Dr. Henry Cloud defines character as the ability to meet the demands of reality. Reality tests our character. If our character revolves around ourselves, our abilities, our control, our goals, our resources, our wisdom, etc., we will keep our character and our reality from expanding. But both our character and reality will continually expand if …
We have a choice with every person we encounter. Will we add stature to them or subtract from their stature? My friend, Keith Loy, says people ought to stand taller in our presence and after they have been with us. We can help people stand taller by the words we speak, the attention we give …
Not being very computer literate, I struggle with the default settings in programs that are different from the ones I want. I’m always making changes in one document after another instead of changing the default setting for all the documents. About the time I get default settings changed we need to wipe the computer and …
In the 1850’s Elizabeth Prentiss suffered the loss of a child and a short time later her youngest child died also. She wrote in her diary, “Empty hands, a worn-out, exhausted body, and unutterable longings to flee from a world that has so many sharp experiences.” Yet, this woman wrote the words to the hymn …
It is God’s nature to give. One of the greatest deceptions of Satan is that God wants to steal from us. But God gives His one and only Son for us on a cross. Jesus gave up His own life so that He could give us forgiveness, his peace and presence through whatever situations we …
Recently I heard Larry Osborn speak about courage. Courage and wisdom need to be coupled together. Without wisdom, we have courage about the wrong things—things that don’t matter. Without courage, wisdom never acts or changes things for the better. Without courage, wisdom is restrained by fear. One of the other things that really grabbed my …
Ephesians 4:15 says spiritual maturity results from people speaking the truth in love and hearing the truth spoken in love. Rev. Isaac Smith said honesty is about speaking hard truth in the right spirit with the right motive. Respected leaders speak honesty to others and receive honesty from others. We don’t help anyone when we …
While at Winter Retreat, Larry Osborne reminded us of Ezra 3:12-13 where the Jews returned from captivity to rebuild the temple that had been destroyed and burned. The hard part was that many of the old people remembered the glory of Solomon’s temple. The rebuild was no match for it—they were building without the resources …
There’s no good reason to practice Christianity if we don’t take our sin seriously. The reason we have Christmas, Good Friday, and Easter is because God sent His only Son to die to save us from the wages of our sin and to give us victory over it. God didn’t send His Son to die …
Betrayal is one of the most painful experiences we go through. That’s because it comes at the hands of people whom we trust to be the most loyal to us. We trust them because of our relationship with them, because of their position, and because of their reputation. Jesus experienced betrayal. His family didn’t understand …
Adrian Timmons 