Self-Examination

What is Your True Treasure?

[The] test is summed up in this question: Where is our treasure? As Jesus said, the answer to that question reveals where our heart is.

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Matthew 6:21, NKJV

I once attended a church service where the pastor was teaching on this verse, and early on in his sermon he asked a lady in the front row if he could borrow her purse. She hesitated a moment before agreeing. The pastor then set her purse on the pulpit and proceeded with his teaching. Throughout the remainder of the service, we in the congregation couldn’t help but notice that the woman’s eyes never left the pulpit, even when the pastor walked around the stage as he spoke. It was a powerful illustration of his message.

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Self-defeating Cycles

Is it possible that abundance is a self-created cycle?

The steps in this picture take the marchers perpetually uphill or downhill. Same steps—it’s all about which direction they choose to walk. I have a feeling the same sort of dynamic works for abundance and scarcity.

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Eyes On The Prize

Have you ever seen the sport of curling? Curling, like most games, incorporates complex strategies and techniques, but the basic idea is pretty simple. The object, like other similar games (Crokinole and Shuffleboard), is to score points by getting your team’s markers closer to the target. These games typically involve three main tactics: Slide your

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What’s Fair? (Part 1)

Do you believe in fairness? Do you try to treat everyone equally?

I had a curious conversation recently. Seated over lunch at an event with some men I’d just met, one guy (correctly) observed that the entrance to the building was a challenge for someone in a wheelchair. Another man (I’ll call him John) noted that the owners had done a lot to make their facilities accessible. Then he added an interesting comment.

“I’m not sure they should feel bad about not catering to every possible need. Devoting so many resources to such a small minority isn’t really fair.”

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Do You Think about God Enough?

Joshua 1:8 NKJV
“This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.”

I was reading Tozer again this morning and got to thinking about how much I actually think about God. I know that I don’t think about God enough. Not at all enough. That phrase Tozer used in an earlier article – Always and always God – comes to mind. Is that my life? If I am honest, I have to say no.

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What if…..

… Jesus really meant what He said?

“I did not come to condemn, but to save.”

Condemn: to declare to be reprehensible, wrong, or evil…to judge unfit for use or consumption.

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus … [Romans 8:1]

What if that were true?

I know—it’s a complex theological statement. But what if it were as simple as “follow Jesus” = “no condemnation”?

What if every follower of Jesus stopped judging others as “reprehensible, wrong, or evil”? Even “those people”—you know, the ones who are, well, “unfit”?

What if

We refused to make—or forward, or approve—snarky political comments?

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Do we want our dreams… or His will?

Genesis 37:5, 45:4-5 NKJV
Now Joseph had a dream, and he told it to his brothers; and they hated him even more…. And Joseph said to his brothers, “Please come near to me.” So they came near. Then he said: “I am Joseph your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. But now, do not therefore be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life.”

God isn’t in the business of fulfilling our dreams; rather, we should be in the business of fulfilling His will.

I recently read an article in a Christian magazine about a woman whose dream in life was finally fulfilled. She wrote:

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Learning to Live as We are Commanded

John 13:35 NKJV
“By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Back in the 60’s, when worship choruses first began to become widely popular, a certain chorus made the rounds in the churches, “They’ll Know We Are Christians by Our Love” (common tune, lyrics by Peter Scholtes). The words go like this:

We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord
We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord
And we pray that all unity may one day be restored
And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love
Yes, they’ll know we are Christians by our love

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