Ultimate Sacrifice Is The Absolute Best Display Of Love
What is love? John tells us in his first epistle, “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 4.10). God’s love for us is so great that we do not fully comprehend it. He sent His Son...
Here Is The Danger Of Hidden Assumptions
We humans regularly make assumptions. I would venture to guess none of us go through a day without making at least one assumption. The Oxford Dictionary defines an assumptions as, “a thing that is accepted as true or as certain to happen, without proof.” ...
How To Change A Negative Outlook to Positive
With reports of the latest terrorist attack, volcano eruptions, tornados and other violent storms, global warming, a political system that seems caught in an endless impasse and drug addiction on the increase, life can seem filled with negativity. Our society...
A Job Well Done And Its Unexpected Reward
Many of us are familiar with the parable of the talents found in Matthew 25.14-29. In this parable, a master gave three servants varying amounts of money to take care of while he was away. The first two servants used their funds to advance their master’s holdings,...
But Still … Two Ways To Surrender Disappointment
After living in my house for 30 years, my 60-year-old kitchen finally got the update it desperately needed. The knotty pine cabinets and custom linoleum floor were in style at least seven styles ago! As one of the final steps in the kitchen renovation, we...
Realizing Being Popular Isn’t All It Promises To Be
In grade school, I was never one of the popular girls. I wanted to be, but… Then one day in eighth grade all my school shirts were dirty and Mom let me wear a white blouse. She wouldn’t let me wear white regularly because it got dirty too easily. On that particular...
Love Of Money And The Image Of God
What would you do if you were offered an annual bonus of $3.6 million? Would your first reaction be that it was not enough? Sam Polk’s memoir For the Love of Money is a fascinating read. Polk writes about his rise to senior trader at one of the largest hedge...
A Remarkable Truth About God’s Spoken Word In The World
And God spoke all these words … Exodus 20.1 God spoke the world into existence. The universe and all of creation are the result of words God spoke. Yet when it came to our obedience, He did not speak that into existence. Instead, He gave us commandments...
How To Break The Toxic Habit Of Judging People
As the Sunday sermon began, I became quite distracted. Several minutes later when I had separate myself from the distractions and focused on the sermon, I felt like the preacher was talking far more forcefully than necessary. He also seemed to be missing the real...
Judge Softly
Contrary to popular opinion, the proverb not to judge another before walking a mile in another persons moccasins or shoes does not come from Native Americans. Rather it originates in a poem written in 1895 by Mary T. Lathrap and focuses on our penchant for making...