When we are strong and everything is going well it is easy to forget about God and to take credit ourselves for accomplishments. We need to be reminded that it is by the Holy Spirit that we are able to succeed. But it is also true in those periods of life where we feel overwhelmed, helpless, grief-stricken and lost that any strength we muster is not the key.  It is the Holy Spirit we need to help us. Watchman Nee wrote in The Normal Christian Life, “When the Holy Spirit takes things in hand there is no need for strain on our part.”

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Have you ever thought about the word woe? Woe is like saying “lookout,” be afraid—misfortune, anguish or calamity approach. Woe is a get-the-sleep-out-of-your-eye-now, kind of word. It is the preparatory command for trouble. Woe receivers are getting a spiritual wakeup call. Woe rejecters deserve apocalyptic trouble!

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Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen, coined the term disruptive innovation.[1]  Essentially it describes how a product or service begins at market bottom and then inexorably rises in the market until it at some point, displaces well-established competitors.  A small, new company that is weak on resources successfully overcomes proven incumbent businesses by offering what the incumbents overlook in providing their more established clientele. An example of this is . . . 

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Once upon a true time, a woman was carrying a heavy sack of cereals on her head down a dusty Kenyan road. As she walked the rutted earth on that hot sunny afternoon, a man in a blue, paint-faded pickup truck pulled up alongside her and asked, “Je! Ungependa safari?” (Would you like a ride?). The woman, after wiping the sweat off her brow, smiled at him and said, “Ndio Asante” (Yes, thank you).  So, he pulled over to the side of the road, put the truck in park, and got out to help the woman. She put the sack on the truck bed and the man assisted her in climbing into the back. Then he returned to his cab and continued on his journey.

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The Hebrew word navel, basically means wither or lose heart. It is used twenty times in the Old Testament. The word describes Moses in Exodus 18:18—warned about wearing out from trying to judge the people alone. Eleven times it refers to plants dying. Isaiah uses it to show people withering from sin (Isaiah 64:6). When you think of the condition of the world right now does it feel like it is withering? Such a thought should not be surprising for God warned us that this would happen.

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Why is it significant to address necessitarianism?  The reason is that it ties directly to the issue of God’s foreknowledge versus man’s free will—a subject that fascinates and baffles theologians.

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No matter how hard we strive we cannot achieve perfection and so we may be inclined to give up. We conclude God’s demand and expected standard is too great.  What we need is David’s understanding . . . 

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Trina is a disrupter.  She never lasts long in organizations because she has a bad habit of stirring up trouble. When she finds weaknesses in people she exploits them.  She enjoys pitting one person against another.  She is a gossiping genius.  At first her gregarious nature and warm appearance win her instant friends. Slowly, as they learn she cannot be trusted with information, they pull away.

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I have a theory for which I would love to get your feedback.

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I like the two Oriental characters for the word crisis.  In both Japanese and Chinese, they mean “threatening opportunity.”—Jack Hayford, John Killinger and Howard Stevenson in Mastering Worship

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