Posts tagged as:

Spiritual Growth

31 Online Spiritual Growth Resources

by Andy Wood on January 13, 2012

in Five LV Laws,Insight,Life Currency,Principle of Increase

Looking for ways to kick-start your spiritual growth this year? Or perhaps gather ideas and resources for leading others in their spiritual growth?  Check out some of the sites listed here.

I had some help with this one.  Recently a group of students I was working with searched the Web to evaluate and identify their favorite websites for spiritual growth and discipleship. They evaluated the overall effectiveness of the sites they selected and considered how they could use the site in the future.

I was so delighted with the variety and enthusiasm they brought to the project, I thought I’d put together a master list and share it with you.  The brief, edited comments about the sites are mostly from one or more of the students.

Okay, here’s the official disclaimer:  I haven’t evaluated all these sites in detail.

Here’s official disclaimer #2:  While these are presumed to be doctrinally sound, you won’t have to look far to find people from different traditions, theological stripes, or whatever on the same list.  Use your Bible and your brain (in that order).

For lack of a better plan, I’m listing these in alphabetical order.  Let me know what you think.  And PLEASE let me know if you have other suggestions.  All of these sites were the result of someone doing a web search for “Christian discipleship.”  There are plenty more where these came from.  But check these out first: [click to continue…]

{ 2 comments }

The Lesson of the Butterfly

by Andy Wood on September 19, 2011

in Ability,Five LV Laws,Life Currency,LV Cycle,Principle of Freedom,Tense Truths,Waiting

Jason meant well.  But his efforts to help the butterfly-to-be only ended in disaster.  For days he had watched the cocoon and wondered what it would produce.  Finally he noticed a tiny opening in the cocoon’s wall.  On the other side, the new life form was struggling furiously – desperately – to be free of its self-designed prison.  Feeling compassion for the little creature, the boy found a sharp knife and carefully cut the cocoon’s wall in order to relieve it from its struggle.

The butterfly soon died.  Its wings were grossly deformed, and it was unable to fly.  What appeared to be a struggle was actually the process by which the animal’s wings are formed.  Jason had short-circuited the process, and the results, though unintentional, were tragic.

You and I are very much like the butterfly.  We are often wrapped up in our own kinds of cocoons – alone, stifled, limited, longing to be free.  Sometimes these are prisons of our own doing – addictions, bondage to sin, broken relationships, stupid decisions.   At other times our cocoons are thrust upon us in the form of disappointments, losses of loved ones, extended illnesses, or the abuse of others.  Either way, the results are the same.  Why do we feel so alone?  What in the world is God up to?  Where will we ever find relief?  When will we be “free to fly” again?  How will we make it through another day? [click to continue…]

{ 0 comments }

The Search Engine

by Andy Wood on March 14, 2011

in Enlarging Your Capacity,Five LV Laws,Insight,Life Currency,LV Cycle,Principle of Increase

Constantly in motion, ever-aware, always alert both night and day, an unseen force is shaping your life in ways you can’t imagine.

Ever-learning.

Ever-revealing.

The algorithms behind this crawler make Google look, in comparison, like a nearsighted man searching for a haystack in a needle factory.

He sees you when you’re sleeping and knows when you’re awake.  But I’m not referring to the jolly old elf.  I’m talking about the Ultimate Search Engine.  But it’s not an “it” – it’s a Person. [click to continue…]

{ 0 comments }

Grow!

by Andy Wood on February 15, 2011

in 100 Words,Ability,Enlarging Your Capacity,Five LV Laws,Life Currency,LV Cycle,Principle of Increase

Cohen is an expert crawler. 

He can cross a room lickety-split on his hands and knees. 

He’s an awful walker. 

He’s learning.  But why risk injury when he can get there safely on all fours?

His parents don’t treat his crawling ability as a special gift, however. 

It’s just a skill that helps him until the greater abilities arrive.

Same goes for you and God.  [click to continue…]

{ 2 comments }

Sissies and Wimps Need Not Apply

by Andy Wood on April 12, 2010

in Executing Your Plan,Five LV Laws,Principle of Freedom

“It’s going to be fun to watch and see how long the meek can keep the earth once they inherit it”  -Kin Hubbard.

