ephesians 4:23-24 God’s spirit imparts God’s nature and power in us! Ezekiel 36:26-27 Acts 1:8 Philippians 2:13 (TLB) God’s Spirit gives us the Desire (Ezekiel 36:26-27) and the Power (Acts 1:8) to do His will! God’s Spirit in Us The desire in you to please God is the work of the Holy Spirit in your heart. It is evident of the New Nature you inherited when you were born again by God’s Spirit. We are born into this world with a Sin Nature. But the moment we trust Jesus Christ for forgiveness, we are â€Å"born again† with a new nature, which is not only the new me but the real me! The sin nature, or Old me, can never please God and does not even want to, but our New Nature not only desires to please God, but it is able to by the Power of the Holy Spirit. Notice that the Christian’s Sin Nature will cease at the moment death, while our new nature will continue for eternity! The challenge we face in this life is the battle between these two natures to rule in our minds, our hearts and bodies. They are at war within us! The good news is that this struggle is temporary. Once we are free of Sin Nature, our new nature will be unhindered to do all that God desires. It is important to understand that the key to victory is God’s Spirit within us. Only by allowing His Spirit to live through us will we experience God’s Will and Power in us! Be Filled with the Spirit Ephesians 5:18 teaches us how to apply God’s provision to overcome sin. The word â€Å"filled† means to be filled to the full! A person â€Å"filled with the spirit â€Å"leaves no room for the Sin Nature to control his life. Command: This verb teaches that we are â€Å"filled with the Spirit† by an act of our will! God is not asking us to be filled with his Spirit if we feel like it. God is commanding us to be filled. No matter how we feel no matter what our circumstances, we can choose to be filled and allow God to rule in our lives! God’s Work: This verb also indicates that it is God who fills us. We simply make ourselves available to Him! As we yield our lives to God, His Spirit empowers us with His Desire and Ability! Present Tense: Finally, this verb commands us to continually allow God’s Holy Spirit to fill us ~ moment by moment, hour by hour, day by day. No breaks and no allowance for the Sin Nature to reign! How can we be sure God will fill us with His Holy Spirit? Because He said He would, and God does not lie! 1 John 5:14-15 1. Is it God’s will for us to be filled with His Spirit? ⠝  yes ⠝  no 2. If we ask God to fill us with His Spirit, will He hear us? ⠝  yes ⠝  no 3. If we know God will hear us, can we be sure we are filled? ⠝  yes ⠝  no Application The following steps can help us experience God’s Power continually 1. Confess ~ Not being filled to the full with God’s Spirit is sin. Confess this to God and claim His forgiveness (1 John 1:9) 2. Be Filled with the Holy Spirit ~ Ask God to fill you with His Spirit! Filling of the Holy Spirit doesn’t end our relationship with God. Rather, it only set our condition with the Lord. Each of us can posses a spiritual relationship with Christ. Jesus is very well aware of our individuality and want to give us just what we want to grow in our walk with Him. The following presents a guide that may help you find time to spend with God.

Wednesday, January 22, 2020

Essay --

Most developing countries face tough challenges to grow in consequences of the poverty trap: counting limited access to credit and capital markets, inefficient and corrupted governance, and fundamentally a lack of opportunities for them to escape from the poverty thread wheel. And Peru located in South America had not been an exception in this scenario up till the informal housing emerged. In the book named the other path, the author demonstrates an interesting study in Peru’s case of the informal housing that ultimately advanced the urban development. And his assertion implies to be very convincing; however, some may argue that outcomes of urban development through informal housing may be highly complicated and risky. Thus, it would be appropriate for the Peruvian government to find ways to prevent any additional informal housing complications in Peru and combine its policies to upgrade its citizens’ quality of life; focusing on human development and economic developm ent simultaneously. The author, Hernando de Soto, describes how the urban development has highly evolved in Peru, essentially through informal housing; informal meaning as basically against the law. According to the author, informal housing did not accidentally happened in the Peruvian society; despite everything planned in advance since the poor desperately sought for their own opportunities and property rights that the Peruvian government was not able to administer. Informality arose as a result of Peruvian citizens’ responses to the state’s incapacity to satisfy the basic needs of the impoverished masses. Hence the Peruvian citizens had to violate the law in order to build shelters and develop their own neighborhoods, building infrastructure in their own after il... ...ional steps to advance the quality of its people’s lives in consideration of the human development, providing enhanced public services or social welfares for an example. Hernando de Soto’s argument assures the unavoidable informal progress in urban areas in Peru because of inefficient governmental policies on informal housing. As the author argues, perhaps the informal housing did successfully contributed to give chances to the poor; however, in order to minimize the loss and disadvantages, the government absolutely needs to prevent further informal housing along with policies focusing on the human development meanwhile. His emphasis also leaves big questions, such as how much positive impacts do the poor really get from the credit market, along with how Peru’s informal development case can be replicated in other developing countries without negative ramifications.

