OVERCOME LIFE CHALLENGES...

Can a dead thing make you happy? Strange question, I know. In the moments when we’re vacillating between obeying God or disobeying God, though, the question might help identify who or what we are really believing in for joy. For me, a lot of my life was wasted on the assumption that dead things were the best things. Dead things being another way to describe “sinful things” all the ways we try to be happy when we’re dead in our trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1). I intentionally and persistently chose behaviors and affections that dishonored God and neighbor, because I figured they had the ability to satisfy me. And in some ways, they did. If the experience of a particular sin felt abominable to the sinner, they’d most likely replace it with another sin that felt good. Sinners don’t just sin because, being sinners, they have to. Sinners sin because they want to they enjoysinning (John 3:19). Being made in the image of God, we were made for joy, but not the shallow and temporar

God can do more in five seconds than we can do in five hours or months or years. This is one reason the habit of prayer is wise. Sometimes we do not get the five second breakthrough because we do not ask. To be sure, God ordains to do many good things through hours or months or years of labor. Prayer is not meant to replace toil. For example, God wills that a chapter be read, or a meal prepared, or a friend visited in the space of hours not seconds. He wills that a house be built in months not hours. He wills that a child be reared in years not months. But there are breakthroughs which could come in seconds. They often take us hours or days or months if they come at all. I have in mind especially the breakthroughs of insight that open a world of life changing truth and practical wisdom. All of Us Have Blind Spots and Blind Moments Many obstacles to joy and fruitfulness are owing to the fact that we cannot see reality the way it is. We cannot see the meaning of a biblical

“Who is this who looks down like the dawn, beautiful as the moon, bright as the sun, awesome as an army with banners?” (Song 6:10) Who indeed? A woman, of course. Where but in the Scriptures could we find a vision of womanhood as glorious as this? Who but our God could design something with such blinding beauty alongside robust strength? The Psalms and Proverbs fill out this vision of a woman that shows us fortitude clothed in splendor — a woman who presides over her domain with strong arms and resourcefulness (Proverbs 31); daughters that are corner pillars, whose strong support could only be matched by their exquisiteness (Psalm 144:12). Women Only “Our culture exchanges the glory of feminine strength for a treadmill race to nowhere.” Yet, the vision our culture offers is a sad consolation that exchanges the glory of feminine strength for a treadmill race to nowhere. It squanders the kind of influence that is found primarily in the soil of the home. The home that cent

It takes extraordinary courage to change how you date. It’s not easy to reset boundaries, communicate better, flee sexual immorality, confess failures, and end the relationship that needs to end. But you will never regret making the right changes. There were moments in when I knew things needed to change, but the costs kept me from changing sooner. What will others think about me when I confess how I’ve failed? What if I fail again, and things never get better? What if the change I need means I’m single and alone again? Like a merciless lawyer, Satan piled up every conceivable reasons not to do what I knew I had to do to make excuses, to put off decisions, to be almost honest with friends and family, to stay in unhealthy relationships, to avoid Christ and indulge in sin. I have prayed that the four resolutions that follow might give someone the courage to do what you’ve been afraid to do for weeks, for months, maybe even for years. To lay down your excuses. To take up yo