2012-05-17T08:39:35Z http://shine.kingdomadvisors.org/atom.aspx Quick Blogcast tag:shine.kingdomadvisors.org,2012-04-16:ce895bbe-466e-4bef-9823-de1a2a060dbf Ron Blue 2012-04-16T13:52:06Z 2012-04-16T13:52:06Z <div>Dear Friends,</div> <div><br></div> <div>Many of you attended the Kingdom Advisors Annual Conference last month. Our worship leader, Marty Goetz, sang a song that puts one of my favorite verses to music. The verse is, “So teach us to number our days, that we may present to You a heart of wisdom.” (Psalm 90:12, NASB)</div> <div><br></div> <div>I love this verse because it reminds me of the gift of and importance of today. Only the Lord knows the number of my days in their entirety, but I can recognize and act on the specific ...</div>

<div>Dear Friends,</div> <div><br></div> <div>Many of you attended the Kingdom Advisors Annual Conference last month. Our worship leader, Marty Goetz, sang a song that puts one of my favorite verses to music. The verse is, “So teach us to number our days, that we may present to You a heart of wisdom.” (Psalm 90:12, NASB)</div> <div><br></div> <div>I love this verse because it reminds me of the gift of and importance of today. Only the Lord knows the number of my days in their entirety, but I can recognize and act on the specific ...</div>

tag:shine.kingdomadvisors.org,2012-04-10:3c97c63f-d970-4421-9c14-4f7abd1fa794 Ron Blue 2012-04-10T14:43:12Z 2012-04-10T14:43:12Z <div>Dear Friends:</div> <div><br></div> <div>There is an old song by the late Rich Mullins which says, “there’s a wideness in God’s mercy I cannot find in my own, and it keeps its fire burning to melt this heart of stone – keeps me aching, with a yearning - keeps me glad to have been caught in the reckless raging fury that they call the love of God.”&nbsp;</div> <div><br></div> <div>Sometimes the love of God in our lives feels reckless and raging. We encounter relationships or circumstances that offend our sense of justice, and we look ...</div>

<div>Dear Friends:</div> <div><br></div> <div>There is an old song by the late Rich Mullins which says, “there’s a wideness in God’s mercy I cannot find in my own, and it keeps its fire burning to melt this heart of stone – keeps me aching, with a yearning - keeps me glad to have been caught in the reckless raging fury that they call the love of God.”&nbsp;</div> <div><br></div> <div>Sometimes the love of God in our lives feels reckless and raging. We encounter relationships or circumstances that offend our sense of justice, and we look ...</div>

tag:shine.kingdomadvisors.org,2012-02-22:ab573d63-2b1b-4d6b-ada7-419de32012a5 Ron Blue 2012-02-22T14:56:35Z 2012-02-22T14:56:35Z <div>Dear Friends,</div> <div><br></div> <div>I always spend a lot of time in reflection at the beginning of the year. It’s helpful for me to review the past year and to set my focus on intentionally growing in certain areas in the coming year. Reflection for its own sake can breed selfishness or pride or self-pity. Instead, God asks us to reflect with Christ in mind. In Philippians 2:5, Paul exhorts the Christ-follower to consider Jesus’ example of humility and obedience as we fashion and fix our own attitude toward the relationships and responsibilities in the coming ...</div>

<div>Dear Friends,</div> <div><br></div> <div>I always spend a lot of time in reflection at the beginning of the year. It’s helpful for me to review the past year and to set my focus on intentionally growing in certain areas in the coming year. Reflection for its own sake can breed selfishness or pride or self-pity. Instead, God asks us to reflect with Christ in mind. In Philippians 2:5, Paul exhorts the Christ-follower to consider Jesus’ example of humility and obedience as we fashion and fix our own attitude toward the relationships and responsibilities in the coming ...</div>

tag:shine.kingdomadvisors.org,2012-01-09:b975b189-7abf-4fdb-b929-a2609f7949ae Ron Blue 2012-01-09T22:01:01Z 2012-01-09T22:01:01Z <div>Dear Friends,</div> <div><br></div> <div>Today I am grateful for my Savior. The world is a hurried, painful, and sometimes confusing place. It is so good to know that He humbled Himself and made a way for me to enter into to the rest, health, and clarity of a relationship with my Creator and Father. As I write to you and ponder John 14:6 again today, I thought it would be an encouragement to you to consider a few verses that speak more fully to Jesus being the way, the truth, and the life.</div> <div>...</div>

