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The Clifton StrengthsFinder

I started my Clifton StrengthsFinder coach training in Paarl (near Cape Town), South Africa, today. Joe Cavanaugh of Gallup is here training a handful of coaches - only 6 of us.

I realized anew today how powerful it is to know what your five top talents are. It is difficult to explain. It is like knowing the top features of your new PDA, or like knowing about the strong points of your new SUV. I can now concentrate on what I do best, and performance, happiness and success will follow... I'm not necessarily talking about financial success - more like bearing lots of fruit for God in the way that He wants you to.

My top five talents are:

1. Activator,
2. Belief,
3. Responsibility,
4. Command, and
5. Communication.

There has never been a person like you... There will never again be a person like you... You are truly unique. The probability of another person having your top ten talents (out of 34), in the same order, is one out of more than 400 trillion!

You were created by God with specific things in mind. Now is the time to achieve these things. Consider it a challenge...

Do you think it would be a good idea to know your talents and learn more about turning them into strengths? I thought so! If you do, order yourself a copy of Living Your Strengths. It includes a code for the online assessment and gives you all the information you need with it.

Go, and find out what your top five talents are. I hope you will turn them into strengths in no time!

What's happening...

I have been a bit quiet the past few days, but running around like crazy behind the scenes. I once read that someone who doesn't blog for a few days could be considered persona non-bloga. Well, that's me.

I have however, following the amazing insights gained from reading Pagan Christianity? by Frank Viola and George Barna, put some things in motion for my journey toward Organic Church. Tonight is the first gathering, and I am very excited. It is a bit funny though, since it will only be my wife and I, but I do need to communicate thoroughly with her in this regard, so it is all good!

I will keep you up to date on the progress.

If you are not sure what organic church is, and want to know more, please download the .pdf booklet at TheRebuilders.org.

Review of Pagan Christianity?

I have finally completed and posted my review of Pagan Christianity? by Frank Viola and George Barna. Click on the link in the previous sentence to go read it.

And let me know what you think by posting comments to this post...

Our God

"God, our God! God the one and only!

Love God, your God, with your whole heart: love him with all that's in you, love him with all you've got!"

Isn't this beautiful? It's from Deuteronomy 6 in The Message//REMIX 2.0.

My Life...

What's going on in my life right now? You don't want to know... it feels like other people are trying to run my life for me, use me, and get me to do their dirty work. It's sickening.

One good thing though, it makes me want to share a quote that I came across when reading Jesus Drives Me Crazy! by Leonard Sweet:

"To be nobody but yourself in a world that's doing its best to make you somebody else, is to fight the hardest battle you are ever going to fight. Never stop fighting." - E.E. Cummings (American Poet, 1894-1962).

Don't worry... I won't stop fighting!

Spiritual Revelation

While reading Pagan Christianity? by Frank Viola and George Barna, I stumbled upon this very cool quote by AW Tozer (quoted from another book on page 206):

"Divine truth is of the nature of spirit and for that reason can be received only by spiritual revelation. ... God's thoughts belong to the world of spirit, man's to the world of intellect, and while spirit can embrace intellect, the human intellect can never comprehend spirit. ... Man by reason cannot know God; he can only know about God. ... Man's reason is a fine instrument and useful within its field. It was not given as an organ by which to know God." Gems from Tozer (Camp Hill, PA: Christian Publications, 1969), 36-37.

What does this quote confirm for me? I must stop fussing to understand everything - I never will be able to fully comprehend God with a human brain. I must be careful of taking in too much information and then trying to reason things over - sometimes a revelation from God is the only thing that will give you understanding.

My passion for Christian media is good for wider understanding and most probably necessary to promote quality media, but I must remember to daily stop and seek God's face. Spiritual revelation is more important than any form of media.

Love, Sweet Love

The Message by Eugene Peterson starts Chapter 14 of 1st Corinthians like this:

"Go after a life of love as if your life depended on it - because it does."

Isn't this the essence of being a disciple of Jesus? I challenge you to continually measure your life against 1 Corinthians 13 (the chapter preceding this piece of wisdom). It's harder than it sounds...