Who are you listening too?

Glad Tidings Men's Ministry International conducted a Men’s Bible Study this morning. The subject for all our Men in Ministry is Evangelism. Particularly witnessing to men. The mission is witnessing to one man at a time. This brings to the for front the question “Who are you listening too?”

My career began in the 70’ s in the computer industry. I love the productivity that technology produces for individuals and businesses. The advances over the time I have been in the industry have produced dramatic gains in productivity. Properly technology has created dramatic changes to our lives, allowing flexibility in work schedules and allowing professional people to spend more time with family and in ministry. The ultimate is the ability to get more work done in a shorter period of time. The quality of the work is always the question.

Technology has also allowed us to hide behind email, voicemail and the like. It has allowed us to “communicate” without talking to anyone. It has allowed us to make excuses for, at times, garbage in the communication, causing disruption or at a minimum confusion, which may slow others in the chain of communication in the execution of their tasks. How many times have you received a text or an email with a word missing or out of order, leaving you to wonder what the message is?

From the early days of the industry to the present time, one phrase continues to ring true. Garbage in, garbage out, is the phrase, whether that garbage is conversational, a tweet, an email or a text or data into a business model. This phrase also applies to our lives.

Letting garbage come in to us allows that garbage to have an influence on us. Let negative stuff in and sooner rather than later it will affect our attitude and our actions. Where does the negative stuff come from? All over radio, TV, Internet, Spam, people on and on. The age we live in allows somewhat unbridled access to us. If you leave your email address on a site for any reason or do a search on Google or another search engine you have opened the door for a barrage of “stuff” to come your way.

Who are you listening too? With all this stuff coming in, much of it trying to influence how you think or react to situations and people, the stuff needs to be screened and off set with the truth. If it cannot be screened, which is difficult, it will need to be filtered through the truth by which you can test everything you hear, read or see.

If you will live to a consistent standard, what is that standard or is there a standard that has absolute consistency?

Who are you listening too? You can listen to all the people who say what you want to do is hard, it is not supported by the “norm”, it will be a lot of work, and the possibility for success is slim. They say!

Do the research and look to the successful, experienced sources for the answers. Find those people who consistently perform, way above the norm. If it was easy everyone would be doing it and the value will be much less, when you are successful.

For me the Bible is the one true over arching source of truth. From here I can test everything I hear, see or read, no matter where it came from, to see if it measures to the truth. Once, what I am using has been tested, then I can be comfortable putting it to use. The results will be consistent and fair, decisions and actions in my family, business and personal relationships. In all three areas iron sharpens iron. This then gives me a strong foundation for building great success for the people around me and myself.

Glad Tidings Mens Ministry International