<div>Dear Friends,</div> <div><br></div> <div>Today I am grateful for my Savior. The world is a hurried, painful, and sometimes confusing place. It is so good to know that He humbled Himself and made a way for me to enter into to the rest, health, and clarity of a relationship with my Creator and Father. As I write to you and ponder John 14:6 again today, I thought it would be an encouragement to you to consider a few verses that speak more fully to Jesus being the way, the truth, and the life.</div> <div>...</div>

tag:shine.kingdomadvisors.org,2011-12-15:1918960a-9717-4fcb-92b2-aad87b442e95 Ron Blue 2011-12-15T15:43:35Z 2011-12-15T15:43:35Z <div>Dear Friends:</div> <div><br></div> <div>It is the season of Advent. Two weeks ago, on Sunday, we lit the first Advent candle, which stands for hope. As I think about the quote by Oswald Chambers, “God does not give us overcoming life, but life as we overcome,” I am struck by the need for hope in our overcoming.</div> <div><br></div> <div>Hope, which is synonymous with desire, expectation, and belief, indicates that we are actively holding onto something that we neither see nor possess in the moment. Hope, in our Christian walk, joins faith and ...</div>

<div>Dear Friends:</div> <div><br></div> <div>It is the season of Advent. Two weeks ago, on Sunday, we lit the first Advent candle, which stands for hope. As I think about the quote by Oswald Chambers, “God does not give us overcoming life, but life as we overcome,” I am struck by the need for hope in our overcoming.</div> <div><br></div> <div>Hope, which is synonymous with desire, expectation, and belief, indicates that we are actively holding onto something that we neither see nor possess in the moment. Hope, in our Christian walk, joins faith and ...</div>

tag:shine.kingdomadvisors.org,2011-11-16:d2b8664b-5750-4c09-906b-c68928af423c Ron Blue 2011-11-17T04:10:53Z 2011-11-17T04:10:53Z <div>Dear Friends:</div> <div><br></div> <div>The world is very small. When I turn on the news or load CNN.com on my computer, I see images from every continent…all of them fresh within the last week…each of them portraying ugly truths that are frequently hard to embrace.</div> <div><br></div> <div>We live in occupied territory. Paul said in Ephesians 6:12, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”</div> <div>...</div>

<div>Dear Friends:</div> <div><br></div> <div>The world is very small. When I turn on the news or load CNN.com on my computer, I see images from every continent…all of them fresh within the last week…each of them portraying ugly truths that are frequently hard to embrace.</div> <div><br></div> <div>We live in occupied territory. Paul said in Ephesians 6:12, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”</div> <div>...</div>

tag:shine.kingdomadvisors.org,2011-11-08:8a28cf9b-dfcb-45e1-bec0-2fdec7946bb8 Ron Blue 2011-11-09T02:56:55Z 2011-11-09T02:56:55Z <div>Dear Friends,</div> <div><br></div> <div>I pray you are well. Over the last few weeks as my wife, Judy, and I have walked through a season of physical challenge (she had surgery for a badly broken arm), I have had more and more honest prayer before the Lord…prayer that He would help me to walk each day as Jesus walked and love those around me as Jesus loved. It is humbling to encounter our own frailty when we are faced with challenges.</div> <div><br></div> <div>Often, though, our frailty brings us back to God’s perspective ...</div>

