The late football strategist Vince Lombardi was a fanatic about fundamentals. Those who played under his leadership often spoke of his intensity, his drive, his endless enthusiasm for the guts of the game. Time and again he would come back to the basic techniques of blocking and tackling. On one occasion his team, the Green Bay Packers, lost to an inferior squad. It was bad enough to lose . . ...
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Every time anxiety knocks on the door of your heart, it’s an invitation for you to pray for peace. In this article, I’ll show you 4 steps from the Scriptures that will help you to bravely pray for peace when fear and worry are creeping in.
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Dilemmas—we face them every day. Somebody once described a dilemma as watching your mother-in-law drive your brand-new Lexus over a cliff. But in all seriousness, a dilemma is “a problem involving a difficult choice.”1 Sometimes the choices we face are between the known and the unknown: “Do I keep my present job or take that new position in a different city?”
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In the psychological realm, the word of our age is self. From self-care to self-talk to self-esteem, hardly a day passes when broadcasts, podcasts, podiums, and even pulpits fail to remind us that our fundamental problem is a dearth of self-regard. And the answer, we are told, lies in telling ourselves that we are lovable: “It doesn’t matter what I do. It doesn’t matter who I am. I am a lovable person.”
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When one of my granddaughters was little, she liked the word “more.” From her favorite food to the Bible stories that I told her, she always wanted “more.” Deep down inside, we all are like that. One of our favorite words is “more.” We always want more out of life. We want the newest, the latest, the freshest and the coolest. I think God has wired us that way, because ...
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Have you ever heard a husband, wife, dad, mom, or grandparent say, "Because that's what families do?" This comment usually precedes an act of sacrifice, unconditional love, or an outpouring of grace to another family member. It's stated without fanfare in a very matter-of-fact manner and speaks to the unwavering love and commitment that is hard-wired into the relationships of a family. While families don't always embrace the power of ...
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A few years ago, I had a heart attack. Subsequent to that, my doctor and I have become “best friends.” He says that my good health is because of my genes, and I say it’s because of Jesus. My doctor has at least gotten to the point of saying, “Well, maybe some of both.”
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Prayer may be the greatest blessing God gives us here on this earth. Each of us has tremendous potential to serve God and others through the ministry of prayer. It's available to every believer, no matter who we are or what our life circumstances. God designed it to bless us beyond all imagining, and yet it is easily within our reach.
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The apostle Paul knew about the dangers of false teaching. As an itinerant evangelist, he would travel from town to town, preaching the Gospel and planting churches. Many times, after he would leave a city to continue on his mission, false teachers would come in and teach God's people destructive doctrines and lies. These false teachers were wicked men who would do anything to attain their ends. In Thessalonica, for ...
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Our lives are as living billboards—signs and testimonies of the presence of Christ and a beautiful display of His lordship. But for this to happen, there must be a starting point. In his classic book, The Cost of Discipleship, Dietrich Bonhoeffer states that by grace, we are saved, and when grace is acted upon, we’re brought into the family of God. But Bonhoeffer warns that though God’s grace may be free to ...
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