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What Do You Fear More: Sin Or Cancer?

This is probably a question you seldom consider. And at first bounce the answer you might be tempted to give is cancer. But let’s think this through. Cancer can take nothing from you that will damage your relationship with God and with those close to you. Sin can do this and much more. Cancer cannot keep you from God, but sin certainly can. Cancer is something most people take seriously. Sin – not so much. Spending time and money to find the right treatment schedule is done without question. You ask people to pray for you and your condition. You give money to cancer research. You might even put more money in the offering plate! Upon receiving a cancer diagnosis […]

Don’t Live For Your Children

Living for your children will not sustain your life. If your hopes and dreams are bound to your children, you will be disappointed, perhaps even bitter. If you expect your children to provide the comfort and support that can only come from God you will be deeply hurt. You will set yourself up to be disappointed and crushed when your family fails you. No spouse, no child can provide comfort that can only be found in God. God will have no other gods before him. Your first loyalty must be to God and God alone. Children who have become the objects of their parents’ worship cannot bear the weight of being idols for their parents. They will become cynical and […]

Is There More To Life Than the Calendar?

Thanksgiving is a distant memory. Christmas and New Years Day have come and gone. The Superbowl is over. What’s next? The TV commercials and the displays at the stores and supermarkets say that Valentine’s Day is next. Then chocolate hearts give way to chocolate bunnies. All we have to do is follow the important dates on the calendar, add in birthdays and anniversaries, and a few special events. This is what life is all about. Really? Is this how we are supposed to mark our lives, living from one date on the calendar to the next? Is this what Paul means when he says to take hold of life that is truly life? You can get your children’s attention by […]

America is in great peril

One Super Bowl ad shows why America is in great peril. God was used a marketing ploy. Even God’s cell phone can have a dead battery! This ad is from a company that sells charging accessories for electronic devices. The ad depicts a chaotic world that has suddenly gone out of control. At the end of the ad we see why: a character who is supposedly playing God has a cell phone whose battery is almost dead. The character sighs and the world continues to fall apart. God is truly irrelevant, at least in ad country. From these ads we learned that: lingerie makes for great sex, that an insurance company can keep our kids from dying, people can be […]

When Your Pet Goes Missing

Children and pets make wonderful photographs. They also make heartbreaking moments. This combination provides a real-life test of just how practical your theology is. If God is in control of all things and he loves you then how is it possible that your child’s puppy, kitten, parakeet, fish, hamster, turtle or rabbit has gone missing, or worse? It is possible because this is what life is like in a fallen world. If you have pets, this is a question that needs to answered with compassion and credibility. Not having a clear, comforting answer is one way of telling your children that God doesn’t really care about them or understand them. Having pets provides you with the opportunity to trust God’s […]

Circumstances and Worship

Worship can be too tightly connected to your perception of your circumstances. If this is true your worship will be uneven and skewed by how you view your life experiences. For worship to be genuine it must be connected to the character of God and not to your circumstances: God’s love and care for you are constant. Your circumstances are not. God’s character and wonder never changes. Everything about you is in constant flux. God is always faithful in his relationship with you. Your human relationships are always changing. God never treats you as you deserve to be treated. Yet you tend to be offended when you think you are not treated well. God has blessed you with the wealth […]

Tedd Tripp On Talking About Wisdom and Foolishness

Talking About Wisdom & Foolishness by Tedd Tripp Imagine that your young son has been influenced to participate in some act of vandalism or disrespect toward others. You could have a conversation like this. “You know that what you have done is wrong, don’t you?” “Yeah, I guess.” “We will have to talk about what you have done and how you can make restitution, but I want you to think about this first. There are two kinds of people in the world. Do you remember who they are?” “The wise man and the fool.” “You’re right; I knew you’d get it. How does the wise man get so wise?” “The fear of the Lord?” “You’re right, the fear of the […]

It hurts! Did I do something wrong?

This morning, January 29th, in the hospital OR a nice nurse put a mask over my nose and mouth and told me to take some deep breaths. I remember doing what she said and thinking this is not helping me go to sleep. I also remember the constant but bearable pain in the left side of my neck. Next I remember another nurse asking how I was feeling and the pain in my neck becoming more powerful by the second. Apparently, the nice, smiling anesthesiologist had done his job well. Next in my thought process was why I was hurting so badly. Had I done something wrong? Another door in my mind suddenly opened and I remembered that while I […]

Daniel’s answer to pride

There are times in life when God graciously causes me to realize there are things beyond my ability to reason or prepare for. Being placed under anesthesia is one of those times for me. So I get to either believe that God will do exactly as he pleases and rest in that alone, or believe I might feel better if I knew what God was going to do. Silly choice really! Thankful that God has no need to consult me about how he will work in my life. Daniel has good words here! 34 “After this time had passed, I, Nebuchadnezzar, looked up to heaven. My sanity returned, and I praised and worshiped the Most High and honored the one […]

Super Bowl Ads – $150,000 Per Second

The Super Bowl is important to you as a Christian parent. The game tells you a great deal about the world your children inhabit. Advertiser’s will pay $150,000 a second or 4.5 million dollars for a 30 second commercial! And this is just for the air time. Millions more go into the production of the ad and market research. That is a lot of money to encourage you to buy a potato chip. The companies who sponsor these commercials spend a considerable amount of money and resources to attempt to learn what motivates people. It is safe to assume that these sponsors don’t see an America that is primarily motivated by a desire for holiness. Literally hundreds of millions of […]