Intentionally Seeking Your Personal Discipleship in Christ
I’ve gained a new understanding of personal discipleship with Christ over the last year or so. Maybe not so much new as it is better, deeper, or more refined. On a basic level, personal discipleship is simply learning to be more like Christ. A simple concept, yes, but...
Have Prayerful Confidence that God Works in You and in the World
When it comes to prayerful confidence, most think in the context of God’s willingness to answer. However, we must keep mindful of our own actions and intentions. To that end, I can’t count the times I’ve failed to make a prayer I told someone I would. Or the times...
What’s The Point of Studying Scripture? Can’t I Just be Spiritual?
When it comes to studying Scripture, you get out of it what you put into it. Jonathan Edwards clearly put much more into it than most could ever aspire. That should not dissuade us common folk, though. Our only real competition is ourselves. When running the race to...
Heavenly Reward and Our Greater Capacities for Happiness
We often speak of a heavenly reward. It’s usually said in relation to the phrase “you can’t take it with you.” The “it” in this case is all the stuff we acquire in life. Our homes, cars, clothes, gadgets, toys… even our money. This stuff is stuff we...
Why We Must Strive for a Healthy Perspective of Shame
I don’t know how it goes in other countries, but the U.S. culture certainly has an interesting relationship with the concept of shame. On the one hand, it seems that nobody has any shame. In addition, people are constantly thrusting themselves into attention seeking...
The Reality of Spiritual Warfare and The Battle for Your Heart
Spiritual warfare. It’s a term that conjures all sorts of visual representations. And it probably varies greatly by culture. I can’t claim to be all that knowledgeable about it, and I have kept my life mostly ignorant of the concept. I like to live in my little bubble...
The Torments of Hell and Can I Really Feel Your Personal Pain?
It’s unnatural to really feel the personal pain of someone else. You can sympathize, but really feeling the suffrage of another isn’t something we intuitively do. And why does it matter anyway? Well, for starters, it’s a way we can keep our own personal pain in...
I Need Somebody to Show Me How to Live – for Real
One of the worst fates is going through life and not ever knowing how to live. I mean genuinely knowing how to live fully with freedom to be you and pursue your purpose. The Audioslave song, Show Me How To Live is one that always gets me pondering that premise. Some...
Personal Discipleship Requires Having a Progressive Mindset
Many things in life and work require having a progressive mindset. I’ve come to understand that this is especially true when it comes to personal discipleship. Before I explain that and put it into context of Edwards’ second resolution, let me explain a bit....
Moodiness and Bad Moods… and Why They’re Stupid!
Bad moods are inevitable. Some of us find our way into them more often than others, but it happens to us all. It may be caused by how we are feeling, events that happen, as a response to stress, or just because. Heck, I have been so moody, it seems like I am sometimes...