Have you attained what you want to out of your job? Your career? Your family life? Have you clearly defined what it is that you really want out of life?

Ken Kuznia will be sharing timeless principles that will enable you to not only figure out what it is you really want in any area of life, but also how to create a workable plan to achieve those goals.

Whether it is communication with your spouse, finding your dream job or just addressing some issue in life that is holding you back, Ken will help you recognize where you have been focusing, where you should be focusing and how to discover the perspectives and spiritual strength needed to move forward.

Ken Kuznia is the founder of DigYourWork, a company with a vision to help job seeker in the world realize that getting a job doesn’t have to be that hard and the most effective way to go about it.

DETAILS:

Date: Tuesday, June 5th

Time: 11:45 AM – 1:00 PM

Registration and Networking: 11:30 AM

Place: Priority Associates office, 6836 Austin Center Blvd., Suite 190, 78731

Directions: MoPac to Far West; take first street to left; second driveway to right. We’re in XEROX building.

Cost: None (bring a bag lunch if you wish)

RSVP: austin@ipriority.com or call 458-9872 ext. 100 by Monday, June 4th.

Priority Associates is a faith-based non-profit organization resourcing business people personally, professionally, and spiritually.

Unfortunately, for many it is a tool that may not have been “sharpened” recently, may rarely be used, or it is not effective because it takes too long to share it. Researchers tell us that we have 3-5 minutes at the most to share something before the listener begins to “tune out.”

On Thursday, May 17th, Priority Associates will host a workshop to help you think through and begin writing out your 3-5 minute testimony. You will learn what relates to the listener, how to organize your story so that someone can follow your spiritual journey and then begin writing down the major points of your story.* You will also hear a “model” testimony and learn how to recognize what makes a testimony relatable and memorable.

DETAILS:

When: Thursday, May 17th, 11:45 am – 1:00 pm

Where: Priority Associates office, 6836 Austin Center Blvd., Suite 190, 78731

Directions: MoPac to Far West; Go west & then take first street to left; second driveway to
right. We’re in the XEROX building.

Cost: No charge; Drinks provided

RSVP: Respond by e-mail to austin@iPriority.com or call 458-9872, ext. 100 by Monday, May 14th. Space is limited, so please RSVP as soon as possible.

* Additional input and help will be offered to those who complete their written story after the workshop if they want.

Priority Associates is the business/professional division of Campus Crusade for Christ (now known as Cru).

Broadcast LIVE from Atlanta to Austin, TX on May 4, the Chick-fil-A Leadercast offers a unique opportunity to hear from some of the top leadership and business thinkers in the world!

Join us to hear, John Maxwell, Tim Tebow, Andy Stanley, Urban Meyer and more on May 4 Leadercast.

The choices you make define the leader you become. And the choices you make are not just about you. They’re about having a positive impact in your organization, your community, and beyond. That’s what Chick-fil-A Leadercast 2012 is all about.

Life changing events start with a simple choice. Choose to attend Chick-fil-A Leadercast 2012 in Austin.  For a  $20 discount off the $99 ticket price, enter the promo code “HCBC2012″ at check out. .  Email  craig9844@austin.rr.com to receive a discount code for another $10 off ($30 off for each person) for both you and the friends (up to 3) you invite. 

Register here.

Date: Friday, May 4
Time: 7:45am-3:45pm CST
Place: Hill Country Bible Church NW
             12124 Ranch Road 620 North
            Austin, TX 78750
Enter Northwest Lobby portico, 4th Floor

Craig Foster,  Director, Job Seekers Network

Sponsored by:   Job Seekers Network and

the local John Maxwell Team of Brawn Lide and John Griffin

Having trouble balancing the demands of work and life?  Figured out your priorities and critical factors in your life that you desire to maintain?  Got practical steps to create your desired level of balance?

On May 1, 2012, Dave shared principles explaining:

* How to assess balance, stress, and worry factors.
* How to plan practical steps to bring more balance to your life.
* How to keep stress in perspective on an ongoing basis.
* How a relationship with God can provide a foundation for dealing with stress and balance.

An audio recording was made of Dave’s message and you can access it here:

http://paaustin.podcastpeople.com/posts/46222.

Priority Associates is a faith-based non-profit resourcing business people personally, professionally, and spiritually.

