The times in which we live make it hard to maintain balance. As life becomes more complex, the demands on our time can crush us. And as the enticing activities in our culture multiply, we find it hard to say no to anything we want to do.
Emil Brunner wrote, “Hope is reaching out for something to come.” We do need to have hope and share hope. But even when we have hope, sometimes we’re still not people who do much reaching. So may we actually reach for the things we hope for!
Our deepest searchings are prompted by our longing for relationship. As personal beings, we yearn to relate perfectly and joyfully to other personal beings, and above all to God. All our searchings are pointing us toward this, the greatest discovery.
Get a group of sociable people together and what happens will be fun and frolicsome. If you want a picture of sociability, Joel Chandler Harris’s simile is wonderfully apt. What could be more sociable than a “baskit er kittens”?
If you’ve destroyed your confidence in your own integrity, that trust will have to be rebuilt. Over a period of time, you’ll have to keep bigger and bigger commitments to yourself, until you have a positive balance in your own “trust account.”
So whether it is truth, healing, or hope that comes from our actions, we need to be givers of light in one way or another. And as Edith Wharton reminded us, “There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.”
Discretion is “the better part of valour” (Shakespeare). That statement is no exaggeration. It often takes more courage to hold back our impulses than to give in to them. What we need is not merely strength — but rather strength under control.
“Doing becomes the natural overflow of being when the pressure within is stronger than the pressure without” (Lois Lebar). I urge you to find your principles, your purpose, your passion — and get to work. Spend your days “fruitfully.”
It’s a joyful privilege to engage in goodness. We don’t adopt good character or good conduct primarily for the way those things make us feel, but they are, in fact, joyous things. I invite you to take goodness for a test drive.
Procrastination plagues most of our lives, and crucial things often go undone if we don’t make positive plans to do them. In practical terms, that means making an appointment — deciding specifically when and where such things will be taken care of.
Sin has broken apart everything that was meant to be together, but through Christ all is being brought back into harmony. Our disintegration — our broken-to-pieces-hood — is being healed. ...
If Jesus truly was the Son of God, we would not expect that truth to be obvious to us if our “eyes” can only see things that this world considers ...
In the biblical account, we are dual creatures who straddle the physical and spiritual worlds. We have a brain, but we also have a mind — a reasoning faculty that ...
While there is a need for patience, we also need to be diligent. Our transformation will not take place automatically, by divine decree. We have to embrace the process actively ...
If faith without works is insufficient (James 2:14-26), so is baptism without conversion. If we do not make the decision to walk in “newness of life” (Romans 6:4), it is ...
All the good things in life require committing ourselves to them. Hesitancy, doubt, and tentativeness will cut the very heart out of our discipleship to Christ. Distrusting God, we will ...
However “nice” my outward life may be, when I measure my heart (my thoughts, attitudes, and intentions) against Jesus’ teaching, I am ashamed. His teaching disturbs me greatly, if I ...
If the congregation we’ve been a part of is not faithful to Christ, we need to worship elsewhere. But even if we’re surrounded by others who are faithful to Christ, ...
We want the “way of God” (Acts 18:26). The path that leads to God — the one He has laid out — will often seem narrow and illogical to us ...
The great emphasis in Acts 2 is on the content of the preaching. We would seriously fail in our appreciation of this text if we were so amazed by the ...
The truth is, we can’t help ourselves where we need help the most. Yes, we can “science” our way out of some of life’s lesser problems, but the potential of ...
God’s way often goes against our opinions, and eventually the honest person will have to admit, “Well, I didn’t think such a plan would work, but I was wrong. Although ...