Have you met TED yet?

Have you met Ted yet?

How many people have you met that really improved your life?  

Have you met anyone on the net yet that can do that?

Would you invest 15 minutes of your life to learn something new?  Challenge the way you think?

Let me introduce you to Ted.  This stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design.  This group has held 2 conferences annually to bring together some of the world’s most innovative thinkers and doers.  They are asked to give the presentation of their lives and do so in less than 18 minutes.

TED is committed to the spreading of ideas, thus they have a free website with 900 of their best presentations.

Let me challenge you to go to their website during lunch someday and pick a topic or presentation that looks interesting and stretch your thinking.

You will find the talks will sometimes irritate…fascinate…and educate.

Our minds are like other muscles in the body. They must be stretched, exercised and used or else they grow weak.

Check out www.TED.com and begin bodybuilding for your brain!

Simple Salvation

What was the genius of Steve Jobs? He did not invent the mouse, the MP3 player or the personal computer. His genius really was simplicity. Real genius can take something complex and make it simple to understand and accept.

I am still in the life insurance business and have qualified for the Million Dollar Roundtable. It is for the top 5% of agents in the world. The top level is Top of the Table. These agents sell a ton of insurance to a lot of people. How do they do it? Not with 20 page financial plans or scenarios. Most of them bring a yellow pad, pen and a simple concept to meet a prospect. They listen to the prospect, discern their stories and needs and then draw out simple one page solutions.

No mention of premium or dollars per month, just simple, easy to choose solutions.

One of the downfalls in how we live our faith is we tend to overcomplicate things. We tell people they have to behave a certain way, read a chosen translation of the Bible, attend OUR church to really get to heaven and the list goes on, and on, and on…

God must weep.

Read the story in Luke 15 of the Prodigal son. This is a simple story to communicate the gospel.
Son chooses his own way (sin), leaves the father (separation), comes to his senses in the pig pen and decides to return home, (repentance) and humbles himself to the father (restoration).

More telling is the father’s heart. He grieves over each one of us who turn from Him. He welcomes us back without “I told you so”. He gives us a robe to cover our filth, (His righteousness), a ring to show authority (the Holy Spirit inside us) and party to celebrate our homecoming (rejoicing over us with love).

Home sick yet?

Come home to God. It’s simple.