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Bless the World By Using Your Gifts

2010-07-30T01:59:34Z

I met with an educational leader today to pursue using my God-given abilities in a broader arena. He encouraged to step out in faith because God gave those gifts for a reason.

A good friend of mine also died this past week. Jeri Buckner was a wonderful wife and homemaker with a love of the Bible, sense of humor, and a phenomenal gift of encouragement. Though she suffered greatly in the last years of her life, every time I went to encourage her, I came away more blessed than she because of her incredible gifts of optimism and joy.

All human beings are uniquely gifted of God. We are each specially designed by our Creator for a certain task and destiny on the earth.

Conquer Hard Times by Learning to Endure - Part 2

2010-07-23T04:10:00Z

Many people are going through very difficult times right now. The prolonged recession and uncertainty about the future are gnawing away at our confidence and hope.

How does God teach people to cope with hard times? How can we prepare ourselves to triumph even when the going gets tougher and tougher?

I believe that learning to endure--growing in perseverance in some of the physical disciplines of life--is important training for the greater tests that will come our way.

Last week we looked at the importance of learning to work hard to train your will to endure. Let's now look at two other human disciplines that can not only teach us endurance, but actually make us stronger, invincible soldiers of the One who endured the Cross.

Conquer Hard Times by Learning to Endure - Part I

2010-07-15T04:06:55Z

The current recession in America--and difficult living circumstances in many other nations--call for growth in character in all of our lives. One of the greatest qualities we need in abundance is perseverance--the ability to endure. This is even a necessary requirement for salvation. Jesus said that those who endure to the end will be saved (Matthew 24:13).

Watch Out for the Stop Signs of Sin

2010-07-08T14:25:12Z

All of us get "stopped" at some point while trying to find God's will for our lives. There are many detours and directions we can take and some people become permanently stalled at a stop sign.

There are many reasons for feeling "stopped." Arthur Miller and Ralph Mattson point out in their excellent book The Truth About You that 50 to 80 percent of Americans are in the wrong jobs--far removed from what God created them to do. Here's how bad it is:

Celebrating the Spheres of Authority

2010-07-01T14:42:03Z

On this July 4th weekend, it would be very appropriate to spend some time pondering the various domains of authority that are implied by the birth of our nation. Why do we celebrate the birth of a nation? Why are their nations? How do nations, and their roles, differ from other authorities in life?

This subject has not been broadly understood by the church at large. In the past few years, that has begun to change, and as we advance in the 21st century, this area is destined to become one of the most important pillars of modern evangelism and missions. How do you change a nation?

Summer Reading to Grow Your Life

2010-06-24T10:50:00Z

I just planted our annual vegetable garden and am watching it grow. It's a pretty simple formula: Fertile seed plus soil nutrients plus sun and water equals a garden of delights. It never ceases to amaze me that a barren patch of dirt can be transformed into a lush paradise of diverse plants, abundant colors, and good tasting food in a matter of months.

The human mind is also like a garden. It can become barren in the "winters" of life where pressures and problems stop us from learning and growing our garden of thought, insight, and creativity.

One antidote is a good "summer of reading" that can bring everything back to life.

There is No Substitute for Time With God

2010-06-18T04:25:00Z

The primary goal of our busy lives should be to become Christ-like, or as Peter states in II Peter 1:4, to "become partakers of the divine nature." There is no greater goal for life--nothing else more worthy of living and dying for.

Godliness is our goal. This brings to mind such things as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, humility, truthfulness, and justice. In this article we will not discuss in greater detail what godliness is; rather, we will take a look at how one becomes a godly person.

There is really only one way to become godly.

John Wooden: The Greatest Coach Followed the World's Greatest Life

2010-06-11T18:31:06Z

"He who walks with wise men will be wise" (Proverbs 13:20).

The American sports world has lost the man considered to be its "greatest coach."

On June 4, John Wooden, the legendary "Wizard of Westwood" who guided the UCLA to ten national basketball championships in a twelve year span (1964-1975), passed from this world into eternal life.

He left behind quite a legacy. His secret? The greatest coach was a faithful follower of the Greatest Life--the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no understanding him outside of the power of Christ-like character and godly principles lived out in Coach Wooden's ninety-nine years of life.

Living Your Dream in Difficult Times

2010-06-04T01:49:02Z

Have you ever wondered what Jesus was like as a boy? Did He argue with His brothers and sisters? Did He cry when He skinned His knee? (Or did He just heal it?) Did He ever "multiply His lunch" when He was extra hungry from working in the carpentry shop?

The Bible tells us only one story about the boyhood of Jesus (found in Luke 2:41-52). When He was twelve, He stayed behind in Jerusalem to talk to the religious leaders in the temple. His mother and father were frantic. For three days they looked for Him. Finally they found Him in the house of God. His matter-of-fact explanation was, "Why were you looking for me? Didn't you know that I must be in my Father's house?" (Luke 2:49).

The message of this story is very simple: Jesus had a dream--a sense of destiny at a very early age. As a twelve-year-old, He understood that His Heavenly Father had sent Him on a mission. It surprised Him that His parents didn't know that. Luke tells us that He then spent eighteen additional years at home developing character, obeying His parents, growing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.

At the age of thirty, He began to live the greatest and most fruitful life that the world was ever to record. He knew that He had been born for a purpose and His entire life was consumed with fulfilling it.

Do You Look at Your Checkbook More Than Your Heart?

2010-05-28T03:59:25Z

I often listen to my car radio while traveling. It amazes me how many stations march to the beat of the material world. Every few seconds a commercial screams at you to buy a new product, or the business report tells you how to make more money. You're encouraged to read a certain business-oriented newspaper every morning--a secular quiet time for success in today's material jungle.

Especially during the Christmas season everyone shouts BUY--BUY--BUY! Ho-Ho-Ho and go spend the bucks. There's little mention of Jesus as the reason for the season just constant admonition to keep spending, spending, spending to keep the economy rolling. It's as if we live for the economy and need to keep it at the top of our Christmas list.

Then there is the stock report. How are you doing today? Did you make a lot of money or lose your shirt? The beat goes on and on.

Money. Money. Things. Things.

Tony Campolo, a popular speaker and college professor, rightly says that the Western world now lives for getting more and more things that we need less and less of. Our world worships empty materialism. It continues to get worse.

Sadly, this worship of money and things has invaded the Church nearly as deeply as the world. If we are to transform the world with the power of Jesus Christ, we need to dust ourselves off from the idolatry of mammon.