Learning from the Destruction of Sodom
“and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly; and delivered righteous Lot, who was very distressed by the lustful life of the wicked (for that righteous man dwelling among them, was tormented in his righteous soul from day to day with seeing and hearing lawless deeds):” (2 Peter 2:6-8 WEB)
The apostle Peter wrote that Abraham’s nephew, Lot, was righteous. By this, we know that he is saved and that he got saved because he had faith in Yahweh.
However, Lot’s end was tragic. He escaped from Sodom with no possessions except for the clothes on his back, his wife, and his two daughters.
On the way out of the city, his wife turned back after being told not to, and was turned into a pillar of salt.
Afterwards, Lot settled in a cave because of fear.
“When God destroyed the cities of the plain, God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the middle of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in which Lot lived. Lot went up out of Zoar, and lived in the mountain, and his two daughters with him; for he was afraid to live in Zoar. He lived in a cave with his two daughters. The firstborn said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is not a man in the earth to come in to us in the way of all the earth. Come, let’s make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve our father’s family line.” They made their father drink wine that night: and the firstborn went in, and lay with her father. He didn’t know when she lay down, nor when she arose. It came to pass on the next day, that the firstborn said to the younger, “Behold, I lay last night with my father. Let us make him drink wine again, tonight. You go in, and lie with him, that we may preserve our father’s family line. ” They made their father drink wine that night also. The younger went and lay with him. He didn’t know when she lay down, nor when she got up. Thus both of Lot’s daughters were with child by their father.” (Genesis 19:29-36 WEB)
Seeing the scale of destruction, Lot’s two daughters thought that the whole world was destroyed and that there were no other men left, so they proceeded to make Lot drunk with alcohol, and slept with him to bear children. After that traumatic experience, all they could think about was sleeping with a man!
This was a righteous man’s ending because he chose to live a worldly life.
This all began because Lot decided to walk by sight. Abraham and Lot’s flocks had grown so much that they could not live together anymore. When Abraham asked Lot to choose where to separate himself to, Lot chose based on what he saw, without praying to ask for God’s counsel—he was walking by sight.
“Lot lifted up his eyes, and saw all the plain of the Jordan, that it was well-watered everywhere, before Yahweh destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, like the garden of Yahweh, like the land of Egypt, as you go to Zoar. So Lot chose the Plain of the Jordan for himself. Lot traveled east, and they separated themselves the one from the other.” (Genesis 13:10-11 WEB)
We learn from the Book of Proverbs that there is a way that seems right to a man, but it only leads to death.
“There is a way which seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.” (Proverbs 14:12 WEB)
From then on, righteous Lot was tormented in his soul (mind, will, and emotions) every day from seeing and hearing the wickedness of the people in Sodom.
Not only him, but his family was exposed to this worldliness daily as well.
We who are born-again will feel this tormented soul state even more so than Lot because we have the Holy Spirit inside us. Our born-again spirit hates what is evil and loves what is good.
This is why if genuine Christians fall into sin, they will hate it and want to be delivered from sinful habits and lifestyles.
Lot’s wife turned back to Sodom because her heart was full of the world. Her treasures were in that city. When she looked back after the angels told her not to, it revealed that she was not really saved (she had no faith in Yahweh).
The wicked ways of Sodom had also rubbed off on Lot’s daughters. They learned to make their father drunk and do something as vile as committing incest with their father.
All these tragedies happened because Lot chose to put himself and his family in a worldly environment, without leaving Sodom before its destruction. He failed as the head of the house.
Worldliness will ruin Christians and cause them to live defeated lives. They stop reading God’s word and praying, and instead use all their time and effort to pursue what the world runs after, only rushing towards their destruction. Unnecessary hurts and suffering are sure to come.
What example are you setting for your family? Are your daily habits leading them closer to God’s ways, or drawing them away from His ways and towards the world instead?
“Now he who plants and he who waters are the same, but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor...For no one can lay any other foundation than that which has been laid, which is Jesus Christ. But if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or stubble; each man’s work will be revealed. For the Day will declare it, because it is revealed in fire; and the fire itself will test what sort of work each man’s work is. If any man’s work remains which he built on it, he will receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, but as through fire.” (1 Corinthians 3:8, 11-15 WEB)
Are you focusing on earthly things like “gold, silver, costly stones”, or is your heart on the things of God which are heavenly?
