Learning to Love God (Part One) Jesus tells us to “love God with all our mind, soul, and strength.”(Matthew 22:37) That is how he lived while here on earth, but he was the only one to ever do that perfectly. This is one of those tall spiritual mountains we are challenged to climb but most of us do not have an inclination to try. Even if we do, we do not have the ability to do this by our own strength. To put our Father first in everything we do, […]
Learning to Love Over the past several posts I have been discussing with you some of the various aspects of “balance” and how it affects almost every aspect of our lives: financial, physical, emotional, health, and what we may call “spiritual.” You may recall that in the last post I raised the question,“ Is a Balanced Life Possible?” I indicated my belief that there has only been ONE perfectly balanced life, that of Jesus Christ. He is the only one who has ever fulfilled the requirements of God’s Law as […]
In my initial post on”balance,” we talked a lot about the importance of balance to athletes and how balance plays an important role in almost every aspect of our daily lives. It matters in our budgets, our health, our emotional lives, our marriages, and many other areas. You probably have a pretty good idea or feeling of what balance or imbalance is like in those areas. But don’t you think it would helpful to have a definition of the word (balance) to guide us as we think about […]
How do we find a healthy balance in our out-of-balance culture? We live with daily tension between our culture’s lure to self-centeredness and our calling to be “salt and light” in a world desperately looking for love in all the wrong places. Paul encourages us to balance our lives by applying the teachings of Christ in our culture rather than being shaped by its values. In his letter to the Philippians, he tells us to live out our salvation experience in our current environment of unbelief and opposition: “Work out […]
Cos DavisToday I want to begin a discussion with you about the idea of balance. The more I’ve thought about this word the more I realize how balance is part of almost everything in us and around us. The need for and importance of balance is evident in the natural world, our physical body and its ten systems, our diets, finances, emotional life, spiritual life, relationships, and marriages. What do we mean when we use the word “balance?” The answer could take us in many different directions but with one common […]
Last week I discussed how I sometimes feel hopeless and helpless in our crazy mixed-up world. A lot is going on that can cause us to despair and feel there is nothing we can do to deal with this craziness in a positive, faithful way. But in that post, I reminded us that we must learn to face hard realities by trusting in God’s goodness and sovereignty in all. And, as a faithful response to his will to take on our challenges with a proactive approach to living out our […]
A major reality of our existence is the fact that we have choices to make. These decisions can range from the simplest things such as what to have for breakfast to heart-rending ones like selling the cherished house you have lived in for many years or ending what was once a close relationship. One thing we should learn along the way is that our choices matter. It seems odd to me that some people don’t get that. Do you ever consider how you got to where you are today? Some […]
Do you long for meaning and purpose in life? Do you want to be remembered well by family and friends when you are gone? Do you want your life to have counted for something worthwhile, to have made a difference in someone’s life? I can say “absolutely yes” to each of these questions. That’s why I spend hours each week attempting to craft a blog that may be helpful to someone I may not even know. I want to make a difference for someone. We are made for the “Big […]
The name. One particular name, Jesus, is probably on the lips and in the thoughts of millions of people more at this time of year than at any other. That’s because it’s getting close to our annual celebration of Christmas. Although the holiday isn’t named after Jesus, “Christmas” certainly represents what he came to accomplish in God’s plan to save lost humanity. Here’s an interesting article that gives more detail about the origin and meaning of the word Christmas, as well as other information. https://www.whychristmas.com/customs/25th What does the name Jesus […]
Cos DavisIf you’ve been having a tough time lately, read this. Reflecting on this has been encouraging to me; I hope it will so the same for you. Cos Gratitude, the cure for a bad attitude. As most of you know, I’m in my eighth decade here on this planet. I’ve made lots of trips around the sun on this spinning ball we call earth. And in my days, I’ve experienced good and bad, gain and loss, health and sickness, success and failure, and satisfaction and disappointment. From time to time […]
