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Archives for August 2008

What God doesn’t say

August 29, 2008 by Keith Seabourn 4 Comments

Our air conditioner is leaking. Inside the house. The ceiling is wet in the downstairs bathroom because the inside air handler unit is above it on the second floor.

I’ve been talking to God about the leaky air conditioner and the exhorbitant cost of a new unit. And, I’ve been reading Job in my morning devotionals.

My prayer life has been enriched by the desperate need for several thousand dollars to fix the air conditioner. For 32 years, Kay and I have been financially supported by a team of financial partners in our faith-mission work. We’ve raised 3 children, seen all 3 graduate from college, seen 2 marry (still praying for the 3rd spouse!). We’ve seen God’s provision every step of the way. But we’ve never seen an abundance where we get to prepare ahead of time for these costly opportunities.

So I’ve been wondering where the money will come from for this current need. It’s easy to berate myself for not doing more to prepare.

This morning, God spoke to me through my friends Angie and Scott. Angie wrote “What God doesn’t say”. You really gotta read this!

Filed Under: Personal, Thoughts Tagged With: About God

Glorious

August 25, 2008 by Keith Seabourn 1 Comment

I wrote this on Friday morning as I departed Vancouver.

God put on quite a show outside my airplane window this morning. I left Vancouver just before the sun came up. We were climbing as the eastern sky lit up. The reds and oranges over the mountains were announcing the coming of the sun. A few minutes later a gloriously bright sun arrived.

I was listening to Chris Tomlin sing

You are the first
You go before
You are the last
Lord, you are the encore.

Your name’s in lights
For all to see

The starry host
Declare your glory.

Glory in the highest

Apart from you
There is no God
Light of the world
The bright and morning star.

Your name will shine
For all to see

You are the one
You are my glory.

Glory in the highest

No one else
Could ever compare
To you, Lord.
Heaven and earth
Together declare

Glory in the highest
Glory in the highest
Glory in the highest
To you, Lord.

One day the sky will announce the coming Son. One day Jesus will light up the eastern sky much brighter than the sun.

I’m ready. We labor so that others will be ready also.

Thanks for praying for my time in Canada with technology leaders. I was very aware of God’s hand throughout the trip. I spoke on developing as a leader. I spoke on how technology helps launch spiritual movements. I shared several times during discussions. I was privileged to be with these special people as they engage in ministry with the unique skills God has given them.

Now its back home to play with the grandaughters this weekend!

Filed Under: Thoughts Tagged With: Chris Tomlin, devotional

Be wise about your friends

August 16, 2008 by Keith Seabourn Leave a Comment

A few weeks ago, I entered into a saga that I think is instructive to all of us as we learn to use social networks more wisely.

I am a member of LinkedIn, which is a social network of professional contacts. Many others that I know are part of LinkedIn.

Through LinkedIn, I received a request to connect with someone from California. LinkedIn gives 3 options for each request: Accept, Decide Later, I don’t know this person. Since I didn’t know this person, I chose I don’t know this person.

He wrote me back to explain more of the context in which he thought we knew each other. He indicated we had worked together on one or more phone calls several years ago. He mentioned several other organizational leader’s names that were on the call. I still didn’t remember him, so I responded that perhaps he was thinking of someone else but I didn’t recall ever being on the phone call he mentioned. He wrote back really unhappy because he claimed that my I don’t know this person put a black mark on him. Later he wrote that my name had been mentioned on the call but perhaps we never actually talked.

In all this, he never owned the fact that he had indicated a connection that did not exist. He was upset that I had black marked him in the LinkedIn system.

I did not even know that I don’t know this person black marked a person.

So, I asked my friend and social networking expert Rob Williams of Orangejack LLC if he had any information about the black mark concept in LinkedIn. His reply:

I finally found some documentation from LinkedIn about this. Here is some information from the LinkedIn Customer support:

Review invitations you receive carefully. If you do not know a person that has sent you an invitation you can:
1. Click “decide later” which will archive the message and not prevent the member from sending you another invitation at a later time.
2. You can use the “Reply” link and send a message back to the inviter, i.e. Thank you for the invitation to connect however I’m afraid I cannot accept it at this time. LinkedIn is a powerful tool for managing my professional network and designed to help me maintain the connections I have. It is a LinkedIn best practice to only connect directly to those whom I know well and would recommend. I’d like to be able to give a referral to any of my connections when asked. If I don’t know you well enough to do so, LinkedIn isn’t as powerful for my network. Please understand and remember to invite me to connect after we’ve had a chance to work together.
3. Click the “I don’t know” button which will place a mark on the sender’s account that tells LinkedIn this person may not be using invitations correctly. This also prevents them from sending another invite to you in the future.

What I haven’t found is how many “marks” an account can accumulate before being penalized. Seems the number is around 5 and the account can be frozen. I just can’t find much about it officially — and that’s kind of disturbing to me.

Rob

Thanks, Rob! If there are a number of “marks” that send someone to detention hall, we should all know about it up front. It looks like the “decide later” is a way to do away with a person without confronting them!

All this is to say that we are all learning to use social networking. This is sometimes a steep learning curve.

Many see Facebook as a way to proliferate their number of “friends”. Often, it seems the Facebook standard is to “friend” anyone and accept all “friend” requests. Maybe some are trying to compete with Michael Phelps’ 4300 Facebook friends.

I’ve got someone I’ve never even talked with wanting to claim a connection in LinkedIn because of the access and credibility it will give him to others who, although they may not know him, might say “Keith knows him so I guess he’s OK.”

I encourage us all to be “wise as serpents, harmless as doves” in this brave, new world of social networking.

Filed Under: Thoughts Tagged With: social media

Olympics

August 9, 2008 by Keith Seabourn 2 Comments

What is your favorite story from past Olympics? I think my all-time favorite is Derek Redmond from Barcelona 1992.

Here’s another video clip that shows more of how his Dad came to help him finish the race.

Another favorite is Kerry Strug from the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

It’s Olympics time. In our house, we watched the opening ceremonies last night. Well, mostly Kay and Michelle watched last night. Daniel and I are waiting for the more competitive events!

DVDStruggle and Triumph is a DVD and a website from the Athletes in Action ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ. It’s a great tool to share with your friends. Read stories from athletes, view video clips, and explore a personal relationship with God that the athletes talk about.

The DVD is being used in many countries as part of Olympic outreaches. It is being broadcast throughout the Middle East. It is on local television in Turkey and other countries in the area. Thousands of outreaches are happening in India and in Brazil and other countries. It is available in 36 languages. Order copies and give to your friends.

By the way, what is your favorite story from past Olympics?

Filed Under: ccc, Ministry Tagged With: evangelism

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