<div>Dear Friends,</div> <div><br></div> <div>I pray you are well. Over the last few weeks as my wife, Judy, and I have walked through a season of physical challenge (she had surgery for a badly broken arm), I have had more and more honest prayer before the Lord…prayer that He would help me to walk each day as Jesus walked and love those around me as Jesus loved. It is humbling to encounter our own frailty when we are faced with challenges.</div> <div><br></div> <div>Often, though, our frailty brings us back to God’s perspective ...</div>

tag:shine.kingdomadvisors.org,2011-10-31:e99fe2bd-9bff-4dff-a9e7-a10822cce84d Ron Blue 2011-10-31T18:51:44Z 2011-10-31T18:51:44Z <div>Dear Friends,</div> <div><br></div> <div>Today, I want to share with you a few excellent “remember” and “forget” scriptures, as an encouragement to you in your walk with the Lord.</div> <div><br></div> <div>REMEMBER:</div> <div><br></div> <div>“But you shall <strong>remember</strong> that you were a slave in Egypt, and that the Lord your God redeemed you from there; therefore I am commanding you to do this thing. When you reap your harvest in your field and have forgotten a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it; it shall be for ...</div>

<div>Dear Friends,</div> <div><br></div> <div>Today, I want to share with you a few excellent “remember” and “forget” scriptures, as an encouragement to you in your walk with the Lord.</div> <div><br></div> <div>REMEMBER:</div> <div><br></div> <div>“But you shall <strong>remember</strong> that you were a slave in Egypt, and that the Lord your God redeemed you from there; therefore I am commanding you to do this thing. When you reap your harvest in your field and have forgotten a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it; it shall be for ...</div>

tag:shine.kingdomadvisors.org,2011-09-22:bac2c637-dfad-4b4f-9b34-e847d5793d8f Ron Blue 2011-09-22T17:53:20Z 2011-09-22T17:53:20Z <div>Dear Friends,</div> <div><br></div> <div>Have you ever stopped to observe tiny creatures for a period of time? A spider spinning her web? An ant carrying his food on his back? A hummingbird drinking his fill from a red plastic feeder? When observing such things, it is easy to be amazed at the intricate nature of life, even among the smallest creatures. On the other hand, it is also very easy for us (as humans) to chuckle at how the particular creature we are watching is oblivious to the wider world. The spider does not know that ...</div>

<div>Dear Friends,</div> <div><br></div> <div>Have you ever stopped to observe tiny creatures for a period of time? A spider spinning her web? An ant carrying his food on his back? A hummingbird drinking his fill from a red plastic feeder? When observing such things, it is easy to be amazed at the intricate nature of life, even among the smallest creatures. On the other hand, it is also very easy for us (as humans) to chuckle at how the particular creature we are watching is oblivious to the wider world. The spider does not know that ...</div>

tag:shine.kingdomadvisors.org,2011-09-12:a573c8c6-a1b5-422a-ac93-5302a57bd8ac Ron Blue 2011-09-12T15:09:47Z 2011-09-12T15:09:47Z <div>Dear Friends,</div> <div><br></div> <div>I have just finished reading Ken Follett’s most recent book, <em>Fall of Giants</em>. It chronicles the origins and the outcome of World War I by tracing several different families – American, German, Russian, British, and Welsh. The book enumerates on the vast wealth of upper class European and American families in contrast with the grinding poverty of the working class poor during the early part of the 20th century. In true Follett style, there are several key reversals of fortune, and by the end of the novel, a few of the characters ...</div>

