Delegating Authority

Delegating Authority

Barbara Henderson

An effective leader is able to delegate authority.  He/she puts a competent person in charge of part of a project or an entire project; steps back; and lets that person do his/her job without interference.  If authority was delegated to a competent person then things go well.  If the person is incompetent, the project does not run smoothly.

No matter what our personal position in work, family, and friends, we all have some level of authority over those under us and some level of accountability to those above us.  We have to learn to obey authority without complaining or attempting to force our will on our boss!  I know that sounds ridiculous, but that is often the case.  Rebellious employees don’t want to do their job.  They don’t want to follow instructions.  They push every limit of authority and boundaries because they really want to usurp authority.  They want to dispose the boss and take over.  They really are unprofitable employees.  Everyone actually must learn to delegate authority.  There is nothing more frustrating than being given a job and having someone constantly looking over your shoulder and making changes for the sake of changes.  Christians also need to remember they are to do a good job whether their supervisor is watching or not because God is watching.

Every Christian has an ultimate authority figure – which is Jesus Christ.  He is the supervisor, financier, and owner of everything and everyone.  He is utterly and continually righteous, trustworthy, and able to do exceeding abundant above all that we think or ask.  This is wonderful news.  The down side is that very often God has rebellious workers.  They don’t want to do the job they have been given.  They worry about how well He is going to manage the project of their personal lives and the entire earth.  God has the authority and power to do what He wants to do and what He knows needs to be done.  That is the good news.  The bad news is that the earth is filled with little usurpers.  They want to run the project however seems good to them.  Christians need to sit down and consider what is going on in their lives.  God is able. God is willing.  God actually has the authority and power to do a good job.  Before an individual Christian can be effective in whatever job or task they are given, they must first acknowledge God’s authority and ability.  We have to delegate the authority to run the show back to God.  It is called surrender.  Ultimately God has that authority anyway, but if we are not working in harmony with our Heavenly Father, then things are not going to go smoothly.  Christians don’t want to be the rebellious employee constantly challenging the Savior/Supervisor. 

A wonderful thing about delegating the authority to run your life, your family, your job, and your country to God is that He knows what He is doing.  He doesn’t make mistakes.  His love is unfailing.  When we have authority to make decisions there is often an element of anxiety regarding the outcome, the path chosen, the amount spent, the people involved, and many other things.  We can only do the best we can do with the information and abilities that we have.  No matter how well prepared we are for the situation at hand, we cannot guarantee the outcome of any given situation wither it is something minor or major.  But, if we have put the outcome in God’s hands we can be confident that He is working things out for good.  As Christians we should be action oriented instead of outcome oriented.   Doing the best we can do is all we can do. The outcome is in God’s hands.  Delegating authority to Him in the first place makes life much simpler. 

God, like good earthly supervisors, delegates authority to His children as they progress in dependability.  Some have authority over only themselves.  They have to learn to keep their own bodies in obedience to God’s commandments and instructions.  Others have a little authority over others part of the time.  Parents have authority over children.  Supervisors have authority over a few people.  CEO’s have authority over an entire company.  But even they are subject to God’s authority.  The problem arises when someone is not satisfied with the level of authority they actually have. 

I do want to point out something very important at this point.  If you cannot be content with the job(s) and level of authority that you currently have, you will not be content when you get a better job that you want.  More authority will also not satisfy you.  There was one being created just lower than God.  He wasn’t content.  He rebelled.  His name was Lucifer – Son of the Morning.  He led the most famous rebellion in history – the cosmic rebellion against the Most High God.  He is the example of the being who had everything possible in all of creation and still was not content.   So, if you cannot be content with where you are then you will not be content even though you get promoted to Lucifer’s former position.  And you can’t be content where you are until you delegate authority to plan your future on God’s timeline.  It’s called surrender.  It’s like the old song ‘I Surrender All – All to Thee my Blessed Savior – I surrender all.’

Delegating full authority over your life to God is not the same thing as giving up and living hopelessly somewhere in a time, place, and economic or social level that is not pleasant.  It is not to make light of difficulties or even tragic events you are facing.  It is about finding the joy of the moment.  I know some situations are so dire that we can’t really comprehend finding any joy in the moment.  The Bible example of Paul and Silas singing praises to God after being beaten and locked up in a dungeon is something to contemplate when facing difficulties.  All you can say is God helped them, and He will help you.  The poor men could have thrown a great pity party and griped at God about their circumstances until they died in prison.  I know they must have made a conscience decision to let God take care of them however He saw fit.  They possibly were thinking, ‘Well – God will either deliver us physically and we can go on to preach another day – OR – they will kill us and all our earthly cares will be over for ever.’  I don’t know what they were thinking.  But, we do know what they did.  They acknowledged God’s sovereignty over the situation.  The mentally gave God authority to work it out however He willed. 

