Category: Learning

3/31/2026 0 Comments

The Joy of Sharpening

Ugandan Strong Leader's Hand Training--God's Word

When I lived in the Philippines from 1974-‘77, it took three weeks for a letter to get from Manila to anyone in the United States. My parents did not call our grandparents so we could talk on the phone because it was way too expensive. So I continually marvel at the ability to connect with brothers and sisters in the faith from Colorado, California, Georgia, and Uganda via ZOOM calls. We can provide leadership training for 90 minutes and see each other and interact for very little cost—incredible!

0 Comments

3/25/2026 0 Comments

Earwax

Author and Brian Petak: listening

I feel a small plop in my ear, and when I investigate, I discover it is a small ball of earwax. How much do you know about earwax? I knew very little about it until I read the following entry.
Our ear canals have about 4,000 glands that produce wax, which accomplishes four important tasks:
1. Earwax moisturizes the skin, which prevents it from becoming dry and itchy in the canal.
2. Earwax possesses certain chemicals that are infection fighters, especially if you were to swim in dirty water.
3. Bugs find earwax to be noxious. The hairs in the canals point outward and, combined with the wax, discourage bugs from crawling into our ears. Here in Georgia, that’s a great thing!
4. Earwax coats the canal like flypaper, entrapping dirt and dust.

0 Comments

2/10/2026 1 Comment

When Experience Doesn't Matter

In Dad’s journal entry for August 6, 2000, I read, “A schoolteacher claimed to have 25 years of experience, but her head teacher said of her, ‘She has just one year of experience 25 times.’” Ouch.

Meditation
Lamentations 3:47-48--We have experienced panic and pitfall, devastation and destruction. My eyes flow with streams of tears because of the destruction of my dear people.

1 Comment

5/28/2025 1 Comment

Empty Speculations

Here are five of the most common myths about Christianity:
1. Christianity is anti-science and anti-intellectual.
2. The Bible is full of errors and contradictions.
3. A good person can get into heaven.
4. Christianity is merely a set of rules and regulations.
5. All Christians are hypocrites and the same.

1 Comment

12/30/2024 0 Comments

Omniscient

Our brains manage emotions, thoughts, memories (sensory, short and long-term), touch, vision, breathing patterns, and all the procedures that control our bodies.[1] Scientists calculate the human brain storage capacity by gauging the connections between brain cells and decoding that number into bytes and computer memory units. “A single byte comprises 8 bits, and the human brain can store more than one quadrillion bytes of data – a petabyte.”[2] Our brain’s memory capacity is equal to 2.5 petabytes of memory capacity. A “petabyte” translates into 1024 terabytes or a million gigabytes. An average adult brain can accumulate the equivalent of 2.5 million gigabytes of memory.

0 Comments

12/31/2023 0 Comments

Beginning-Ending

What is your favorite memory on New Year’s Day or your best-loved New Year’s Eve? Jeremy shared with Impact’s congregation this morning, “You can stay up tonight and watch the same ball drop after a ten-second countdown as every year. Or you can go to bed and get a good rest. You won’t be missing anything.” That got quite a laugh from people used to the tradition of staying up for the new year.

0 Comments

7/16/2023 1 Comment

Phronesis

Adriano made a mistake. The Uruguayan was given $500 in pesos from his uncle to help pay for his tuition. Instead of paying the University of Montevideo, he loaned it to a friend who claimed his mother was sick and unable to pay her hospital bills. Later, Adriano found out he had lied to him and used the money to gamble. When the school bill was due, the friend couldn’t pay him back, so he had to explain to his uncle why he dropped a class.

1 Comment

6/19/2023 0 Comments

Using Discernment

Ann faced a challenging situation in her new supervisory role with a nonprofit company that recently hired her. One of the employees, Calista, who worked on a different team, was giving her a tough time. Calista had applied for the job Ann now held and resented that she was not chosen. She used Ann’s inexperience to belittle her on calls (shared by others in the organization) and was rude when speaking to her. Ann realized she needed Calista’s help, but she first had to figure out a way to win her over, and that did not seem easy. So she asked for prayer from her close friends and asked God for His assistance.

