I recently bought an ebook called Five Essentials to Engage Today’s Men. It is done by Barna, so they did good research. It reminded me how hard it is for men to be better than their father. This certainly includes me. From it I learned it is good to be a Christian man. In 10 different areas like mental health, work life balance, and physical health, Christian men, on average, felt better than non Christian men. Men who had intergenerational …
I have read more than once the phrase that we all need a little more grace. The phrase is so true. People may look put together, but people mostly carry a lot of hurt that they do not always realize. Find the 9 Bible verses on Grace from picture here. Jesus said, In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world. So everyone has had and will have trouble. We need to see everyone …
The Bible uses some phrases that cause me to wonder if we are different then they are and think we best take notice to consider. For example, do you ever charge anyone before the Lord? Note what Paul wrote here: I Thessalonians 5:27 I charge you before the Lord to have this letter read to all the brothers and sisters. At the start of the letter, Paul praises the Thessalonians for what great Christians they are and actually has no …
We can always be happy, but we need to think more to make it real. I Thessalonians 5:16 says: Rejoice always That is an incredible and very short verse. If we look at Jesus, we can see many emotions like anger, sorrow, and anguish that I would never describe as rejoicing. He also had times where he visibly rejoiced like when the disciples came back after going out two by two. How can we say that Jesus was rejoicing always? …
We all know we should keep reading the Bible. It has the words of life. However, it gets old. We get bored. What can be done for us? And why are we reading it as we know the stories already and hear more in Church? Four things here: 1.Let’s not read the Bible like a text book or to know the trivia. We best go to see what God likes and does not. What makes him smile and what gets …
God made men and women so different. We were indeed made to complement each other. Amazingly, a difference shows up in the Covid-19 data. Men and women created different make the world go around because they are different. Now the data. 70% of the vaccinated people who report symptoms are woman. Are women getting sick more? Researchers found something different. Men have the same side effects and symptoms. However, men only report serious effects like fever. Women report all kinds …
Shortly before I left the US for China, a young adult in a church I was attending asked who wanted to meet before church to confess sins to each other. Notably James 5:16 says 16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. I immediately joined. It was so good. Life giving. 6 people gathering weekly to confess our sins to each other. …
I love this verse that reminds me why meeting together should have deeper meaning. 24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching. Christians in China helped me realize what this verse said. They would parrot ‘don’t give up meeting together’ and in Chinese the connotation made it seem …
Can we be wholly dependent and valuable at the same time? Let us chart that over the next half million years or at least this lifetime. I track family history and see that really our lives are just a puff and then we are gone. Yet, in each of us is the desire for something more and something unending. God made us for the garden of Eden. Adam and Eve were in perfect dependence on God and decided they wanted …
We all know that expectation of harm is worse than the real thing. Jesus said not to worry and that God would take care of us, but expectations are tough. They are often the worst part. Beyond that we often do not know how much is in us in the suffering. God made us much stronger than we think. Let me tell you a story. Expectation of Harm is Worse by Far I moved to poor nearly starving China in …
