Action & Faith

There must be a balance between our actions and our faith in God. We should use our minds and our resources to obey God. At the same time, we must trust God for the results of our endeavors. I am never responsible for the results. I am only responsible for my obedience.

Courage To Forgive

It takes courage to lay aside hatred and hurt and to respect the positive aspects of another who has offended us. Yet it is that courage that leads us to forgiveness. So it is that some fail to forgive because we are afraid to forgive.

Empty Joy?

When sin dominates our lives, even God-given joys seem empty.

Learning Lessons

Don't insist on learning all of life's lessons through personal experience. Instead, learn what lessons history has already taught. Those who proudly claim to be "experiential learners" are really just telling you how foolish they are - because they disregard all of history's lessons.

Asking God

When our motives are pure, we shouldn't hesitate to ask great things of God. But when we do ask for great power or ability, we need to examine our desires and get rid of any selfishness or other character defects that may be operating in that request.

Truth's Impact

One piece of truth will affect many people in different ways - because we each run it through our own filters of experience and perspective. We each may understand it differently or understand different levels of that one piece of truth.

But we need to ask ourselves if truth can really have different meanings and still be truth.

Maybe it is our experiences and our perspective that warp or pervert truth's meaning.

Tend to Become

We tend to become what we worship (i.e., give priority to).
We tend to become who we follow (i.e., listen to).
We tend to become who we spend time with.

How do you intend to become?

Self Centeredness

When people fail to see or appreciate how fortunate they are - and when they begin to take God's provision and His gifts for granted - they become self centered. And self centeredness is like a self perpetuating disease. Left unchecked, it just grows and wields more power over us.

Smart & Wise

A smart man gets (seeks) a lot of advice. A wise man evaluates the advice he gets against the context of God's word, will, character and nature.

Lie To Ourselves

We have huge capacity to lie to ourselves. But God provides two safeguards against such self-deception. His word and true friends are those safeguards. Each has the ability to help us see beyond ourselves - see beyond our own perspective - if we will constantly seek them out and listen to them.

Worshipping

Worshipping images of God is not worshipping God, even if it resembles true worship in some ways. Often we treat an image of the cross or a statue of the Virgin Mary as if they were sacred. But only the God they remind us of is sacred. Pictures of Jesus, cross pendants, statues and other items purchased, made or kept are not the same as the God we worship.

Wisdom Not Enough

It is good to have wisdom, but that is not enough for a good life. The highest goal in life - higher than wisdom - is to know God in such an intimate way that you are compelled to obey Him.

Temptation's Root

At the root of most temptation is a real need or desire - that only God can fill.

Working Life

Working to the exclusion of rest or to the neglect of family and other relationships (including God) may be a cover-up for an inability to trust God to provide for our needs.

Make Your Point

When you need to make a point - look for creative, God-honoring ways to do it. It will have a more significant impact. Why is that? First, the creative approach will be memorable. It will stand out from all the other points it's competing with. Second, God will bless communication that honors Him. It is that simple.

Funding Your Ministry

God's work, done God's way and in God's timing, never lacks God's supply. This is sage advice for those of us who struggle to find funding for the ministry endeavors that we believe God has called us to.

God's Rewards

God evaluates and rewards our obedience - and not our potential.

Resolving Differences

God's living presence in a relationship overcomes differences that might otherwise create division and disharmony. Often the presence of Jesus Christ in our relationships is the only thing that makes it possible to overcome our otherwise irreconcilable differences.

God's Standards

God has given us His standards for living. They are to be the criteria for all of our decision making. So while God has given us free choice, He has not left our choices and behaviors up to us and our opinions. Put another way, God have us free choice - but He asks us to give it back to Him, not doing what we choose - but rather doing as He chooses.

Helping Others

God supplies most of us with the personal and financial resources to respond to the needs of others. If we all realized how God has blessed us and equipped us - and if we all used our resources to do God's will with those blessings - hunger and poverty would no longer be an issue in our world today.

It has never been God's will that people die from starvation, drought, and other preventable conditions and diseases. They do so only because of the sin in this world - which is often found in our indifference towards these people.

Friendly With Sin

We cannot be friendly with sin or be close to sin and expect our lives to unaffected. We will become like whatever or whomever we spend time with. It is our nature.

Responsibility

If you are a Christian - or claim to be - God holds you responsible for the purity of your actions and thoughts. He expects the quality of your example and the truth of your words to be representative of His spirit that lives within you.

False Idols

An idol can be anything that is reverent in my life. The only appropriate idol is God. Everything else then is a false idol - which would be anything more reverent than God. What in my life gets higher priority than God? Sleep? Money? Convenience? Entertainment? Vacations? Sports? Exercise? Television? Recognition? My kids? All are potentially false idols. Out of context, they become sin.

Indifference

When people are indifferent toward God they tend to believe that He is indifferent toward them. This is a grave mistake. God has a plan for every single person. It is a plan to save or to destroy us (because of our unconfessed sin and disobedience). God is never indifferent toward any of us. He has very strong feelings about us - one way or the other.

Warnings

Warnings rarely come with a count down. We can't tell when we've had our last chance to change our behavior or change our course. The moment we realize that a change is necessary though, is the very best time to take action to change our behavior or our course of action.

Life's Questions

Life is filled with questions. Some of them go unanswered (and we're never quite sure why that is). At times, those unanswered questions create nagging, spirit-destroying doubt. Some of us choose to live with those doubts. We ignore them and move on. Others become cynical and bitter, with hard hearts as a result of our doubts.

But spiritually mature Christ-followers reject those options. Instead, they make peace with their unanswered questions, and learn to live in harmony with life's ambiguities. They continue to ask the questions - and always believe that there are answers. But they know that God is in control of the answers and that He will reveal those answers to us in His perfect timing.

Means To An End

The means we use to accomplish a goal are just as important as the goal we are trying to accomplish. Said differently, the route we take to get there is just as important, if not more so, than the destination itself.

Accomplishment

Anything that I truly accomplish in life comes as a result of God's help. So I have no reason to take pride in myself, in my team or in my work. But I have every reason to be very grateful to God.

Humility Benefit

Humility allows us to be content with God's leading in our lives. But without humility, we'll always want something that God doesn't intend to provide.

Love & Lust

Love and lust are very different. Love is patient, but lust requires immediate satisfaction. Love is kind, but lust is harsh. Love does not demand its own way, but lust is quite selfish. Lust may feel like love, but when physically expressed it results in disgust for yourself and hatred of the other person. If you just can't wait - then what you feel is not love.