The Divided States of America
As we navigate another contentious election season, Christians should be a voice of reason, sensibility, and hope. Instead of being sucked into the outraged culture, disciples of Jesus should prove themselves different.
Proverbs
Another Day, Another Opportunity
Proverbs 3:21-28 — Even in a storm’s aftermath, if we’ve been given another day, we’ve also been offered another opportunity. We must prioritize remembering God for His faithfulness and our neighbors for their needs.
How to Counsel Someone in Crisis
You may not feel trained as a counselor to assist in crisis situations, but you probably can do more than you give yourself credit. Discover how you do these four simple things and help someone in desperate need better than you think you can.
Let No Adultery Separate
Adultery creates a type of pocket universe with two people living selfishly inside of it and disregarding the needs of those they have sworn to love. Flee from this sin as if your life depends on it because, in many ways, it does.
Common Traits of an Affair
People typically don’t spend their wedding day planning on how they can have an affair in the near future, but that doesn’t stop the unfortunate sin from transpiring. With affairs, common traits are typically present and must be avoided.
Avoiding Adultery
To partake in adultery is to seek temporal satisfaction while neglecting long-term consequences. Discover what God’s Word says about this sin and how to avoid it.
Decreasing Debt
Dissatisfaction leads to unnecessary purchases and increasing debt. Discover God’s principles for decreasing debt and living in financial freedom.
Pursuing Alignment
In the midst of many opportunities for spiritual growth, we can lack a needed sense of alignment. What if we are guilty of widespread efforts that only provide shallow understanding? Focus might be the component we’ve been missing.
Our Children’s Biggest Problem
Children in today’s culture have numerous forms of opposition against them. But out of all the sources of stress, sometimes it is their parents who should provide support and actually create more issues.
The Pride Endangering Your Worship Team
While many distractions can derail a worship team, no challenge can be quicker than pride. To lead others in worship is to declare war on robbing the attention away from God.
Providing Helpful Counsel
The average Christian would admit to having little to no counseling training or experience, but that doesn’t mean that you couldn’t provide helpful counsel. Even if lacking in expertise, you can take some simple steps to help others continue through trials.
Get Back Up
All of us will stumble due to our decisions or others’ opposition, but how we respond speaks volumes. If you feel you have been knocked down, get back up again.
Evaluating New Adjustments
It’s a new year that guarantees exciting opportunities and unexpected challenges. To ensure your life is heading in the right direction, it’s appropriate to evaluate your headings right now. More than making resolutions, we need to make changes.
Be Disgusted by Your Sin (Or Be Prepared to Repeat It)
If your sin doesn’t truly upset you, you will continue to allow it in your life. Only when someone gets sick and tired of its presence does he or she actually start fighting it.
Relational Environments
In church, we often talk about the need to devote ourselves passionately to Jesus. While that is true, you rarely find someone doing that if they aren’t surrounded by other people with a similar pursuit.
The Two Dangerous Financial Extremes
Why does money cause such conflict in our lives? We all need a certain amount, but the level of our want drives us to unhealthy mindsets and methods.
Silencing Your Phone
Your phone is an incredible gift. It has more capabilities than the most expensive computers of the recent past. The opportunities to experience and produce are like never before, but if you don’t control it, it will be controlling you. Learn to establish limits.
Generational Curses
God’s Word exposes numerous issues for any family to address in order to walk in conformity with his standard and design. A misunderstanding of generational curses can discourage people from making noble attempts to turn a family’s legacy around.
Building a Godly Home
No one ever inherits a godly home, but it is built through the intentional application of biblical wisdom. If you want to experience your family transformed, make sure you know what to embrace and what to avoid.
Silencing Speech
We all have those words that we regret. That conversation we wish we could take back. But once our speech has left the dock, there is no return for them. While we can’t change the past, we can prepare for the future.
