Stuff That Matters in Life

Katy’s Weblog

For some reason, every dream I have about going to the bathroom is a bad dream. I’ve had dreams of bathrooms that are filthy, flooded, with weird shaped toilets, with too many people around, with no doors, with doors that do not lock, with multiple doors that pop open, in a creepy basement, in an old shack on a cliff, in a maze that I can’t find…

Last night, my nightmare bathroom was full of spiders! I was sitting on the toilet fighting off spiders in my hair and crawling up my leg! And I’m allergic to spiders, I said in my dream. (I’m not in real life. I just don’t like them!)

In the meantime, my senior pastor is waiting for me outside in the car to take a group of us to the market. After my ordeal in the bathroom, I went to his Hummer with an open top, apologizing for taking so long, and he was perfectly patient and smiled as he usually does in real life.

I don’t look forward to the next bathroom nightmare.

While conversion to Islam is a concern to many Christians, implicit in the study is that birth rate also will play a part in Islam’s accelerated growth. According to Pew Research, Muslims have the highest fertility rate globally – an average of 3.1 children per woman; Christians are second, at 2.7 children per woman. The “replacement” level – the minimum typically needed to maintain a stable population – is 2.1 children per woman. – from OneNewsNow

Read more of “Birth rate”

Pastor A asked if I would like to read Drucker and Me.  Being that my husband and I are in business, he thought I would like the book. Peter Drucker, known as the guru of management, was required reading in any management class of my generation. I don’t know about now, but his principles and insights still holds true today.

Pastor A gave me one week to read the book. It’s a good thing he did or it would take me months as I like to read several books at one time.

The book, written by Bob Buford who was mentored by Drucker, gave me insights about the mega churches that I didn’t know. Leadership Network is a product of Drucker’s advice to Buford.

While Drucker had a big influence on the growth of mega churches, I didn’t get the sense that he loved the church. I think he loved the idea of what an effective church can do for society, which is not a bad thing. He taught Buford that a well managed church is making the church to be better at what it’s meant to be, not to make it function like a business.

Overall, I liked the book and learned from it. As with all books, I don’t remember much details of what I read. But then, I don’t remember what I ate for dinner last Friday, but I know it nourished and changed me.

From Jesus Calling by Sarah Young:

“Walk by faith, not by sight…When I gave you My Spirit, I empowered you to live beyond your natural ability and strength. That’s why it is so wrong to measure your energy level against the challenges ahead of you. The issue is not your strength but Mine, which is limitless. By walking close to Me, you can accomplish My purposes in My strength.” – March 11

I love reading missionary biographies such as Gladys Aylward and Hudson Taylor. They accomplished incredible things for God and I wondered, how did they have the physical strength? How did Gladys Aylward walk many days without food and caring for over 100 children? How did Hudson Taylor suffer through the poor conditions of the China interiors? How do many of our present day missionaries find the courage to do those difficult things for God?

I should not measure my abilities with the challenges ahead. I have God’s strength which is limitless.

I’m reading/listening to this. Here are some ideas that stood out to me:

“What is leadership itself? What does it mean to lead people?” Here is a simple definition, that leadership at its heart involves change. It involves movement. Leadership is movement. The leaders help people to move from where they are to a better place in the purposes of God.

Read more of “Leadership”

I was talking to my pastor today and we are both people with ideas!

If we have unlimited resources in money and manpower, it would be our Disneyland! It would be so fun to do everything that we envision our church can do.

We want our church to have impact, not numbers, a church that builds bridges to the community, not walls, a church that partners with other churches and ministries, not duplicating or competing with other Christians.

All this is up to God to lead and open doors.

And I am excited to see what God will do this year.

Job, in all his suffering, never denied God. Yet, something was missing. It wasn’t enough just to persevere in our believe in God.

In his book on prayer, Tim Keller says,

Throughout most of the great Old Testament book that bears his name, Job cries out to God in agonized prayer. For all his complaints, Job never walks away from God or denies his existence – he processes all his pain and suffering through prayer. Yet he cannot except the life God is calling him to live. Then the skies cloud over and God speaks to Job “out of the whirlwind” (Job 38:1). The Lord recounts in vivid detail his creation and sustenance of the universe and of the natural world. Job is astonished and humbled by this deeper vision of God (Job 40:3–5) and has a breakthrough. He finally prays a mighty prayer of repentance and adoration (Job 42:1–6).

Through prayer we not only accept God’s will for us, but to acknowledge His place as God in our lives.