As iron sharpens iron,
one person sharpens another. (Proverbs 27:17)
“Ham also talked about Nye’s visit in a Facebook post, and said that it turned into an ‘almost two hour debate’ as they walked through the three decks of exhibits at the Ark.”
“The unanticipated name adjustment process was in response to the threat of legal action from a religious organization in Montana. Trustees and university leadership worked through attorneys to come to an amicable agreement to modify the name and satisfy trademark requirements.” GARBC.org
Though many of us don’t think of ourselves as leaders, we all find ourselves in situations where we’re responsible to some extent for “getting other people to do things” (or stop doing things). In that sense, we’re all leaders occasionally.
Previously, I introduced three primary tools leaders have at their disposal (coercion, persuasion, and influence), overviewed how the three differ, and explored some ways we tend to use one of them—coercion—badly (with self-defeating consequences).
Paul’s letter to Philemon draws our attention to the second tool—persuasion—and even a brief look reveals a great deal about what persuasion is, how it works, and why we should try to get better at it.
It is a commonly held belief among Christians that one of the most perplexing problems we experience is knowing what the will of God is for our lives. The reason for this is not hard to find. For one thing, we are most sensitive to this question in times of stress, when the stakes are high and our emotions are perturbed. We want a clear path to appear in front of us—we want to know what our heavenly Father would have us do. In these situations we turn to God and pray for guidance. But frequently we discover that the help does not come to us when and how we think it should, and we begin to wonder if there is some secret key to the will of God which we need to discover.
Everyone is familiar with what Gideon did when he wanted absolute assurance that he was not deluded, but that the Lord truly had told him to take on the Midianites—he laid a fleece out, not once but twice (Judg. 6:36-40).
It won’t be long until summer is over for many folks — esp. those who children attend public school. In Kokomo, Indiana, school starts August 3.
Growing up, the best times of my life were on vacations, when we went (we did not go every year). I loved the woods and living in a cabin in a different state, escaping the hustle and bustle of the Chicago area.
Even though our kids grew up in a small city, we enjoying renting a cabin at the state parks. On other occasions, we went to different locations, including one trip to Disney World.
The Book of Philippians is one of the most positive books in Scripture. Its theme is joy. One of the best books on Philippians at a popular level is the one penned by Dr. Warren Wiersbe titled, Be Joyful.
Wiersbe presents Philippians as a book about joy and suggests that Paul identifies four thieves of joy: circumstances, people, material things, and worry. Weirsbe then suggests that Paul offers a solution to neutralize each thief of joy: the single mind (Philippians 1), the submissive mind (Philippians 2), the spiritual mind (Philippians 3), and the secure mind (Philippians 4).
Real joy comes from rich meaning; as Christians, we possess tremendous meaning if we live to glorify God. But this meaning needs to surface and affect the way we think. We can either aim to win by the world’s standards, or aim to win by God’s standards. If we try to do both, we will fail on both counts. Obviously, I advocate the second choice!
“A single devastating graph shows official climate predictions were wild”
“On a secular college campus, the danger of spiritual failure is far greater than the danger of academic failure.”
In my experience, one of the most difficult aspects of parenting is teaching my children about sin while not discouraging them.
While our firstborn was growing up, we were in church circles that placed an emphasis on teaching children about their sin nature and the consequences of sin. Sounds biblical and reasonable, right? However, the way this played out was to treat children like they were always being deceitful, always up to something, and couldn’t be trusted. Ever. I can’t tell you how many times I heard Psalm 58:3 quoted:
The culprit is an “alleged anti-LGBT policy barring students from engaging in sexual intimacy outside of marriage between a man and a woman.” Christian Today
Discussion