<div>Dear Friends,</div> <div><br></div> <div>I have just finished reading Ken Follett’s most recent book, <em>Fall of Giants</em>. It chronicles the origins and the outcome of World War I by tracing several different families – American, German, Russian, British, and Welsh. The book enumerates on the vast wealth of upper class European and American families in contrast with the grinding poverty of the working class poor during the early part of the 20th century. In true Follett style, there are several key reversals of fortune, and by the end of the novel, a few of the characters ...</div>

tag:shine.kingdomadvisors.org,2011-09-06:56ee4243-5afa-4b4f-bf48-bcb85f07b4a6 Ron Blue 2011-09-06T18:04:37Z 2011-09-06T18:04:37Z <div>Dear Friends:</div> <div><br></div> <div>It is so easy to forget that we live on a battleground. As I have watched the battle for Lybia unfold over the past weeks, I’ve been reminded what a high price one must pay for victory when the enemy is an evil dictator.</div> <div><br></div> <div>Satan is indeed an evil dictator. He unleashes destruction, deception, and despair at every turn. One of his greatest schemes is his scheme to deceive – his scheme to perpetuate darkness. He tempts us to believe that we can construct our world in ...</div>

<div>Dear Friends:</div> <div><br></div> <div>It is so easy to forget that we live on a battleground. As I have watched the battle for Lybia unfold over the past weeks, I’ve been reminded what a high price one must pay for victory when the enemy is an evil dictator.</div> <div><br></div> <div>Satan is indeed an evil dictator. He unleashes destruction, deception, and despair at every turn. One of his greatest schemes is his scheme to deceive – his scheme to perpetuate darkness. He tempts us to believe that we can construct our world in ...</div>

tag:shine.kingdomadvisors.org,2011-08-29:3f139e1b-34c9-49a7-93f7-da7ba83bdea4 Ron Blue 2011-08-29T13:36:25Z 2011-08-29T13:36:25Z <div>Dear Friends:</div> <div><br></div> <div>One of my good friends in ministry, Dr. Kenneth Boa, has devoted his life to scholarship of God’s Word as it relates to how we live our daily life in relationship to Him. He is a brilliant man, and his discussion on the value of meditating on (and praying) Scripture is worth reading, in light of the video you just heard from my own experience. This article was taken from Ken’s website, <a href="http://www.kenboa.org.%C2%A0%3C/div%3E">www.kenboa.org.</a></div> <div><br></div> <div><strong>The Discipline of Meditation&nbsp;</strong></div> <div><br></div> <div>It is impossible to think about ...</div>

<div>Dear Friends:</div> <div><br></div> <div>One of my good friends in ministry, Dr. Kenneth Boa, has devoted his life to scholarship of God’s Word as it relates to how we live our daily life in relationship to Him. He is a brilliant man, and his discussion on the value of meditating on (and praying) Scripture is worth reading, in light of the video you just heard from my own experience. This article was taken from Ken’s website, <a href="http://www.kenboa.org.%C2%A0%3C/div%3E">www.kenboa.org.</a></div> <div><br></div> <div><strong>The Discipline of Meditation&nbsp;</strong></div> <div><br></div> <div>It is impossible to think about ...</div>

tag:shine.kingdomadvisors.org,2011-08-15:418a65cc-ede6-40d2-9741-0213fbfa5e80 Ron Blue 2011-08-15T14:22:25Z 2011-08-15T14:22:25Z <div>Dear Friends,</div> <div><br></div> <div>The tenants of God’s goodness and God’s sovereignty and God’s holiness as they relate to God’s people are magnificent to consider.</div> <div><br></div> <div>If you have never read through the Old Testament, I would encourage you to do so! Seeing the cord of His goodness, holiness, and sovereignty evidenced in the story of the nation of Israel will likely cause your heart to bow in new ways before Him.</div> <div><br></div> <div>I love the first question of the Westminster Catechism. It says, “What is the chief end of ...</div>

