A Trait of the Heart: Coachability/Mentoring/Protégé Part #1

A Trait of the Heart: Coachability/Mentoring/Protégé Part #1

Proverbs 14:6 A scoffer seeks Wisdom in vain [for his very attitude blinds and deafens him to it], but knowledge is easy to him who [being teachable] understands. AMP

We have a desperate need for mentors, coaches and protégés. Dr Howard G. Hendricks in his article A Mandate For Mentoring said, “Unfortunately, the epitaph of many a man is well expressed in the words "Died, age 26; buried, age 64." If you stop learning and growing today, you stop ministering [serving and succeeding] tomorrow.”

There are always five kinds of relationships in our lives. Once we learn this we will be more comfortable with the different people God puts in our lives. These five main relationships are networkers {contacts}, friends, partners, mentors and protégés. Most people meet us in the network stage and that all they will ever be. Not everyone will be a friend or partner, mentor or protégé these are reserved for the few. In this article we will look at mentors/coaches and protégés. In my view I cannot separate the mentor/coach as two kinds of people. I will talk about that later.

· Mentors produce change in us. We hear them speak, we talk to them on the phone, and we hang out with and engage them. We read their books and listen to their CD’s and podcasts. God puts them in our life so we can learn from them. These are life changers and we are not the same because of them. Mentors value the people God puts in their life.

· The protégé learns from us. A wise mentor also learns from them. God puts them in our life so they can grow and reach the plan and purpose for our lives. We help them grow and be better. We all need to be and have mentors {coaches} and a protégés. This could be a pastor, parent or an expert in a particular field. Effective mentors have been a successful protégé.

Let me begin with some housekeeping. If you’re super-spiritual or independent crowd that say “I only need God” or pitifully the “all I need is me” crowd, you might not want to read on. Those expressions sound great all by themselves but they are flawed. The truth is thankfully that GOD, by his grace has provided people to help ALL of us. Now, I would never bring into doubt in any way our desperate need of God. Christ proved that we are bankrupt without him. But God has provided leaders, teachers, parents, mentors and coaches to help us according to his will and word. Even God became a man and lived and coached/mentor/disciple a group of people. Jesus submitted himself to his parents and his heavenly Father. On the other hand, if you’re not interested in helping other people you will reap what you have planted. To be successful we need to be both on the receiving and giving end of coaching. Being coachable is essential to success. The bible states that a scoffer even though he says he wants wisdom is blind and deaf to it. But coachable people understand. Even Paul trying to instruct “over-saved people” {as the comedian Michael Jr. calls this condition} is anything but funny. The fact is that really spiritual people listen to those people God puts in their life. Paul wrote the Corinthians and said “If you claim to be a prophet or think you are spiritual, you should recognize that what I am saying is a command from the Lord himself.” {1 Corinthians 14:37}

A word on a finding a great coach, “Walk with the wise and become wise; associate with fools and get in trouble.” {Proverbs 13:20}. A great coach not only tells you what needs to be changed, he gives you the method to change it and helps you achieve the necessary change. Most importantly they live what they preach. “A great coach has great values. Christian and moral values are essentials in a coach. A coach in a real sense is a mentor and teacher. A teacher may not be a mentor but you cannot mentor without teaching and you cannot coach without mentoring. You will become like the person you are influenced by. So ask yourself what are your mentor’s values? A mentor is a value transferor. If they are only after money, success at any cost {nothing wrong with success but not at any cost} and have no family values you will reflect them. Do they keep their word? What are their main relationships like? If you ask and they are insulted or incredulous you may want another coach. People who cannot be transparent are bad leaders. They share failures and successes both personal and professional. If they have a heart for God, family, church and are a balanced person this is key.

No matter their area of expertise is will be couched in these values. My friend Gary Kantola used to say that, “He loves everyone, but only certain people are allowed to get close because they affect the way that his thinks and the way he thinks affects his life. We must trust God to put good people in our life.

Coaches make us trade in our couches. John Maxwell says, “To be coachable you have to be approachable.” You have to be willing for people to come into your life as teachers and advisers. You have to be willing to let people speak wisdom into your life. Knowing that something’s our coaches’ say may hurt our feeling but help our life. Coaches make us trade in our couches. They teaches us to live and embrace being uncomfortable. It’s the only way we advance. You find out for sure if a person is coachable when they are confronted with their faults.

People who are coachable “are not know it all’s.” Remember, its one thing to have talent and influence and another to know how to use it. Talent may get you there, but character will keep you there. You most likely will not get “there” {wherever there is} without a coach. You need people in your life that can train you and help you to maximize your potential. I have known people with so much talent that they could have accomplished great things in their life, but they would not let anyone coach them because they thought they knew it all, and they were never able to capitalize on their potential. Allow people to coach you, to teach you, to help you. It can be tough, because at times they have to change the way you are used to doing things, they have to tear something down to rebuild it better than it was, they may have to change your focus, but in the end you will be a better player. Athletes Have Coaches. Why Not Everyone Else? It's a given that professional athletes need regular coaching to keep them at the top of their game. So is the same true for everyone else. What’s your game? Do you want to be at the top of your game? Get a coach.

