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Dedication and the Way of Perseverance

In The MagLife Blog article titled “Dedication,” author and defensive tactics subject matter expert Steve Tarani says, “Success is commonly and rightfully attributed to dedication.” While a parallel word for dedication is commitment, a stronger one is the word perseverance.

“…perseverance [produces] character and character, hope.” Romans 5:4

Tarani suggests the characteristics of perspective, mental engagement, and prowess are three approaches that hone dedication (or perseverance) in a person’s life.

Leadership Qualities of the Peanuts Cartoon Characters

Charlie Brown is the principal character of the comic strip Peanuts, globally syndicated in daily and Sunday newspapers. He’s commonly known as a “lovable loser,” but Michael Gips, JD, CPP, principal of Global Insights in Professional Security, writes in his article, “You’re a Good Leadership Lesson, Charlie Brown” published in Security magazine, that, when closely analyzed, the Peanuts characters can offer key leadership traits for us to emulate.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, Jeff Cooper’s Principles of Personal Defense ]

His suggestions are:

Charlie Brown: kindness, optimism, and perseverance
Linus: listening skills, intelligence, faith, and compassion
Lucy: confidence, curiosity, and bias for action
Snoopy: imagination, creativity, and duty
Schroeder: servant leadership, focus, and passion.

As a member of the SemperVerus Brotherhood™, how are you progressing with your personal leadership development?

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By semperverus
Posted on 01/10/202301/10/2023

Spiritual Fitness: How Long Does It Take to Read the Bible?

Jesus said the greatest commandment ever given by God—the most important one for us to obey—is: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30).

The best way to obey that command is to read God’s communication to us (the Bible) and to communicate back to God (prayer). In this way our love for him will grow richer every day and our soul will grow stronger in our spiritual warfare against evil and personal temptation.

[ Read SemperVerus articles on the subject of spiritual fitness ]

But you may be thinking you don’t have enough time in a day to complete the reading of the entire Bible. The reality is you do have enough time, since each book of the Bible can be measured in achievable “chunks.”

Almost half the books in the Bible take less than a half-hour to read. Twenty-three of them can each be read in under 20 minutes!

Here’s a chart (by the website desiringGod) of the average time it takes to read each book of Scripture, shown in the order in which each one appears in the Bible:

Spiritual Fitness: How Is Global Christianity Changing?

The 5 life-changing success-generating components of SemperVerus^® work together to cultivate in the members of the SemperVerus Brotherhood™ the strategic and tactical element of self-defense, which includes the intelligent and resolute ability to responsibly protect yourself from menacing spiritual threats, not only physical threats. The former dangers are what we battle when we identify and thwart temptations that diminish the strength of our soul in following Jesus Christ.

[ Read SemperVerus articles on the subject of spiritual fitness ]

Every year the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary presents a snapshot of global Christianity that provides a statistical overview of the world’s 2.5 billion Christians and their activities. Here are highlights from the 2022 Status of Global Christianity report: