Choices

Do You Have Control?

Matthew 26:39 NKJV
He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.”

It struck me, the other day, that the ultimate sin — the foundational mindset that causes us to sin — is a matter of control. We sin because we want to control… to control our circumstances, to control those around us, to control our future. We win because we want some thing rather than being willing to let God and trust God to give us what He wants.

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The Real Power Of Forgiveness


To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you. Lewis Smedes

I wrote an article advancing a revolutionary notion: Forgiveness isn’t… easy.

No kidding.

We all struggle to forgive when we’ve been hurt. That’s sort of obvious.

So here’s a question: If it’s so hard, why bother? Why go to all the trouble of forgiving?

Why not get revenge? Why shouldn’t I make that other person suffer? Why just let it go and let him get away with it?

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Hope is an Anchor if We Allow It to Be

Hebrews 6:17-19 NKJV
Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil.

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Forgiveness isn’t Easy

forgive Forgiveness isn’t easy. When someone hurts me, my natural reaction is not forgiveness. How can I forgive something this bad?

Have you ever heard (or asked) that question?

Forgiveness isn’t our first impulse. We’ve all been hurt, and “letting it go” isn’t programmed into our menu of responses. We want to fight back, to hurt the one who hurt us.

The common phrase “don’t get mad, get even” sounds clever, but there’s really no such place as “even.” Revenge only perpetuates a hurtful cycle. To paraphrase Ghandi, eye for eye and tooth for tooth leaves us with a world full of toothless blind people.

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Discernment

This week’s word is discernment.

I encountered this term last week in a wonderful workshop offered by Gus Lee. Gus talked about courage and leadership, and one of his key points was that courageous leaders must exercise discernment.

In this context, discernment implies searching beyond what is obvious or superficial. It’s developing and exercising the power to distinguish and select what is true or appropriate or excellent.

Discernment seeks to understand what’s right, true, and best. It searches deeper than what’s expedient or acceptable.

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Supernannies

Ask anyone in my family and they’ll tell you that I don’t watch a lot of television on my own, and I do so reluctantly when other family members have “the box” on. I have personally ruined many a show for my children (and husband) over the years, as I was quick to point out the unbiblical worldview being presented or an obvious violation of one or more aspects of God’s holy law-word. That said, there is an adage I have repeatedly heard that goes something like this: Everything is good for something, even if it is just to serve as a bad example.

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The Deed in the Jar: Contemporary Crises and the Christian Future

An old friend called unexpectedly in mid-January to talk about the economy. He has been in the bullion and numismatics business for decades, and he is usually optimistic. But now he was deeply concerned about the future, and for the first time in his life he was “paranoid.” His economic prognostications were bleak, he explained, because God promises to bring judgment on a faithless nation. Since the United States is grossly immoral, he could only expect tough times ahead.

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From Hearers to Doers: The Alpha and Omega of Faith

The book of Ecclesiastes ends with a straightforward directive,

Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.
Eccl. 12:13–14

This statement presupposes that God’s law-word is the rule for all areas of life and thought, and calls us to obedience to it as a duty. Anyone who takes this admonition seriously will naturally need and want to know, how do we go from being hearers of the Word to being doers of the Word?

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