Leadership tips from PG Vargis

[PG Vargis]

A leader is like a river. Starts as a small stream. But gathers on the way other streams and becomes a mighty river – feeding people, cattle and agricultural lands and nourishing forests. It never stops working – day and night. A river exists for others and then vanishes.  You can be a Pampa river of Kerala or Ganges of India or Amazon. The choice is yours.

P G Vargis

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Leadership note. Grow with me.

And share this with others. Let the world grow.

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PART I      DEVOTIONAL MESSAGE (COPIED)

Some More Truths About Money

•           People who are generous givers are blessed.

2 CORINTHIANS 9:6 NKJ 6 But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.

PROVERBS 11:25 NKJ 25 The generous soul will be made rich, And he who waters will also be watered himself.

These verses reveal truth, but not all truth. So we cannot ignore all the rest of God's instruction and expect to prosper just because we give something.

•           God does not require everyone to give away everything they have.

But He does tell all those who are rich to be generous givers and not trust in their riches (1 Timothy 6:17-18).

Jesus told one specific man to give away everything, but did not require this of everyone. As Jesus' disciple, we must be willing to give our all (Luke 14:33). But Jesus does not require that be done before we can enter His kingdom.

•           God is pleased when His servants have an abundance.

PSALM 35:27 NKJ 27 Let them shout for joy and be glad, Who favor my righteous cause; And let them say continually, "Let the LORD be magnified, Who has pleasure in the prosperity of His servant."

1 TIMOTHY 5:17 NLT 17 Elders who do their work well should be respected and paid well, especially those who work hard at both preaching and teaching.

•           Jesus became poor to redeem humanity from the curse of poverty, so everyone could always have an abundant supply.

2 CORINTHIANS 8:9 NKJ 9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.

•           Because of all Jesus Christ has done for us, we should put Him first and live for Him.

2 CORINTHIANS 5:15 NKJ 15 and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.

PROVERBS 3:9-10 NKJ 9 Honor the LORD with your possessions, And with the firstfruits of all your increase; 10 So your barns will be filled with plenty, And your vats will overflow with new wine.

SAY THIS: Thank You Lord for showing me what the Bible teaches about money.

PART II

Destroyed For Lack Of Knowledge

Hosea 4:6  My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. .

Are people's lives destroyed because God does not love them? Do people come to ruin and live in misery because God is callous and uncaring?

NO!

People are destroyed for lack of knowledge -- even God's people. What kind of knowledge? Knowledge that is available in the Bible: how to walk in faith, how to overcome, how to get prayers answered, how to resist the devil, etc.

God is not to blame for our troubles. God has already made provision for us. But we must avail ourselves of what God has provided.

How can we benefit from God's great provision if we don't even know about it? So, we should seek the knowledge of God on our own, and receive teaching from others, also.

There is not one among us who does not have much to learn. No one - yet is walking in the absolute fullness of what God has provided. Let me say that no one – including me and you and or Billy Graham, yet is walking in the absolute fullness of what God has provided. We can stretch more. We can grow further. We can reach a higher level. We have not reached our optimum capacity. There is much more for us to reach and catch. 

Let's quit giving place to the devil by our lack of knowledge of God's Word. And, as we learn from God's Word we should share our knowledge with others, so they can walk in freedom and victory, too.

Freedom and victory of: holiness. We can be more holy. There are still dark spots or grey area in our lives. Let us study the Bible about holiness that God desires in the life of a believer and work on it so we reach a higher level though it is one step a day or a week or even a month or let me say a year. It is better to advance one step rather than being still where we are. Up we must go.

Freedom and victory of: fullness of the Holy Spirit. We must never be satisfied though we speak in tongues, operate on His gifts. We must always crave for more of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Freedom and victory of: faith. Do you think that you don’t have enough faith? There is hope for you. Or do you feel that you are a person of faith? You are deceived by the devil to say – “this is enough and I don’t need any more. We can ask God to increase our faith. The disciples prayed like that. Let us too cry unto God and ask for more faith – faith that will equip us to believe for all our needs – spiritual, physical, financial, emotional ad material.

Freedom and victory of: love. That is Loving God. Do you know what was the subject of the last Bible class of our Lord before he ascended to heaven? It was not read the Bible, or go and preach or pray. It was, “Do you love me more than these?” John 21 15 onwards.

It sounds like that He wanted to hear the confession from His beloved disciple Peter, “Yes Lord, you know that I love you.”

Let us say to Him more often - whenever we can – “Yes Lord, I love you more than anything in this world”.

Freedom and victory of: Love. Loving the Word. Billy Graham told me when I asked him in 1983 in the Amsterdam conference that he reads 30 chapters of the Bible  a day and prays for 3 or more hours. He then said – “the greatest mistake I did is that I did not read the Bible enough nor I prayed enough. I should have done more.”

Friends - Let us read the Bible  a bit more.

Freedom and victory of: Praying. Mrs Ruth Graham wife of Billy Graham said about her father Dr. L. Nelson Bell who was a medical missionary in China, “Every night as I went to bed I saw my father on his knees praying. Every morning when I got up I saw my father studying the Bible. The sun saw my father every morning as it rose on China, with his open Bible reading it.” 

I was there when Pastor John Osteen the father of Pastor Joel Osteen was celebrating his 50th year of pastoral ministry. He called all his children one by one to the platform. All stood there – everyone in the ministry. One was a surgeon and elder of another church where he was living and working. All others were on full time ministry with their spouses. Next day many stood up with tears and asked a  question in that conference, “How come all your children are in the ministry, all born again and walking with God. How it happened? What did you do?”

I watched Pastor John Osteen carefully. He was shrinking himself not to take any credit for it. And then he said, “Don’t think that I did it nor my wife did something so it happened. But one thing I can say, when my children came to say good night to me before they went to bed in the night they did not see me fighting with my wife, nor watching the TV but they saw me embracing the globe and praying for the world. When they came one after the other to the kitchen for breakfast in the morning, they saw me sitting with my open Bible and a cup of coffee, on the kitchen table.”

Let us pray more.

Freedom and victory of: Love. Loving the people – the sinners. If we really love them we will confront them with the gospel more often and make it difficult for them to go to hell. Let us become active in evangelism.

Freedom and victory of: Giving. We all can give  a bit more to God. You may be paying 10, or 11 or 20, 30, 40, or 90% as your tithe. But I think we all can give  a bit more. Will you think as how you and I can give  more?

By the way let me ask you whether you have a mission box in your home? Every believer must have a  mission box. I bought a special piggy bank on the 3rd month of my salvation though no one told me about that. Even now I have two mission boxes – one in my home and one in my office. All the coins I get are dropped into these mission boxes. When it is full, I give it to a missionary in need of fund to construct the church building.

My children were so happy to put some money into the mission boxes when they were small. They purchased a bicycle for a pioneer missionary and for another a pressure oil lamp called petromax with the money they saved in the family mission box. That was the beginning.

LET US SAY THIS: I will study God's Word so I can know the truth and not let the devil destroy me for lack of knowledge. I will grow.

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Have a day of growth for the glory of God

p g vargis

www.pgv.com