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I know what you’re thinking right now.
You’re thinking, “No you don’t!”
I know… scary isn’t it?
Know what’s even scarier? Anybody who knows you at all can follow you around for a week and know what you’ve been thinking for the past year. That’s based, of course, on the biblical principle, “As he thinks within himself, so he is” (Proverbs 23:7).
Your life today is the result of your thinking. It may not always affect your circumstances, but it always affects your character. Your disposition. Your emotions. Your perceptions. Yes, your faith.
If you have any intention of designing a compelling future, it’s time to accept responsibility for the role your thoughts play in creating it. After all, your thoughts have produced the person you are right now.
That’s why the Bible gives such attention to your thoughts. Jesus said to love God with all your mind. Paul talks about renewing your mind, and not thinking of yourself more highly than you ought, but thinking soberly.
Recently I reread a familiar old verse and it rocked my world a little. [click to continue…]
Cohen and Me on a Trash Run
It’s a familiar old friend, comfortable as a favorite pair of shoes. Brokenhearted parents cling to it, and eager young parents rise to it. It’s a friendly reminder to us all that there’s a higher purpose in the midst of our most frustrating and confusing days. And yet it can say so much more to us than we ever dreamed possible:
“Train up a child in the way he should go,
And when he is old he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6).
We all know what that means, right? It means when you have children, if you get them involved in church, discipline them properly, and teach them how to behave, then when they become adults, they will live consistently with the things you tried to teach them. If you teach them to have high moral values as children, they will have high moral values as adults.
Right?
Wait a minute. How do you respond to the mom or dad who doesn’t understand why their adult children don’t go to church like they do? What do you say to the parent whose children have rebelled against their high moral standards and have rejected their values?
I’m convinced that many of us have missed some exciting possibilities because of the limited way we have interpreted this verse. [click to continue…]
I know a guy named Garrett who has completely changed my impression of him in a matter of a couple of years. When I first met him, he came across as a slacker – lazy, unmotivated, and a pretty bad student. But the last time I saw him he had rewritten his story – at least the one that played out in my head. Truth is, Garrett is sharp, actually quite brilliant as a communicator, and a potential world changer.
What made the difference?
Time. Perspective. A little experience. In Garrett’s case, he never stopped anything or changed anything. I just had more time to get to know what he was capable of. The one who needed changing was me.
Sarah and Ben were a different case. [click to continue…]
I.
If you ever wanted to write a forever kind of song
That angels or children or the big choirs sing…
If you’ve ever wanted to rhyme with the heart
Of the One who bends the rainbow
And deserves even more than your finest praise…
Then make your music with a life of passion.
Spell it out with clearly with actions of love.
Dance in the reign of King of the ages.
Promise your steadfast, immovable service,
Then hold in His beautiful power your faithfulness.
Show the whole world His symphony in you.
II.
If you ever wanted to write a together kind of song
Of friends or family or heroes or darlings…
If you’ve ever wanted to love someone else in the music,
Yet knew that your most heartfelt expressions
Were still so short of all they deserve from you… [click to continue…]
Have you ever been in a situation where somebody hated you just for showing up? Maybe you did something really stupid or offensive. Maybe they hate everybody who shows up. Maybe they’re picking up somebody else’s offense or acting out long-held prejudices. Regardless of what set it off, the bottom line is, they don’t like you.
And what’s not to like, right?
Everybody with any intelligence can see how awesome you are. And yet some arrogant bozo (or bozette) won’t give you the time of day. Or worse, is outwardly hostile.
What do you do?
Do you out-hostile them? Or practice your own version of the Cold War?
Do you fire up your iPod with your favorite Willie Whiner and His All-Reject Orchestra tunes and have a pity party?
Do you ask God to whup ‘em or smite ‘em?
Or do you use this as an occasion to facilitate growth, understanding, renewal, and – dare I say it? – respect and friendship? [click to continue…]
Years ago a group of scientists determined that the minerals and chemicals within our bodies were worth about $.99. Factor in inflation, and that’s probably somewhere around $3.50 or so today.
