SACRED PACE PB: Four Steps to Hearing God and Aligning Yourself With His Will - Softcover

Looper, Richards

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0785223371 ISBN 13: 9780785223375

Verlag: HarperChristian Resources, 2019

Inhaltsangabe

How do we hear from God and discern His will when it’s time to make big decisions? Terry Looper shares a four-step process for doing just that - a process he has learned and refined over thirty years as a Christian entrepreneur and founder of a multi-billion dollar company.

At just thirty-six years old, Terry Looper was a successful Christian businessman who thought he had it all—until managing all he had led to a devastating burnout. Wealthy beyond his wildest dreams but miserable beyond belief, Terry experienced a radical transformation when he discovered how to align himself with God’s will in the years following his crash and burn.

Sacred Pace is a four-step process that helps Christians in all walks of life learn how to

• slow down their decision-making under the guidance of the Holy Spirit,
• sift through their surface desires and sinful patterns in order to receive clear, peace-filled answers from the Lord,
• gain the confident assurance that God’s answers are His way of fulfilling the true desires he has placed in their hearts, and
• grow closer to the One who loves them most and knows them best.

Sacred Pace is not another example of name-it-and-claim-it materialism in disguise. Instead, it walks Christians through the sometimes-painful process of “dying to self” in their decisions, both big and small, so that they desire God’s will more than their own.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Terry Looper is the Founder of Texon LP and has served as the organization’s President and Chief Executive Officer for almost thirty years. Terry is married to Doris, his wife of 48 years, and has two married daughters and five grandchildren.

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Sacred Pace

4 Steps to Hearing God and Aligning Yourself with His Will

By Terry Looper, Kris Bearss

Thomas Nelson

Copyright © 2019 Terry Looper
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-7852-2337-5

Contents

Foreword, xv, 
Introduction, xix, 
Part 1: My Journey to That Sacred Pace, 
Chapter 1: Collision Course, 3, 
Chapter 2: The Crash, 14, 
Chapter 3: A Way to His Will, 23, 
Chapter 4: My First Test Run, 32, 
Chapter 5: In Step with God, 38, 
Chapter 6: Trust and Believe, 47, 
Part 2: Four Steps to a Sacred Pace, 
Chapter 7: Step 1: Consult Your Friend Jesus, 63, 
Chapter 8: Step 2: Gather the Facts, 77, 
Chapter 9: Step 3: Watch for Circumstances, 87, 
Chapter 10: Step 4: Get Neutral, 95, 
Part 3: Lessons Learned Along the Way, 
Chapter 11: Is It the Holy Spirit or Intuition?, 113, 
Chapter 12: When to Slow Down, 121, 
Chapter 13: How Can I Help Myself Stop the Hurrying?, 130, 
Chapter 14: Pain Is Not the Enemy, 141, 
Chapter 15: Are They God's Desires or Mine?, 147, 
Part 4: Reaching a Sacred Pace in Real Life Chapter 16: With Your Spouse, 159, 
Chapter 17: When Parenting, 167, 
Chapter 18: While at Work, 173, 
Chapter 19: During Negotiations, 184, 
Chapter 20: In Ministry and Giving, 191, 
Epilogue, 203, 
Notes, 209, 
Acknowledgements, 211, 

CHAPTER 1

COLLISION COURSE

I was thirty-six years old and about to make more money than I'd ever dreamed. Still, I'd never felt more hopeless, more desperate, or more bankrupt.

My situation had been three years in the making — three years of nonstop work, meetings, and cross-country travel, all in pursuit of the glorious dollar. Yet my culminating moment of crisis was so startling that, on this frightening day in the fall of 1984, I couldn't move. Physically, I suppose I could have. Maybe. But mentally and emotionally? I was immobilized.

What I was dealing with, no fortune could fix. And for possibly the only time in my life to that point, the dollars didn't matter. They weren't even part of the equation. Suddenly, I wanted to be well, not wealthy.

In this terrifying turn of events, I would've given every penny that was coming to me if only I could have myself back.

Working My Plan

I'd prepared myself for business success my entire life. At age six, I aspired to own a men's clothing store because the man who ran the one in my little Texas town was the only entrepreneur I knew. Through high school, I racked up a full list of extracurricular activities.

