Tag: Questions

26 Excellent Self Evaluation Questions By Gordon MacDonald

Accountability Questions For You and Your Mentoree/Disciple

 (Adapted from *Gordon MacDonald, Restoring Joy to Your Inner World, Inspiration Press, p. 573)

“Chances are that you have a physical once a year or every two years. I recommend that you also have a “spiritual” once a year as well. Your soul care is just as important as your body care! This is an excellent list of questions to help care for your soul.” – Dr. David P. Craig

(1) Where are you right now in your relationship with God?

(2) What have you read in the Bible in the last week?

(3) What has God been saying to you in this?

(4) Where do you find yourself resisting God these days?

(5) What specific things do you find yourself praying for regarding others?

(6) What specific things do you find yourself praying for yourself?

(7) What specific tasks are facing you that you consider incomplete?

(8) What habits are intimidating you at present?

(9) What have you read in the secular press this week?

(10) What general reading have you been doing?

(11) What have you done to play this week?

(12) How are you doing with your spouse/kids?

(13) If I were to ask your spouse about your state of mind, spirit, etc., what would he/she say?

(14) Are you sensing any spiritual attacks from the enemy this week? Today?

(15) If Satan were to try to invalidate you as a servant of God, where or how would he attack you?

(16) What is the state of your sexual life (temptation, fantasy, etc)?

(17) Where are you at financially (Do you have control, debts, etc)?

(18) Are there any unresolved conflicts (ailing relatives, stress, disputes) in your circle of relationships right now (family, friends those among whom we’re supposed to feel safe)?

(19) When was the last time you spent time with a friend of the same gender?

(20) What kind of time have you spent with a non-Christian this past week?

(21) What challenges do you expect to face in the coming month?

(22) What are your fears at the present time (letting family down, bodies letting us down, etc)?

(23) Are you sleeping well?

(24) What three things are you most thankful for?

(25) Do you like yourself at this point of your pilgrimage?

(26) What are you greatest confusions about your relationship with God?

 

*Gordon MacDonald has been a pastor and author for over forty years. For many years he pastored Grace Chapel in Lexington, Massachusetts and continues to serve as Pastor Emeritus. He has also provided leadership to influential ministries such as Intervarsity Christian Fellowship, which he served as President for three years, and World Relief, which he currently serves as Chairman. Gordon’s best-selling books include Ordering Your Private World, Mid-Course Correction and, most recently, A Resilient Life. He also writes and serves as Editor-at-Large for Christianity Today’s Leadership Journal. When not writing, leading or speaking at conferences, Gordon and his wife Gail can be found hiking the trails of New England.

Book Review: Life Coaching Activities & Powerful Questions by Phyllis Reardon

 Excellent Resource for Self & Life Coaching Others

I have been life coaching professionally for three years now, and I’m amazed at how many excellent resources are available for self-coaching and coaching others. This book is full of great questions, quotes, and exercises to help anyone set and achieve goals. I have given the book five stars because it is a very good resource that I will use for myself and to help others that I coach for years to come. Here are some of helpful topics covered in this resource/workbook:

What is life Coaching?

– Addresses issues related to what makes for success

Visioning Your Future Self

– Has a very helpful template called the “Wheel of life” consisting of balancing 8 life parts: family/relationships, career/work, health/fitness, personal growth, money/finances, physical environment, fun/joy, and romance.

Strategic Planning

Developing a Positive Image and Attitude

Communication

Work and Life Balance

Each section is loaded with great questions in workbook format, great insights for action, and good thought provoking quotes.

I have already used a lot of the ideas in this book in my personal life, and in coaching people in their relationships, in life balance, and goal setting. I highly recommend this workbook for anyone who wants to improve their own life, and the lives of others for the better. I will be coming to this resource again and again for years to come.

Book Review: New International Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties by Gleason L. Archer Jr.

The author – Gleason L. Archer Jr., (1916-2004 – B.A., M.A., Ph.D., Harvard University; B.D., Princeton Theological Seminary; L.L.B., Suffolk Law School) was a biblical scholar, theologian, educator, and author. He served as an assistant pastor of Park Street Church in Boston from 1945 to 1948. He was a Professor at Fuller Theological Seminary for 16 years, teaching New Testament, Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic. From 1965 to 1986 he served as a Professor of Old Testament and Semitics at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Deerfield, Illinois. He became an emeritus faculty member in 1989. He also served for many years as a minister of the Evangelical Free Church of America. The remainder of his life was spent researching, writing, and lecturing.

Legend has it, (I have not been able to verify whether this is 100% true or not) that he was so gifted in languages that for fun (and as a challenge) he would study the Bible in a different language every year to continue to grow and develop mentally.

Archer served as one of the 50 original translators of the NASB published in 1971. He also worked on the team which translated the NIV Bible published in 1978. I give this introduction, because many people are not familiar with Archer (unfortunately), but he was a brilliant Christian scholar who could have excelled as a lawyer (his father was the founder and president of Suffolk Law School), and chose to use his exceptional gifts to defend the inerrancy and integrity of the Scriptures over the span of his entire adult life. I would say that along with Bruce Waltke and Walter Kaiser Jr., he was one of the most elite and influential Old Testament Evangelical Scholars at the end of the Twentieth Century.

As for this book – it’s simply outstanding. It covers all the thorny issues from Genesis to Revelation in biblical order, and considers questions from the cultural, linguistic, and authorial intent of each passage considered. Of all the books I have on questions, and Bible answers, this is the one I turn to the most. It is extremely thorough and will increase anyone’s’ belief in the supernatural authorship of the sixty-six books in the Protestant Canon. It is definitely a “must have” for any interpreter/student/teacher of the Bible, or an apologist for the Christian faith.

Book Review: Reason to Believe by R. C. Sproul

This excellent apologetics and faith building resource was formerly titled “Objections Answered.” It is my understanding that eminent theologian, Dr. R.C. Sproul was asked by D. James Kennedy (then pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Ft. Lauderdale) to answer the 10 biggest objections that non-believers had in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s to the Christian faith. This book is the result of R. C. Sproul answering the questions submitted to him by Dr. Kennedy. Even though we find ourselves with increasing skepticism, and postmodernism in the 21st Century – I still believe this is one of the finest primer’s available for Christian’s to answer these objections in today’s climate.

Here are the ten objections Sproul tackles in this book (according to Evangelism Explosion – these were the 10 most popular objections to the Christian Faith in the early 1980’s):

1)    “The Bible Contradicts itself. It’s Just a Fairy Tale.”

2)    “All Religions are Good. It doesn’t matter what you Believe.”

3)    “What About the Poor Native Who Never Heard of Christ?”

4)    “Christianity is a Crutch for Weak People.”

5)    “The Church is Full of Hypocrites.”

6)    “I Don’t Need Religion.”

7)    “There is No God.”

8)    “If There is a God Why Is There So Much Evil in the World?”

9)    “Why Does God Allow Suffering?”

10) “When You’re Dead You’re Dead! There Is No More!”

Dr. Sproul handles these ten questions by beginning with his own personal testimony of how he came to have a personal relationship with Christ, and then proceeds to handle these objections with great skills in logic, Biblical exegesis, an understanding of popular culture, helpful illustrations, and concludes each chapter with a helpful summary of how to handle each objection. I highly recommend this book as educational, encouraging, and helpful in equipping Christians to share their faith with confidence because we have excellent reasons for why we believe what we do about the Christian faith.

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