Tag: Christian living

Morning Musing: Mark 6:34

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“When he went ashore, he saw a large crowd and had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. Then he began to teach them many things.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

If you have kids, you can probably relate to this situation. You get home from work and it’s been a long day. You have used every last brain cell just to survive. You’ve been emotionally and vocationally bruised. Nothing went right, but you managed to put out all the fires. You still have a mountain of work waiting for you in the morning and that’s weighing pretty heavily on your mind, but for now you’re gratefully done. You manage to get through dinner and baths without losing it. Once the dishes are done you finally sit – collapse really – on the couch and prepare for nothing. Then it starts. “Daddy, will you?…” “Mommy, will you?…” If you’re being honest, the last thing in the world you want to do is whatever happens to follow the “you.” But you love your kids. So you dig down into those emergency reserves, get up off the couch, and say, “Yeah, let’s go, Buddy.” What we see here is Jesus saying, “Yeah, let’s go, Buddy.” Let’s talk about it.

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Morning Musings: Mark 6:30-31

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“The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all that they had done and taught. He said to them, ‘Come away by yourselves to a remote place and rest for a while.’ For many people were coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Have you ever been tired? Of course you have. You’re probably tired right now. So much of our culture – and many cultures around the world – operate on a limited amount of rest. But there are different kinds of tired. There’s sleepy tired, worn out tired, tired of it tired, and that special kind of proud and satisfied tired that comes from having worked hard at something good and right and done a good job at it. The disciples returning to Jesus from the missionary assignment He sent them to accomplish were this last kind of tired. Whatever kind of tired you happen to be, though, the solution is rest. When Jesus knew His disciples were tired, He sought rest for them. This morning, let’s pause with them in that for a minute together.

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How to Get More of a Good Thing

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We’ve all been warned about having too much of a good thing, but getting more of a good thing is something worth trying to do. As followers of Jesus, we know that the best things are the ones that move us in His direction. Getting more of those is always good. In this third part of our new series, A Fresh Start, we talk about how to do exactly that. Thanks for reading!

How to Get More of a Good Thing

Have you ever had something really good—or even just really cool—happen that you wanted to have happen again? What did you do in order to try and bring that about? When I was in high school my youth group went to Branson, MO for a special church weekend event at Silver Dollar City—the Ozark’s equivalent to Dollywood. One morning when we were still in the hotel getting ready for the day, the power suddenly went out in the whole place. I think everyone in my room was pretty much ready, so it was nothing more than mildly inconvenient. Being kids and being silly, though, I stood up on a chair in the room and proclaimed, “And God said, ‘Let there be light!’” And would you believe the power came back on right then. It was instantaneous. I couldn’t have planned it better if I had someone hiding in the next room manning the power switch for the hotel. It was awesome.

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Morning Musing: Proverbs 25:21-22

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“If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat, and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink, for you will heap burning coals on his head, and the Lord will reward you.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

It’s hard to find something to watch on television these days. No really, I mean it. It’s hard to find something to watch on TV. How can I say that? I mean, I know in terms of sheer volume there is more content being produced and released nowadays than anyone could watch even over the course of an entire lifetime, but that’s exactly the point. There is so much content available, it’s hard to choose one thing that’s really worth watching. How do you pick then? There’s always the approach of choosing something at random, watching for a few minutes to evaluate, and then sticking with it or moving on. You usually wind up sifting through a lot of junk by that method. A sometimes better approach is to listen to the hype. That doesn’t work for some things, but usually the best content gets the most hype. I recently went with that approach and was rewarded with a fantastic new show to watch that I can recommend heartily (with a caveat). This morning I want to tell you about Ted Lasso.

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Good Habits

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Last week we confronted the uncomfortable reality that we are often not fine in this life. This week we start to explore a solution. How can we keep the hard emotions that so often bring us down at bay before they have a chance to do their dirty work? We learn the secret from something Paul wrote when he was in some pretty dark times himself. Check this out with me.

Good Habits

I am a man of habits. It’s just part of my personality. I operate best in conditions that are customary and repetitive. Maybe you’re the same, maybe you’re different, but that’s simply my personality type. And when it comes to personality types, there’s no one type that’s particularly right or particularly wrong. At least…that’s what I keep telling myself. No, each personality type comes with advantages and disadvantages. They each have their own strengths and weaknesses. For me, when something is a habit, I’m dependable. Now, I’m sometimes forgetful, but once something is locked into a habit, you can count on my doing it. On the other hand, I can be boring; especially if you have the kind of personality that prefers a bit more variety.

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