When the time comes for you to stand before Jesus’ throne, don’t be like Lot who escaped with nothing but his life. Lot’s works were all burnt up, and he got out of the city with nothing, like he lived his whole live in vain.
When the day comes for your eternal rewards to be measured, I hope that you will be happy with the way you invested your time in this life. When you build your life upon the foundation of Jesus Christ, with the Gospel and its advancement as your chief goal, there is no way you will be shortchanged on ‘awards day’.
What is the point of chasing foolish things in this lifetime only to end up with nothing that lasts forever, as if you are saved through fire with all your works burnt up? Be wise—walk by faith, not by sight. God’s word is true.
Judgment day for Christians is nothing to be afraid of. In fact, it is a day for receiving eternal rewards. How do you maximize your rewards, identify your God-given calling in life, and step into that to enjoy a worthy life? I share a whole book about that in “Sandcastles Don’t Last Forever”.
This was the first book I wrote, and it is full of revelation about our eternal rewards which are hardly taught about in pulpits today (I’ve never heard anyone preaching this): http://bit.ly/sandcastlesdontlastforever
同時也有2部Youtube影片,追蹤數超過93萬的網紅Bubzvlogz,也在其Youtube影片中提到,Add me on Instagram to see my web toons: http://www.instagram.com/bubzcomics It’s funny how life works out. Drawing was so integral throughout my e...
「family reading drawing」的推薦目錄:
- 關於family reading drawing 在 Milton Goh Blog and Sermon Notes Facebook 的最讚貼文
- 關於family reading drawing 在 AppWorks Facebook 的最佳貼文
- 關於family reading drawing 在 IELTS Fighter - Chiến binh IELTS Facebook 的精選貼文
- 關於family reading drawing 在 Bubzvlogz Youtube 的精選貼文
- 關於family reading drawing 在 Kapiew101 Lifestyle Channel Youtube 的最佳貼文
family reading drawing 在 AppWorks Facebook 的最佳貼文
Interview with A Founder: Conor McLaughlin (Co-founder of 99.co)
By David Wu (AppWorks Associate)
Conor McLaughlin was previously the Co-founder and CTO of 99.co, the real estate marketplace in Singapore and Indonesia. He spent six and a half years at the startup, whose backers include Sequoia Capital, 500 Startups, and Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin, helping to grow it into a $100 million company. As a member of AppWorks Accelerator #21, he is currently working on his next big project, a yet-to-be-named language learning startup.
【What advice do you have for first-time founders?】
First, you need to decide: do I want to run a sprint or a marathon? For a sprint, you may be open to acquisition from the beginning, delay non-startup aspects of your life, give yourself two years where you drop everything to test an idea, choose to raise more money earlier on and thus be more diluted, or do anything else that implies a shorter time horizon. Typically 1-5 years - this can lead to a major boon in a short period of time if executed well. If you decide you are in the sprinting business, you will most likely be pushed toward binary outcomes because of how many investors and employees you have on your cap table. As a first-time founder, you need to be clear with yourself on what you are willing to put on the line. As Reid Hoffman says, it’s like jumping off a cliff and building a plane on the way down… hopefully you build a plane in time.
If you are running a marathon, you are deciding that your competitive advantage is consistency over intensity. You are in this for 10, 15 years. With this time horizon, you will realize you need ways to metabolize stress and maintain emotional, spiritual, and mental health. You need to maintain relationships with friends, family, and romantic partners. When you are looking at this 10 year period, you realize the people around you can only put up with so much. Unfortunately, while work is something people can generally bounce back from, there are many things in life where you cannot - an example is your relationship with your partner. If you’re going to run a marathon, you need to be clear with yourself about what time you have for other aspects of your life and what time you have for your company. Eventually you need to learn what the right speed is where you can run as long as possible. It’s amazing how often it is that those people that keep going, assuming you have chosen the right problem to solve, eventually find daylight. Part of that is just lasting long enough.
Second, you need to revisit and continually ask yourself: should I still be running a sprint or a marathon? Circumstances change. Maybe you sprinted for the first two years to secure interesting results and funding; now it's time to transition to a marathon and clean up the life debt a bit. Or inversely, maybe you're finally leaving the trough of sorrow and it's time to sprint for a bit. Most founders will be in a long distance race with periodic sprinting. From my observation, founders most often stop because of two reasons: They either A) run out of money or B) run out of energy. There’s plenty of advice out there for scenario A (hint: don’t). But in my experience, scenario B is far more pernicious and dangerous to would-be successful founders. If you are in a marathon but fail to pace yourself and run it like one long sprint, you are unlikely to make it to the end.
