May 5, 2014
What helps you focus on God and His presence throughout your day?
smartly, not seductively
I had an interesting conversation with a friend recently. “Much preaching about women dressing modestly has been destructive,” she said, “because it subtly places the blame for men’s lust on women. Men should take responsibility for their lust, and women should be free to wear what they want.” My friend’s words got me thinking.
God’s name
A colleague discovered that her name was used on a website to attract people to attend a Bible seminar. But she hadn’t actually been invited to be the speaker. Immediately, she took action to investigate the matter. Could this be a case of identity theft?
God in a box
Wouldn’t it be nice if we could fit God into a box? When we want to do or say something that’s not Christlike, we could simply place Him in it and shut the lid. Perhaps we’d like to do so just before cursing during a bad traffic jam or when we’re checking something out on Youtube, Facebook, or Twitter that isn’t appropriate. After our dalliance with sin, we could simply bring God back out.
humbly His
Only a handful of people know who wrote the book Embracing Obscurity: Becoming Nothing in Light of God’s Everything. The writer, who published the book under the name “Anonymous,” is a well-established author who is living out the main point of his (or her) message. According to Anonymous, the book is “a call to stop imitating the world’s formula for success and instead follow the model of our humble King.”
November 18, 2013
What marks the life of someone who’s been transformed by Jesus?
leading integrity
In 2012, a think-tank held a search for 1,000 people of integrity in their country. From that group they identified 20 who they felt could become key governmental leaders. This was in reaction to the widespread dismay over the fact that one-third of the country’s regents and mayors were under investigation for graft. In a country of hundreds of millions, there was no shortage of leader applicants, but the think-tank believed it was imperative that they help elect leaders who possessed integrity.
bless the Lord
Have you sung Matt Redman’s inspiring song, “10,000 Reasons”? It begins, “Bless the Lord, O my soul, O my soul, worship His holy name. Sing like never before, O my soul. I’ll worship Your holy name.” Matt said he based the song on Psalm 103, which lists many and various reasons to bless the Lord. The New International Version and New Living Translation translate Psalm 103:1 as “praise the Lord,” but the Hebrew literally says, “O my soul, bless the Lord.” Do you wonder what that means?
know your enemy
A recent pop song contains these lyrics: “Do you know the enemy? Do you know your enemy? Well, gotta know the enemy.”
the right way
Lance Armstrong was on top of the world. He’d won the coveted Tour de France seven times. He’d beaten cancer and had seen his charity, Livestrong, become an acclaimed source of help for cancer patients. But then the walls came tumbling down. It was revealed that Armstrong had led a doping program on his teams during his career. And, just like that, he was stripped of his Tour de France titles, he severed ties with Livestrong, and his name became synonymous with cheating and duplicity.
multi-hat syndrome
A pastor recently listed 36 different “hats” he might wear. The roles included community activist, theologian, financial advisor, and life coach. These roles evolved from the different needs of churchgoers. While it’s important for all of us to respond to others’ needs, if the demands consume us, we may begin to serve people instead of serving God.
watch out!
C. S. Lewis wrote in Mere Christianity, “There is one vice of which no man in the world is free; which every one in the world loathes when he sees it in someone else; . . . There is no fault which makes a man more unpopular, and no fault which we are more unconscious of in ourselves. And the more we have it in ourselves the more we dislike it in others.” Can you guess what it is?
learning humility
Last month, as my wife was using our riding lawn mower, she accidentally hooked the bottom of the mower on one of the swings of our swing set. It dangerously lifted the front tires off the ground! So, as I was recently cutting the grass, her scare reminded me to slow down to first gear. I confidently maneuvered around the swing on my left—but I failed to see the one on the right. Suddenly, the mower reared up on its rear wheels and then tipped backwards. After hitting the ground and rolling clear of the blades, I realized that my mower now lay upside down on its crushed steering wheel.
pandora?
Pandora is one of the musical marvels of the Internet age. It’s an algorithm-based website that allows you to listen to any musical artists, bands, and songs that you like. By each song, you can click a “thumbs up” or a “thumbs down” sign. When you click the “thumbs up” sign, it plays more music like what you just heard. If you click the “thumbs down” sign, Pandora will take that song out of rotation or skip that song and bring up a different song for you to judge.
why the Bible matters
In his article Does the Bible Matter in the 21st Century? author Vishal Mangalwadi lifts up the inestimable worth of God’s Word. He also notes that bad things happen when a country chooses to ignore the Bible’s wisdom. He writes, “[The US] was built by an ethic—a spirituality that taught citizens to work, earn, save, invest, and use their wealth to serve their neighbors. This biblical ethic has been replaced by secularism’s entitlement culture that teaches people that they have a right to this, that, and the other without corresponding obligations to work, save, and serve.”
