Guidelines For Living Devotional

Do You Love God With Passion?

For what do you really have passion?  Nobody succeeds at anything for which they do not have passion.  What is it in your life?  Whether it is art, painting ceramics, football, basketball, old books, history, or seeking God, without passion you dawdle through life, much as someone who goes through a cafeteria or smorgasbord sampling little bits of many things without getting anything which really satisfies.

Learn To Conquer Life’s Greatest Fear With Life’s Greatest Hope

Let’s face it:  Some things in life—apart from taxes, aging, and terrorism--are pretty frightening.  My son, who is a rock climber, says that fear is not something you necessarily conquer but something you manage; otherwise, he wouldn’t set out on an arduous climb on the face of the largest piece of granite in the world, knowing that he would spend seven days and nights on the face of that monolithic rock, exposed to the winds and weather.

What Is It Like To Die?

My dad used to tell the story of an eight-year old boy with a troubled home life who wrote a letter to God, addressed it to heaven, put a stamp on it and mailed it.  As you probably know, letters without valid addresses on them would get sent to a dead letter office where they are usually disposed of; but, this letter was opened.  The message read, “Dear God, what is it like to die?  I just want to know.  I don’t want to do it.  Your friend, Michael.”

6 Guidelines To Prevent Divorce

Taking preventative measures to insure that a fire will not destroy your home is a great deal better than installing the best fire alarm that wails loudly while your house is burning down.  When a marriage falls apart, there is usually plenty of loud noise and not a few tears, but the tears are never sufficient to put out the fires of anger which are destroying the foundation of a marriage and family.

There Are 3 Important Aspects To Forgiveness

The night before Robert Alton Harris was executed for the brutal murder of two teenage boys, he placed a phone call to a friend who had worked with him in prison and said, "If I had only known there was forgiveness [with God], I would never have killed those two boys."  Early in his life, wrongdoing had started the downhill slide, and once he felt that there was no forgiveness and no exit to his life of crime, one thing led to another and then another. Eventually the downward spiral culminated in the murders of two young men, which eventually sent him to the gas chamber at San Quentin.

Why Is Letting Go So Difficult?

Turning loose is never easy!  We love the familiar, the warm and comfortable, and the known.  The leap in the dark unknown, the uncertainty of what's out there which you can't see and can't comprehend, makes the future dark, foreboding, and fearful.  The budding high-wire artist has to overcome his fear of failure, of falling, of danger; otherwise, he never makes it to the big top.  Picture the trapeze artist, poised and ready to take the big leap. He swings out into space faster and faster, but then at some point, he's got to turn loose and fly through the air, reaching, stretching, towards the bar that swings towards him.

10 Guidelines For Reaching Muslims

Nearly two billion people, or approximately 24% of the world's population, worship under the crescent and the star, for they are Muslim; yet very few Christians understand what Muslims believe or how to communicate their faith in Jesus Christ to them.  They simply know that they are different.  But loving someone, as Jesus calls the Christian to do, and knowing how to best communicate the hope of the Gospel requires that you understand someone’s worldview.

6 Differences Between Islam And Christianity

The person who says there are major differences between Christianity and Islam is not driving a wedge of division between the two, only recognizing that vast differences are there, and that no individual who really knows what those differences are could ever assume that they are both simply different versions of the same faith.

Here’s What God Says About Money

The number one problem when it comes to family living isn't our failure to communicate, as important as that may be.  Nor is it what takes place behind the bedroom door, or keeping our in-laws from becoming outlaws.  The greatest, single problem facing families today is the handling of money.  Scrutinizing this fact, it becomes apparent that the real issue isn't how much you have or how little you have, but rather it's our inability to agree about what to do with the money we have.

What Does It Mean To Commit?

It isn't how you start that counts but rather how you finish!  Rarely does the individual who sprints out of the starting blocks with a burst of speed break the tape winning the race.  This is what Jesus had in mind when he said, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God" (Luke 9:62).