First and foremost, I got involved in almost every service organization and school club possible — and sought to be a leader in each of them. I became president of my class, vice president of the student body, treasurer of the Key Club, and was a regular at church, among a lot of other activities. But one issue always hindered me when it came to my choices: I was an extreme people pleaser.

In situation after situation, group after group, I wanted the accomplishment but never the heat. For example, I turned down the chance to be Key Club president because it might mean making decisions that would offend people. Being class president didn't really involve any controversy; it was mostly a social position, so I was safe there. And of course, being vice president of anything meant the president was calling the real shots.

This was an insecurity I took with me into college and beyond.

When I went to Lamar University, I chose my major — and even predetermined my graduating grade point average — at the advice of my neighbor, an oil refinery plant manager who probably had the biggest job in my hometown of Texas City, Texas. He told me, "Study engineering; there's good money in that. And make at least a 3.0 grade point average so you can stand out."

And so I did.

When it came to grades, I was capable of better — I had nearly perfect math scores on my pre-college SATs — but in my mind, to do anything more academically was a waste of time. Why read an entire book when I could find summaries in the library and make "good enough" grades?

School was just a means to an end. The activities were my focus — serving as vice president of my fraternity and student president of the engineering department, and running a coin-operated foosball-table business in fraternity houses and beer joints for extra income. As my final semester of college approached, I knew what grades I needed for a 3.0, so I decided ahead of time that I would make two As and two Bs — just enough to reach the goal. And sure enough, I graduated with a 3.01.

During those four years I did a lot of notable things, the best of which was marrying my high school sweetheart, Doris, my junior year. But I never did feel at peace about me. I was always in a hurry to get somewhere and impress somebody, though I couldn't say where or who. Nevertheless, I believed that my future in business was bright and that my greatest successes were just around the corner.

Driving Hard and Fast

My first job after college was as a maintenance foreman at the agrochemical giant Monsanto. It wasn't my first choice — I really wanted a sales job — but when none was offered, I went back to Texas City where I knew people. Within two years, after working my way up from maintenance to pollution engineer, Monsanto transferred me to sales.

For the first six months or so of sales training, they didn't want me selling anything; I was just supposed to watch, listen, and learn from their team. This was very frustrating for me because I was interested in "doing." With a wife and a baby girl, Tanya, at home, I wanted to be let loose so I could start making big money. My boss, though, kept putting on the brakes. He went so far as to specifically tell an overly eager me, "Just continue your training, Terry; no selling for now."

In my zeal, however, I rushed ahead and didn't listen. I'm fortunate I didn't get fired, because I actually set up a client meeting, drove to the big city (Houston), and took a blank contract with me, hoping to snag my first deal.

The customer was willing to sign. I was so excited!

When I asked for the official name of his company for the paperwork, the man answered, "Dresser, Inc."

My embarrassing reply? "I didn't know you were also in the ink business." (Can you tell I never earned an MBA?)

Somehow I managed to recover from that blunder and was successively promoted four times in six years. I loved the marketing and sales work, and evidently it showed, because corporate kept giving me more responsibility. I even grew a mustache on my baby face in order to be taken seriously as a negotiator of deals.

In time, however, my job became so stressful that it affected my health. I mostly suffered from indigestion, which maybe isn't a big deal when you're fifty, but it was pretty significant for me as a twenty-six-year-old. The company awarded me a $2,000 bonus for my work on a successful deal. It was the first bonus I'd ever received. Yet as grateful as I was for the money, it didn't relieve my health issues. Finally, after several months of trying to juggle everything, I reluctantly gave back one of the product lines I was managing — it was just too much for me.

One year later I received a big promotion, and the family and I moved from St. Louis to San Jose, California, where I served as regional manager for petrochemicals. Regional sales were small enough...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: HarperChristian Resources
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2019
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0785223371
• ISBN 13: 9780785223375
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 238
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Thomas Nelson; https://www.thomasnelson.com/about-us/; ; Damson Lane; Hull; East Yorkshire; HU8 7DS; Vereinigtes Königreich
• Verantwortliche Person: Product Safety Manager; enquiries@harpercollins.ie; ; HarperCollins, Macken House, 39/40 Mayor Street Upper; Dublin 1; D01 C9W8; Irland