<div>Dear Friends,</div> <div><br></div> <div>The tenants of God’s goodness and God’s sovereignty and God’s holiness as they relate to God’s people are magnificent to consider.</div> <div><br></div> <div>If you have never read through the Old Testament, I would encourage you to do so! Seeing the cord of His goodness, holiness, and sovereignty evidenced in the story of the nation of Israel will likely cause your heart to bow in new ways before Him.</div> <div><br></div> <div>I love the first question of the Westminster Catechism. It says, “What is the chief end of ...</div>

tag:shine.kingdomadvisors.org,2011-08-09:24f61e99-8cb1-4689-9f2c-9fd34eb39e28 Ron Blue 2011-08-10T02:35:20Z 2011-08-10T02:35:20Z <div>Dear Friends:</div> <div><br></div> <div>Just this week, I heard a sermon in which the pastor quoted Jesus from Matthew 19:24, “Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” (NASB) This particular verse always cuts through my heart on two levels. Number one, I am burdened for the wealthy people in my sphere of influence – former clients, neighbors, colleagues, etc. Wealth and its gravitational pull make it so difficult to make Kingdom-oriented choices. Secondly, ...</div>

<div>Dear Friends:</div> <div><br></div> <div>Just this week, I heard a sermon in which the pastor quoted Jesus from Matthew 19:24, “Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” (NASB) This particular verse always cuts through my heart on two levels. Number one, I am burdened for the wealthy people in my sphere of influence – former clients, neighbors, colleagues, etc. Wealth and its gravitational pull make it so difficult to make Kingdom-oriented choices. Secondly, ...</div>

tag:shine.kingdomadvisors.org,2011-08-01:8596f4ee-0b26-42b4-abcd-cf5047b2218c Ron Blue 2011-08-01T14:01:06Z 2011-08-01T14:01:06Z <div>Dear Friends,</div> <div><br></div> <div>If you have taken Kingdom Advisors Core Training, you know that I love to teach around the model “Know, Believe, Do.” The path from head knowledge to real action flows through the heart. We must believe what we know before we will act upon it.</div> <div><br></div> <div>Along those lines, if we are going to move with the Holy Spirit as He rescues us from our addiction to ourselves, we need to choose the path of knowledge, belief, and action. I’d like to share with you some of my ...</div>

<div>Dear Friends,</div> <div><br></div> <div>If you have taken Kingdom Advisors Core Training, you know that I love to teach around the model “Know, Believe, Do.” The path from head knowledge to real action flows through the heart. We must believe what we know before we will act upon it.</div> <div><br></div> <div>Along those lines, if we are going to move with the Holy Spirit as He rescues us from our addiction to ourselves, we need to choose the path of knowledge, belief, and action. I’d like to share with you some of my ...</div>

tag:shine.kingdomadvisors.org,2011-07-28:0fabf04f-f515-42e2-b8d7-80d63be5c62c Ron Blue 2011-07-28T19:28:39Z 2011-07-28T19:28:39Z <div>Dear Friends,</div> <div><br></div> <div>Have you ever read through the Bible in a year? There are many plans and programs available online to map out a reading plan for the year, and there are even “One Year Bibles” that you can buy that have the Bible portioned out into readings for each day. Every few years, I read through the Bible from start to finish. As I read, I am always astounded at the hugeness of God and at His care for the details in His plans working out through human stories.</div> <div><br></div> ...

<div>Dear Friends,</div> <div><br></div> <div>Have you ever read through the Bible in a year? There are many plans and programs available online to map out a reading plan for the year, and there are even “One Year Bibles” that you can buy that have the Bible portioned out into readings for each day. Every few years, I read through the Bible from start to finish. As I read, I am always astounded at the hugeness of God and at His care for the details in His plans working out through human stories.</div> <div><br></div> ...

tag:shine.kingdomadvisors.org,2011-07-14:fe1fd350-e302-4298-98ae-7c3ea2f8c3e1 Ron Blue 2011-07-14T18:49:01Z 2011-07-14T18:49:01Z <div>Dear Friends,</div> <div><br></div> <div>I hope that you are having a good summer. Judy and I are enjoying a lot of great family time with our kids and extended family. Our time together always leads me to reflect on the grace of God in our family’s life over the last 46+ years of my marriage to Judy.</div> <div><br></div> <div>A huge part of reflecting on God’s grace over the lifetime of a family involves remembering, “the cleansing from (their) past sins.” While I won’t go through the litany of God’s grace within our ...</div>

