How to Find Blessed Assurance

Here is Jody McBrayer's, (singer with christian band Avalon) perspective on how he uses faith and music to get him through the tough times.

In the 1870s, Horatio Spafford was a successful Chicago lawyer. He had a wife named Anna and five children. Early in 1871, one of Mr. Spafford's children, his only son, died suddenly and left the entire family devastated. Spafford had invested heavily in real estate and, as if to add insult to injury, he lost most of his properties as well as his life savings during the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. Spafford desperately needed a rest, so in 1873 he planned a trip to Europe with his wife and four daughters. Last minute business caused Spafford to delay his departure, but he sent his wife and daughters on the S.S. Ville Du Havre as scheduled, promising to follow in a few days. On November 22, the ship was struck by the English ship Lochearn, and it sank in twelve minutes. 244 souls perished that day, including all four of Spafford's daughters. Several days later, what little survivors there were, landed at Cardiff, Wales. Spafford's wife Anna was among
them. She cabled her husband the brief message, "Saved alone, what shall I do?"


When Horatio Spafford made the trip to meet his grieving wife, he sailed near the place where his four daughters had sunk to the ocean depths. There, in the midst of his sorrow, he wrote the unforgettable words to a song that has brought healing and hope to countless people: "It is Well With My Soul."

I have been singing that song my whole life and have known of the story for sometime now but it has only recently been a source of strength and inspiration to me.


Every one of us experience pain and loss in this life. We come face to face with difficulties that overwhelm us, often leaving us paralysed and unable to move forward. What does it say about a man like Horatio Spafford to have his entire family and fortune taken from him, yet still have enough faith in God to say, "It Is Well…."?

I'm not sure I would respond that way. As a matter of fact, I haven't. I haven't even begun to experience the kind of loss that Mr. Spafford did, and yet my response to difficulty and loss has been very different. My father passed away in 2000, and to this day I still shake my head at the heavens and ask why. That's where Mr. Spafford's life and story have helped alter my perspective.

Philippians 4:7 from The Message says; "Don't fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God's wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It's wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life."

I love that line, "...when God displaces worry at the center of your life." There really is a peace beyond our own understanding. God promises us peace and a clearer understanding of life's difficulties if we'll only just pray and seek Him. The true test is not the trial itself but how we respond to that trial. Mr. Spafford knew this.


Horatio Spafford was a mighty man of God. One who shared company with some of the greatest spiritual men of his time. They would often call on him for advice and prayer because of his godly character. That is the kind of man I want to be. That's what God wants for all of us--to be people who are sold out for Christ, and so firmly rooted in His faith that we can withstand any storm.


The second verse of "It is Well" says:

"Though Satan should buffet.

Though trials should come.

Let this blessed assurance control.

That Christ has regarded my helpless estate

and hath shed His own blood for my soul."

It is my prayer that when you and I are faced with struggles, we respond as Mr. Spafford did. With the "blessed assurance" of knowing that God is bigger than our circumstances. He is greater than our speeding tickets. He is more powerful than divorce. He is mightier than cancer or disease. Our God took into consideration all of these situations, both joyful and difficult, long before time began. Then, He sent Jesus to take those burdens from us and to renew our lives.

In Isaiah 53 it says; "...He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed."

I wish you all peace, the kind of peace that Horatio Spafford had. The peace that only comes when we trust God with every fiber of our being. Knowing deep within us that, no matter where we are in this life, no matter what answers we don't have, no matter how difficult the path ahead may be, we can sing and truly believe "It is well, it is well with my soul."

Who posts the articles

engage! - Perspectives on Leading and Managing Well is a blog for the Leadership Matters Course (LMC) run by International Trainers Alliance (ITA). Posts to the blog (translation - articles) are provided by Vinay Koshy with post name vqld, unless otherwise stated, in which case the authors name will be provided.

The Editor for the blog is John King.

Becoming an Easter People

I came across this excerpt from Eugene Peterson called, Living the Resurrection and wanted to share this with you. I think it is especially relevant in light of Easter which we have just celebrated. Hopefully it will encourage you in your workday or wherever you are…


“The [world] is obviously not a vacation paradise. Its more like a warzone. And that’s where we Christians are stationed, along with the children, to affirm the primacy of life over death, to give a witness to the connectedness and preciousness of all life, to engage in the practice of resurrection.

We do this by gathering in congregations and regular worship before our life-giving God and our death-defeating Christ and our life-abounding Holy Spirit. We do it by reading, pondering, teaching, and preaching the Word of Life as it is revealed in our Scriptures. We do it by baptizing men, women and children into the name of the Trinity, nurturing them into a resurrection life. We do it by eating the life of Jesus in the bread and the wine in the Eucharist. We do it by visiting prisoners, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, welcoming the stranger, healing the sick, working for justice, loving our enemies, raising our children, doing our everyday work to the glory of God…all this is pretty ordinary. It doesn’t take a great deal of training or talent to do any of it….”

We are called to be an Easter people, a resurrection people…people who proclaim life in a world of death and distraction. May we live together (united, even though we are part of different local communities) as the people of God in the everyday work to which God has called us.