“The meek shall inherit the earth – if that’s okay with everybody” (Motto of the Dependent Organization of Really Meek and Timid Souls, or D.O.O.R.M.A.T).  -J. Upton Dickson

“He leads the humble in what is right, teaching them his way. The LORD leads with unfailing love and faithfulness all those who keep his covenant and obey his decrees.”  -Psalm 25:9-10, NLT

It’s quiet on this Monday morning, except for the sound of a rooster and a fiddle, an infant’s grunts from his swing, and a toddler’s delighted dancing as she watches – again – the Baby Einstein “Life on the Farm” video.  Watching the two of them – especially with scenes from an abundant earth passing by – reminds me from the last post how we were wired from creation and birth. 

We were created to inherit the earth.  It’s in our DNA.  But in the wisdom of God, He knew we would need help.  His help.  Without it, we have the capacity to do – well, what we’ve pretty much done with the planet.

That’s why Jesus – quoting Psalm 37 – said that the delighted happiness that comes from inheriting the earth is reserved for a specific kind of person.  Yep – the meek.

So He Reserves It for Sissies?

Not exactly.  [click to continue…]

{ 1 comment }

The Perfect Form and the Perfect Storm

by Andy Wood on August 7, 2009

in Five LV Laws,Insight,Life Currency,Principle of Legacy,Turning Points

Seven or eight years ago, I was taking a shuttle from the Founders Inn Hotel on the edge of Regent University down to the shoreline in Virginia Beach.  It was just the driver and me, and to make conversation, I asked him, “Do you know where London Bridge Baptist Church is?”

“Sure,” he said.  It’s not far from here.  You know somebody there?

“No.  But I went there on my very first mission trip.”

“Why would anybody,” he wanted to know, “come to Virginia Beach on a mission trip?”

That night I didn’t know how to answer him – this man who lives in the shadow of Pat Robertson and CBN, Rock Church, and a host of other citadels of Evangelicalism.  Today I think I do.  It was the Perfect Form.

The Proposition

“Mission ‘73” it was called.  I caught a glimpse of an announcement in our church bulletin.  A youth choir mission trip to Virginia Beach, VA, for students who had completed the ninth grade or older.  Hey, I loved to travel and barely made the age cutoff, so I was sold!  I was still a spiritual newbie, and didn’t really know very many people.  But I was undeterred.

Mark Stone, the pastor of London Bridge at the time, was an old friend of my pastor.  We would go to this crossroads of vacationers, military personnel, and growing suburbanites and conduct Backyard Bible Clubs, help lead out in a church revival, and witness along the Boardwalk and beach along the Atlantic.

The Cast

I was among the youngest – and spiritually greenest –of the 64 or so to go on this adventure.  I was surrounded by people who were older, more established, and way more sure of themselves.  I certainly can’t remember them all, but the list included: [click to continue…]

{ 2 comments }

Ho Ho Humbug!

by Andy Wood on December 11, 2008

in LV Stories

(The Further Adventures of Eugene Davis, Sophomore Christian)

“Have you seen this?” asked an angry voice one Sunday morning.

Yep, it was Eugene Davis, sophomore Christian and resident expert on what everybody else should and shouldn’t be doing.

“Seen what?” I asked politely as Eugene shoved a Sunday bulletin in my hand.

“All these parties!” he said.

In the midst of the activities list, Eugene had highlighted three youth fellowships in one week:  the Jr. High, the Sr. High, and the All-Youth Pizza Pig-Out and Christmas Party that night after church.

“Well, there’s never a bad time to eat pizza,” I joked.  “Don’t you know the wise men caught up with King Herod at Pizza Hut?”

But Eugene was in no joking mood.

“That’s not the point,” he fumed.  “It seems like all we ever do with these kids is feed ‘em pizza and take ‘em on trips.  When I was a teenager, we learned to give and do for others.”

“When you were a teenager, you were lost,” I replied.  “Furthermore, when you were a teenager, Chicago was a cow pasture.” [click to continue…]

{ 3 comments }

The Popcorn Tree

by Andy Wood on September 5, 2008

in Enlarging Your Capacity,LV Cycle,Turning Points

The LifeVesting Cycle

1. Allocate your resources.
2. Explore the possibilities.
3. Follow your passion
4. Execute your plan.
5. Protect your investment.