<div>Dear Friends,</div> <div><br></div> <div>I hope that you are having a good summer. Judy and I are enjoying a lot of great family time with our kids and extended family. Our time together always leads me to reflect on the grace of God in our family’s life over the last 46+ years of my marriage to Judy.</div> <div><br></div> <div>A huge part of reflecting on God’s grace over the lifetime of a family involves remembering, “the cleansing from (their) past sins.” While I won’t go through the litany of God’s grace within our ...</div>

tag:shine.kingdomadvisors.org,2011-06-24:8dbe4c60-ab71-4b89-a375-12a4250008d3 Ron Blue 2011-06-24T18:55:31Z 2011-06-24T18:55:31Z <div>Dear Friends,</div> <div><br></div> <div>Clearly, I am a numbers guy. When we are in the middle of making a decision together, Judy regularly says to me, “Don’t put me on a spreadsheet!” I just can’t resist a good numerical analysis, and I am sure that many of you are the same way.</div> <div><br></div> <div>Sometimes, though, it pays to be as analytical in our reading of Scripture as we would be our understanding of a client’s financial situation. The list of steps to making our faith real in II Peter 1 is rich ...</div>

<div>Dear Friends,</div> <div><br></div> <div>Clearly, I am a numbers guy. When we are in the middle of making a decision together, Judy regularly says to me, “Don’t put me on a spreadsheet!” I just can’t resist a good numerical analysis, and I am sure that many of you are the same way.</div> <div><br></div> <div>Sometimes, though, it pays to be as analytical in our reading of Scripture as we would be our understanding of a client’s financial situation. The list of steps to making our faith real in II Peter 1 is rich ...</div>

tag:shine.kingdomadvisors.org,2011-05-27:57f8768f-0f91-4f49-9e45-d813988106cd Ron Blue 2011-05-27T20:34:45Z 2011-05-27T20:34:45Z <div>Dear Friends,</div> <div><br></div> <div>I have a tongue-in-cheek saying that I sometimes said when one of my kids used to ask me how my day had been. &nbsp;I would quip, “It was great, except for the people!” &nbsp;For those of you who know me, you know that, while I value and enjoy relationships, God made me to be an introvert; often the “people problems” that life presents feel especially heavy to me. However God made all of us for relationship – with Him and with others. &nbsp;When He created us in His Own image, He made ...</div>

<div>Dear Friends,</div> <div><br></div> <div>I have a tongue-in-cheek saying that I sometimes said when one of my kids used to ask me how my day had been. &nbsp;I would quip, “It was great, except for the people!” &nbsp;For those of you who know me, you know that, while I value and enjoy relationships, God made me to be an introvert; often the “people problems” that life presents feel especially heavy to me. However God made all of us for relationship – with Him and with others. &nbsp;When He created us in His Own image, He made ...</div>

tag:shine.kingdomadvisors.org,2011-05-13:ae605f1f-4ec2-41e6-9df0-b0b56f84ccf7 Ron Blue 2011-05-13T20:04:00Z 2011-05-13T20:04:00Z <div>Dear Friends:</div> <div><br></div> <div>The Westminster Catechism asks, “What is the chief end of man?” and then answers, “Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever.”&nbsp;</div> <div><br></div> <div>The glory of God is best evidenced through the redemptive narrative that God has ordained in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the salvation of the nations. &nbsp;As believers, we have a small speaking part in that redemptive narrative. &nbsp;We have a role in God’s story, and we are graced with the opportunity to glorify Him as He evidences redemption in ...</div>

<div>Dear Friends:</div> <div><br></div> <div>The Westminster Catechism asks, “What is the chief end of man?” and then answers, “Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever.”&nbsp;</div> <div><br></div> <div>The glory of God is best evidenced through the redemptive narrative that God has ordained in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the salvation of the nations. &nbsp;As believers, we have a small speaking part in that redemptive narrative. &nbsp;We have a role in God’s story, and we are graced with the opportunity to glorify Him as He evidences redemption in ...</div>