Happy Easter.

How To Change An Institution

I came across an interview with Seth Godin a guru from the marketing world which highlights some neccessities in bringing about change, in forming communities and the role that ideas play.

In condensed form:

• "Start by living the change, by being responsible for the change and by not waiting for someone else to give you permission. No one ever made change in a meeting."


• People embrace stories - thus mastery over such a skill will prove valuable in ministry and within an institution


• "A community is a group of people who spread ideas... and who like (or at least know) each other. Without ideas spreading, there is no community."


• Catering to local needs - means providing respect and responsibilty that people want and need.

These seem especially pertinent given the following quote from a Starbuck’s District Manager: “We have identified a ‘third place.’ And I really believe that sets us apart. The third place is that place that’s not work or home. It’s the place our customers come for refuge.” —Nancy Orsolini, District Manager

I am was both curious and awed in that Starbuck’s seems to understand the nature of community and refuge.
Where people used to run to the church for that “third place”, they now run to Starbuck’s.

Perhaps it’s time for a field trip, to discover what Starbuck’s knows that we don’t. Because I firmly believe that the missions and missional churches must become and be a “third place” of safety, refuge and community. It’s in finding that identity that will enable missions to impact that changing world around it.

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5 Leadership Lessons: Leadership and Motivation

1. A wise leader will involve the team in decision-making as far aspossible, for the more that people share in decisions that affect theirworking life the more they are motivated to carry them out.

2. 50/50 Principle:Fifty per cent of our motivation comes from within us and 50 per centfrom without us—from our environment, especially the people around us.(These proportions may vary from person to person.) We are more like open systems than closed boxes.

3. Nobody inspires you more than the person who speaks to the greatness within you.

4. A Framework for Motivation:

1. Be motivated yourself. You can’t light a fire with a dead match.
2. Select people who are highly motivated. Build yourteam not from those who talk enthusiastically but from those who showeagerness for the business and steady commitment in their actions.
3. Treat each person as an individual. Theories andprinciples apply to the generality of people. You will never know howthey apply, even if they apply, to any given individuals unless youobserve them and talk to them. A good shepherd knows his sheep by name.
4. Set realistic and challenging targets. Your skill asa leader is to set and agree to goals, objectives or targets that bothachieve the task and develop the team and its individual members.
5. Remember that progress motivates. If you as a leadercan show your team, and to each individual member, that progress isbeing made, that it itself will feed the determination to pressforwards on the path of success.
6. Create a motivating environment. Leaders are thereto build teamwork, and that is a creative activity. All leaders in anorganization should work together to ensure that it is an interesting,stimulating and challenging place of work.
7. Provide fair rewards. The perception of unfairrewards does have a de-motivating effect on most people. Financial andother rewards should match he relative value of contribution, accordingto the market assessment for any particular kind of work.
8. Give recognition. A good leader should be swift toshow recognition to all members of the team or organization, howeverindirect their contribution is to the overall task.

5. Work as a form of service requiring skill, work that calls forcreativity in all its rich variety, work that fosters a deepcomradeship with our co-workers, is almost by definition work thatmotivates us to give our best. Or, putting it differently, when, as Kahil Gibran says, “Work is the expression of love, then motivation will never be our problem."Perhaps the real challenge of leadership today is to locate, releaseand channel the power of love that flows from deep inner springs withinus all.These five lessons are from Leadership and Motivation by internationally recognized leadership authority John Adair.

Learning to Preach Like Jesus

Demographers indicate that 350,000 sermons are preached in the USA every Sunday. But no-one has done any reliable surveys to discover how many people sleep during those sermons. Statistics from an earlier assessment have shown that if all the people who sleep in church were laid side be side in a long line … they would be a lot more comfortable!

For generations preachers have fought the battle on how to keep people awake during their sermons. Many methods have been proposed and some even aggressively instituted.

Not all preachers are gifted communicators. Billy Graham preached his first four sermons, sequentially, in one meeting, in only eight minutes. Many preachers do worse than that, except they take longer.

Communicating through the medium of preaching presents special challenges. And Ralph Lewis, in his book: “Learning to Preach Like Jesus” investigates the methodology that Jesus used.

When God wanted to communicate with people, it seems to me that He would choose the most effective method possible. That seems logical to me, since He knows the very essence of our make-up. And what tools did Jesus use to communicate in his sermons? Parables.

In his book, Ralph looks at the Greek and the Hebrew approaches and methodology of sermonizing. He analyzes the ‘right brain’, ‘left brain’ ways of learning. He researches the uniqueness in personal processing of data and he enlightens us on the ‘triple brain’ challenge. He does a fabulous job in discovering the ‘what’ of communication.

Then he dissects Jesus’ sermons and parables. Jesus was a storyteller.

But … there is one element that Ralph leaves out in his book ... the ‘HOW’ to tell stories. This element of ‘how’ is what we teach at the Leadership Matters Course! The ‘modular approach’ to storytelling, ‘STORY’ and the ‘Dutchman’ are distinctives of LMC!

Not forgetting what we learned! … John