A Trait of the Heart: Coachability Part #2 Next time

Fruitful by being Restful.

John 15:4 "Live in me. Make your home in me just as I do in you. In the same way that a branch can't bear grapes by itself but only by being joined to the vine, you can't bear fruit unless you are joined with me. {Msg}

We all want to be fruitful for God. So when you look back on your life, when were you the most fruitful? Was it not when you put your faith in what Jesus did on the cross and not 

your own efforts? Wasn't when you trusted that he paid for your sins and you rested on his righteousness and not yours? 

Yes, that’s when you were most fruitful!  When you are resting in what Christ has done and is doing in us and through us you will be fruitful. 

Resting in his hope and simple faith, prayer, and his word is what produces fruit in our life. Menial efforts cannot make a vine produce grapes. Grapes automatically grow on a healthy vine. Jesus is the vine we are the branches. We must hang onto him and his cross and he was held by nails on a sure place. Be at home with him...when you are at home with him you are comfortable with him. He has moved in with you never to leave you. 

Have this assurance: Healthy branches grow on a healthy vine. Christ is a healthy vine, make your home in him and you will be a healthy branch. Christ will and has pruned us so we can bear fruit. He has cast away all the dead branches in our life. All our past sins and dead works are removed and destroyed in the fire so our souls will not be burned with guilt and eternal punishment. We are saved to produce and we will, just believe it. Rejoice in him! 

"From Him all my fruit must be found, for no fruit can ever come from me." We are taught, by past experience, that the more simply we depend upon the grace of God in Christ, and wait upon the Holy Spirit, the more we shall bring forth fruit unto God. Oh, to trust Jesus for fruit as well as for life! ” Spurgeon

Are you the enemy?

Are you the enemy?

Gal 2:20-21 My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Have you ever hear the phrase: You are you are you own  worst enemy?

On 10 September 1813, after defeating the British fleet in the Battle of Lake Erie, Oliver Hazard Perry, commander of the American fleet, dispatched one of the most famous messages in military history to Maj. Gen. William Henry Harrison. It read: "Dear Gen'l: We have met the enemy, and they are ours, two ships, two brigs, one schooner and one sloop. Yours with great respect and esteem. H. Perry." In 1970 cartoonist Walt Kelly famously paraphrased the statement as "We have met the enemy, and he is us" in an Earth Day poster that featured characters from his long-running strip Pogo and mourned the sad state of the environment.

It is true "If I was to kick the enemy that gave me the most problems I would not be able to sit down for a week." -Chuck Swindoll.

"I as you "I" think that "I" is all "I" needs.  But that does not even sound right. The Me, myself and  are still bad math. it does not add up to three but its still adds up to a very selfish one.

The Enemy of Salvation

William Nicholson, of the book Shadowlands said, “Self-sufficiency is the enemy of salvation. If you are self-sufficient, you have no need of God. If you have no need of God, you do not seek Him. If you do not seek Him, you will not find Him.”

My teachers always said we are saved from sin and from self. Not enough today it said about salvation from self! Though we are made in the image of God, because of sin, we have lost the likeness of God. The bible say "the outward self, what you see in the mirror, no matter how we pamper it... is perishing. What most people do not realize is that “Sinful Self” is the enemy. When I say "self" I mean it is that part that wants it own way, its own glory, and lives for its own purposes. What we need is a new self in place of the old self. Self can never each perfection But Matthew 5:48 says that is what God demands. But no on is prefect...that is right but listen to this:

"God's STANDARD is perfection. The ONLY way we can obtain Perfection is through faith in the ONE that was PERFECT. If you are trying to earn, merit, or work for God's grace...you wasting your time! Get rid of your list and increase your trust!" Shane West

There is hope: Jesus wants to restore his likeness! in us! He want to give us a new self...himself. Salvation means he restores to a right standing with God. us from a sinful selfish state. When we repent and put our faith in him not us.  We trust in what he did on the cross. The old self wants to maintain its hideous form and deceive you as you look in the mirror thinking everything is fine listen to this:

Jas 1:21-25 So get rid of all the filth and evil in your lives, and humbly accept the word God has planted in your hearts, for it has the power to save your souls. But don't just listen to God's word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. For if you listen to the word and don't obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like. But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don't forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.