0 Comments

5/11/2023 1 Comment

Repetition

A Russian proverb says, “Repetition is the mother of learning.” Zig Ziglar noted, “Repetition is the mother of learning, the father of action, which makes it the architect of accomplishment.” Great leaders are masters of repetition and recognize it as a tool for more effective leading.

1 Comment

3/13/2022 0 Comments

Understanding Wisdom

What is the source of wisdom? Is it academic institutions? If we want to be wise is the best method to gain the highest degree and be immersed in learning institutions, listening to teachers and professors? Or is it experience? Do we agree with Confucius? “By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.” Will Rogers had a more colorful adaptation, “There are three kinds of men: The ones that learn by reading. The few who learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence and find out for themselves.”

0 Comments

2/13/2022 0 Comments

Explain This

Meditation
Proverbs 30:2-3--I am more stupid than any other man, and I lack man’s ability to understand. I have not gained wisdom, and I have no knowledge of the Holy One.

0 Comments

7/15/2021 0 Comments

More Capacity

Bill Bowman ministering in Uganda

Meditation
Acts 9:22--But Saul grew more capable and kept confounding the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that this One is the Messiah.

0 Comments

4/7/2021 1 Comment

Leaving

Meditation
Exodus 13:4—Today, in the month of Abib, you are leaving.

The month of Abib, (called Nisan in the post-exilic period), extends from March to April. Moses in the passage above was addressing his countrymen at a most historic time. God rescued them from their Egyptian oppressors and now they were headed into what would become a 40-year desert ordeal. They of course did not know that—they were expecting a fairly quick move to Canaan, the Promised Land. Their leaving was done in haste with little preparation and no doubt great anxiety mixed with the joy of liberation.

1 Comment

3/7/2021 0 Comments

Mama, You're Singing in the Cracks!

Randy told us the following story at our elders’ meeting. A young boy was sitting at the piano playing a well-known song when his mother came up behind him and started singing. The boy stopped playing and looked up at his mother and said, “Mama, you’re singing in the cracks!” The poor woman was off-key and the boy wanted her to know it.

0 Comments

2/26/2021 1 Comment

Read Only

Monday, I received a message from my antivirus program telling me that a Microsoft Word App was trying to access my protected files. I checked the block to prevent that access. The next day all my Word documents were Read Only which meant I could not edit them and anything I copied and pasted also reverted to a Read Only status. In essence I was shut down from working. Microsoft user support spent half the day trying to help me without success. The next day, the antivirus company sent me a fix and I was able to get my documents running again. Until the following day when suddenly everything was again Read Only! Talk about being frustrated—this was just not right! Once again, I contacted Microsoft and again a technician worked with me after I gave her permission to access my computer remotely. This time she was successful in solving the problem. What a relief to be able to type in new additions and to make needed changes.

1 Comment

1/23/2021 1 Comment

Fellowship: Why It Matters

Fellowship is a rich concept much deeper in meaning than we probably realize. In Hebrew the primary word for fellowship is šelem and it occurs 87 times in the New International Version (NIV). Only once is it used in the context of meeting with others (Psalm 55:13,14), in every other instance fellowship connects to God through the giving of a fellowship offering. The fellowship or peace offering in the Old Testament emphasized the opportunity the Hebrews had for close communion with God. This fellowship was consummated by eating the flesh of an animal presented as an offering to God (Leviticus 3 and 7:11-21). The peace offering meant that all was well relationally between Yahweh and His people and it was the last offering given.[1]

1 Comment

8/16/2020 0 Comments

Understanding Language and Literature

British prime minister Margaret Thatcher in a speech given in 1988 said:
We are a nation whose ideals were founded on the Bible. Also it is quite impossible to understand our literature without grasping this fact. That is the strong practical case for ensuring that children at school are given adequate instruction in the part which the Judaeo-Christian tradition has played in moulding our laws, manners and institutions.[1]

0 Comments

4/16/2020 1 Comment

How Will You Finish?

“The older man continued. ‘It has been my observation that just one out of ten who start out in full-time service for the Lord at twenty-one are still on track by the age of sixty-five’ . . . What makes you think that you will be the one man out of ten who finishes strong?”[1]

1 Comment