Tuesday, January 14, 2020

How bad leadership affects organization Essay

Jean Lipman-Blumen defined bad leadership as, â€Å"A toxic leader is one who engages in numerous destructive behaviors and who exhibits certain dysfunctional personal characteristics that inflict some degree of serious harm on either individuals or the organization. † (Bad Leadership: Antecedents and Prescriptions) Where there is a bad leadership present in the organization and workplace, this could lead to harmful consequences. For example, accidents, loss of productivity, cost ineffectiveness, low quality of product, communication gab, employees’ absences, industrial sabotage, etc. However, reasons for poor leadership could take place from a number of reasons such as leaders who possess poor leadership skills. And this could affect employees, co-workers and not surprisingly, leaders as well. In addition to this, leaders with insufficient skills may be worried with their own problems and may slow down any business activity within an individuality or group. A research study has revealed the fact that inadequate leadership skill significantly affects on other coworkers and inexperience member of the organizations. Because of poor leadership skills of a leader, an organization may suffer from pessimistic work views, lack of vision towards the company’s future goal, shortage of qualities to motivate workers, lack of social skills, and lack of inspiration. Obviously, leaders are paid to solve problems and not just to hold them. Thus, leaders are paid to provide good leadership which results in the achievement of a company’s goals. Kevin Dwyer, Poor Leadership; Poor Results 2006, said that, â€Å"Leaders must take it upon themselves to make â€Å"it† happen. Shuffling off responsibility for action to committees, subordinates, government departments and forever bemoaning the lack of action is not good enough. Leaders are in the position of being able to both diagnose the ailment and treat the ailment of an organization. If they won’t do it, who will? † (Dwyer, n. d. ) Communication is considered the life blood of every organization. Hence, lack of communication leads to negative outputs. Besides this, a leader who possesses poor communication and social skills can be harmful for a company. Because of poor leadership, communication often fails and this leads to several work mistakes and unwanted business expenses. For successful business operations, it is important that leaders should be equipped with great communication skills which can be applied in the organization in order to achieve a company’s desired objectives. In other words, Robert Hogan, Gordon Curphey, and Joyce Hogan wrote in American Psychologist that â€Å"abusive and incompetent management create billions of dollars of lost productivity each year. † (Stanford Business Magazine May 2006). More than 290 professionals were taken into consideration in a survey conducted in the period from 2004 to 2005. This survey revealed what seemed to be a murky spot among best planners and their own management & leadership skills. It is a fact that planners spend most of their work time in planning and summarizing things for future. In the study, they found that in most of the cases, poor leadership dumps a company’s overall planning. Or sometimes even worse, poor leadership hinders planners for producing new ways of problem solving. In addition, Business Corporations seldom get success where leaders do not know how to solve a particular problem. According to one survey, â€Å"if an organization pays an average leader $80,000 a year, that leader should bring back at least that amount of value to the organization; otherwise, the person could be considered a losing investment. Ideally, leaders return more than what they are paid, thus producing profit. Past studies have shown that there is about a 40 percent deviation in performance for a given role. So, an average leader might be worth $80,000, a great leader worth $112,000 (+ 40%), and a poor leader worth $48,000 (- 40%)†. (Cost of Poor Leadership Calculator) Psychologically speaking, workers and employees who perceive their leaders abusive, experience psychological distress, boredom, increased work conflicts, lower levels of commitment towards the company’s goals and objectives, depression, lower production outputs, low levels of job satisfaction, decreased individual working capabilities, and so forth. And consequently, in the presence of these above mentioned findings among employees, it seems very difficult to achieve organizational goals in a timely manner. According to another study conducted in the UK about retail banks, the average high street bank could increase sales by ? 65 million per year by improving employee satisfaction by just 10 per cent and almost half of the 44,000 people surveyed said that poor leadership was adversely affecting their organization’s performance. Steve Young, Project Director at ISR said that, â€Å"Leadership is an area that is really letting organizations down when it comes to employee commitment, while a quarter of employees blamed either a bad working climate or low work enablers, a half blamed poor leadership. † (Poor leadership pushes down banking profits) In poor leadership, employees’ morale declines and they feel less committed towards the company and its mission. In this dilemma situation, projects are completed slowly and hastily. In addition, when employees’ morale is down, they experience boredom. Some Suggestions for Good Leadership In order to run the organization in an effective and competitive way, management makes an outline about the leadership strategies. Moreover, they should not also watch poor leadership but also eradicate the roots of poor leadership. In this regard, the following are some points that can be used by any management to improve a leader’s qualities. 1) Quietly undermine the leader 2) link with others to confront the leader 3) link with others to overthrow the leader 4) Avoid entrapment by friends and family members 5) bound the term of leadership 6) enhance the selection process 7) Create good exit options for leaders 8) Hold directors in charge make them act 9) make a system of checks and balances 10) Protect whistle blowers. Despite all these facts, a poor leader should evaluate him or her and determine his weakness and pitfalls in each and every respect of the leadership. And following are guidelines for it 1) know your power and how to use it 2) welcome the worth of leaders and cherish the assistance they make 3) recognize the seductiveness and drawback of the power of leaders 4) Study bad leadership to learn from the mistakes of bad leaders. Conclusion As I discussed above and gave several examples about good and bad leadership, it makes very clear that a company’s success and failure depends upon the fact that how leaders can lead a team to achieve an organization’s motives. Historically speaking, leaders have a significant effect on the overall business and group performance of an organization. Besides this, good leaders can apply their superior leadership skills to make things better and to turn organizational goals in the right direction. On the contrary, bad leadership affects a company’s performance negatively in terms of production, employees’ morale, ethics, communication and many other things. So, it is the responsibility of the management and the director to keep a check on the leader’s role in the organization for the sake of that organization’s success. Hence, a good leader makes a significant difference in the successful operation of any organization regardless of the scope of that organization. However, we must not forget that superior leadership is not just confined to the business sector. Effective leaders are also necessary for the peace of the whole world in every sense. References A good leader offers reality check, thank yous – The Business Journal of the Greater Triad Area: http://www. bizjournals. com/triad/stories/2004/04/26/smallb3. html Accessed, April 9, 2007. Bad Leadership: Antecedents and Prescriptions http://72. 14. 253. 104/search? q=cache:nBXXeIOGawEJ:www. koreagsis. ac. kr/bbs/pds/Bad%2520Leadership%2520Colloquium_1. ppt+bad+leadership+effects+organisation&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=20&gl=pk Accessed, April 9, 2007 Cost of Poor Leadership Calculator http://www. ddiworld. com/imex/greatleadervalue. asp Dana Hinders, (Published June 21 2005) Michael Useem’s Leading Up: Upward Leadership In Action How To Lead Your Boss So Your Both Win Journal Article Dwyer Kevin , Journal article Poor Leadership; Poor Results. Emcc – Transforming organisations – the importance of leadership and culture in managing change http://eurofound. europa. eu/emcc/content/source/eu04006a. html? p1=reports&p2=null Accessed, April 9, 2007 Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert I Sutton, (2000), journal article, The Half-Truth of Leadership. Stanford Business Magazine May 2006 http://www. gsb. stanford. edu/news/bmag/sbsm0605/feature_leadership. html Accessed, April 9, 2007 McLean Cari, October 18, 2005, journal article, strategic leadership: A superior state of mind. Tsun-yan Hsieh and Sara Yik, Journal article, Leadership as the Starting Point of Strategy Poor leadership pushes down banking profits http://www. management-issues. com/2006/8/24/research/poor-leadership-pushes-down-banking-profits. asp Accessed, April 9, 2007 What is Leadership? http://72. 14. 253. 104/search? q=cache:q_XTVWqb68QJ:www. med. umich. edu/csp/Course%2520materials/Fall%25202005/Thorson_What%2520is%2520Leadership. ppt+definition:+leadership&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=6&gl=pk. Accessed, April 9, 2007.

