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How Miserable Christians Can Get “Life” Back In Their Lives

Have you noticed people around you (or maybe its you) who call themselves Christians are some of the most miserable people on the planet? What happened?

It seems that our relationship with God fades over years because we simply misinterpret life, who we are and what our purpose is. Because things don’t go our way, because we don’t get what we want, our selfishness becomes a heavy cloak of contempt and the relationship dies a swift death. It’s like a married couple who once loved each other running for the escape hatch of divorce.

When we understand our calling, it is not only true, but beautiful—and it should be exciting. It is hard to understand how an orthodox, evangelical, Bible-believing Christian can fail to be excited. The answers in the realm of the intellect should make us overwhelmingly excited. But more than this, we are returned to a personal relationship with a God who is there. If we are unexcited Christians, we should go back and see what is wrong.

—Francis Schaeffer

How do we get past ourselves and posture our life in such a way that we can live life courageously from our hearts?

Jesus Versus ISIS In Matters Of Adultery

Just when you thought the brutality of ISIS couldn’t get any worse, I came across a story in the New York Post, “Woman stoned to death by ISIS militants and her own father” in my social media news feed. We have witnessed the untold horrors of innocent people being beheaded by ISIS militants and now we read about a woman being stoned to death for accusations of adultery. Whats worse is her father is one of the executioners.

Here is a excerpt from that story.

4 Ways To Begin Living A Worry Free Life

Do you get a sense that most people (including you) are worried about something these days?

Some worry about grades in school, job interviews, approaching deadlines, bills and expenses, rising gas prices, insurance costs and endless taxes. Some worry about current events such as; ebola, wars, hurricanes, earthquakes and floods, economy, health care, immigration, NSA surveillance programs, data breaches (Target, iCloud, Home Depot, Chase), unemployment, elections, immigration, fuel prices, riots, nuclear threat, ISIS, world-wide terrorism, rising police state, Israel-Hamas conflict, VA medical care controversy, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, stock markets, wild fires, turmoil in the Ukraine, missing airplanes…I could go on and on!

We all deal with worry in some form and left unchecked, it can become a crippling force in our lives. Worry can keep us from taking risk, from becoming the person God wants us to become, can destroy our ability to build relationships and can have an adverse effect on our bodies.

Some find ways to escape the reality of worry and some move into anxiety. Some of us numb ourselves from our circumstances, some medicate themselves with drugs, alcohol, achievement (this was me), the internet…fill in the blank ______.

Over the span of our lifetime, worrying accounts for hours and hours of invaluable time that you will never get back and it’s just not good for you.

Worry weighs a person down; an encouraging word cheers a person up.

—Proverbs 12:25 (NLT)

I haven’t perfected being completely worry free, but here are some ways that help me move closer in that direction.

Why Choosing Life Is Braver Than Ending It!

It was a beautiful Autumn day in New England as I started my daily commute up Interstate 89 in New Hampshire. Pulling out of my local Cumberland Farms to fuel up on some coffee, I decided to tune into some morning talk radio. Hitting the dial landed me right in the middle of a conversation about Brittany Maynard.

Brittany Maynard is 29 years old and was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, just a little over a year after her wedding. After a diagnosis of six months to live she decided to move to Portland Oregon, which is a state that allows euthanasia in certain circumstances, to get a prescription that would allow her take her own life at a time of her choosing.

On November 1st of this year, a few days after her husband’s birthday, Brittany Maynard plans going to kill herself. With the help of a doctor and a suicide pill, she is going to end her life.

“I will die upstairs in my bedroom that I share with my husband, with my mother and my husband by my side, and pass peacefully, with some music that I like in the background.” -Brittany Maynard

As heartbreaking as this story is, suicide is not the answer!

Taking another sip of my now lukewarm coffee, I remembered a time in my life when I was at the very edge of giving up on life. My place of desperation was not from a terminal disease, but from falling into a dark depression of life’s failures and loosing everything.

I remember the moment well. Here is an excerpt of that moment from my book Heartstone.

Under God’s Training

He guarded him…like an eagle that stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, that spreads its wings to catch them and carries them on its pinions. The Lord alone led him; no foreign god was with him. (Deuteronomy 32:10-12)

Our almighty God is like a parent who delights in leading the tender children in His care to the very edge of a precipice and then shoving them off the cliff into nothing but air. He does this so they may learn that they already possess an as-yet-unrealized power of flight that can forever add to the pleasure and comfort of their lives. Yet if, in their attempt to fly, they are exposed to some extraordinary peril, He is prepared to swoop beneath them and carry them skyward on His mighty wings. When God brings any of His children into a position of unparalleled difficulty, they may always count on Him to deliver them.
from The Song of Victory

When God places a burden upon you, He places His arms underneath you.

There once was a little plant that was small and whose growth was stunted, for it lived under the shade of a giant oak tree. The little plant valued the shade that covered it and highly regarded the quiet rest that its noble friend provided. Yet there was a greater blessing prepared for this little plant.

How Miserable Christians Can Get “Life” Back In Their Lives

Jesus Versus ISIS In Matters Of Adultery

4 Ways To Begin Living A Worry Free Life

Why Choosing Life Is Braver Than Ending It!

Under God’s Training

Favorite Quotes

Cool Scripture

Never Out Of The Fight!

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