What is it that keeps us from achieving this imtimacy, oneness and unity?  Two reasons were gleaned from this session.  When we attempt to substitute the unity of the divine Godhead and we seek fulfillment through other means, we degrade the value that can only be attained through the oneness, similar to the concept of the marriage covenant (seeking fulfillment outside the marriage relationship).  Another interesting answer is something that God Himself built into us:  the hunger to be significant.  This again can only truly be satisfied through the covenant relationship of the Godhead, which is through Christ and by serving others.  Matthew chapter 6:1-18 gives us good instruction as to what not to do in public.  If we do good deeds, it is best to do them without the intention of seeking praise and recognition.  We can be significant within the body of Christ as each one of God’s children plays a vital role much like each member of a body.

The anger from those encounters tempts us to lash out in revenge.  Memories of even minor slights grind away at our peace and vitality.  The last thing on our minds is forgiveness, but psychologists and spiritual leaders all agree:  We MUST forgive to experience peace and freedom. But how do you forgive the everyday hurts or even more – the unforgiveable?

On Thursday, March 29, Priority Associates hosted a special event with local businessmen, Charles Larkam and Thomas Mackie III, and teacher, Barbara Burgess.

Each shared about an extraordinary event in their life that caused them tremendous pain:

The murder of a father.
The theft/swindle of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The infidelity of a spouse.

Amazingly, each of these people was able to forgive their “perpetrator,” move on with their life and even reconcile in two instances.  They shared their struggles about facing the hardest trial of their lives and how they got to the point not only of forgiving the person who hurt them but how their faith enabled them to experience ongoing peace.

The panel discussion was recorded and you can listen to it at our podcast site at http://paaustin.podcastpeople.com/posts/45855

This is a unique opportunity to hear answers from peers about an area of life that is often hard to address. We encourage you listen and pass along the link to any who might also benefit from hearing these intimate, powerful stories that reveal the important role of our spiritual life in finding true peace.

Thomas Mackie III

Real Estate Developer, Construction Manager

Barbara Burgess

Educator

Charles Larkham

Financial Consultant

AXA Advisors

Priority Associates is a faith-based, Christian non-profit organization that resources people personally, professionally and spiritually.

There are two distinct possibilities: the cosmos had a beginning or the cosmos has always existed.  It had previously been believed since Aristotle’s time that the universe was eternal, but since then discoveries such as the Big Bang theory postulate that the universe had a beginning. Edwin Hubble is credited with this discovery when he observed that galaxies appeared to be moving away from each other. 

This would point us to a transcendent creator who created the cosmos from nothing, an outside entity outside of space and time.   Psalm 19:1-2 states that, “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge.” Scripture (special revelation) tells us that the world of nature (general revelation) points to a creator and a designer. 

The most influential theory in modern civilization has been the Darwinian theory of evolution.  Many scientists and thinkers have accepted this theory as fact.  Carl Sagan claimed that the evidence of the fossil record and contemporary molecular biology support the fact of evolution.  So, how does the theory of evolution stack up against reality?  Stephen Myer, Director of the Center for Science and Culture at the Discovery Institute, observes that post 1953, the structure of DNA was thought to be a simple living glob that mutates and changes.  However, scientists now understand that the structure of the cell to be much more complex.  A cell is an exquisite miniature rotary machine caused by intelligence.  Before what scientists had to work with was matter and energy, but now a new feature is added: information. 

This presence of information implies design and purpose.  We do not have to peer through the lens of a microscope to see the evidence of design, it is all around us.  While some scientists like Dr. Kenyon recognize that an intelligent designer must exist behind the intricate complexities of life, others insist otherwise.  In fact, if the evidence takes them outside the box of naturalism, they will not go there.  Instead they compose other theories.  For instance, Francis Crick believes in directed panspermia (life started on another planet and made its way to earth), but it still doesn’t explain how it began on another planet.

In looking at the fossil record, there must be evidence of gradual changes leading to a complexity that would lead to the evidence of evolution.  However, we do not find any such evidence.  Yet again, scientists try to make up for this lack of evidence.  Stephen J. Gould came up with a theory called Punctuated Equilibrium, which means that slow gradual changes took place, followed by a stasis, then sudden great immediate changes, followed by another stasis. 

Though Sagan claims that science will follow the evidence wherever it leads, some scientists have not followed this path.  Romans 16:25 reveals that, “they exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator…”   It may appear that there is something much deeper at hand than a mere scientific theory because ideas indeed have huge consequences.

