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Loving Others, Avoiding Resentment

October 8, 2013

“One of the things that kills empathy and compassion for someone we once felt love toward is the buildup of negative emotions, especially resentment. Jesus knows that when we’re struggling with the effects of a person’s sin against us, we will feel angry, scared, and hurt. That is human and normal. But when the person who has hurt us is not sorry, or continues to hurt us again and again, our negative emotions grow and resentment builds, putting a choke hold on all our positive feelings. I believe that is one reason why the Bible commands us to forgive when someone hurts us and why Jesus tells us to love our enemy by doing him or her good. It’s not only for their benefit but for ours, so that we don’t fill up with resentment and become toxic.

Doing good [ … ]

To Know God

October 4, 2013

Christianity is not just about adhering to a set of doctrines (although it is built on distinctive beliefs), nor is it just about living ethically (although moral choices are encouraged and expected), nor is it just about following a set of religious practices (although taking part in worship services, for example, is important). Christianity is first and foremost about a relationship to God—knowing him truly and personally.

One important distinction surfaces immediately: the difference between knowing about God and knowing God. I know many things about the current president of the United States: his likes and dislikes; his views on important issues; details about his family life, background, and so on. Most of this information has come to me through reading, watching news programs, or talking to people who know more about him than I do. I’ve never met the [ … ]

Do we see ourselves as we really are?

October 3, 2013

For most of us, the inability to accept ourselves is more debilitating than an inability to forgive ourselves. Whenever we sense—through conscious thought or through beyond-the-conscious-mind awareness—that the parts of our Self system are inconsistent, we feel anxious. With that anxiety comes a threat to the Self, and we try to defend against it.

Struggles with self-acceptance usually occur because our concept of our real self does not match up well with our ideal self. This might be because we are ashamed of things we did in the past. We can’t understand or accept how we could have done something like that. Or we have done wrong within the range of typical human behavior, yet hold unrealistic ideals that are satisfied with nothing less than our own perfection. The conceptual inconsistencies often spring from the contrast between the true self, [ … ]

Your life was meant for something more!

October 2, 2013

“But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.” (James 1:22, NLT)

“Just as we’re consumers of clothing and movies and huge homes and electronic gadgets, we become consumers of all things biblical. Consume, consume, consume—without ever living out the truths we’re consuming.

Guess what? God says there’s something more to life and to this whole adventure of faith. God calls us to a deeper faith, a more active faith—a faith that’s demonstrated through our actions and our lifestyle. Your life was meant for something more!”

Excerpted from Ten Days Without: Daring Adventures in Discomfort That Will Change Your World and You by Daniel Ryan Day

Daily Reflection: As Christians we’re called to live differently; but how can we do this amid all the consumer-focused excess [ … ]

Balancing Work and Family

September 30, 2013

“Contentment is found neither in the marketplace nor the family alone. It’s found when we align our priorities with his as it relates to both areas of responsibility. There’s nothing honoring to God about the workaholic who neglects his or her family. But the man or woman who refuses to provide for the family brings no honor to him either. Clearly we don’t have the luxury of choosing one or the other, since both are a permanent part of our lives. Both demand more attention than we have to give. Both originated with our Creator.”

Excerpted from When Work and Family Collide: Keeping Your Job from Cheating Your Family by Andy Stanley

Daily Reflection: In what ways do you most often experience the tension between work and family?

A True Child of God

September 27, 2013

“‘The Word’s powerful, sharper than a two-edged sword. Even the long lists of names remind you of the faithfulness of God, from generation to generation…’

‘Trusting Jesus and being a true child of God meant that whatever God said about His Son, He could say about me. He loved me…Not because I was smart or special or had great talents or gifts. It wasn’t because I was living the ‘good Christian life’ I was trying so hard to get right. He just looked at me and loved me. He delighted in me like a father delighting in his children. It suddenly all made sense…’

‘And I saw how deep my sin was. How foolish I was to try and fix myself. How silly my attempts at being a good man looked compared to King Jesus. And then I saw grace. [ … ]

Belonging to One Another

September 26, 2013

“Romans 12:5 describes this concept [of connectedness] in an awe-inspiring way when it states, “So in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others” (emphasis added). If we are to take that to heart—and certainly we should—then we’d best be about caring, nurturing, investing in, and being responsible for one another. To the point that we accept the truth that we belong to others in the body. What a life-changing concept that could be for us all if we were to actually live that out in our marriages and in the community of believers.”

Excerpted from Faith Tango by Carolyn and Craig Williford

Daily Reflection: How can you better live in connectedness with your spouse, family, church body, and community?

More than Just “Getting In” Through the Pearly Gates

September 25, 2013

“Having faith, beliefs, and convictions is a great thing, but your life is measured by the actions you take based upon them. You can build a great life around those things you believe and have faith in. I’ve built mine around my belief that I can inspire and bring hope to people facing challenges in their lives. That belief is rooted in my faith in God. I have faith that He put me on this earth to love, inspire, and encourage others and especially to help all who are willing to accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. I believe that I can never earn my way to heaven, and by faith I accept the gift of the forgiveness of sins through Christ Jesus. However, there’s so much more than just “getting in” through the Pearly Gates. It is [ … ]

A Big Dream

September 24, 2013

“Do you believe every person on earth was born with a dream for his or her life?
No matter where I travel in the world—whether among hard-charging Manhattan urbanites or villagers in southern Africa—I have yet to find a person who didn’t have a dream. They may not be able to describe it. They may have forgotten it. They may no longer believe in it.
But it’s there.

I call this universal and powerful longing a Big Dream. Like the genetic code that describes your unique passions and abilities, your Big Dream has been woven into your being from birth. You’re the only person with a Dream quite like yours.
And you have it for a reason: to draw you toward the kind of life you were born to love!”

Excerpted from The Dream Giver by Bruce Wilkinson

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Superhero Lives

September 23, 2013

“There’s Spider-Man, Superman, The Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia, and more. Add to this mix the movie swith extraordinary heroes who do remarkable feats and live exceptional lives, characters such as Batman, Iron Man, Indiana Jones, and Zorro, just to name a few. In fact, as of 2009, seventeen of the top twenty-five all-time blockbuster movies fall under these categories, which is almost 70 percent. How intriguing that the bulk of the most popular movies of all time are films that center on extraordinary characters doing remarkable feats, with a good number of them possessing beyond human abilities or powers. Why? Because ‘extraordinary’ is how we were created to live. It was God’s plan from the beginning.”

Excerpted from Extraordinary: Keys to a Breakthrough Life by John Bevere

Daily Reflection: How can you live a [ … ]