Notes I have carried on my PDA or in my Franklin planner for years: Training program in godliness

I Tim 4:7
1. What are the important issues pertaining to a right relationship with God? (purity in life and thought, faithfulness in studying Word, disciplined prayer life, life filled w/Godly relationships, devotion to Christian service, faithfulness in witnessing, consistent memorization of Scripture, time spent actively discipling, recognize areas of failure in sin)
2. What are the areas where you are not making spiritual progress?
3. Create a list of things you want to work on during the next month.
4. Solicit accountability from those closest to you.
5. Pace yourself.
6. Failure is only failure if its the last word for you.

Notes I have carried on my PDA or in my Franklin planner for years: The horizon problem

2 The horizon problem

OUR universe appears to be unfathomably uniform. Look across space from one edge of the visible universe to the other, and you'll see that the microwave background radiation filling the cosmos is at the same temperature everywhere. That may not seem surprising until you consider that the two edges are nearly 28 billion light years apart and our universe is only 14 billion years old.

Nothing can travel faster than the speed of light, so there is no way heat radiation could have traveled between the two horizons to even out the hot and cold spots created in the big bang and leave the thermal equilibrium we see now.

This "horizon problem" is a big headache for cosmologists, so big that they have come up with some pretty wild solutions. "Inflation", for example.

You can solve the horizon problem by having the universe expand ultra-fast for a time, just after the big bang, blowing up by a factor of 1050 in 10-33 seconds. But is that just wishful thinking? "Inflation would be an explanation if it occurred," says University of Cambridge astronomer Martin Rees. The trouble is that no one knows what could have made that happen.

So, in effect, inflation solves one mystery only to invoke another. A variation in the speed of light could also solve the horizon problem - but this too is impotent in the face of the question "why?" In scientific terms, the uniform temperature of the background radiation remains an anomaly.

Notes I have carried on my PDA or in my Franklin planner for years: Why God Never Got Tenure at any University?

Just some silliness.
Question for Academics to Ponder: Why God Never Got Tenure at any University? A bit of humor.

1. He had only one major publication
2. It was in Hebrew.
3. It had no references
4. It wasn't published in a refereed journal
5. Some doubt He wrote it Himself
6. He may have created the world, but what has He done since?
7. The scientific community cannot replicate his results
8. He never got permission from the ethics board to use human subjects
9. When one experiment went awry, He tried to cover it up by drowning the subjects
10. He rarely came to class and just told students, "Read the book"
11. Some say He had His son teach the class
12. He expelled His first two students
13. His office hours were irregular and sometimes held on a mountaintop
14. Although there were only 10 requirements, most students failed.

(Quoted from an Ann Landers column)
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Notes I have carried on my PDA or in my Franklin planner for years: Strategy for Making Disciples

1. Developing redemptive relationships
a. Proclamational—street preaching
b. Confrontational—door to door
c. Relational—friends and neighbors
2. Giving a clear verbal witness
3. Introducing friends to our church

Strategy for maturing disciples

1. Being a Word-centered fellowship
2. Providing accountability in the context of loving relationships
3. Training believers in Biblical Stewardship

Notes I have carried on my PDA or in my Franklin planner for years: SMART goals

Specific
Measureable
Action-oriented
Relevant
Timely

Notes I have carried on my PDA or in my Franklin planner for years: Quotable quotes

You cannot talk yourself out of situations your behavior has gotten yourself into.

What is the probability of "NOT God" AND "you"?

All news is old news to new people.

Info Rudyard Kipling quote
found in “The Haunted Bookstore:”
" Very rarely will he squarely push the logic of a fact
" To its ultimate conclusion in unmitigated act.

YY UR “too wise you are”
YY UB
ICUR
YY 4ME

We're building up or tearing down in everything we do;
Are we in the construction gang or on the wrecking crew?
--Anon.

Stradivarius--Excellence
"Other men shall make violins, but no man shall make better ones."

Some men die in battle,
Some men die in flames;
Some men die, bit by bit-
Playing little games.

"If I use my gift I might die."
"If I don't use my gift I might as well die."

Little faith will bring your soul to heaven, great faith will bring heaven to your soul. Spurgeon

Gal. 2:20 The longer you study it, the more you appreciate it.

God will hold you responsible for the sermons you missed.

Silence is golden, except in witnessing, and then it's just yellow.

Your labors for God will not count for God unless you have a heart for God.

When Godly influence wanes, personal convictions must take over.  Godly influence must be fortified with personal convictions. (OT example: Joash)

John Goetch: Jesus may come between cookies.

Every temptation is an opportunity to flee to God.

Experience does not teach truth, but it helps us learn to apply it.

When your love is greater than your fear, then you'll open your mouth to speak. II Tim 1:7

The way to be anxious for nothing is to pray about everything.

