The Critical First Step – Non-Negotiable!

Most Christians who struggle to have a consistent time of Bible reading, study, prayer and reflection do so because of one fatal mistake; the mistake of negotiation with the flesh! Get this! The flesh doesn’t want you to spend time with God! Neither does the world or the devil! They will never make it easy, always will oppose you in your effort to do so. When we make any profitable discipline or habit negotiable the most likely result is failure to maintain it. This is as true in exercise or diet as in any of the spiritual disciplines. The key is to not negotiate! It is infinitely easier to make one simple decision than hundreds or thousands of difficult complicated decisions. (I’ll have just a bite this time! I’ll skip running while I’m on vacation! etc.,etc.,...

Two Steps to Your best Hour

I didn’t meet Jesus until I was 35. Today I am 72. My first 35 years were lived as a worldly disciple of Hugh Hefner, the last 37 as a Christ follower. There isn’t enough space or time in this medium, and really not enough words,  to tell you all of the ways the “second half” of my life is better. Maybe another time. For the first 15 years of my life as a Christian I heard others talk about having a daily, early morning “quiet time” with our Lord. Since I am not at all a ‘morning person” I resisted the advice and tried every alternative I could think of to justify my resistance. (I do know all the reasons you can’t do it!) I did make a commitment to read the Bible for at least 5 minutes every day and involved myself in a broad...

Some Facts – A Question – Now the Answer!

Since the end of WWII, 1946, the US has been the richest and most powerful nation in the world. We have achieved a level of material abundance that is unprecedented in world history. The poorest of our poor would be considered very rich indeed by way over half the peoples of the world who, by the way, earn less than $500 per year. We have conveniences and luxuries that 75% of the rest of the world only dream about and yet…as a nation our material prosperity has not proven to be the providence of happiness that it was promised to be, and hoped for, by our parents and grandparents and theirs. In fact, by all measures we as a nation are less happy with our lives than those who lived a hundred years ago All our “stuff” has not created a happy people and more...

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...