POPULARITY CONTEST

Connect
A company hired a management consultant to appraise the personnel efficiency reports made out by their managers and supervisors. The consultant expected the reports to be dull going, but found to his surprise that they contained a good deal of intentional -- and unintentional -- humor. Here are a few examples...

- This foreman has talents but has kept them well hidden.
- Can express a sentence in two paragraphs any time.
- A quiet, reticent manager, Industrious, tenacious, careful, and neat. I do not wish to have this woman as a member of my department under any circumstances.
- In any change in policy or procedure, he can be relied upon to produce the improbable, hypothetical situation in which the new policy cannot work.
- Needs careful watching since he borders on the brilliant.
- Open to suggestions but never follows them.
- Is keenly analytical, and his highly developed mentality could best be utilized in research and development. He lacks common sense.
- Never makes the same mistake twice but it seems to me he had made them all once.

Reflect
Read: Mark 6
Key Verse: Mark 6:33&54

33 But many who saw them leaving recognized them and ran on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them.
54 As soon as they got out of the boat, people recognized Jesus.
55 They ran throughout that whole region and carried the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was.
56 And wherever he went--into villages, towns or countryside--they placed the sick in the marketplaces. They begged him to let them touch even the edge of his cloak, and all who touched him were healed.

We see here that everywhere that Jesus and his disciples went they were recognized. Jesus especially, because of all the teachings he had taught and all the miracles he had done. They knew who he was as soon as he would step off the boat or go from town to town. Because he was so well known, and people knew of the change he could bring into their life, they often went out of their way to bring the sick to him and beg him to let them touch his clothes. Just touching his garment was enough for them to believe they would be healed. Isn’t that wild? To be so popular that people would beg you to let them touch just your clothing.

Direct
We are all identified in a certain way by the people around us. Some people know us better than others, but none the less we are known. Kevin Bacon is known for his role in the movie Foot Loose, A Few Good men, Apollo 13, Trapped, The Woodsman and many more. Oprah Winfrey is known for her daytime talk show named after herself “Oprah” and for all the things she has given away and the people she has helped. Muscians that we love, like 50 cent, is known for getting shot a whole bunch of times and making rap albums.
But what about us? what are we known for? We probably don’t have thousands and thousands of people who know us but what about the ones that do? Do they know us as quiet or loud, funny or corny, loving and caring or thoughtless and selfish? Do they know us for the love we have for God or for all the sins we commit? Think about this throughout this week. Ask yourself what kind of impact have you made on the people who know you? What are people chasing after you for? I pray that we would all be known for our love for God for our hunger for him and our hunger for righteousness.