Others like the 5am club Features >>
The Leader Who Had No Title
Who Will Cry When You Die
The Little Big Small Business Book
Let It Go
Everyone Communicates, Few Connect
Personal Development All-In-One For Dummies
Buy The Future
-160.webp)
Attitude Is Everything: 10 Life-Changing Steps To Turning Attitude Into Action
Top Performance
Become A Better You
About the Book
"The 5am Club" by Robin Sharma is a self-help book that highlights the importance of waking up early and structuring your morning routine in order to maximize productivity and self-improvement. The book follows the story of a successful entrepreneur who joins a group called the 5 AM Club and learns valuable lessons on time management, personal growth, and achieving success. Through practical tips and inspiring anecdotes, Sharma encourages readers to embrace the power of early mornings to transform their lives.
Hannah More
Beyond any doubt, Hannah More was the most influential female member of the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the African Slave Trade. She was educated at Bristol, an important slave-trading town, and began to publish her writing in the 1760s, while she was still a teenager. Her first play, The Inflexible Captive, was staged at Bath in 1775. Later in the 1770s, and for much of the 1780s, she spent time in London and made the acquaintance of many important political and society figures, including Samuel Johnson, Edmund Burke, and Elizabeth Montagu. Her play Percy was produced by David Garrick in 1777, and Fatal Falsehood was staged in 1779, but she came to regard the theatre as morally wrong, especially after the death of her mentors; Garrick and Johnson. She turned to religious writing, beginning with her Sacred Dramas in 1782. In 1784-5, she 'discovered' Ann Yearsley, the so-called 'poetical milkmaid of Bristol', whose poems More helped to publish, although the two later fell out.
In the 1780s, More widened her circle to include religious and philanthropic figures, including John Newton, Beilby Porteus and William Wilberforce. In the summer of 1786, she spent time with Sir Charles and Lady Margaret Middleton at the their home in Teston in Kent. Among their guests were the local vicar James Ramsay and a young Thomas Clarkson, both of whom were central to the early abolition campaign. More and Clarkson met again in Bristol in 1787, while he was on his fact-finding mission to the city, but they did not become close. However, in the same year More met Wilberforce, and their friendship was to become a deep and lasting one. More contributed much to the running of the newly-founded Abolition Society including, in February 1788, her publication of Slavery, a Poem which has been recognised as one of the more important slavery poems of the abolition period. Her relationship with members of the society, especially Wilberforce, was close. For example, she spent the summer of 1789 holidaying with Wilberforce in the Peak District - planning for the abolition campaign, at that time at its height, formed a great deal of their conversation.
By the mid-1790s, More had become closely involved with the 'Clapham Sect' of evangelical Christians, many of whom were involved in the abolition campaign. The group centred on Henry Thornton's home in Clapham and included Wilberforce, James Stephen, and Zachary Macaulay, among others. Throughout the 1790s, she wrote a number of religious tracts, known as the Cheap Repository Tracts, that eventually led to the formation of the Religious Tracts Society. Several of the Tracts oppose slavery and the slave trade, in particular, the poem The Sorrows of Yamba; or, The Negro Woman's Lamentation, which appeared in November 1795 and which was co-authored with Eaglesfield Smith. However, the tracts have also been noted for their encouragement of social quietism in an age of revolution. She continued to oppose slavery throughout her life, but at the time of the Abolition Bill of 1807, her health did not permit her to take as active a role in the movement as she had done in the late 1780s, although she maintained a correspondence with Wilberforce and others. In her later life, she dedicated much time to religious writing. Nevertheless, her most popular work was a novel, Coelebs in Search of a Wife, which appeared in two volumes in 1809 (and which ran to nine editions in 1809 alone). In the 1820s she grew gradually less well, and decreased - but did not entirely halt - the amount of writing she produced. On her death in 1833, she left more than ĂÂŁ30,000 to charities and religious societies (equivalent to about ĂÂŁ2,000,000 or $3,000,000 in 2004).
