Category: Culture

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Improving the Truth

path-691233_1280Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life…” Does that mean He is always impressed when we tell the truth? Surprisingly, no. There are ways we can “improve on the truth.”

I was reading a rant on Facebook this morning that brought this “truth” to light. The person was chastising people who call themselves Christians, yet ignore the character flaws of Donald Trump. He went on to berate his readers for criticizing President Obama for character issues while ignoring those found in the man they supported.

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When You Cry Out for Help

woman-1006100_1920When you cry out to God for help, what do you expect? The way God responds may surprise you.

There was a time after God delivered Israel from Egypt into the promised land when they were harassed by the nation of Midian for seven years. The people of Israel hid in mountain clefts, caves and strongholds. Every time they planted crops, marauders from Midian and other places would attack them. They would camp out, destroy the crops, steal the sheep, goats, cattle and donkeys and leave the land stripped bare. The people of Israel became impoverished, destitute and on the verge of starvation. They finally began to cry out to God for help.

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Making a Giant Leap May Look Like a Stumble

moon-1090950_1920In May 1961 – with the Soviet Union leading space technology – President John F. Kennedy spoke the nearly unimaginable, “I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth.” The concepts previously relegated to the pages of science fiction was now proposed as reality. Children imagined what it would be like to be an astronaut, and scientists pondered the great discoveries that awaited them. America, and the world, had a dream.

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10 Reasons Churches Need to Tell the Truth

pastor-1847334_1920Several years ago, a large church informed a visiting choir that they would not be allowed to sing “Amazing Grace” as it portrays man in a lowly light. The successful church explained that their priority is to make people feel good about themselves and let them know how much they are loved and cared for by God. This methodology appeared to work well for them as they boasted thousands of members, millions in assets, and served host to some of the biggest stars in the ministry and secular markets.

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Trans-WHAT?

surprised-1327192_1280As a Life Coach and Pastor, I thought I had heard it all. Quite honestly, it takes an awful lot to surprise me. I have had multiple people walk into my office, drop a bombshell and then search my face for some hint of judgment or criticism. As the old Ray Steven’s song goes, they “began to cry and then to confess to sins that would make a sailor blush with shame.” Despite all of that, however, I was recently thrown a curve ball and was indeed caught off-guard.

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Five Strategies for Making it a Happy Year

celebrate-1835387_1920One of my clients sent me an email this morning telling me he was anxious to make his business “great again” this year. During a follow-up, he began to lay out specific objectives that he wanted, and needed, to achieve. We discussed the objectives, the necessary resources, and the potential challenges in making his dream come true. I love it! My client is leveraging his emotional energy, prompted by a New Year, to press forward in actual strategies, tactics and behaviors to make things happen.

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Greater Vigilance

person-691297_12802017 is upon us and the stakes have never been higher. Despite President Obama’s mocking put-down of presidential contender, Mitt Romney’s warning about Russia in 2012 – with his famous, “Governor the 80’s called and want their foreign policy back.” – it does indeed appear that the threat is a real one. Russia is manipulating the Middle-East, Europe and even possibly the US. China is flexing its muscles in the Pacific, and Islamic extremists continue to wreak havoc and instability throughout the world.

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Spiritual Tune-Up

man-475561_1920In my last article, I introduced the topic of mental malware and our need to be more observant of the negative self-talk that undermines our lives. If you missed it, you can catch it here. Today, as promised, I am going to offer some practical instructions on how to change our programming from bad code to good. But first, we will take a look at the big picture.

In the cosmic view of things, there is a Designer and a Hacker. The hacker is first seen in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3) manipulating and challenging the code the Designer had provided His creation.

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Scanning for Mental Malware

woman-163426_1920I admit it – I’m a geek. Moreover, I was a geek before it was cool to be a geek. I clearly remember many youthful days when my mother would come home from work to find another digital clock, radio or appliance in pieces as I worked to reverse engineer or repair whatever went wrong. Eventually, I even learned how to put them back together and sometimes, I can even repair them.

After obtaining a certificate in electronics and a computer degree, I embarked on more productive efforts in my field of intrigue and began to teach as well. In ministry, I often wished I could fix people as easy as I could repair bad components or buggy code.

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