Rudyard Kipling quote
found in The Haunted Bookstore:
" Very rarely will he squarely push the logic of a fact
" To its ultimate conclusion in unmitigated act."


____________________
Modified on 5/20/07 11:24:36 am

Notes I have carried on my PDA or in my Franklin planner for years: Personal efficiency program

1. Do it once, not again and again
2. Clear your mind
3. Solve problems while they're still small
4. Reduce interruptions
5. Clear up backlogs
6. Start operating toward the future instead of in response to the past
7. Stop worrying
8. Get it done & celebrate victories

Notes I have carried on my PDA or in my Franklin planner for years: How to treat a missionary

(Pastor Ron Allen)

1. Involvement begins with the Pastor
2. Spreads to the people
3. Missions is not just another program
4. Visit the field if possible
5. Pray specifically
6. Keep track of them by email
7. Write to them
8. Send support faithfully
9. Help with special needs if possible
10. Make them heroes
11. Have a missionary closet with things
12. Gold watches for 25 years of service

Missionaries how to treat a pastor

1. Don’t act like you know more than the Pastor does
2. Courtesy
3. Be humble
4. Be frank without being overbearing
5. Be as brief as possible
6. Never try to convince him to support you if he tells you he’s not interested
7. Respect the office of the pastor
8. Be friendly when visiting a church
9. Be on time (Pastor don’t forget the missionary is coming)
10. Be prepared
11. Have a clean car
12. Children look good
13. Don’t scold the people

Notes I have carried on my PDA or in my Franklin planner for years: Making the Sale--Roy Bettger

• Act enthusiastic, you will become enthusiastic.
• Selling boils down to seeing/meeting people
• Face your fears of public speaking
• Get organized/take time to plan
• Find out what the other person wants, talk in terms of his wants, needs, desires, then show him how you can help him attain them
• make appointments
• be prepared
• identify the key issue
• make notes of key points to cover
• ask questions
• explode dynamite
• arouse fear
• create confidence
• express honest appreciation for your listener's ability
• assume a close
• try to figure out the real reason for saying no
• ask "why"
• say "in addition to that..."
• put the word YOU in the interview
• don't make assertions, ask questions
• remember the lost art of listening
• earn and deserve confidence
• know your business
• keep on knowing your business
• praise your competitors
• bring on your witnesses
• look your best
• be a friend; encourage people
• smile!
• remember names by remembering IRA: impression, repetition, association
• get to the point, don't obscure it with details (the creation story was told in 442 words)
• when scared, admit it
• make appointments (sell the appointment)
• practice your sales pitch, live it, breathe it, and love it
• A demonstration is worth a thousand words
•don't forget a customer, don't let a customer forget you (when you sell 'em, don't forget 'em)
•new customers are the best source of new customers
•follow up new leads immediately
•report back on the results of leads
•appeal for action
•save closing points for the close
•summarize the main points
•welcome objections
•ask the prospect to write his name here
•courage is the conquest of fear

Ben Franklin's Thirteen adapted for salesman
•enthusiasm
•order: self-organization
•think in terms of others' interests
•questions
•key issue
•silence: listen
•sincerity: deserve confidence
•knowledge of my business
•appreciation and praise
•smile: happiness
•remember names and faces
•service and prospecting
•closing the sale: action

Notes I have carried on my PDA or in my Franklin planner for years: Living with a full heart

The Harvard study found these four attributes vital to successful aging:

1. Orientation toward the future. The ability to anticipate, to plan, and to hope.
2. Gratitude, forgiveness, and optimism. We need to see the glass as half-full, not half-empty.
3. Empathy. The ability to imagine the world as it seems to the other person.
4. The ability to reach out. “We should want to do things with people, not to people or ruminate about what they do things to us,” says Dr. George E. Valiant. In other words, we need to “leave the screen door unlatched.”

Seven Keys to Aging Well
1. Not smoking, or quitting early.
2. The ability to take life’s ups and downs in stride, keep your sense of humor, give something of yourself to others, make friends who are younger than you, learn new things and have fun.
3. Absence of alcohol abuse.
4. Healthy weight.
5. A solid marriage. Happy-Well people were six times more likely to be in good marriages than were the Sad-Sick.
6. Physical activity.
7. Years of education.

People who had four or more of these seven factors at age 50 were one-third less likely to be dead by 80. People who had three or fewer of these factors at 50, even though they were in good physical shape, were three times as likely to die during the following 30 years.
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Info Inter-City Baptist Ministries CORE VALUES:

The mission of Inter-City Baptist Church is glorifying God (the aim) by making and maturing disciples (the action) who are growing in Christlikeness (the attribute).