Success factors for Christians include:

Surrender of authority over one’s life to God

Self-disciplining one’s own thoughts and body to live in obedience to God’s instructions

Diligent care to do a good job in every level of authority

To not usurp authority belonging to another (even the boss from you know where).

For more articles by Barbara Henderson visit Barbara’s blog ‘Everyday Christianity with Barbara Henderson.  http://tobarbara.blogspot.com 

Books by Barbara Henderson available on Kindle

My favorite book to write was 'Oh Worship the King' - a story of a manuscript found in modern day Iraq written by eye witnesses to the life of Jesus Christ.  
 http://www.amazon.com/Oh-Worship-King-Barbara-Henderson-ebook/dp/B007XW36UO/ref=la_B007YWIYFU_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1389809545&sr=1-1

'Everyday Prepping for Beginners' is a non fiction book that was also fun to write.  It is written from a Christian world view - which offended some anti-Christians who left some very negative reviews regarding the Christian content of the first few chapters - which deal with self-definition, self-discipline, and self-reliance from a Christian view point.  The rest of the books is just simple preparedness help.  If you read the book I would really appreciate a kind review.    Thank you.  

Barbara

http://www.amazon.com/Everyday-Prepping-Beginners-Barbara-Henderson-ebook/dp/B00A4LJMK4/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1389809975&sr=1-2

Your Public Image Versus Your Private Life

Public Image versus Private Life

Barbara Henderson

In all of time and eternity there is One utterly and continually perfect being. That is of course Jesus Christ - the son of God. In Jesus - the Man and the image of the man were exactly the same person. It is always right to follow the example of Jesus. He merits hero worship. He is a hero.

For every other hero recorded throughout history, there is a less than perfect side. Some hero's have a better record than others for things done outside the limelight. A few were truly close to being the person the public perceived them to be. An example of a man who was good by human standards was George Washington. No matter how hard the skeptics may dig through history, they don't seem to be able to find any dirt on him.

That's good. Someone known as the father of any country should have a squeaky clean image. But, usually the hero's life shows some character flaws that should not be copied. The Bible is full of hero's and heroines, but in almost every case, some misconduct is included in their biographies.

Abraham - patriarch of the Jews - had a son outside of his marriage. Moses - leader of the people and writer of the first 5 books of the Old Testament - had a terrible temper. King David - a man after God's own heart - committed adultery and then murder in an attempt to hide his sin. I think God recorded these things to help us remember that those in authority or public position are still just human beings born with the sin nature like everyone else. They are going to mess up sometimes. It also shows that God forgives every repentant sinner - no matter what their station in life may be.

Today, like never before, celebrities of all sorts are thought of as more than mortal. The lives of these celebrities are very public. It seems the details of their private lives are forced on all the public, whether the public is interested or not. You cannot get through a check out line in the grocery store without being bombarded with magazines and tabloids that reveal the details of celebrities' lives. Headlines are 45% celebrity headlines' 45% weight loss plans; and the remaining 10% covers the rest of what is going on in the world. When Princess Diana died, her death was mourned globally as though she were the sister of everyone alive. Of course I was sympathetic. But I never met the woman. I was very sorry for her family and the people who knew her. At that time, my sister had just died; so I knew first hand what her loved ones and friends were going through. But what I saw around me was NOT NORMAL. How could people who never met her grieve as though they had just lost a beloved family member? I believe it was at least in part because she projected the image of being everything to everyone. She was everywhere you looked smiling from some magazine cover. She was what ever your fantasy might be. Some people may have pretended they were actually the princess. Others may have seen themselves as her good friend. To others she was the ideal woman - or what every man wants in a woman. She was anything their minds wanted her to be.

In real life she was just a mortal human being. She went through a terrible marriage. According to some reports, she suffered from personality disorders. Amidst all the glamour and publicity, there were some very sad aspects to her life. But her image was that of perfection and one living in constant delight. Maybe the public just saw what they wanted to see. Perhaps they were delusional. People are created with a heart that wants to worship the perfect God of creation. He alone is worthy of honor and worship. People who reject God will eventually find someone or something else to adore and worship.

2 Thessalonians 2:10-12 says:

10. And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.

11. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:

12. That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

Celebrity obsession has created a delusional public. They love the image of a man or woman as though that is the real person. They have no concept that the IMAGE of a celebrity is NOT the real person. An example is John Wayne. His image was that of the great American hero. He was larger than life. In truth, he was never in the military at all. He had a legal exemption during WWII because of his family. Celebrity obsession may be so appealing to fallen man because it requires nothing of them except blind loyalty. No sins must be confessed, and no changes to the inner person are required.

