Why we need to stop thinking we are so smart and start listening and learning from others* 1.) Thinking of yourself as better than others is a pretty big sin. In fact, one old saint calls that attitude the mother of hell. (And you know what I say, if hell has a mother, she must be one nasty momma…) 2.) If you are pretty smart, it’s only because God has gifted you. And if you are going around trusting in your intelligence you are taking that gift from God and using it in an absolutely perverted way. You are being … Continue reading Sitting down and shutting up…

If you had to figure out what someone’s life-purpose was, but you weren’t allowed to ask them what it was directly – what kinds of things would you want to know about them? What kinds of questions would you ask to help you figure it out? Perhaps you’d start with time. What do you do with your free time? Maybe after that, you’d move on to money. How do you spend your money? What about talk…what do they talk about? Or how about, what do they get upset about? We could go on and on… What do they get excited … Continue reading What are you about? Seriously…

I’m afraid that one of the things we most need, most of us don’t want. We need objectivity. In other words, we need friends who are willing to help us look at what’s going on in our lives from a different angle – from a biblical angle. When we’re in a situation, we’re looking at it from our perspective, we have an interpretation, an explanation. But since we’re in the situation, it’s easy for our perspective, interpretation, explanation to be warped. We need people in our lives who can help us look more clearly, more biblically at the way we … Continue reading Do you really want my opinion?

I’m at the gym and it hits me. I’ve been coming here for five years, seeing many of the same people, and we all still pretty much look the same. There’s such a thing as maintaining, I know. But some of us need a little bit more. How is that? I mean five years! I’m not as concerned about my physical condition as I am my spiritual. I definitely don’t want to be coming to church Sunday after Sunday and just maintaining. I want to be moving forward. One thing that keeps us from moving forward physically is a failure … Continue reading I want to see me…

It might be somewhat funny to watch someone to standing in front of a mirror with his eyes closed, trying to get ready for work. It would be pretty sad if he thought he was actually being effective. It would be tragic if he stood there for forty, forty five minutes and really believed he was accomplishing something. Yet that’s what many of us do week after week with the mirror of God’s Word. In the next few blogs, off and on, I want to think about some of the things that keep us from really seeing ourselves in God’s … Continue reading Are Your Eyes Closed?