Do you struggle with the annual cycle of setting bold New Year’s resolutions in January… only to see them fade away before Spring Break?

Whether you want to lose weight, move ahead at work, or take some steps to deepen the spiritual side of your life, your goals are important.

Listen to this fast-paced workshop to learn what the research shows us about how people really achieve goals.

Donna Fox, an Austin-based productivity and leadership coach, explains:

• The 4 key “productivity culprits” that stand between you and the achievement of your goals
• A sure-fire framework that will get you into action… this week!
• Reliable methods that actually enable you to manufacture more willpower
• How Priority Associates and these principles have impacted Donna’s own life in the past few years

DETAILS

This workshop took place on Thursday, January 26, but we have posted a podcast of the
audio online at:  http://paaustin.podcastpeople.com/posts/45245

If you were unable to attend or you would like to share the workshop with someone
else, feel free to listen or download the workshop and these pdf tools:

2011 Goal Learning Worksheet  and   2012 Goals Worksheet

*Priority Associates is a faith-based, Christian organization that provides resources to business men and women to help them develop balance in their personal, spiritual and professional lives.

The biblical view of man consists of three states or modes.  The first is the essence of man, which is that man is made in the image of God.  The essence is also dualistic in that it is made up of flesh and spirit.  The second is the moral state of man which is fallen.  Because it is fallen, the third state is the need for redemption, to be rescued or saved.

The question of evil inevitably emerges as we explore the states of man.  Man succumbed to evil, thus the consequeces of having fallen.  It is surprising (and I daresay a bit shocking) to assert that there is no evil in man.  Yet many prominent thinkers have said that man is essentially good, and evil does not derive from man.  For example, Abraham Maslow, the prominent psychologist, believed that there was no intrinsic instinct for evil in man.  His famous “Hierarchy of Needs” even elevates man’s need for self-actualization.  Yet the question remains: where does evil come from?  If it does not come from human nature, where does it come from?  Some may try to blame social institutions and culture, but the problem remains as people make up social institutions and culture itself.

Whether we acknowledge that evil derives from human nature or not, we cannot deny that it exists.   If man is only a material creature, working out the evolutionary process, then why does injustice or suffering bother us?  Why do we feel bad when horrendous acts occur?  Also, if man is only materialistic, there is no ethical basis to even address the “problem of evil”.  It makes more sense to believe that there is something transcendent in each one of us.  As Dr. Theodore Dalrymple says it well, “you don’t need to find yourself.  You need to lose yourself.”

Thinkers have used Philosophy as a starting point but have conjured up a myriad of worldviews such as naturalism, humanism, existentialism, postmodernism, etc to explain ultimate reality.  Carl Sagan, the well-known scientist, had his own naturalistic worldview that can be summed up in these famous words, “the cosmos is all there is, ever was, and ever will be”.  This implies that the only reality is inside the box of this world.  Naturalism makes no room for an outside entity – no room for an outside creator.  Although Sagan does not outright state “There is no God,” his statement that the cosmos is all there is assumes that there is no God.  The assumption is there, and the most dangerous form of knowledge is an assumption.  If you buy the statement, you buy the assumption.

Because humankind does not want to live in a sterile box, they invent a god to fill that void, but they invent this god inside the box to suit their own needs.  Humans then try to make sense of the universals by looking at the particulars, when God has given us the universals to help us understand the particulars.  For example, one great thinker used mathematics, science and art to find universal truth, but ultimately failed in his attempt to discover the Holy Grail.  He must have not looked outside the box.

What’s more, our understanding of right and wrong is directly dependent on our worldview: is the universe God’s creation or a closed cosmic cube?  If it is God’s creation, then there are objective moral standards for humans.  These standards correlate to the character and nature of God.  There is also a clear distinction between Ethics and Morality.  As the well-known theologian, R.C. Sproul states, “Ethics implies ‘ought’ and Morality implies ‘what is’.”  In other words, Ethics is what ought to be regardless of time and culture (transcendent) and morality has to do with the behaviors (mores) of a particular culture and society.

Everyone has a personal worldview, and this worldview determines people’s actions.  The Bible encourages believers to “… not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2).  The word “transformed” in the Greek is “metamorphoo” and is used in this verse, the transfiguration of Jesus and in 2 Cor. 3:18: “And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory”.  Let us seek to be transformed.