Much founder advice speaks to this: Don’t let your startup make you fat. Exercise 5-10% of the time. Pick up a hobby outside of your startup. Go home for holidays. All of it leads back to one thing: You need to take care of yourself. Because injury will be far worse for your progress than being a little slower. “Slow is smooth, smooth is fast”, as the US Navy Seals say. This is surprisingly difficult advice for intrinsically motivated founders to follow, because in the event of failure, it makes them vulnerable to the thought, “Well, you didn’t work hard enough.” But for those that already have the hustle, your job is to avoid the moment of epiphany where you look in the mirror and think, “This isn’t worth it.”
All founders will have to sacrifice some things. The point is to not sacrifice everything. It will make you more resilient. Not less. It will give you the space to see situations more objectively and make better decisions. And most importantly, it will let you love what you do because it will remind you that the work isn’t just in service of yourself, it’s in the service of others. I do not think you can judge hard work over a day, or even a year, but I do think you can judge hard work over 5-10 years. Hard work is not just about the next 1-2 months. There will be times when you need to run as fast as possible, but if that is happening all the time you are probably not being smart about the situation. So don’t hurt yourself, be consistent, keep disciplined, and keep going.
Lastly, focus on your metaskills. Public speaking, reading, writing - skills applied in every aspect of your life. Generally what they reflect is learning how to think better. As a founder you need to think about - how can I think more clearly, be more creative, rigorous, analytical? As Warren Buffett and others have said: I have never seen a successful person that did not read as often as they could. Actual books and long form scare a lot of people. That’s your competitive advantage. Read blog posts from smart people, follow smart people on Twitter, listen to podcasts. Always be focused on how you can develop yourself to think better. Fostering the habit of improving your thinking will foster discipline in yourself. And discipline will let you turn that rigorous thinking into action.
【I imagine running the “race” has been especially tough this year. How have you gotten through 2020?】
I have leaned on routine and community. I’ve spent a lot of time trying to foster discipline in myself. I make my bed every morning, meditate every morning, make sure that I go to the gym 3-4 times a week. There’s so much uncertainty in both the world and the entrepreneurial space. Keeping certain things consistent gives me a spine to my life that I can fall back on. If I’m not feeling well, my discipline takes over and I’ll go to the gym. That helps me relieve stress - falling back to routine and having some mainstays of consistency and structure.
And community - it’s been the big mental health zeitgeist of this year. Everyone is recognizing that without the people around us, our mental health diminishes. Joining AppWorks was very intentional so I could surround myself with like-minded people who could question me, hold me accountable, and inspire me. And also just forming personal connections where I felt that I was still taking care of my mental health by connecting with others. Being a founder is an incredibly lonely journey. In the early days, there’s not a lot of people around. Later, when you do hire lots of people, you need to be the boss, the leader - for certain things, you can’t tell the employees everything, and even if you do, there will always be a bit of distance. You need people to relate to - people want to be seen for who they are, and appreciated for what they give. When you are a founder, sometimes it’s hard to feel that you are seen. So I intentionally put myself in situations where I can be inspired, be held accountable, and more importantly connect with others, and feel that I’m not alone. And that me and my co-founders are part of a communal journey with those around us.
【When you talk about how to run the race, I get the sense that you’re drawing from previous experiences and, perhaps, mistakes. What are the mistakes you’ve made in your founder journey and the takeaways?】
I think you could take a calendar, point to a random week, and we could list out all the mistakes from that week (laughs). I do subscribe to Steve Jobs’ philosophy: mistakes will happen, but mistakes happening means we are making decisions. Not making decisions is perhaps the biggest mistake. It’s often the reason for frustration, loss of speed, loss of momentum - so many of the issues you encounter in startups. Not making enough mistakes is probably the #1 mistake that I’ve made.
Second, going back to my advice to first-time founders, is not understanding what game I’m playing. Not understanding that all the money in the world is not going to be worth it if your spouse or partner decides to leave you because you have relegated them to a second-class citizen in your life. I think I forgot that at points. There is more to life than just the company.