There is a great danger for those involved in hero worship. They are filling a need to worship God by giving undeserved attention and devotion to a mortal. They have rejected God, His truth, and His righteousness. Their souls are in danger of eternal separation from God in a place called Hell.

Revelation has numerous passages referring to the image of the beast. It is puzzling to understand exactly what the image of the beast may be. The book of Daniel offers some help. First - the great king Nebuchadnezzar had a dream in which he saw an image of a man. This dream foretold of four kingdoms that would exist. His kingdom was the first. Median/Persian was next. Greek was third. And Roman was fourth. The king saw each as part of a human figure made of gold, silver, bronze, iron, and then iron mixed with clay. He saw these kingdoms as great achievements of man.

But then Daniel also had a dream. He saw the four kingdoms represented by wild animals - beasts. Daniel saw the kingdoms more as they really were - earthly kingdoms in a world in rebellion against God.

This leads me to believe that it may be possible that the image of the beast spoken of in Revelation is the inward man. His image will not be that of the evil one he actually is. His image will be that of a good man; and a leader who is able to get things done. His image will be the image of the ideal leader that people have longed for throughout history. In truth, inside and outside, the beast will be the poster boy for the sin nature that came to mankind when Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit.

All through history there have been giants of evil whose outward appearance seemed benevolent or good in the beginning. But inwardly, they were servants of the devil. They were beasts.

An example of just such a man from recent history is Adolf Hitler. In the beginning to the people of Germany, his evil nature was not apparent. It seems that they saw not the real man, but an image or perception of what they believed a savior would be. This could not have happened except that first they had rejected the truth - and God then allowed a delusion to come to them. They believed a lie.

Eventually, the beast of Revelation will come on the scene. His actual name is not known. It is just prophesied that he will come, and he will be terrible. His personal image will not show the true character of his evil nature. His image will draw people to him like a magnet. Inwardly, he will be a beast.

To avoid worshiping him will be very difficult for those who come under his authority. People will WANT to worship him anyway. His image or personal charisma will be so appealing and strong that people will just want to follow him. They will want to believe him. They will have already rejected God. Having rejected the truth, they will be ready to believe a lie.

Something will happen to wake up some of the people living at that time. The Bible tells us some will refuse to believe a lie. They will refuse to worship the beast. Most of them will get their heads chopped off for refusing to worship the beast. It is pretty amazing that even though the beast starts chopping off heads, his followers will not notice his beastly nature.

Most of the rest who refuse to worship and take the mark will probably starve to death, or die of exposure to the elements, or be killed in some horrific natural disaster. Living conditions then will be overwhelmingly bad. The Bible just tells us that it is time of trouble such as the world has never seen. There are no words to describe just how bad it really will be.

All people have a private side. It is human nature to show one side to the public, another to those they work with, and another to close friends and family. Certain situations actually require different behavior. The problem comes when the character of the individual is presented as totally different depending on the circumstances and group which he or she is around at the time. But Jesus was the same person 24 - 7's. He has commanded Christians to be like Him. We are to love one another as Christ loved us. We are to treat others the way we want to be treated. We are supposed to show the love of God to others by the way we live and act. Our inner person is not supposed to be a beast. Who we really are, and our image or how we are perceived by others, is supposed to be the same thing. Honestly, we can't hit the mark of perfection. Like heroes of the Bible, we are all going to stumble and fall occasionally. Thankfully, God is willing to forgive us and still use us. So today is a good day to start improving our own image.

Thanks for reading this article.

God bless you.

Have a good day.

Make the Message Clear and Plain - Christ Receiveth Sinful Men!

Make the Message Clear and Plain

Barbara Henderson

It was an interesting day in Jerusalem to say the least. In recent weeks Jesus Christ had been crucified, buried, and rose up from the grave.  He was seen by many.  There was no doubt that Christ was risen from the dead.  He ascended to heaven.  His Apostles were gathered in Jerusalem waiting for the time to come to preach!  The crowds gathered, also waiting.  THEN Peter, the Apostle of Jesus Christ, stood up to preach the good news – salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, through Christ alone.

In the crowd listening to Peter preach there were people from all over the place! Most languages and cultures were represented right there in Jerusalem listening to the fisherman tell every individual how to be reconciled to God Almighty and obtain citizenship in heaven through Jesus Christ.  Peter made the message clear and plain.  He did not turn aside to avoid hurting the feelings of those who worshipped false gods.  He did not attempt to entertain in order to get people’s attention.  He did not dress like the most popular culture. He did not care what celebrities were doing at the moment.  He did not have a praise band playing pop music disguised as music designed to please Almighty God.  Peter simply opened his mouth and proclaimed the gospel.  He made it as clear and plain as possible.  He told the truth.  Were some people offended?  Most likely.  Were some converted?  Definitely!  The church exploded with true converts.  Peter made the message clear and plain.  There was no confusion regarding exactly what the message was.  The message was REPENT!  You are walking down a road that leads to hell.  You don’t have to go there.  Turn from the things of this world and look to the gift of eternal life offered through Jesus Christ alone! 

