Authorities

Authorities must always be respected. They must always not be trusted. They must sometimes not be obeyed.

Ethics and Sin

Sin is not so much a matter of being immoral. It is doing something that is unacceptable to God, and so harms your relationship with Him. Since God is the source of our strength, avoid sin, repent of sin, so your relationship with God will be unhindered. But don’t call other people immoral because they are deeply involved in sin. They may not be. They just don’t have a relationship with God. So they are weak without Him.

Down With Movie Critics!??

Entertainment is fine as a diversion. But don’t make it a lifestyle.

Why Won't You Talk To Me?

Communication requires two people to agree how they communicate. We must be prepared to communicate and we cannot force anyone else to have a time of communication. The more serious the matter, the more important to set a time where everyone can speak and listen openly.

Importance of Counsel

Experience is how we learn new truth. But experience can be misleading. For this reason, we need to check out our understanding with people who we know has some wisdom that comes from living with God. No matter where you live or in what situation, always have a wise man or woman you can share your ideas with.

Ask for Deliverance

At one point or another, you will be asked to give up something that is an integral part of your life, but destructive to right living. You may deny its importance, but you will know the truth when you try to give it up, and you can’t. Do everything you can to be rid of it, but you will find yourself helpless in the face of it. The only thing you can do is ask God for deliverance. And God only gives deliverance to those who give up their lives and then take up the life He gives them.

Submit to Everything

"So it is no business of ours to decide what our submission to God will bring to us. All we must do is submit to everything and be ready for every possibility."
-Jean-Pierre de Caussade

I Believe So I May Understand

“Lord, I am not trying to reach your height
For my poor mind could not even approach it.
But I do want to understand a little of Your truth
Which my heart already believes and loves.
I do not seek to understand so that I may believe
But I believe so that I may understand
And further, I believe that unless I believe I shall never understand.”
-Anselm

"To Suffer Peacefully...

“...is to suffer well, and all the more so when we decline to make pretentious acts of acceptance.”
-Jean-Pierre de Caussade

Avoiding Hypocritical Preaching

[A preacher] “in preaching to others, he forgets not himself, but is first a sermon to himself, and then to others; growing with the growth of his parish.”
-George Herbert

Drenched Thoughts

“Lord Jesus Christ, so permeate my thoughts that it is obvious I am thinking of you. How would it be obvious?... If your example so convicted me that I proclaimed what you teach even though scorned and ridiculed, then people could see in me—… in my daily living—that I was thinking of you.”
-Soren Kierkegaard

Ask

Ask God for help daily. He may not give it in a way that pleases you, but without His help we could not survive.