6. Enlarge your capacity

When I was still a kid, my dad built a flower box for my mom. We got some nice, rich soil from a place behind our house where we had a lot of mulch and trees. She planted some flowers in the box, and we were excited to see what would come out.

What came out was something that at first looked like a weed. But this was no weed. It was a tree. A popcorn tree, my dad said.

I was entranced. It was my first sense of fatherhood and stewardship, all rolled into one.

If you aren’t familiar with them, popcorn trees, or Chinese tallows, grow in moist climates. They grow rapidly, and can get pretty big. They make great shade and ornamental trees, and in the fall, their seeds split open to appear like popcorn.

I watched this little tree take off, and soon we transplanted it from the flower box to the front yard. We got more and more into trees, and soon found four more popcorn trees – then some redbuds and dogwoods. I had this sense of pride and ownership in all of them, but none more than the original – the queen of the yard – as she quickly grew taller than the eaves of our house.

Then one day the unthinkable happened. I came up the street to my house, and found the most horrific sight. Someone (my dad) had taken shears and whacked my tree off at about six feet. The queen of the yard now had a crew cut.

It was ugly.

Shameful.

Hideous.

“Pruning,” he called it.

“Disaster” was what I called it.

Of course, my dad knew a whole lot more about trees and all things agricultural than I ever will. (I once asked him, “How’d you get so smart?” He said, “I keep my ears open and my mouth shut.”)

Anyway, the queen began to reshape. To spread. To grow, not just taller, but shapelier, even more beautiful.

This life lesson became even more applicable to me as I grew spiritually. [click to continue…]

{ 2 comments }

More to Come

by Andy Wood on May 29, 2008

in Five LV Laws,Principle of Eternity,Principle of Increase

AnticipationSomebody gave a very large sum of money to a respected businessman to bless a poor pastor. Thinking that the amount was too much to send all at once, the businessman forwarded just a portion along with a note that said simply, “More to come…”  In a few days the pastor received another envelope containing the same amount of money and the same message:  “More to come…”  At regular intervals, there came a third, and a fourth.  In fact, they continued, along with those encouraging words, until the entire sum had been received.

In much the same way, the Holy Spirit has chosen to give us His blessing in “measured amounts.”  It’s staggering to realize the full extent of the salvation Jesus Christ has purchased for us.  It will take eternity to comprehend it all.  So as you receive good things from the hand of a good God, remember, there’s more where that came from.  And if you have ever thought of becoming a follower of Jesus Christ, here is a sampling of what He promises:

[click to continue…]

{ 0 comments }

How Two Businesses Can Point You to Remarkable Growth

by Andy Wood on May 23, 2008

in Enlarging Your Capacity,Five LV Laws,Hoarders,Leadership,Life Currency,LV Alter-egos,LV Cycle,Principle of Increase

GE adIt’s a long way from Fairfield, Connecticut, the home of General Electric, to Henderson, Nevada, the home of Zappos.  The gap is even wider between their respective products and services. 

GE is a multinational American technology and services conglomerate.  Zappos sells shoes, handbags, and other items online – to the tune of more than $1 billion this year. 

Both made the news last week.  And it all has to do with their “Bottom 10.”

General Electric is a household name; chances are, you have something in your home with it’s name emboldened on it.  The only original company still listed on the Dow Jones Industrial Average, more recently, GE is the company that Jack rebuilt, and one of the most admired in the business world today.  Jack Welch determined in the 1980s that GE would be number 1 or 2 in  particular industry or leave it completely.  He also started the practice of firing the bottom-performing 10% of his managers every year. 

Last week the Wall Street Journal reported that GE was sending its century-old appliances business to the auction block.  Say it ain’t so!  The American company that “brings good things to life” may be bringin’ ‘em from Korea or Sweden or somewhere else.  From a sentimental perspective, it hurts.  But from a management perspective, it was an overdue decision.

[click to continue…]

{ 5 comments }

← Previous Entries