Converting Others

When we introduce someone to God, we increase our own awareness of God. But only with a vital relationship with God can we really pass on the excitement of letting God lead in one's life. Simply put - you can't sell what you don't believe in. Similarly - you can't sell what you don't have.

Solving Problems

Some problems in life can be solved by careful thought or by rearranging our priorities. some can be solved by discussion with good counsel from others. But some problems can be solved only by prayer.

Argue in Whisper

Have you ever tried to argue in a whisper? It is equally difficult to argue with someone who insists on answering gently.

Spending Time

Spend time with people you want to be like. You and your closest friends will inevitably come to resemble each other.

Greater Order

Every decision that I make to obey God's Word brings a greater order to my life.

Life Without God

I've often said that I would not want to live my life without God. That is because I remember so vividly the life I did live without Him. Although troubles come to the godly, with God we are able to see beyond those troubles and move ahead in spite of them. My troubles lose their power over me when I am surrendered to and walking with God.

But without God, people are quite ill-equipped to handle their own problems. That's how life works.

On Friendships

Godly people are cautious in friendships. So are wise people.

Ironic Life

The more that I surrender my life and my will to God, the more ironic life is.

Words Build or Destroy

Every person that you meet is either a demolition site or a construction opportunity. Your words will make the difference. Will your words be weapons of destruction - or will they be tools for construction?

God's Wisdom

If a person follows God's wisdom, God can rescue him or her from trouble. But a person who shuns God's wisdom has natural consequences of bad choices to be experienced. And God will do nothing to rescue us from the natural consequences of our own poor choices. And if you're not sure what "poor choices" are ... they are the ones that we make without seeking God's wisdom, considering His will or using His standards to make.

Resisting God

After spending a lifetime resisting God, you may find it impossible to turn to Him. Hope for you is being lost - one day at a time.

Ignoring God

If you continually ignore God's voice, eventually you will be unable to hear it at all.

On Stubbornness

Stubbornness is usually self-centered. Know someone who is stubborn? Then you also know someone who is self-centered. He or she is probably also selfish.

Wise Person?

Are you a wise person? One can usually tell by the way you respond to criticism. A wise man will not respond with an angry or clever retort when he is criticized. Instead, he will reflect on what has been said and seek God's perspective on the matter.

Strategy for Life

The real strategy for effective living starts with God's wisdom. It requires moral application and practical application - both on a day-to-day basis. This is what results in effective living.

Secret Sins

Our youth pastor taught the sermon one recent Sunday and his topic was "secret sins." It occurs to me that harboring secret sins means that you are tolerating evil within yourself. Would sane, rational people really do such a thing?

Going Places

Don't ever let your body take you to any place that your mind isn't capable of keeping you.

How God Leads

Although God is all powerful and He can do miracles, spectacular usually isn't what we expect from Him. God typically prefers to guide us with wise leadership that He places over us. He prefers to work in us through team efforts - in community that He offers us. Perhaps most overlooked is the fact that God wants to bless us ... as we submit to one another in that community He's provided us and as we submit to that wise leadership He's placed over us.

Purpose Driven

The person who has no purpose in life is simple-minded. If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything (aka "a fool"). Without aim or direction - a purpose in your life - life is empy, unstable and vulnerable to ungodly temptations. Want to live a virtuous life? Get a purpose. Be about something. Stand for something. Live your purpose.

Sexual Sin

Sexual sin, besides the obvious risks, carries other more subtle risks. We may lose our ability to fulfill commitments. We may lose our ability to feel sexual desire. We may lose our ability to trust and to be entirely open with another person. Our capacity for sexual intimacy is damaged, perhaps irreparably, by sexual sin.

Pride Defined

Pride is simply thinking or believing that our wisdom is flawless or just better than that of others or of God's. Without regard for God's perspective on something - and without considering the possibility that our perspective isn't always complete or accurate - we will fall into the sin of pride as we decide about it.

Marriage Happiness

Real happiness in a marriage comes when we decide to find pleasure in the spouse God has given us and to commit ourselves to meeting his or her real needs in life.

Of course, this requires that I give up the notion of the spouse I've always dreamed of, felt I deserved and want to demand.

So here's a question: Do you know what your spouse's real needs are? What will it take for you to find out? What will it take for you to become willing to meet them?

Developing Wisdom

People don't develop all aspects of wisdom at the same time. For example, some people may have more insight than discretion. Other people may have more knowledge than common sense. Wisdom is a journey, and we all travel it differently.

Knowledge & Wisdom

In this age of information, knowledge is very plentiful. But we people seem to be more starved than ever before for real wisdom.

There is a path that seems logical. It starts with reality, expressed in data. The data becomes information and that evolves into knowledge. The final leap is when knowledge (including experience) is transformed into wisdom. Most of us would like to think we can automate, using logic and reason, to move through this process. But alas, it seems that it requires God to take us through the final step. After all, true wisdom can only come from God - and not from manipulated data.

Human Behavior

While we should be accepting of others, we all need to reserve a healthy skepticism about all human behavior. Humans are, by their very nature, flawed in their thinking.

Viewing Problems

Look at your problems in the light of God's power - instead of looking at God in the shadow of your problems.

On Success

To achieve anything truly worthwhile in life, we must have God's word in our hearts.

Apathetic Believers

If people are apathetic about God, it is because they lack a realization of who God really is and what He has done for us. They may also not really comprehend how we benefit from truly knowing God.

Honest Feelings

Only when honest feelings and emotions are shared can people be really known, loved and helped. But this won't work when just one person is honest with everyone else. In fact, it only occurs when the honesty of feelings and emotions is shared mutually. So, for example, your brutal honestly can offend or hurt me. But if I am not honest with you about that fact, we miss the benefits and depth of relationship that God intends.

God's Will

God can overrule the evil intentions of people to bring about His intended results. At the same time, God can manipulate the evil intentions of people to bring about His intended results. Bottom line? Evil doesn't get to prevail unless God allows it.

Spiritual Warfare

Spiritual warfare must be fought with prayer. But it also offers battles that must be fought with teamwork between courageous people who are faithful - and a mighty God.