Third, be careful about who you choose to work with. At minimum, if you’re doing a standard 8-9 hours at the office five times a week, that’s a lot of time with those people. You want to like the people that you work with - you want to know they’re high integrity, you want to respect their values, and you want to have common values. Choosing the right people that give you energy rather than take it away just makes running the marathon so much easier.
【We welcome all AI, Blockchain, or Southeast Asia founders to join AppWorks Accelerator: https://bit.ly/3r4lLR8 】
family reading drawing 在 IELTS Fighter - Chiến binh IELTS Facebook 的精選貼文
- Luyện Reading, tìm từ vựng hay
MOTIVATIONAL FACTORS AND THE HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY
A critical ingredient in the success of hotels is developing and maintaining superior performance from their employees. How is that accomplished? What Human Resource Management (HRM) practices should organizations invest in to acquire and retain great employees?
Some hotels aim to provide superior working conditions for their employees. The idea originated from workplaces - usually in the non-service sector - that emphasized fun and enjoyment as part of work-life balance. By contrast, the service sector, and more specifically hotels, has traditionally not extended these practices to address basic employee needs, such as good working conditions.
Pfeffer (1994) emphasizes that in order to succeed in a global business environment, organizations must make investment in Human Resource Management (HRM) to allow them to acquire employees who possess better skills and capabilities than their competitors. This investment will be to their competitive advantage. Despite this recognition of the importance of employee development, the hospitality industry has historically been dominated by underdeveloped HR practices (Lucas, 2002).
Lucas also points out that 'the substance of HRM practices does not appear to be designed to foster constructive relations with employees or to represent a managerial approach that enables developing and drawing out the full potential of people, even though employees may be broadly satisfied with many aspects of their work' (Lucas, 2002). In addition, or maybe as a result, high employee turnover has been a recurring problem throughout the hospitality industry. Among the many cited reasons are low compensation, inadequate benefits, poor working conditions and compromised employee morale and attitudes (Maroudas et al., 2008).
Ng and Sorensen (2008) demonstrated that when managers provide recognition to employees, motivate employees to work together, and remove obstacles preventing effective performance, employees feel more obligated to stay with the company. This was succinctly summarized by Michel et al. (2013): '[P]roviding support to employees gives them the confidence to perform their jobs better and the motivation to stay with the organization.' Hospitality organizations can therefore enhance employee motivation and retention through the development and improvement of their working conditions. These conditions are inherently linked to the working environment.
While it seems likely that employees' reactions to their job characteristics could be affected by a predisposition to view their work environment negatively, no evidence exists to support this hypothesis (Spector et al., 2000). However, given the opportunity, many people will find something to complain about in relation to their workplace (Poulston, 2009). There is a strong link between the perceptions of employees and particular factors of their work environment that are separate from the work itself, including company policies, salary and vacations.
Such conditions are particularly troubling for the luxury hotel market, where high-quality service, requiring a sophisticated approach to HRM, is recognized as a critical source of competitive advantage (Maroudas et al., 2008). In a real sense, the services ofhotel employees represent their industry (Schneider and Bowen, 1993). This representation has commonly been limited to guest experiences. This suggests that there has been a dichotomy between the guest environment provided in luxury hotels and the working conditions of their employees.
It is therefore essential for hotel management to develop HRM practices that enable them to inspire and retain competent employees. This requires an understanding of what motivates employees at different levels of management and different stages of their careers (Enz and Siguaw, 2000). This implies that it is beneficial for hotel managers to understand what practices are most favorable to increase employee satisfaction and retention.
Herzberg (1966) proposes that people have two major types of needs, the first being extrinsic motivation factors relating to the context in which work is performed, rather than the work itself. These include working conditions and job security. When these factors are unfavorable, job dissatisfaction may result. Significantly, though, just fulfilling these needs does not result in satisfaction, but only in the reduction of dissatisfaction (Maroudas et al., 2008).
Employees also have intrinsic motivation needs or motivators, which include such factors as achievement and recognition. Unlike extrinsic factors, motivator factors may ideally result in job satisfaction (Maroudas et al., 2008). Herzberg's (1966) theory discusses the need for a 'balance' of these two types of needs.
The impact of fun as a motivating factor at work has also been explored. For example, Tews, Michel and Stafford (2013) conducted a study focusing on staff from a chain of themed restaurants in the United States. It was found that fun activities had a favorable impact on performance and manager support for fun had a favorable impact in reducing turnover.