If you have been following the news in the United States you know that headline news was the story of the Duck Dynasty star Phil Robertson clearly saying homosexuality is a sin.  He got suspended from his job as a television star on a reality show.  The network – A&E – thought because of the money involved that they would be able to get an apology out of the bearded icon.  It didn’t work!  A&E thought America would rise up and condemn the man for not accepting homosexuality as a legitimate lifestyle.  They got a big surprise.  In the end – there was a lot of money on the line, and A&E reinstated the Duck Dynasty patriarch.  Personally, I don’t watch the show.  Having relatives in Arkansas and Oklahoma who could match the Duck Dynasty stars homespun humor and lack of any bending to peer pressure, the show may be just a tad too close to home for me.  However, I am pleased to see a show that represents Christian family values.  I just don’t watch it.  I don’t watch a lot of television period.  I applaud the family values in the show, and their refusal to bend to the forced tolerance that is rampant in the current political, cultural, and social setting in the USA and in the world.  I have been thinking about how to go forward in stopping the sort of evil treatment Christians and conservatives get for simply speaking the truth.  This is what I came up with.

Today I am calling for national rebellion against forced tolerance of anything and everything that is not right according to God.  There is no one person or even half the population of any nation that has the authority to change into ‘good’ what God has clearly called ‘bad’.  End of story.  Do not let the world silence you!  You don’t have to go looking for a fight.  Just be ready to tell the truth when the opportunity arises.  You don’t have to say it in a hateful manner.  On the homosexuality issue simply quoting scripture is enough. Tell those who don’t like the message in the Bible to take it up with God.

We are at war, and this war is far more than a culture war.  This is a war for the truth.  The truth is clearly stated in the Bible on every important subject.  Truth is unchanging.  It is not affected by time, culture, social agendas, acceptable morals in any particular culture or social environment, or quantum leaps in pseudo-science. 

First, there is a personal decision to simply speak the truth when called on regardless of the social or political fallout.  If you wind up facing the giants, remember that you are just a lowly messenger.  You don’t have any authority to change the truth.  Do what is right.  Don’t waste your time trying to fit into the current culture.  Don’t waste your time trying to stay in touch with the current politically correct hot buttons or the social agenda’s making headlines.  If you make a real effort to do what is right according to God Almighty you will make one major effort each and every day.  You will work to treat others the way you want to be treated.  That means treat others with kindness and tell them the truth.  Remember that very often things that are social acceptable or politically correct are not based on truth. 

Second, there is the church.  The duty of every church is to tell the truth without deviations.  That’s it.  When the truth of God is mixed in with pop culture, political correctness, attempts to reach different cultures, or anything else that distracts from the gospel the message is NOT clear and plain.  Listeners have to sort through all sorts of gobbled-gook in order to find the truth.  Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.  It doesn’t matter if you live in a shack or a palace. The message is the same.  It doesn’t matter if you are young or old, rich or poor, smart of not so smart, the message is the same.  It doesn’t matter if you are from central Africa or Scandanavia.  The message is the same.  It doesn’t matter if your culture is Southern American or Yankee American.  It doesn’t matter if you live in a nation where freedom of choice of religion is allowed or in a nation where accepting Jesus Christ may get you murdered.  The message is the same.  Jesus says come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.  That is the message.

There is no better message than the message of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ – the only begotten Son of God.  You can, however, confuse the message drastically by dumbing it down, applying worldly tactics for business growth to church growth, pop culture, social agendas, political correctness, or any other distraction. 

The motto of Christians could be ‘Make the message Clear and Plain’.  Christ receiveth sinful men!

Christ Receiveth Sinful Men

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jfj2YMeN-IM

Sinners Jesus will receive;
Sound this word of grace to all
Who the heavenly pathway leave,
All who linger, all who fall.

Refrain

Sing it o’er and over again;
Christ receiveth sinful men;
Make the message clear and plain:
Christ receiveth sinful men.

Come, and He will give you rest;
Trust Him, for His Word is plain;
He will take the sinfulest;
Christ receiveth sinful men.

Refrain

Now my heart condemns me not,
Pure before the law I stand;
He who cleansed me from all spot,
Satisfied its last demand.

Refrain

Christ receiveth sinful men,
Even me with all my sin;
Purged from every spot and stain,
Heaven with Him I enter in.

Refrain