We need a new Self:

Eph 4:22-24 Strip yourselves of your former nature [put off and discard your old unrenewed self] which characterized your previous manner of life and becomes corrupt through lusts and desires that spring from delusion; And be constantly renewed in the spirit of your mind [having a fresh mental and spiritual attitude], And put on the new nature (the regenerate self) created in God's image, [Godlike] in true righteousness and holiness. AMP

Today, do not trust in you self for salvation but Trust in Jesus Christ!

Eph 2:8-10 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. NKJV

A Christmas Story Lee Stroble

A Christmas Story Lee Stroble

What we say and do really matters during this special season – as I found out when I was a skeptical newspaper reporter

The Chicago Tribune newsroom was eerily quiet on the day before Christmas in 1974. As I sat at my desk with little to do, my mind kept wandering back to a family I had encountered a month earlier while I was working on a series of articles about Chicago’s neediest people.

Sixty-year-old Perfecta and her granddaughters Lydia and Jenny had been burned out of their roach-infested tenement and were now living in a tiny two-room apartment on the West Side. As I walked in, I couldn’t believe how empty it was. There was no furniture, no rugs, nothing on the walls – only a small kitchen table and one handful of rice. That’s it. They were virtually devoid of possessions.

In fact, eleven-year-old Lydia and thirteen-year-old Jenny owned only one short-sleeved dress each, plus one thin, gray sweater between them. When they walked the half-mile to school through the biting cold, Lydia would wear the sweater for part of the distance and then hand it to her shivering sister, who would wear it the rest of the way.

But despite their poverty and the painful arthritis that kept Perfecta from working, she still talked confidently about her faith in Jesus. She was convinced he had not abandoned them. I never sensed despair or self-pity in her home; instead, there was a gentle feeling of hope and peace.

I wrote an article about the family, and then I quickly moved on to more exciting assignments. But as I sat at my desk on Christmas Eve, I continued to wrestle with the irony of the situation: here was a family that had nothing but faith and yet seemed happy, while I had everything I needed materially but lacked faith – and inside I felt as barren as their apartment.

I walked over to the city desk to sign out a car. It was a slow news day, with nothing of consequence going on. My boss could call me if something were to happen. In the meantime, I decided to drive over to West Homer Street and see how the Perfecta and the girls were doing.

When Jenny opened the door, I couldn’t believe my eyes! Tribune readers had responded to my article by showering the family with a treasure trove of gifts – roomfuls of furniture, appliances, and rugs; a lavish Christmas tree with piles of wrapped presents underneath; carton upon bulging carton of food; and a dazzling selection of clothing, including dozens of warm winter coats, scarves, and gloves. On top of that, they donated thousands of dollars in cash.

But as surprised as I was by this outpouring, I was even more astonished by what my visit was interrupting: Perfecta and her granddaughters were getting ready to give away much of their newfound wealth. When I asked Perfecta why, she replied in halting English: “Our neighbors are still in need. We cannot have plenty while they have nothing. This is what Jesus would want us to do.”

That blew me away! If I had been in their position at that time in my life, I would have been hoarding everything. I asked Perfecta what she thought about the generosity of the people who had sent all of these goodies, and again her response amazed me.

“This is wonderful; this is very good,” she said, gesturing toward the largess. “We did nothing to deserve this – it’s a gift from God. But,” she added, “it is not his greatest gift. No, we celebrate that tomorrow. That is Jesus.”

To her, this child in the manger was the undeserved gift that meant everything – more than material possessions, more than comfort, more than earthly security. And at that moment, something inside of me wanted desperately to know this Jesus – because, in a sense, I saw him in Perfecta and her granddaughters.

They had peace despite poverty, while I had anxiety despite plenty; they knew the joy of generosity, while I only knew the loneliness of ambition; they looked heavenward for hope, while I only looked out for myself; they experienced the wonder of the spiritual while I was shackled to the shallowness of the material – and something made me long for what they had.

Or, more accurately, for the One they knew.

With Perfecta and her granddaughters in the back of my mind, a few years later I decided to investigate Christianity and ultimately ended up becoming a follower of Jesus. To this day, I continue to carry the lessons I learned from Perfecta and the girls.

The truth is that people are more spiritually receptive this time of year. What we say and do can make a big difference in pointing people toward the unique Son of God, whose birth we commemorate this month.

So please join me in making this Christmas season count for Christ by bringing his message of grace and hope to our neighbors whose hearts are secretly barren without him.

The Winter of your Soul

Psalms 74:17: You set the boundaries of the earth, and you made both summer and winter.

What I will be sharing with you in a moment is what I read this today in one of my devotionals. But I read it today as the morning paper it was so relevant....We get disappointed with people and the lack of results we see especially in ministry. But I know that God controls the seasons. Here in the North East it gets cold. I love winter, at least until after Christmas them I am thinking of warmer climates. Winter to me has been more of an ambience of the Holiday. It fits well with Christmas and the New Year’s celebrations. You may love snow; some of you even love the cold but no one likes winter in the soul unless but it has a purpose! It is sent by God for a reason.

