Tag: Christian living

Woman holding coffee and phone beside jar labeled COMMUNITY FUND

The Secret to Real Happiness

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“And now, sons, listen to me; those who keep my ways are happy. Listen to instruction and be wise; don’t ignore it. Anyone who listens to me is happy, watching at my doors every day, waiting by the posts of my doorway. For the one who finds me finds life and obtains favor from the Lord, but the one who misses me harms himself; all who hate me love death.” (Proverbs‬ ‭8‬:‭32‬-‭36‬ ‭CSB‬‬ – Read the chapter)

We live in a world that constantly tells us we should be happy. All the time. If there is something about our circumstances that is making us not happy, we should change them, or at least get out of them. Happiness is always the goal. I even have a throw pillow somewhere in my house that says so. With little bees on it. Get it? All of this happiness is supposed to lead to our best life now. It even has a hashtag. The trouble is, the methods our culture offers to get us to that goal rarely work for long. Solomon offers us a way to get there that is much more reliable. Let’s talk about it.

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Spider-Man swinging between Manhattan skyscrapers above a busy avenue

Best New Day

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“From now on, then, we do not know anyone from a worldly perspective. Even if we have known Christ from a worldly perspective, yet now we no longer know him in this way. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come! Everything is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation.” (2 Corinthians 5:16-18 CSB – Read the chapter)

Between taking a break through the month of July and exploring different aspects contributing to a growing church, it has been a while since we have reflected on culture together. Well, if you’ve missed that, I’m not going to keep you waiting any longer. This summer, Hollywood managed to do something it had not accomplished in quite some time. It released a genuine superhero blockbuster film. And I don’t just mean a little blockbuster either. This one smashed what had become a bit of a superhero glass ceiling into a million pieces. It also served to finally get the monkey off of the back of Marvel Studios that has been plaguing the company ever since Avengers: Endgame came out. I’m speaking, of course, about the latest Spider-Man film, Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Let’s talk about why this one was a grand slam in every way. And just for the sake of those who haven’t yet seen it, this will have spoilers.

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Split scene showing an elderly scholar in a library and a young executive in a modern office

The Real Wealth of Wisdom

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“With me are riches and honor, lasting wealth and righteousness. My fruit is better than solid gold, and my harvest than pure silver. I walk in the ways of righteousness, along the paths of justice, giving wealth as an inheritance to those who love me, and filling their treasuries.” (Proverbs‬ ‭8‬:‭18‬-‭21‬ ‭CSB‬‬ – Read the chapter)

Do you want to be rich? Who doesn’t? Sure, you may be able to find someone here or there who will claim they are perfectly content where they are, but I suspect just about all of us could think of what to do with a sudden and great infusion of wealth—and I don’t just mean charities you would support. And yet, it is true that there are many ways to be rich, not all of which have anything to do with the volume of physical resources you control. Every single one of these manifold of ways, though, has one thing in common: they all start with wisdom. Let’s talk about it.

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More Like Him

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It is necessary and often good to talk about the challenges facing a marriage. Until we properly understand the nature of the problem, we don’t know what it is we are trying to solve. However, unless we have a positive vision and understanding of what marriage was designed for in the first place, we’re not going to be able to point things in a direction that can help prevent future challenges. Last time, as we started our new teaching series, The Journey of a Lifetime, looking at what the Scriptures have to say about marriage, we identified the problem: sin. This week we are going to look at what marriage was designed for in the beginning so that we can walk away from the problem in the right direction.

More Like Him

I’m going to show you an image of something, and I want to see if you know what it is? For some of you, this is probably going to be really easy, but a few of you might not have any idea. In fact, I’m going to show you a couple of different images for us to talk about. Let’s start with that first image. What is the thing sticking up out of the container here? Be honest with me now: How many of you knew this was a potato masher without being told or without cheating by reading the answer in your copy of my manuscript before the service even started? How many of you genuinely didn’t know what this thing was and wouldn’t have known without being told? Everyone else apparently is just confused. 

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Woman holding a glowing sphere labeled TRUTH amid digital networks and words including Integrity, Logic, Fact, and Falsehood

Truth and Deception

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“People, I call out to you; my cry is to the children of Adam. Learn to be shrewd, you who are inexperienced; develop common sense, you who are foolish. Listen, for I speak of noble things, and what my lips say is right. For my mouth tells the truth, and wickedness is detestable to my lips. All the words from my mouth are righteous; none of them are deceptive or perverse. All of them are clear to the perceptive, and right to those who discover knowledge. Accept my instruction instead of silver, and knowledge rather than pure gold. For wisdom is better than jewels, and nothing desirable can equal it.” (Proverbs‬ ‭8‬:‭4‬-‭11‬ ‭CSB – Read the chapter) ‬‬

We live today in a world in which truth—real truth—is becoming ever more important. Because of the rise of AI and the creation of phantom facts and increasingly sophisticated fake photos videos it is difficult to know if what we are seeing with our eyes on a screen is real. This unmooring of our lives and our culture from truth leads to a degradation of trust which in turn makes everything we do more difficult. We need the foundation of truth more than ever before so that our entire culture doesn’t give way to cynicism, doubt, and a host of other civilization-destroying traits. In this kind of a world, godly wisdom is vital. Let’s talk about wisdom’s self-description and why we can trust it even when we can’t trust anything else.

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