As we head to Christmas, New Year and for us in the Southern Hemisphere, summer holidays, our thoughts turn very much to spending time with our families. All the ads on the TV use happy, well-adjusted families as the backdrop – smiling kids and teenagers; happy mums and dads, silver-haired grandparents – as their backdrops to advertise everything from Christmas hampers, to BBQs to suntan lotion.
Here’s a disturbing thought. None of the churches that the Apostle Paul planted in the 1st century are still in existence. Go to Turkey (one of the key hubs of Paul’s church planting ministry) and you’ll be taken to ruins, but not to any live, vibrant, living, breathing churches planted by Paul.
Why?
In my last blog post, I shared some thoughts about why it is that Christians can’t seem to agree on what the Bible says on the subject of homosexuality.
In this post, we’re going to chat about what it actually does say.
Yah – I bet that got your attention! And it’s true. For several years, our church has had a “born again agnostic” – Vanessa – on our worship team. How does that make you feel? To tell you the truth, I was uncomfortable about it for a long time.
The moment I mentioned those two words – “Difficult People” I know what’s happening in your head. You’re immediately picturing the face of the most difficult person in your life. Your pulse rate has just gone up and the emotions are racing. Why is that?
Way too many people who believe in Jesus, aren’t living the life that He promised. It’s a fact.
And so after a while, they look at Him and think to themselves: Being a Christian isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be. Jesus isn’t all that He promised to be.
I wonder if you know anyone like that …
It was getting to be ridiculous. Every minute or two, it would light up, vibrate, ding or beep or buzz or something. And for some reason, each time, I felt compelled to reach out and pick it up.
Something …. something had to give!
An article reporting some research on the impact of Facebook on teenagers’ self-esteem in my local newspaper caught my eye recently. And to be honest, it confirmed everything we old fogeys had suspected all along about the impact of social media. The question is, what do we as parents and grandparents, aunties, uncles and friends do to help our young folk?
These day, people marvel at my success. The before and after photo tells it all – I’m a shadow of the man I used to be. What they don’t see is the anguish, failure and shame over the last 40 years as I battled with obesity and failed every time.
Today, there is 25 kilograms less of me. It was easy. It is permanent. So I want to share with you the one thing that changed everything for me. And at the end of the article, there’s a link to download my free eBooklet –
My Top 3 Secrets for Losing 25 kg.
Anger in and of itself isn’t a sin. Even God gets angry sometimes. The difference is, that He’s “slow to anger”. In other words, He doesn’t just fly off the handle. Just as well!
But when we’re under pressure you and I, just the smallest thing can set us off, right?
So … how do we get our anger under control?
Some conflict is inevitable. Psychologists will tell you that it’s even necessary – not so sure about that. Whenever I hear a shrink spout that line, I ask myself – How much conflict is there in the Trinity, hmm?? How often to Father, Son and Holy Spirit have a falling out?
Okay, so in a fallen world, some conflict is inevitable. That may well be true. But it seems to me that 99% of it is both unnecessary and avoidable. So here’s one smart way for avoiding unnecessary arguments.
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