Thursday, February 24, 2011
Too Busy
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
300 Culture Shifters
Saturday, January 01, 2011
Don't Give Up, Keep Growing!
- Henry Ford, who invested the automobile, went broke five times before he succeeded in business.
- The great dancer and movie star Fred Astaire took a screen test at MGM studios in 1933. A studio memo reported he was slightly bald, could not act, and could dance a little.
- The family of Louisa May Alcott, the great author who wrote the popular book 'Little Women', thought she shold abandon the idea of being a writer and become a seamstress instead.
- A newspaper fired Walt Disney for lack of ideas, and he went bankrupt several times before building Disneyland.
- Enrico Caruso's parents believed a voice teacher who said he hand no future in music - he simply could not sing at all. He did not believe the teacher and became one of the most famous opera singers in the world.
- Theodore Roosevelt suffered the deaths of both his mother and his wife on the same day in 1884 before he became a war hero and a very effective president of the United States.
- John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, was often asked to not return to churches after preaching in them once. When he preached on the streets, townspeople kicked him out. When he preached in a meadow, people turned a bull loose on him. But later, because he refused to give up, he preached in a pasture and ten thousand people came to hear him.
Friday, December 03, 2010
Waiting for God
Monday, September 13, 2010
The Power of a Whisper: Samuels' Ear
My mother lost custody of three of her children before she met my father. Because of her age, my mother never expected to have any more children. So when my mother would called me her "little Samuel" I thought it was because I was an answer to prayer. I was a child she so wanted but didn't expect. I was God's consolation prize for to make up for the children she had lost in an ugly legal battle. This put an incredible burden on me as a child and teen to never let her down, but that is for another blog entry.
I now know that the reason my mom called me her "little Samuel" was not because I was an answer to prayer but because like Hannah my mom had dedicated me to the Lord and like Samuel as a young child I heard from the Lord. At a very early age I learned not only hear the voice of God but more importantly to respond. As I grew as into an adult, God's voice has seemed more distance, harder to discern. I remember recently telling my wife as we were trying to make tough decisions regarding our careers and our finance, that I felt I had all together lost the ability to hear God's voice. I no longer knew what it sounded like.
We arrived in Florida on Saturday to temporarily live with my in-laws since we rented our home in Westchester as my wife and I both seek career direction. I was pretty tired from our trip but I felt like I should go online and see if I could find a church we could attend the following morning. This didn't make sense, we hadn't yet unpacked our bags, besides, it wouldn't be as good as my church C3M in New York, yet despite these excuses I went online and found a church called the Bridge in Bradenton. The next day we got up early and made the long trek the chuch, where the pastor starting a lecture series based on a book he was reading, "The Power of a Whisper" by Bill Hybels. The message he gave was a simple , not anyway near the intellectual somersaults I was use to, but it was exactly the message I needed to hear. I realized, God hadn't stopped speaking to me, I forgot how to hear His voice and I would have to get back on a mission to having Samuel's ear to hear God's voice and obey it. In that simple but elegant message I realized God had been in fact whispering to me all along, and it started with the whisper to go online and find a church even though it would have been reasonable for me to take a Sunday off after 22 hours behind the wheel.
In the book, "The Power of a Whisper" Bill Hybels says, "Do you think anyone is orchestrating those ideas that float through your mind? I mean, do you think your thoughts are just random, or is it possible that God is trying to communicate to you in some way?" As I read this book, I find myself on a mission to have Samuel's ear and hear God's voice by slowing down, blocking out all the extra noise and distractions of this world and listen to His whispers.
Friday, September 10, 2010
Preserving Your Spirit
Wednesday, June 02, 2010
Prayer at the Stock Exchange
In the meeting I felt the presence of God as thick as if I was stepping into a pool of water. I have become accustomed to feeling the presence of God when I’m with Anthony (Tony as he is known at the exchange) but I felt it particularly strong this morning. This morning I was reminded of the two other times I written on my blog. Both were times when people at Wall Street were praying and this ushered in a move of God
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Warren Buffet's 10 maxims to live by
- Hard work: leads to profit, talk just leads to poverty
- Laziness: a sleeping lobster is carried away by the current
- Earnings: never depend upon a single source of income
- Spending: if you buy things you don’t need you will soon sell things you do need
- Savings: don’t save what is left after spending, spend what is left after savings
- Borrowing: the borrower becomes the lender’s slave
- Accounting, no use carrying an umbrella if your shoes have a leak
- Auditing: beware of little expenses a small leak can sink a large ship
- Risk Taking: never test the depth of a river with both feet
- Investment: don’t put all your eggs in one basket
Monday, September 28, 2009
Overcoming the Challenges and finding Joy in the Workplace
Please join us Thursday October 1st at the Lauren Parson Pratt conference center 281 Park Ave South (@22nd Ave) at 7pm
Wednesday, September 02, 2009
Value of Relationships
Join us Thursday September 10th at the Lauren Parson Pratt Conference center 281 Park Ave South (@ 22nd Ave) Time: 7-9pm