A wonderful aspect of Godās creation is the human mind. Certainly man has a physical brain like animals, but the exceptionalism is in the fact that God has given man an additional spirit that animals do not have. This spiritual component empowers the brain to provide wisdom, knowledge and understanding of the physical environment in which man exists. In other words, an intellect -- the capacity for rational or intelligent thought. While this allows man to achieve unbelievable things, it also … [Read more...] about Establishing Thoughts
Practical Christain Living
Help My Unbelief
Godās people experience both faith and doubt in their journey through life. Maybe itās not doubt to the level of denying Godās existence, but we can see many examples laid out for us in Godās word of both conditions of faith and doubt happening to godly people. Satan works tirelessly to sow seeds of doubt. Doubt is something that can grab us, and it can grow and fester. However, there are methods to help prevent doubt, or to overcome it, and to continue to grow in faith instead. There are … [Read more...] about Help My Unbelief
Handling Conflict
We all deal with conflict daily, in many forms. Even the church has conflict, internal and external, from time to time. With the Bible as our guide, which biblical examples can teach us about a specific quality that foils conflict? Where does this quality come from? What does it lead to? Letās consider Gideonās example to identify this quality. Chosen by God as a judge of Israel he was assigned to defeat a threat from neighboring Midian (Judges 6:1-8:21). He assembled an army of 32,000, but … [Read more...] about Handling Conflict
When You Are Accused
It is understood that at some point in our lives we will all be accused of wrongdoing. Shame and dishonor are brought against our name when we are innocent. It's the nature of the world we live in. David, King of Israel had no shortage of experience with false accusation and betrayal. King Saul sought to take his life, his own son Absalom sought to take his Kingdom, and he was often hated without cause. David sums up the intense feelings of betrayal in Psalm 109: āThey have also … [Read more...] about When You Are Accused
An End Time Indicator
In Matthew 24:12, the context of a statement by Christ is the time indicating Christās coming and the end of the age. There are two points that immediately stand out with this statement. First, we can know as a fact that lawlessness will increase. Second, love will grow cold as a result. We can easily acknowledge the first by observation of the world around us. That lawlessness is increasing is an absolute fact. Lawlessness is defined as, āillegality, that is,Ā violation of lawĀ or … [Read more...] about An End Time Indicator
2024 Relationship Challenges
Due to the natural proclivity of the human mind to focus inward on self, relationships in āthe worldā are deteriorating. Nations are turning inward as are the communities that form a nation. We see the emergence of what is being called āIdentity Politicsā and the āNew Tribalism.ā This is a form of polarization which has as its underpinning an emphasis on self. This should not surprise us as we know the god of this world is a self-promoter. At the personal level, our present cancel culture is … [Read more...] about 2024 Relationship Challenges
Is the Web a Source of Wisdom?
We hear very little about wisdom today. Instead, we hear more and more about the importance of information ā about the virtues of information and the benefits of increased information. āBig dataā and ādata miningā are the buzz words of the day. These are quite literally seen by humanity as their savior. But it is important to recognize that information, knowledge, and wisdom are not the same things. I want to lay out the building blocks first from a humanistic … [Read more...] about Is the Web a Source of Wisdom?