God is the God of New Beginnings. We repent and ask God for forgiveness, and we start over from where we are using biblical principles to correct our way. This was the topic of the sermon we heard today.
Orrin, I have finished a year of reading the Bible from start to finish (again) and have started anew. It was tough during the month of December reading the words of the lesser prophets AND Revelations at the same time, but every year I look forward to starting over with Genesis and Matthew and seeing new beginnings.

I recently finished the Patrick Henry book you were reading earlier. It was interesting to me because I was Virginia born and bred, and I found the names of some of my family ancestors and cousins who played their part in the founding of USA. I called Dad on New Year's Eve to ask about them, and caught him thinking about Mom who had passed away on that day about 12 years ago. It was nice to get him thinking about something else, like the trip we are planning to Exuma this month.

We've been playing some of the CD's that came out from last January's major. I just wanted to say thanks for continuing to lead and set the example of doing the right thing during tough times.

2008 is a year of new beginnings. It's a year when we have the opportunity to take our Teammates to new and higher levels of leadership and achievement, and to develop our Leadership Service Provider into an even better World Class organization.

God Bless you, Laurie, Chris. Terri and all the leaders who have helped us to grow stronger and see the vision of the future ahead of us.
Granny

Orrin: We have been enjoying the Sunday posts on Proverbs. My husband and I have been implementin reading proverbs on a daily basis. His routine has become one where he reads the proverbs verse for today (Verse 6 for Jan 6) and then he'll read tomorrow's verse9 (V.8 for 1/8). He goes back and re-reads Verse 7 tomorrow on the 8th of Jan. and read Verse 8. He says he really like to reinforce the teaching of each Verse by repeating them like that

With today being the Epiphany celebration in our church, our priest spoke about how Christ was revealed to Paul thru revelation but He is revealed to us through His grace. He talked about how the three wise men traveled far to see Jesus and humbled themselves before Him to adore Him... and we should take time in our own life to humble ourselves and adore Christ - to think of the gift of HImself that he has given us. And, the best way to repay that Gift is to tell others about Christ. I liked that thought

IN reflecting, in church and in the TEAM business, we have to focus on the message and not the messenger. Your pastor may not be able to relate to each person on the same level, he/ she may be old or young, whatever, but it is the message that they share that is important. Do they make you reflect about the role of Jesus in your life? Do they give you information that makes you hungry to learn more, get better, to be a better Christian now after the Christmas season than we were at this time last year . That's what I've come to expect of me after attending church - will I remember the homily and the prayers and readings of the gospel that day - or do I just walk out the door at the end and think " there, that's done for the week". For me, church gives me at the minimum, that quiet hour to be with God and reflect on his role in my life- and what I can do to be a humble servant to Him.

I am enjoying the Sunday posts on Proverbs - as well as the other posts on the site. Thanks!

Ann

Orrin,
Despite having to work 12 hours tonight, I woke up this morning to take our dogs out, and took a few minutes to read your blog. I made the decision to eat breakfast and get ready for church. My wife got up and so did my 21 year old step daughter. They inquired as to what I was doing since they know I have to work tonight. I told them that I felt it was important to go to church and start off this next six nights of working in a negative atmosphere with some words of wisdom. My wife and daughter both chose to join me.
Imagine my surprise when the sermon topic today was "Good to Great!" Passages from the book were backed up with Biblical scripture focusing on Ecclesiastes. To sum it up, a man may have everything in this world but it is meaningless without God.
All three of us were impacted by this and discussed our thoughts in more detail during lunch afterward. It made me stop and give thanks for the leaders of the Team who have there priorities in order.
Thank you for your post today, and know that you are making a difference.
Ian from Texas

Thanks orrin for the post it was nice to hear from someone who is at your caliber of leadership to realize that in many instances the church has become a business rather than a place to preach and teach the truth. I like you respect priests and pastors who teach the truth of god's word on Sunday. As someone as already posted today was the Epiphany which is the reason that the 12 days of christmas was written cause today is the 12th day after christmas which is the epiphany and the scripture that we had in Church talked about the Magi coming to adore the Messiah. To think that the Messiah went from creating the heavens and the earth to being an infant through Mary humbles me every time I think of it. I also wanted to say that Dinesh d'souza ( my favorite author currently) has videos on youtube on his defense for christianity against the top atheists in the world , and man does it make me glad to be a christian !!!! Realizing that this post was long I wanted to finish it the same way I began ,thanks for speaking the TRUTH!!!

Orrin,

Great post on wisdom! I love the posts on proverbs! I wanted to share a website (free resource) with you and everyone else that has really helped me in my christian walk to gain wisdom on the bible and it's teachings. This website has over 200 different .mp3 christian leadership lessons that John Maxwell has done through his INJOY Life Club. It is a free resource and many of the lessons there have notes for each one of the lessons. If you wish to, you can even save the notes or print them off for future learning. For a learning and leadership community like this one, I know it will help add value to people's lives!!! http://www.gpn.tv/videos/collections.jsp?id=2 (you have to copy and paste it into your browser)

A few posts back I talked a little bit about wisdom. In fact your wife Laurie, helped me out tremendously with understanding the importance of wisdom. At one of the Leadership Conventions she made a statement that has really stood out to me about wisdom: "The lesson continues until the lesson is learned." That simple yet very profound statement has really helped me look at everything in my life very differently. There is an old cliche', maybe some of you are familiar with it, that says "experience is the best teacher." I don't agree with that at all. I don't believe "experience is the best teacher," I believe "evaulated experience is the best teacher." It does you no good to have experiences that you don't learn from. That "old cliche" assumes that the only thing needed to have experience is an age to associate with. That is to say, we live our lives in such a way that we aren’t really learning. We’re repeating. How many of know people in your own life that are getting older, but are not getting any better......? Your answer completely proves that cliche' to be false! That is exactly why I get irratated when someone says things like "you are so young, what type of experience could you possibly have?" As I stated before: Experience doesn't always come with age, sometimes age comes alone. John Foster Dulles, former Secretary of State said "The measure of success is not whether you have a tough problem to deal with, but whether it is the same problem you had last year."

