Some Food for Thought

First some facts, then some questions. Did you know that: 1) Real per-capita income in our country has doubled since 1960. 2) Life expectancy has nearly doubled in the last century and continues to rise? 3) The size of the average new home has grown from 1100 square feet post WWII to 2300 square feet today? 4) We Americans are more prosperous today than 99.4% of anyone who has ever lived? 5) We have technology and labor saving devices beyond what could be imagined just 50 years ago? 6) The total of the knowledge we have gained in the last 50 years is 50 times greater than all that was previously known to man and continues to double every year or less. 7) We live in the country with the greatest individual freedom that the world has ever seen? In spite of the above, all studies show that...

The High Cost and Source of Discontent!

If I had to choose just one overarching quality or attitude toward life to have and to hold as the constant practice most beneficial to having a great life experience it would be – contentment. I have written in previous posts about contentment,  proposing that contentment is found in a choice we make based on an accurate understanding of God’s goodness, sovereignty, and plan for us, rather than a group of circumstances that occur at a given time. Contentment, or the lack thereof is a constant choice we make as we perceive what we believe to be reality about our sufficient state in life moment by moment. You and I choose contentment – or not. When we choose not we are by definition discontent. Discontented people are not happy people, they can’t be. Discontent...

The Race of Life – Tactics 5 and 6 “Lean Forward and Run Through the Tape!”

As we learn to respond to our Trainer in using Tactics 1-4 to avoid the snares and distractions of our opposer  by applying His opposite exercises, we enter the final phases of the race, the sprint to the tape! To finish well we will need the last two Tactics but, before we move on, let’s review the snares and entanglements used by our opposer and look at our Trainer’s opposite exercises. As we run we encounter the snares of: 1) Unbelief. 2) Complacency and compromise. 3) Self-righteousness. 4) The fear of, or desire for, the approval of Man. 5) Love of sensual or fleshly pleasure. 6) A worldly mindset or paradigm of life. 7) Self confidence. Hubris or arrogance. 9) Distracting and ungodly thoughts. Our Trainer uses the exercises of: 1) Faith in God and His Word. 2) The...

The Race of Life – Tactics 3 and 4 – Breaking Away!

Every race has a beginning, a middle, and an end. In the race of life we enter the starting blocks and sprint out when we join the Master’s team and receive our Trainer. We are off and running from that moment and, using tactics 1 – Develop and fight to Hold the Eternal Perspective of Life and 2 – Develop and Fight to Build Intimacy with Jesus Christ we get a good start. In the middle distance of our race, as we encounter the snares and entanglements that our opposer places in our way, we need to build our strength and skill in applying Tactics 3 and 4. Tactic 3 is to Develop and Fight to Maintain Self-Discipline. We can not continually allow ourselves  to indulge in the secret pleasure or sin that will trip us up and cause us to stumble sooner or later. Self-mastery...