Viewed in another way, however, somebody estimated that the energy production of the human body, based upon the number of atoms within a 150-pound person, could generate enough atomic energy to be valued at $85 billion.
A hundred and fifty pounds, huh? That would make me worth, hmmm… well, never mind.
The lesson here? Don’t let a scientist try to figure out how much you’re worth!
While you’re at it, don’t build your value on what anybody else tells you.
Not the guys and dolls in Coolvillle.
Not your teachers, important as they are (remember the infamous fourth-grade teacher who send Thomas Edison home, saying he was too stupid to learn?).
Not even the people who love you most, and here’s why: The more you are loved by somebody, the more you tend to expect unconditional approval from them. When they do express frustration or disapproval, it weighs a whole lot more on your heart. I once met a 56-year-old woman who said, “Andy, just once I wish I could hear my [78-year-old] mother say I’d done something right.”
So where do you look to find your value? Here’s a suggestion: [click to continue…]
Just in case you somehow thought that God was irrelevant and grace is for people who never really needed it…
Twelve times He said it. Twelve times he peeled back the veil and revealed very early something of His heart, passion, and grace.
And twelve times, I daresay, we have missed it.
In a gesture that can only be described as Covenant Love, the Creator of the Universe – the Holy Lord of Heaven – entered into a covenant relationship with three men we refer to today as Patriarchs. And in a stunning act of clarity and focus, the Lord changed their names – and His.
He gave them His name (Abram inserted the Hebrew name for God and became Abraham).
But He also took theirs. Thereafter He would refer to Himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
We all know what that means, right? He’s the God of three old guys whose pictures we put up on flannel boards in Sunday School. Three cardboard cutouts who never had to change their oil, replace a hard drive, or tweet their followers.
And yet, Jesus used this phrase – The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – to make the point that He is the Lord of the living, not the dead.
I’m thinking we may have missed something. [click to continue…]
I have a Master’s degree in Moody. There are some who see the glass half full, and others who see the glass half-empty. Left to my own devices, I see the glass as 100% of whatever mood I may be in.
That said, I’m re-learning (God is such a patient teacher!) a powerful, powerful principle:
Never, never, never pass up an opportunity to say “Thank you.”
Why?
Because gratitude is the gateway to abundance. I am living it.
Gratitude widens the road – at least in the spirit, if not in the circumstances. As I live gratefully, forces line up to move the circumstances. But in the meantime, even while the circumstances are narrow, my soul is broad.
That’s hard for the Master of Moody to accept sometimes. I am capable of such broodiness that disciplined gratitude must be that – disciplined. And I don’t do it well. [click to continue…]
Somewhere in the places where sighs give way to hope and promises sing to aching hearts, your soul waits for something different. More than the pleasure of a passing moment or those 15 minutes of look-at-me, you were created with a craving soul. “He has planted eternity in the human heart,” Solomon said, “but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.”
One day – sooner rather than later – that craving will be satisfied. And not by what the pavement is made of or what the real estate market is like past the pearly gates. Not by something that resembles Sunday morning at the church house, Monday noon at the White House, or Friday night at the penthouse. Craving souls are smarter and deeper than that.
One day – nearer rather than farther – tired hearts, stale relationships and flyblown religion will give way to a new dawn. And at long last your soul will taste satisfaction. Ashes will give way to beauty. You’ll trade your mourning in for the oil of joy. You’ll wear a garment of praise – complete with dancing shoes – instead of a spirit of heaviness. In the satisfaction of the soul… [click to continue…]
Give thanks to the Lord, the God of gods, the Lord of Lords, for His lovingkindness is everlasting. The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness. The Lord is good to all, righteous in all His ways, kind in all His deeds, and His mercies are over all His works. The Lord is near to all who call upon Him in truth.
I will give thanks to the Lord according to His righteousness, and will sing praise to the name of the Lord Most High. For Your name is near; You have answered me, And You have become my salvation. [click to continue…]
I know what you’re thinking right now.