Challenge--we view obstacles as doors of opportunity

Objectives--we evaluate our progress by smart goals

Relationships--we value those to whom and with whom we minister; we know who exists for whom

Equipping--we empower people for maximum performance

Vision--we see and strive toward a better future

Accountability--we believe in accountability that demands integrity

Leadership--we strive to translate intention into reality

Uniqueness--we seek through change and creativity to be distinctive

Excellence--we seek to glorify God by aiming for excellence; commitment to excellence demands a death to mediocrity; excellence is not a reachable goal

Service--we give ourselves for the benefit of others and the work of God

...that we should be to the praise of His glory... Eph 1:12

Change: a never-ending series of innovations; try out a new idea once a month

Info Goals

"Successful people spend at least fifteen minutes every day thinking about what they are doing and can do to improve their lives." Sigmund 1999
[The 100 Simple Secrets of Suc]

Info Franklin Tapes Notes Info Franklin Tapes Notes

1. A goal is a planned-for event
2. When a goal is valued it becomes a priority
3. When goals are valued together prioritizing is taking place
4. Prioritizing is the process of determining the precedence of events
5. What are the highest priorities in my life? Of these priorities, which do I value the most?

Pyramid:

Top: Daily Task List (Productivity Point)
Middle: Intermediate goals (break down into tasks that eventually appear on a daily task list)
Middle: Long-range goals (1: we tend to move to our comfort zone 2: to reach a goal, we must leave our comfort zone)
Foundation: Values (1: identify governing values 2: prioritize the values 3: write a clarifying statement for each—what would I cross the I-beam for?)

Mechanics:

1. Use only one calendar
2. Place detail in your planner
3. Commit to planning every day
4. Use parentheses to point you anywhere
5. Use monthly index
6. Use master-task list

Your day-planner is the physical manifestation of your time-line

Successful managers of time are willing to do what the unsuccessful manager of time is not willing to do.
Character is the ability to carry out a worthy decision after the emotion of making that decision has passed.

Vision--Plan--Performance--Evaluation

Stop thinking “time management”. Start thinking “event control”.
 

Info Daily Bread 12/21/05 White Space

For nearly 50 years, Ann Landers dispensed advice in a daily column carried by more than 1,200 newspapers worldwide. When she died on June 22, 2002, her daughter Margo Howard wrote a farewell column. She asked the editors to leave a blank space for the last part of the column as a memorial to her Mom.

The idea came from a column written years earlier when Ann and her husband divorced after a long marriage. Ann had requested the editors to leave white space at the bottom as a memorial to a once-good marriage “that didn’t make it to the finish line.”

When somebody writes your last column, how much “blank space” will it include? When you come to life’s end, will there be important things left undone? Will that white space bear silent testimony to goals you never reached, good habits (like consistent Bible reading) you never formed, help you never gave, kind things you thought about doing but never did? Will a sizeable empty space say that you intended to develop a deeper relationship with God, but that a close intimacy remained an unfulfilled ideal? Or will others be able to say of you that you “finished the race, [and] kept the faith”? (2 Timothy 4:7)

Let’s make sure our white space is small!

--Vernon Grounds

Only the truth that in life we have spoken,
Only the seed that on earth we have sown;
These shall pass onward when we are forgotten,
Fruits of the harvest and what we have done.

--Bonar

To get the most out of life, make every moment count for Christ.

Info Carl Yaztrzemski

“I think about baseball when I wake up in the morning. I think about it all day and I dream about it at night. The only time I don’t think about it is when I’m playing it.” Carl Yastrzemski

Info Ben Franklin's 13 virtues

•Temperance--eat not to dullness, drink not to elevation
•Silence--speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation
•Order: let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time
•Resolution: resolve to perform what you ought, perform without fail what you resolve
•Frugality: make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; that is, waste nothing
•Industry: lose no time; be always employed in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions
•Sincerity: use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly; speak accordingly
•Justice: wrong none by doing injuries; or by omitting the benefits which are your duty
•Moderation: avoid extremes; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think you deserve
•Cleanliness: tolerate no uncleanness in body, clothes, or habitation
•Tranquility: be not disturbed at trifles or at accidents common or unavoidable
•Chastity: rarely use venery but for health or offspring, never to dullness, weakness, or injury of your own or another's peace or reputation
•Humility: imitate Jesus and Socrates

Info Be More Commanding

From Reader’s Digest plus additions by me

Distracting/annoying
 behaviors:
•Touching your hair
•Licking your lips
•Playing with rubber bands or paper clips
•Stroking/twirling your mustache
•Drumming your fingers, shaking legs
•Clicking pens
•Biting fingernails
•Using jackknife to clipping, manicure, clean your fingernails
•Scratching head, picking zit
•Jingling keys
•Tapping your feet
•Picking your teeth
•Repeatedly adjusting your glasses

Info 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

1. Be Proactive
2. Begin with the end in mind
3. Put first things first
4. Think win-win
5. Seek first to understand, then to be understood
6. Synergize--creative cooperation and teamwork
7. Sharpen the saw--self renewal