Search Results for : good mood

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What About Harvey and Irma?

First there was Harvey. He drifted through the Gulf of Mexico without much punch, crossed the Yucatan Peninsula and quickly and unexpectedly became a deadly hurricane. Harvey’s destructive power came because his progress was stalled over the Houston area for days where he dumped over 50 inches of rain in some places. The resulting flooding and devastation were unprecedented. Many called Harvey, with good reason, a once-in-a-lifetime event. Now, less than two weeks later, Irma has become the most powerful hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic. Her winds have been as high as 185 miles per hour. The entire state of Florida is under an emergency alert. Irma also has the potential to be a once-in-a-lifetime event. What are we […]

What Is Love?

“Love is giving willingly of whatever I have to meet someone’s need.” I can almost hear someone reacting, “Wait a minute! That might be a partial definition of love. But what about the deep feelings, the driving emotional mood that is also supposed to accompany love. This definition leaves that part out.” There is an unspoken expectation that is associated with love. This human assumption is that when you love there are huge emotional benefits that make love something good for you. When you say you love someone, your natural self is expecting good things to happen to you because of your “love”. Imagine Christmases, anniversaries, Valentine’s Days where you were the only one doing the sacrificial giving . You […]

News Or Providence?

Providence, Rhode Island; Providence Hospital; the hand of Providence — all these are just some of the ways the word providence intersects our culture. It is a familiar word that has lost its meaning. Today providence has been replaced by the word “news.” Webster’s Dictionary defines providence as: “God conceived as the power sustaining and guiding human destiny.” Western culture no longer sees God as the One who shapes and controls the events of each day. Today we call Providence, news. This shift leads to public cynicism and discouragement. News stories are reported as random events. Paul reminded the pundits on Mars Hill that it is God who is in control of life’s events, even to the point of determining […]

Friendship and Marriage

What Adam needed in the garden was not just a sexual partner but a companion, bone of his bones, and flesh of his flesh.,, We think of a prospective spouse as primarily a lover (or a provider), and if he or she can be a friend on top of that, well isn’t that nice! We should be going at it the other way round. Screen first for friendship. Look for someone who understands you better than you do yourself, who makes you a better person just by being around them. And then explore whether that friendship could become a romance and a marriage. Tim Keller, Meaning of Marriage, 125-126. This is why it is so very important to teach your […]

Raising holy children

A good friend asks you what is your goal for raising your children. You reply, “I want to raise children that are holy.” Your friend looks at you sadly and says, “how boring is that!” Boring. This is the way the enemy of your soul wants holiness to be understood – as drab, boring, and uneventful. Our culture has bought into this lie as well. However, being holy is anything but uneventful. Being holy means to actively pursue a relationship with the most powerful being in the universe. Being holy requires boldness, courage, and a sense of adventure. Being holy means to be love power over weakness. Being holy means to be live in a way that changes lives and […]

Stupid Rain

God wants you to look at the world His way. You can learn to be thankful for a rainout. You can even learn to be intrigued at what God is doing. How many other events did He change by that thunderstorm? You are observing God at work! God wants you to use the ordinary events of life to teach your children to know and trust God and His Son. Here is a practical example of this point. Let’s say you planned a special day. You scheduled this day weeks ahead. Today is the day. You were going to finish a landscaping project in the morning and then meet the guys for a round of golf at the country club. You […]

Being different, a bold adventure.

There are many ways to describe holiness. One of the most basic is to understand that being holy means being different. Holiness is being distinct from the world. If we are to love God we must be constantly aware that he is holy. He is different. This is what we are to model for our children as we bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.   Today, the prevailing mood of our political leaders is that we should not be defined by our differences, we should be strengthened by them.  A Christian has a different view. A Christian must be defined by his differences. A Christian is to be chaste and pure. A Christian is to […]

How did this happen???

I have heard this tear stained question too many times. Parents who have attempted to be godly parents find out their 15 year-old is living out the things they tried so desperately to prevent. The things that they thought would offer protection did not. So what does offer protection for your children? Here is one answer. What you believe is what protects you. What your children believe will be what, ultimately, protects them. Protects them from what? From the attacks of the world. Responsible parents are always looking for ways to protect their children.  Whether it is an improved baby monitor or a new cell phone with a GPS locator or a car with more safety features, protecting our children […]

What love does and does not

We have come to the last of eight negative statements made about love in I Corinthians 13. In verse six a direct contrast is made with delighting in evil and rejoicing in the truth. This has a pointed application to parenting. Here is verse six:   “Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.”   Parenting has two distinct facets.  The first is the conscious directions, conversations, plans, and activities that you choose to make in an ongoing basis as you raise your children. The second is not nearly as thought out, but much more powerful in what it communicates to your children.  This facet is the way interact with your world and what happens to you […]