7 Stabilizing Principles in a Chaotic World, Part 7

Read the series.

Number 7: Fellowship. You need those people who disagree with you.

Believe it or not, one year I played football. American football. I was an offensive lineman.

Pop Warner League. Seventh grade. Weight limit was 110 pounds at the top, 75 at the bottom. I was 2 pounds too light, but they let me play anyway.

We called ourselves the Patriots. (We were in a Boston suburb.) We lost every game but one.

Discussion

Is it Biblical to Be Skeptical or Cynical?

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“Skepticism is defined as having ‘great doubt’ regarding the truthfulness or trustworthiness of a claim….Cynicism, on the other hand, describes situations where we’re ‘contemptuously distrustful’ of someone’s action or motives.” - Daily Citizen

Discussion

Duty Is Not the Opposite of Love

In preaching, teaching and writing, our good intentions are often defeated by an avoidable poor choice of words. Sometimes these inapt wordings gain popularity among Christians and become proverbial. Without thinking, we repeat them for the amens.

One example is the popular habit of speaking of duty and love as though they’re two competing and incompatible dynamics in the Christian life.

Discussion

7 Stabilizing Principles in a Chaotic World, Part 6

Written in 2018; read the series.

Number 6: Responsibility. You can and should control your reactions. You should resist being manipulated.

When Adam sinned, God confronted him. And in a really remarkable display of chutzpah (was the first language Yiddish?), Adam blamed his wife. And then, in the same breath, he blamed God himself: “the woman, whom YOU gave to me … “ (Gen 3.12).

Discussion

7 Stabilizing Principles in a Chaotic World, Part 4

Read the series.

Number 4: Significance/Permanence. Some things matter more than others. Care about those.

On July 19th, 2018, Michael Drejka confronted a woman in a convenience-store parking lot because her car was parked in a handicapped space. The woman’s boyfriend, Markeis McGlockton, came out of the store, saw Drejka in a hostile confrontation with his girlfriend, and pushed him to the ground. Drejka drew a concealed weapon and shot McGlockton in the chest, killing him.

Discussion

7 Stabilizing Principles in a Chaotic World, Part 3

Read the series.

Number 3: Giftedness. You can’t do everything, but you can do something. Do what you can.

A consequence of providence is that God has directed in your life as well as in the life of the planet. Your conception, birth, and life circumstances are not random or accidental; they are purposeful, and better yet, those purposes come from a good and great person, whose interest in you is entirely benevolent.

Discussion

The Political Sermons We Need in 2024

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“How do we ‘fear not’ during such fearful times? How do we not let the ‘sun go down’ on our political anger?… How do we love those we fear or hate?…How do we love those who fear or hate us?” - Providence

Discussion

Start the Day Happy in God

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“Some of us are gaunt, frail Christians because we’ve learned, like our world, to cater to the whims of our own fickle hearts rather than direct them and determine to reshape them.” - Desiring God

Discussion