How About 99.9%?
WHEN the Ritz-Carlton Hotels won the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, I had the opportunity to congratulate the owner of that outstanding organization, Mr. William Johnson, my good friend who lives in Atlanta, Georgia. In typical humility and his wonderful ‘Southern drawl,’ Bill gave others the credit. He added that now that they had won this prestigious honor, they would need to work even harder to earn the respect that came with it. “Quality,” he said, “is a race with no finish line.” He is correct. Competitive excellence requires 100% all of the time. If you doubt that, try maintaining…
The Saintly Leadership of Mother Teresa taught me some valuable lessons. She was consistent in her quest to save the very poor, calling them "distress in disguise." In an audio series called "Thirsting for God," she tells of the many times when she faced the impossible just to be rewarded because of her consistency. She was loyal to her cause. In her acceptance speech when receiving the Nobel Peace Prize she simply said "I accept this in the name of the poor." These were the people she was called to lead and amidst the degradation and decadence of human decay she found the self-reliance to be loyal to her cause. 
Seven Mile Road is three weeks into weekly corporate worship. So far, we’ve been a bit spoiled. Everything we’ve touched has turned to gold. We need a website – we get a killer one for free. We need a space – we get to use a building sitting on six acres of land. We throw a barbeque – 115 people show up. We launch our first service – we put out seventy chairs but need more to accommodate everyone. . . . So then, it was a shock to my system when we showed up for service in week two and there were only 33 people there. Now I know in my head that numbers don’t matter. Folks on the team thought to themselves, “where is everyone?” Regular visitors came into the room and looked at their watch to make sure that they weren’t there early because they didn’t see people. People noticed.
I Come Before You Today, And There's Just One Thing That I Want To Say, Thank You Lord, Thank You Lord, For All You've Given To Me, For All The Blessings That I Cannot See, Thank You Lord, Thank You Lord . . . . With A Grateful Heart, With A Song Of Praise, With An Outstretch Arm, I Will Bless Your Name, Thank You Lord, I Just Wanna Thank You Lord, Thank You Lord, I Just Wanna Thank You Lord, Thank You Lord.
Praise is Rising, Eyes are Turning to You, We Turn to You, Hope is Stirring, Hearts are Yearning for You, We Long for You, 'Cause When We See You, We Find Strength to Face the Day, In Your Presence All Our Fears are Washed Away, Washed Away - CHORUS - Hosanna, Hosanna, You Are the God Who Saves Us, Worthy of All Our Praises, Hosanna, Hosanna, Come Have Your Way Among Us - We Welcome You Here, Lord Jesus
At the altar Mark Buntain, a missionary to Calcutta from North America laid his hands on me and said a prophetic prayer as to
how God would use me one day to impact millions. Now I see the
fulfillment of this prayer. I was married on January 27, 2000 in
Calcutta to my beautiful wife Mary, and I moved to the United States on
February 22, 2001. I left home with $50 and two suitcases stuffed with
my clothes and books for a new life overseas. In about four weeks on
arriving on the east coast I ended up for an interview at Network Plus
on the 81st floor of the World Trade Center. I was escorted to the
conference hall. Through the glass windows of the room I saw the most
glorious sight of all - the Statue of Liberty. 
I worked on the 81st floor of the North Tower or Tower 1 of the World
Trade Center and my wife Mary worked on the 71st floor of the South
Tower or Tower 2. It was just an incredible experience working in this
incredible building especially for an immigrant who had just arrived in
America in February of that year. We enjoyed so much working together
in the same complex. . . . . "September 11, 2001, started out as such a nice day- no, a beautiful day. Then it all turned. 9:05 am. Terror struck America and changed us forever. None of us will ever forget where we were, who we were with and what we were doing that fateful day when tragedy struck America on what looked like a beautiful day in New York city . . . As we deal with the loss of thousands of innocent lives we were also reminded that history books will also tell the tale of many Americans that faced terror with courage. 
Over the last few weeks, popular media has been covering the
story of the conversion of Sri Lankan second generation Muslim girl, Fathima Rifqa Bary.
Youtube and Facebook has been at the heart of this controversy. Fathima Rifqa Bary
even has an URL after her name – www.rifqabary.com
Sadly, where is most of the money going today? Are poor and needy in the priority list of the modern day churches? Sometime back, I did a survey of some churches in my city to rate their overall activity in charity. Do you know what the result was? Not more than 8% of the churches are active in doing service to the poor and the needy. It seems most of the money is going towards buildings, administration and programs, but the poor and needy are greatly neglected by the churches when they should be on their priority list. We need to ask, “Is this pleasing to God for whom the church exists? There is a great necessity to do the former which is our highest priority.