Godly Insights for the 21st Century Life

We're living in a world that keeps breaking But if we want to find a way to change it It all comes down to this Love God, love people ~ Danny Gokey, " Love God, Love People " I initially wrote a post based off of this song in August of last year. While much has changed in the 14 months since then, unfortunately, many people are still having trouble loving others the way we are called to. In fact, I feel like some people are less loving now than they were then. As Christians, our priority should always be loving others the way Christ has loved us.  Going back to the roadmap presented in 1 Corinthians 13, here are some of the areas I've noticed still need a bit of work. Love is kind:  The member of our monthly circle group I mentioned in the original post  finally came back to our group in April. Mom and I enjoyed spending time with her and catching up on the last year. That was, of course, until the subject of the shot came up. She asked Mom and me if we had gotten it,...

We're living in a world that keeps breaking But if we want to find a way to change it It all comes down to this Love God, love people ~ Danny Gokey, " Love God, Love People "      These past few months have been crazy. A pandemic has been working its way through almost every country in the world. Churches and schools have closed, and many are not opening again anytime soon.  "Essential services" has been defined in such a way that abortion is allowed while important surgeries and therapies are put on hold. Many people are without work with no end in sight. Mask mandates have led to violent confrontations between employees and customers. Tragic deaths of blacks at the hands of police have led to protests and riots. Governments throughout the country come up with mandates to help curb the spread of the virus for people's physical health without giving a second thought to their mental and spiritual health.      All these things can make our situat...

Last fall, I did a study on the book The Anatomy of Peace. The book tells the story of parents whose kids were at a youth rehabilitation camp, and who were in a two day meeting to try and help their children when they returned home in two months. The leader of the camp taught the parents how to have a heart of peace toward their children rather than a heart of war. In our meetings during the study, we talked about practical ways that we could cultivate a heart of peace in our own relationships. After learning about the difference between a heart of war and a heart of peace, I began to notice in interactions with others where their hearts were in that moment. Coworkers that had trouble getting kids to listen to them were the ones whose hearts were at war with them, and I found that sometimes I also interacted with kids with the same heart and got the same results. Relationships that I had struggled to improve were hampered by the wrong motivations, and they have improved now that my h...