Their findings support the view that fun may indeed have a beneficial effect, but the framing of that fun must be carefully aligned with both organizational goals and employee characteristics. 'Managers must learn how to achieve the delicate balance of allowing employees the freedom to enjoy themselves at work while simultaneously maintaining high levels of performance' (Tews et al., 2013).
Deery (2008) has recommended several actions that can be adopted at the organizational level to retain good staff as well as assist in balancing work and family life. Those particularly appropriate to the hospitality industry include allowing adequate breaks during the working day, staff functions that involve families, and providing health and well-being opportunities.
Các từ vựng nổi bật:
critical (adj): then chốt
superior (adj): tốt hơn
accomplish (adj): trọn vẹn
retain (v): giữ lại
by contrast: ngược lại
extend (v): kéo dài
emphasize (v): nhấn mạnh
investment (n): đầu tư
competitive (adj): cạnh tranh
recognition (n): sự công nhận
substance (n): cốt lõi
foster (v): thúc đẩy
constructive (adj): có tính xây dựng
managerial (adj): thuộc quản lý
potential (n): tiềm năng
turnover (n): nghỉ việc
compensation (n): lương
morale (n): tinh thần
obstacle (n): chướng ngại
succinctly (adv): súc tích
retention (n): sự duy trì
predisposition (n): khuynh hướng thiên về
separate (adj): riêng biệt
sophisticated (adj): phức tạp
dichotomy (n): sự lưỡng phân
extrinsic (adj): từ bên ngoài
intrinsic (adj): từ bên trong
align (v): sắp hàng
delicate (adj): tinh tế
simultaneously (adv): đồng thời
adequate (adj): đầy đủ
break (n): giờ giải lao
Các bạn cùng tham khảo nhé!
family reading drawing 在 Bubzvlogz Youtube 的精選貼文
Add me on Instagram to see my web toons:
http://www.instagram.com/bubzcomics
It’s funny how life works out. Drawing was so integral throughout my entire childhood and early teen years. I used to write and draw my own comics with my cousins. We made our own little club and we would spend our weekends reading each other’s work. Then became life’s distractions like school work, boys, teen things, university, partying, work, marriage, parenthood, divorce and co parenting life. Now I have come back to my roots by drawing again. It’s been a great outlet for me. When I hold my stylus, I only focus on my strokes. It calms me. I’m so thankful for art.
Please join me on my art venture if you want to see my web toons http://www.instagram.com/bubzcomics
Music by kelsat - Exhale - https://thmatc.co/?l=E0810290
The Lights Ahead by MJ Lee: https://mjleedot.com/
Hi, I'm Lindy! Welcome to the Bubz family. I am a beauty, lifestyle and mom vlogger. I make daily vlogs I call daily doses of happiness! Join me as I navigate this journey we call life and keep up with my little adventures. Be sure to SUBSCRIBE so I can continue to put a smile on your face. Do make new friends with fellow Bubscribers. I promise you they are the sweetest bunch ever! If you enjoyed today’s vlog, don’t forget to give it a LIKE.
Disclaimer: So sorry but it looks like Youtube has still got my comment section disabled. Bear with me, guys!
Subscribe to my Vlog channel for daily doses of HAPPINESS!
http://bit.ly/BubzVlogz
Subscribe to my Beauty Channel here:
http://bit.ly/BubzBeauty
Connect with me:
INSTAGRAM: http://www.instagram.com/itsbubz
TWITTER: http://www.twitter.com/bubzbeauty
FACEBOOK: http://www.facebook.com/itsbubz
SHOP MY BOOK: https://amzn.to/2A6Ha5D
KINDLE VERSION: http://bit.ly/BubzEguide
SHOP my Soul Happy Phone Cover here: https://shorturl.me/yp5CV
Shop my Soul Happy Apple Watch band here: https://shorturl.me/ZolAVB
family reading drawing 在 Kapiew101 Lifestyle Channel Youtube 的最佳貼文
Matthew & Sophie are drawing pictures for sell on ebay?
ใช้เวลาว่างกับลูกๆในวันหยุด หากิจกรรมให้ลูกๆทำ ไม่งั้นเล่นแต่เกมส์
แม่บ้านไทยในต่างแดน