I don’t know of a hotter subject today than success. Magazine articles, books, seminars, and sermons promote it. But success is seldom linked with wisdom.
Read MoreCategory Archives: Christian Living
Change Your Routine
Following the sixth day of creation, the Lord God deliberately stopped working. He rested. It wasn’t that there was nothing else He could have done. It certainly wasn’t because He was exhausted. Omnipotence never gets tired!
Read MoreMake Leisure Part of Your Day
How do you get good at getting the rest God said was good for you? How do you get good at leisure? We can, of course, nod in agreement to all we’ve discussed in the past couple days about how important it is to rest.
Read MoreIs Fatigue Next to Godliness?
Now here’s a rhyme I’ll never understand: Pussy-cat, pussy-cat, where have you been? / I’ve been to London to look at the queen. / Pussy-cat, pussy-cat, what did you there? / I frightened a little mouse under the chair.
Read MoreTension in the Tank, Part One
Ever felt sorry for certain Scriptures? I sure have. I’m talking about passages like John 3:17, Hebrews 4:13, 1 John 1:10, and Philippians 4:14. Great verses, all . . . yet the popularity of their next-door neighbors has resulted in their being virtually ignored. Everybody who spends even a little while in the Family can quote Proverbs 3:5–6, but unfortunately, an equally significant verse 7 goes begging.
Read MoreThe Tailor’s Name Is Change, Part Two
As I mentioned yesterday, as stimulating and invigorating as change may be—it is never easy. And when it comes to certain habits that haunt and harm us, change can be excruciating. But it isn’t impossible. I warn you, the number one enemy of change is the hard-core, self-satisfied sin nature within you. Like a spoiled child, it has been gratified and indulged for years, so it will not give up without a violent temper tantrum.
Read MorePerspective
What is perspective? Well, it’s obviously related to the way we view something. The term literally suggests “looking through . . . seeing clearly.” One who views life through perspective lenses has the capacity to see things in their true relations or relative importance. He sees the big picture. She is able to distinguish the incidental from the essential . . . the temporary from the eternal . . . the partial from the whole . . . the trees from the forest.
Read MoreThe Sting of the Thorn, Part One
Give the Reverend Dullard Drydust enough time and he will manage to confuse most sections of the Bible. Because we preachers are notorious for getting hung up on Greek tenses and purpose clauses and theological trivia, we often shy away from those passages that appear nontechnical and plain. Like the parables, to be specific. Like Mark 4, to be exact.
Read MoreTrust, Part One
Those folks who used to put together Campus Life magazine got my vote. With an incredible regularity they would put the cookies on the lower shelf so that any high schooler in America could thumb through the thing without getting turned off. One of their secrets was frequent humor, lots of jokes. You know, all kinds of stuff to laugh at . . . some a little gross, but all designed to scratch a teenager where he was itching.
Read More“Won’t Someone Please Stop Me?” Part Two
Strange, isn’t it, how we tend toward extremes? What begins as self-improvement becomes self-enslavement . . . what starts as merely a mellow change of pace leads to a marathon of fanaticism. We’re nuts! Left to ourselves, we’ll opt for extremes most every time. Which explains why God’s Book so often stresses moderation, self-control, softening our sharp-cornered lives with more curves that necessitate a slower speed.
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