Wisdom requires that we arrange what we observe and know, and create meaning from it, it also requires that we consider what we need to unlearn as well. American essayist Norman Cousins wrote, “Wisdom consists of the anticipation of consequences.” I have discovered in my leadership walk that wisdom is about the thinking through of thoughts, behaviors and actions and seeing their relationships. It is seeing how things are connected. Understanding how everything is connected is a daunting task, but it shouldn’t cause us to stop dead in our tracks full of indecision. We still have to function. Professors Pfeffer and Sutton suggest in their book "Hard Facts", that "we must travel through life with an attitude of wisdom. That attitude is described as the ability to act with knowledge while doubting what you know." "This attitude enables people to act on what they already know while at the same time doubting what they know. It means they can do things now, as well as keep learning along the way. It implies a certain degree of humility to make it work. You really have to be able to get out of your own way."

So how does one go about acquiring wisdom? It seems very simple but it does take a specific intent to get better! Wisdom is not something a person possesses by default. It's an attitude that possesses a person. Here are some simple steps to acquire wisdom:

1. Check your ego at the door - it is impossible to gain wisdom if you think you know it all. John Wooden said "it is what you learn after you know it all that counts." My advice to an egotist is this; Don't take yourself too seriously. In fact the entire world, with one minor exception, is comprised of other people. If the only person you see is yourself, in the big picture, you will never see the entire picture!

2. Develop a learning appetite - knowing is the opposite of learning. Being able to think creatively is the joy of not knowing it all. Learning is a constant prerequisite to leading. If you aren't a hungry learner how can you ever gain wisdom? The answer is; you can't! No matter who you come in contact with, regardless of their position in society, they have the ability to teach you something. Some people might teach you things you have always hoped to have learned, while others teach you things that makes you never want to think like them:) Eitherway it is a learning experience! The secret to a healthy learning appetite is to develop the ability to ask great questions.

3. Put your knowledge into action - In order to pull wisdom out of all that you have learned, you need to put it into action. You have to be willing to step out of the "knowledge comfort zone" and get into the "application zone!" Why? Because it helps you stay relevant and relatable. When your learning is tested you will then know what areas you need to get better in. There is an old chinese proverb that states "knowledge without wisdom is like a load of books on the back of an ass."

4. Check and Adjust your thinking - In fact just follow the PDCA cycle. You have to experience some "real world experiences" before you can extract wisdom. Once you begin acquiring wisdom in the areas you are taking on, than you can check and adjust what you are thinking and learning. At this point your are experiencing "evaluated experiences."

Thanks Orrin!

Best,
Matt

Why do people feel that the Bible is complete? I do know that the Bible is the revealed word of God to Jews and Gentiles. But Look at this list of lost or misplaced books. It leaves little wonder that many books written by Holy Prophets has been excluded or lost for various reasons.

"The so-called lost books of the Bible are those documents that are mentioned in the Bible in such a way that it is evident they are considered authentic and valuable, but that are not found in the Bible today. Sometimes called missing scripture, they consist of at least the following: book of the Wars of the Lord (Num. 21: 14); book of Jasher (Josh. 10: 13; 2 Sam. 1: 18); book of the acts of Solomon (1 Kgs. 11: 41); book of Samuel the seer (1 Chr. 29: 29); book of Gad the seer (1 Chr. 29: 29); book of Nathan the prophet (1 Chr. 29: 29; 2 Chr. 9: 29); prophecy of Ahijah (2 Chr. 9: 29); visions of Iddo the seer (2 Chr. 9: 29; 2 Chr. 12: 15; 2 Chr. 13: 22); book of Shemaiah (2 Chr. 12: 15); book of Jehu (2 Chr. 20: 34); sayings of the seers (2 Chr. 33: 19); an epistle of Paul to the Corinthians, earlier than our present 1 Corinthians (1 Cor. 5: 9); possibly an earlier epistle to the Ephesians (Eph. 3: 3); an epistle to the Church at Laodicea (Col. 4: 16); and some prophecies of Enoch, known to Jude (Jude 1: 14). To these rather clear references to inspired writings other than our current Bible may be added another list that has allusions to writings that may or may not be contained within our present text, but may perhaps be known by a different title; for example, the book of the covenant (Ex. 24: 7), which may or may not be included in the current book of Exodus; the manner of the kingdom, written by Samuel (1 Sam. 10: 25); the rest of the acts of Uzziah written by Isaiah (2 Chr. 26: 22).
The foregoing items attest to the fact that our present Bible does not contain all of the word of the Lord that he gave to his people in former times, and remind us that the Bible, in its present form, is rather incomplete. "

And the other question I have is why do people try to understand the Bible by retranslating it, instead of going to the source, Holy Ghost to understand it's teaches. In 2 Tim. 3: 16
"16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:" If scripture is given by inspiration, the only way to understand what it is teaching is through the inspiration of God.

Jake