I Am Woman; Where’s My Roar?

The message today to women is you can both have and do it all. So why aren’t more women roaring rather than dealing with depression and anxiety? It is hard to roar when you are depressed or anxious. I can hear some man saying, “Oh. my wife roars plenty around our house.” There is a big difference between yelling out of hurt and frustration and roaring with confidence and joy. Rather than buy into the world’s empty promises, let’s look at how to get your roar back. This begins with self acceptance.   Is self-image biblical? The short answer is […]

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Giving Up Childish Ways

“You’re acting like a child.” That statement will usually make any adult continue acting like a child. What is being referred to in such an allegation? It means we are acting out our emotions rather than verbalizing them. In so doing we are harming others or even ourselves. This is a major distinction between the mature and immature – emotionally act out or verbalize. In 1 Corinthians 13 the Apostle Paul deals with the subject of spiritual maturity in regards to our  motives in the use of spiritual gifts. The ultimate spiritually mature motive God desires is love. It is […]

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Spring Thaw

Many years ago, while pastoring in a small town in Pennsylvania, I remember a winter so cold the frost line went down to four feet. One consequence of this was a backhoe couldn’t penetrate the ground to dig a grave. We had funeral services for people that winter but had to wait for the spring thaw to actually bury the people. Frozen ground can be awfully hard. Sometimes our hearts can become frozen and hard like that ground. Nothing can penetrate it until heat is able to bring about a thaw and soften that heart. What hardens a heart? People […]

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What’s In Your Heart?

February, Valentine’s Day and love – these thoughts are associated together at this time of year. We assign a wide array of meanings to this word, love. Love carries us to the heights of ecstasy and to the deepest valley of despair. The Bible tells Christians our number one duty is to love God with all our heart as well as loving others as ourselves. Love is to be the purest of motivations (1 Corinthians 13). How can we develop a heart that loves more?   The source of love All human love no matter how sincere is tainted by […]

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One Day At A Time

Anxiety is a major mental health issue. For many it interferes in their daily life. It shrinks their world and makes them prisoners in their own home. Now we stand at the threshold of a new year that will be viewed very differently by the anxious person. What many will see before them is new opportunity and a fresh start. In contrast the anxious person looks forward with fear of all the “what ifs” and worst case scenarios. After a very divisive national election some whose candidate lost are angry, anxious and hopeless. Neither an election nor any other life […]

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A Christmas Fantasy

Two thousand years ago on a Judean hillside an angel appeared to a group of shepherds keeping watch over their sheep by night. He announced good news that would bring great joy to all people. A savior – Christ the Lord was born. Then suddenly the sky was ablaze while an angelic choir proclaimed peace on earth and good-will toward men. The shepherds were given instructions on how to find this new baby in the village of Bethlehem. They went there and worshipped the baby Jesus. What a wonderful story. It tells us the real meaning of Christmas. There are […]

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Nothing but God

Imagine your whole life has just fallen apart in the span of one month. Your business has failed. All your children and grandkids were killed in a terrorist attack. Your wife is so distraught with grief that she blames you for everything and turns against you in anger. You have been falsely accused by the federal government for tax evasion in regard to your bankrupt company, and the media has used this story to trash your once impeccable reputation in the community. And to top it off, your best friends whom you thought you could count on for support, believe […]

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Burnout: Recognize the Signs Before the Flame is Gone

Recently I read an article about a senior pastor, Pete Wilson, of Cross Point Church, who resigned from the multi­site mega church he founded 14 years ago in Nashville, Tennessee. The reason he gave was that he was, “tired, broken and had been leading on empty.” What he was describing was what we refer to as burnout. Now you may be wondering how can a pastor be burned out? All he has to do is preach a sermon on Sunday morning. The reality is there are a lot of stressful jobs and pastoring is right at the top. Depression and […]

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Regret the Unchangeable Past

Regret haunts some people for a lifetime. Regret is about the unchangeable consequences of actions done or undone. It is about the “what if’s” of decisions that could have been made differently. The emotions of sorrow, self anger and a deep torturing sense of guilt often surrounds the regret. How do you move on from something you can’t change or repair?   List your regrets Start by making a list of your regrets. Get them out of your head and onto paper. Things are always less overwhelming when pulled from inner ruminations and looked at objectively on paper. This allows […]

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Violence, Racism, Injustice – How Do We Respond?

Terrorists bomb airports in Paris, Brussels and Turkey. A gay dance club in Orlando is attacked by a terrorist gunman. Black men shot and killed in traffic stops, police racism alleged. Police ambushed and killed in Dallas by a gunman who wanted to “kill some white people.” These are just a few recent news events that make us feel the world and our country are in trouble. Many are asking why and what can we do? There is a lot of finger pointing, anger and political agendas seeking to profit from the carnage. But how should Christians react to all […]

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