“The mind of man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps” (Prov. 16:9). Think about it this way: if the mind of man doesn’t plan, what does the Lord have to direct? He includes us in His plan for our futures. I want to challenge you to take a more active role in your future. Don’t leave it …
How to Honor Those Who Have Gone Before
God put people in your past to inspire you, instruct you and give you wisdom. There are also things in your past that will betray you; memories that will give you hurt and pain. Remembering is important, but more important is remembering correctly. Memory is a gift you must steward. You can remember wrong things or you can remember right …
Choosing Your Homeland
Jesus Establishes Two Kingdoms “… He was saying to them, ‘You are from below, I am from above. You are of this world, I am not of this world’” (John 8:23). Jesus established that there are two intersecting worlds on this globe called earth; two worlds that share the same earth. Each one has its own distinct characteristics — distinct …
Hidden in Plain Sight
“F2F.” Do you know what that means? “Face to face.” There is a new wave of social networking that can cause us to become people who hide in plain sight. In this socially connected world, people are still not connected. Divorce rates are the same. Families are still breaking apart. Greed in America is at its highest peak and everyone …
Relationships That Delight God
God delights to carry out His will through His children. God is looking for children who are in healthy relationship with Him through which He can carry out His will. God could do it all, but He wants to run it through us because He delights in carrying out His will through His children when they have a good relationship …
Impetuous Words
All of us have the same problem. Impetuous words — words that are reckless, words that we speak first and think about later, only to have regret and remorse. In order to train our tongues so that we refrain from evil, we have to do some preparation in advance and practice certain things until they become part of our default …
The Gift of Friendship
We live in a world that’s crowded and busy, but lonely. We’re desperate for friends and there’s no better example than Jesus Himself who said, “No longer do I call you slaves … but I have called you friends” (John 15:15). The more we become like Him, the more we become someone who others may call “friend,” because the best …
Rich Toward God
There is a way we can be rich toward God. We can expend the energy of our life in such a way that it brings us a balanced life. In today’s economy, we can try to keep up with the Joneses and think that is where life is found. All the while, we do not realize that we are forfeiting …
Unspoken Words
The Bible says to guard two things. The first is, of course, your mouth. “Set a guard over my mouth, O Lord; keep watch over the door of my lips” (Ps. 141:3). He says to keep guard over your mouth, but the second thing is important, too. He says the second thing to guard or to keep a lid over …
The Truth About Money
The word “greed” is simply defined as keeping everything we get. When greed begins to obsess or control us, there is no flow through. Even though we do not use certain things, we become greedy and begin to accumulate them because the accumulation is an end in itself. Then our value, our identity and everything is wrapped up in possessions …