Category Archives: Personal Development

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Let Truth Guide Your Legacy Action Plan

How does truth fit into our deliberate action plan to reclaim our legacy?  I believe that we live in a generation that is struggling to rediscover the timeless reality that we all pass on a legacy.  The only real legacy we have to pass on to our children is a legacy of truth: Truth about life; truth about God; truth that we invest into their future to give them hope.

Rather than just living day to day for life’s fleeting pleasures, a legacy-minded man or woman deliberately considers life as a gift not to be wasted.  Don’t you think that the really important things of life are deliberately developed and ‘invested’ in the light of a multi-generational perspective?  This is what seems to be missing so often today.  If you are investing for a future dividend, it has to be invested beyond your own limited vision of what you can do now and in the near future.  It’s going to be invested in light of the next generation. (more…)

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Imagine a Christmas that’s even better than Santa Claus!

by Dennis Petersen

I wanted to write a personal little Christmas letter to all four of my dear kids and 10 grandkids.

Would you agree that Christmas ought to be far more exciting than the ‘tinsel-town’ fluff that’s typically merchandized so heavily in our desensitized, fast-paced society?

I wanted my own kids to get this clearly so they would help my grandkids to personally know the One for whom the original Santa Claus sacrificed his life… but you all might like to use it yourselves in sharing this Christmas season in a life-changing way. You could even gather your little ones around you to read this short review of how we got some of our Christmas traditions.

Today’s Western world is so monopolized by highly marketed big business and the secularized ‘lame-stream’ media that it’s completely understandable how the true origins of Christmas and many of its colorful traditions have been stolen and hijacked. (more…)

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95 Reforms for Reformation, Then and Now

Does the number 95 mean anything special to you… Especially in the light of the month of October?

When you think about what happened just 500 years ago in Germany – 95 points of discussion were posted on the community bulletin board, a church door – a lowly monk unintentionally set in motion a sequence of events that changed the world more than any other single action by a human being since the resurrection of Christ. 

 My missionary friend in South Africa, Dr. Peter Hammond, has provided for us profound insights that can impact our priorities for generations to come if we’ll take them to heart.  (more…)

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Is there not a cause?

By Dennis Petersen

“Is There not a cause?” asked the shepherd David in Israel 3,000 years ago, when he witnessed the fear of Goliath among his fellow countrymen.

It’s bad enough when the enemies of your own life overwhelm you with fear.  But when the enemies of your whole culture, indeed of the very kingdom of your God, are openly hostile to the absolute values and objectives of life itself, do you think we might possibly be encouraged by this memorable ancient landmark recorded so specifically for us in our Bible? (more…)

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Godly Success Knows No Excuses

By Dennis Petersen

The Scriptures give us many emphatic directions on how to achieve success with God’s help in our daily lives

Everybody’s heard Proverbs 3:5-6

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.”

…but the first part is equally important and perhaps especially needed when motivation is waning because of the many discouraging conditions around us.  Here’s what it says: (more…)

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Keys to True Success in Challenging Times of Change

By Dennis Petersen, Adapted from: True Success in Times of Change By Tom Morris Nightingale-Conant Corporation

The Bible teaches followers of Jesus Christ to ask God for wisdom when you realize that you lack it, and trust that He will give it to you. How do you think that wisdom is found?   Can we really believe that there is practical wisdom available for the way forward from where we are right now?  When the seemingly overwhelming crises of the world are swirling around us, how can we find a well-lighted path into some sort of sustainable future that we all want? (more…)

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The Legacy of A Stress-free Life

By Brian Shilhavey

David, the second Jewish king lived a thousand years before Christ.  He was a man who faced tremendous stress in his life. Few of us today will face the kind of anxiety David experienced for more than 10 years of his life when he was constantly on the run from his enemies who were trying to kill him.  His psalms reveal keys that unlock powerful solutions even for today’s high stress world.

“Listen to my prayer, O God, do not ignore my plea; hear me and answer me. My thoughts trouble me and I am distraught at the voice of the enemy, at the stares of the wicked; for they bring down suffering upon me and revile me in their anger. My heart is in anguish within me; the terrors of death assail me. Fear and trembling have beset me; horror has overwhelmed me. I said, “Oh, that I had the wings of a dove! I would fly away and be at rest—I would flee far away and stay in the desert; I would hurry to my place of shelter, far from the tempest and storm.”

Psalm 55:1-8

One of the realities of life that our current physical science-based medical system has had to admit in recent years is that there are non-physical causes to poor health and disease. (more…)

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The Ant Philosophy… let’s teach our kids

I heard about how Jim Rohn, the well-known business trainer, taught about a very simple yet powerful concept – the ant philosophy.

The Bible teaches the wisdom of observing the humble ant and learning her ways.  Maybe we should all talk with each other from time to time about the characteristics of ants that should apply to our own lives as humans.

Do we value success?  Survival?  Community?  Progress?  Accomplishment?  Overcoming obstacles?  Endurance?  Resourcefulness?

What other values can you think of and why everybody should study ants? (more…)