Here is what CH Spurgeon says I have tried modernizing the English without butchering the poetry too much.

"My soul, you start this wintry month with your God. Remember this: Summer and winter show He is in control of every season. In fact, he said that these are signs of his enduring promises. {Gen 8:22} Even the cold snows and the piercing winds all remind you that He keeps His pledge and promises and assures you that He will also keep that glorious covenant which He has made with you in the person of Christ Jesus. He is true to His Word in the seasons of this poor sin-polluted world, and he will do everything he promises because of Jesus Christ.

Winter in the soul is by no means a comfortable season, and if it you are going through your soul’s winter it can be very painful to you: but there is this comfort, namely, that the Lord makes it. He sends the sharp blasts of adversity to nip the budding flowers of expectation: He scatters the frost like ashes over the once green meadows of our joy: He casts forth His ice like morsels freezing the streams of our delight. He does it all, He is the great Winter King, and rules in the realms of frost, and therefore you should not, you cannot murmur. Losses, crosses, heaviness, sickness, poverty, and a thousand other ills, are of the Lord's sending, and come to us with wise design. Frosts kill harmful insects, and kills raging diseases; they break up the soil in the fields, and sweetens the soul. Oh that such good result would always follow our winters of affliction in our soul!

How we prize the fireplace and the heat when it is so cold. How pleasant is its cheerful glow! Let us in the same manner prize our Lord, who is the constant source of warmth and comfort in every time of trouble. Let us draw near to Him and in Him find joy and peace in believing. Let us wrap ourselves in the warm garments of His promises, and go forth to labors which suit the season, we cannot be lazy like the man in proverbs who will not plough by reason of the cold; for he shall be a beggar in summer because he has no harvest.” Spurgeon {Edited}

"Summer and Winter Spring time and Harvest, Sun, moon and Stars in their courses above, join with all nature in manifold witness to thy great faithfulness mercy and love. Great is thy faithfulness, Great is thy faithfulness, Morning by morning new mercies I see....all I have needed thy hand hath provided, Great is they faithfulness Lord unto me."

An opportunity for you to advance God's Kingdom!

Hey guys,

God is doing some amazing things and I want to invite you to get in on the action.

I am currently part of a church plant in NJ and God is calling to add to that plant a new work in Pennsylvania. Though you may not live in these areas you can get in on the great reward of seeing people’s lives changed for eternity.

Ever wanted to make a real difference but you were not sure how?”  “Ever wonder how you could change your part of the world without leaving your home?”

  

What I am asking from you:

We need prayer partners!  We need you to come along side of us and pray these TWO new ministry opportunities:

My promise to you:

1. I will send you a weekly email with 1-3 specific prayer requests as well as answers to previous requests. You will be in the loop of all prayer needs!
2. At least once a month I will send some sort of teaching/notes on prayer. 

Send your reply with a "Yes" in the subject line to pastormikegibney@gmail.com 

Your grateful friend, -Mike Gibney

 2 Thessalonians 3:1 Finally, dear brothers and sisters, we ask you to pray for us. Pray that the Lord's message will spread rapidly and be honored wherever it goes, just as when it came to you.

Psalm 138 Pray this say this

Psalm 138 I give you thanks, O Lord, with all my heart; I will sing your praises before the gods.

2 I bow before your holy Temple as I worship. I praise your name for your unfailing love and faithfulness; for your promises are backed by all the honor of your name.

3 As soon as I pray, you answer me; you encourage me by giving me strength.

4 Every king in all the earth will thank you, Lord, for all of them will hear your words.

5 Yes, they will sing about the Lord's ways, for the glory of the Lord is very great.

6 Though the Lord is great, he cares for the humble, but he keeps his distance from the proud.

7 Though I am surrounded by troubles, you will protect me from the anger of my enemies. You reach out your hand, and the power of your right hand saves me.

8 The Lord will work out his plans for my life—for your faithful love, O Lord, endures forever. Don’t abandon me, for you made me. {NLT}

Say this: I am thankful for you my God. You are the only real and true God in the presence of all the so called gods. You are awesome and great!  In the face of the so called Gods of materialism, sex, entertainment and religion there is no one like you.  

Thank you Lord for your unfailing love! You are so faithful to me. You never fail in your promises to me because they are backed by your good name and all the resources of the universe are at your command.  As I pray you answer me by giving me strength and you encourage me. I will sing because of your greatness.  

Thank you for your words for truly you made me a King and a priest.  All glory belongs to him who loves me and has freed me from my sins by shedding his blood for me. He has made me a King and priests for God my Father. All glory and power to him forever and ever! Amen. {Revelation 1:5-6}