© Brycchan Carey 2004
finding joy in the dark - the bold prayer of psalm 70
I recently spent three days with a group of pastors, almost all our time devoted to deep sharing of our life stories. We laughed at the silly things weâve done. We marveled at the lineaments of Godâs grace. We wept over sins, wounds, and struggles, both past and present. I drove home pondering the fact that when ten tenderhearted, Jesus-loving, spiritually alive pastors get into a room and are honest with each other, we share stories of theft, pornography, broken families, paralyzing anxiety, suicidal thoughts, marital struggles, and unfulfilled longings. If thereâs such brokenness in the histories and hearts of godly shepherds, what must be the inner reality of the sheep in our churches? Surrounded by such brokenness within and without, how can the people of God possibly hope to sustain their joy in God? The odds seem long and the situation bleak. But Psalm 70 gives me strong hope. May All Be Glad Iâve been drawn to Psalm 70:4 for many years, because it brings together two awesome truths that thrill the heart of every Christian Hedonist: May all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you! May those who love your salvation say evermore, âGod is great!â Only a capacious heart could breathe such an expansive prayer. Notice that David isnât content for just a few (or even most) seekers of God to rejoice. No, he longs for all  to experience God-centered gladness. And Davidâs requesting more than just a flickering, intermittent passion for the glory of God among the people of God; rather, he prays for their lips and lives to communicate Godâs worth continually , at all times, without interruption. This is a plus-sized prayer. Itâs so big that many millions of people can (and have) fit inside it. David was surely praying it for himself. He was also praying it for those of his generation and all future generations. In fact, if weâre seeking God and loving Godâs salvation, Davidâs prayer is for us. David is asking God to sweeten our  joy and strengthen our  passion for his glory. He doesnât specify how these two prayers might fit together, but John Piper has helped many of us treasure the biblical teaching that they are in fact one. As we find our deepest joy in God (âin youâ), we display his worth to the world. Bold Prayer in Dark Days Though Iâve loved Psalm 70:4 for years, it wasnât until recently that I noticed the context. And itâs the context that has filled me with hope. Hereâs what Iâve noticed: Psalm 70 is not a sunny psalm. Itâs not a walk in the park or a day at the beach. Life is not good in this psalm. Instead, itâs hard â very hard. In fact, the psalm is an almost-unremittingly desperate plea for Godâs help. Verse 1 (the first verse) and verse 5 (the last verse) are bookends: Make haste, O God, to deliver me! O Lord, make haste to help me! Hasten to me, O God! You are my help and my deliverer; O Lord, do not delay! Thereâs a focused urgency here. David sounds like a soldier pinned down by enemy fire, radioing desperately to central command. His enemies want David dead, and they gloat over Davidâs misfortunes (âAha, Aha!â verse 3). Weâve already seen Davidâs response to this dark situation. He feels two overwhelming desires, one expected and the other exceptional. First, David wants out of the situation. In four out of five verses, he pleads with God for speedy deliverance. This reaction is perfectly natural and completely understandable. Who wouldnât want this? Of course, weâd all be asking for the same rescue. Second, however, the intense pressure of Davidâs circumstances also squeezes from his heart another cry, this one much more unusual. Stunningly, the request in verse 4 is not just for himself, but for others. Itâs nothing short of miraculous that David, in his foxhole, under heavy fire, prays not simply for personal escape, but for gladness among all Godâs people, and for the continual glorifying of God. What is going on here? Praying in a Sea of Suffering Some of us hear the Bibleâs repeated calls to pursue our joy and believe that itâs simply beyond us in our present state. For the moment, our attention is occupied by other matters: sin, sickness, loneliness, financial difficulty, opposition, relational pain. We feel weâre in the 101 class of âSurviving Our Problemsâ and not quite ready for the 201 class of âPursuing Our Joy.â Verse 4, we think, is for people who have it all together (or at least more together). âChristian Hedonism is as much for bleak days as it is for bright ones.â And this is why the context of verse 4 is so challenging and so encouraging, because verse 4 exists in a sea of suffering. David doesnât say, âOnce I get free from my enemies, then Iâll start to care about the gladness of Godâs people and the glory of God.â His foxhole prayer, in worrying and uncomfortable circumstances, is for gladness and glory. This is a real-world prayer. Christian Hedonism is as much for bleak days as it is for bright ones. If God can work this extraordinary impulse in Davidâs heart, why canât he do the same in us? Why canât he implant a renewed passion for our joy and his glory even in the midst of intense suffering? Could it be that God might even use the desperation of our brokenness to drive us to him? In his poem âThe Storm,â George Herbert ponders how, like the violent force of a terrible rainstorm, A throbbing conscience spurred by remorse Hath a strange force: It quits the earth, and mounting more and more, Dares to assault thee, and besiege thy doore. (lines 10â12) Our inner and outer conflicts may produce something good. âThey purge the aire without, within the breastâ (line 18). This was certainly the case for David in Psalm 70. His desperation yielded a passionate cry to God that continues to encourage followers of God to this day. Seek and Rest You can pray a David-like prayer in your own bleak situation by taking two cues from David himself. âJoy and gladness are the unassailable possession of those who fix their eyes on Jesus in the storms of life.â First, seek God. âMay all who seek you  rejoice and be glad in you!â Joy and gladness are the unassailable possession of those who fix their eyes on Jesus in the storms of life. Look more deeply and more often at Jesus than you look at your enemies or your troubles. Second, love Godâs salvation. âMay those who love your salvation  say evermore, âGod is great!ââ Consider frequently how God has saved you (and how heâs saving many others). Delight in this salvation. Rest in it. Love it. The more you love your salvation, the more readily your lips will spill over with natural praise of the God who saved you. Please donât wait to pursue your joy in God until God has healed your brokenness and resolved your problems. Verse 4 isnât a postscript to Psalm 70; it doesnât come after Davidâs crisis. It emerges from the midst of it. This is an example and invitation for us. Donât wait to pursue your joy. Start right now.