Grand Errants
Many families experience conflict because of members failing to be what the surrounding generations need them to be at the right time. You can avoid painful conflict if you understand how God has wired all family roles to interact with one another.
Quieting Quarrels
Have you ever had that disagreement that lasted way longer than it should have? Probably most of your conflicts are that way in reality. Instead of letting something get out of hand, we must figure out how to reconcile peacefully.
Practical Tips for Parents
Due to many factors, many parents cannot find a healthy balance when it comes to discipline. Scripture teaches that we cannot neglect that responsibility but must handle it with care.
Your Child’s Not Going Through a Phase
Every child is prone to push the boundaries, but God expects parents to enforce them for their own good. Loving your child isn’t allowing them to get away with anything, but it is committing to discipline them through everything.
Delightful Disposition
We are all wired differently when it comes to emotions. We all interpret situations uniquely and respond differently when challenges arise. Do you receive the stress of this life with joy or anxiety?
Don’t Drop Your Kids off at Church
God expects parents to be the primary disciple-makers of their children. Your home will never produce growing disciples without the intentional investment of one generation into another.
Surmounting Sensuality
Even if you don’t go looking for sensual content, it’s looking for you. And in every sphere of life, we are exposed to material intended to entice us to voyeurism and addiction. Apathy will not secure victory.
The Progression of Pornography
Solomon warned his son about the allurement of any forbidden woman, but she is more easily accessible in our days. Beware the trappings of lust and the consequences it is destined to bring, no matter what format the connection takes.
Exchanging Envy
We live in a culture of comparison. Everywhere we turn, we are reminded of people who have more chiseled bodies, more attractive features, luxurious homes, expensive vehicles, and exquisite toys. Jealousy can ruin us.
The Destruction of Adultery
The temptation of adultery does a masterful job of highlighting the momentary pleasure while disguising the long-term pain. You must be careful to avoid a trap of falling for anyone who does not belong to you.
Taming Tempers
You don’t mean to let your temper take control. You never wanted to lash out the way you did, but you did it anyway. And you did it again. Maybe you feel like you are stuck in a cycle of regretting temperamental outbursts. It’s time to go the second mile in taming your temper.
Restoring the Dignity of Work
God has designed us to use our gifts to accomplish good things for the benefit of our families and others around us. To see all people succeed, we need to restore the dignity of work in our lives and the lives of others.
Overlooking Offenses
Two things that are guarantees in this life is that we will sin, and that we will be sinned against. While we typically want grace for our mistakes, we want payback for others. How can a Christian filter through these scenarios? It’s time to go the second mile in overlooking offenses.
Enjoying Your Marriage Again
Couples often lose satisfaction in their marriage because they seek happiness in other pursuits. To restore the joy in your marriage, you must intentionally celebrate the gift God has given you in your spouse.
Harnessing Hatred
We typically believe that we can spot hatred when we see it. In our minds, it is reserved for those unreasonably angry people causing conflicts with no desire for subtlety. In reality, quiet hatred can damage just as much as when it is blunt and loud.
Fighting Fear
When we were kids, we were scared of the unknown things that went bump in the night. The older we get, our fears just transition rather than disappear. We can easily find ourselves paralyzed to live the life God has called us to live due to uneasiness.
When God Calls the Family Meeting
Our Heavenly Father loves us enough to correct us when we are in the wrong. In His discipline, He is more concerned with teaching us what we should do rather than shaming us for what we have done.
Engaging Emotions
Each of us will either lead our emotions or be led by our emotions. When certain feelings creep in and begin to alter the way you think, speak, and act, how are you supposed to respond? Ignoring them will not make them go away.
Faithful Finances
God should never be an afterthought regarding our finances and possessions. Learn from God’s Word what it means to honor Him with all that He has given to you.
Avoiding Half-Hearted Christianity
God didn’t call us to trust Him with some of our hearts because He knows we need total commitment. Discover God’s design for a life entirely entrusted to Him.