Sunday, January 5, 2020

Purpose of Creation Myths - 836 Words

The Purpose of Creation Myths The general purpose for all myths is to bring an understanding of unknown. The ancient people widely used myths to explain new phenomena and occurrences. The lack of scientific modes of theory formulation caused the people of old to come up with myths to fill the vacuum with the knowledge that existed during their time. The need by man to explain his origin and the origin of the universe led him to the formulation of creation and origin myths. Men of olds came up with myths to explain the mysteries they had no clue about including creation. Almost every culture on earth has a creation myth. Most if not all of these myths borrow from the core theme of a God-centered creation as contained in the book of Genesis chapter one. According to Van Over (11), a good number of these creation stories show a similarity in the point of their origin. Rumor has it that some of these myths have emanated from actual historical occurrences or events. All creation myths emerge from one ancient source and only diverge when it comes to their timing and the surrounding cultural circumstances. The variations in the myths come as a result of the differences in time and cultural circumstances. Aside from the two causes of variation, in general all creation myths show a basic outline and they also share some basic elements. One of the major difficulties in gaining an understanding of the creation myths rests in the question of whether or not the ancients understoodShow MoreRelatedThe Creation Myths Of Enuma Elish And The Spider Woman1564 Words   |  7 Pagescalled â€Å"Creation Myths†. These stories explain how the world, mankind, animals, and plants came into existence. Every human culture produces unique, but similar explanations of how supernatural forces created the world and the human race. In fact, the two interesting myths of Enuma Elish and Spider woman, both display a narrative of creation. 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