the Word: God wants us happy

Well....not quite.



Pastor Craig Groeschel, in this week's lesson in his TRUEish series, said, "God doesn't want you happy...in these three categories in your life."

Find out what they are here.

Quote Them

"Too bad all the people who know how to run the country are busy driving taxis and cutting hair."

George Burns (1898-1996)
comedian



Via Patriot Post

Friday Fun

the Word: Cultural Relativism

Ravi Zacharias talks about truth. This is the sun of my universe: truth. Every time I hear the word, I feel my pulse quicken. And I can't even explain to you the reaction, the reason, only that it appears as if truth is dissipating slowly, like warmth in the midst of a bitter Northern wind, and so I'm seeking the heat.

The video is only four minutes and worth the time. I don't know anything about the minister but he's got my attention. Here are a few quotes piquing my interest:

- "I am convinced whatever message God has for this generation, they are determined to change it and come up with the opposite."

- "Intent is prior to content. And the question is: Does this generation really want the truth?"

- "Political expediency stalks the landscape today. How in the name of reason can any sensible human being say, 'I personally believe it is wrong, but politically it is the right thing to do."

Several years ago, on an evening when the darkness seemed thicker, heavier than usual and the weight of it dripped from my hair and dragged down my shoulders, I made a request to God, as well as a promise to accept the culmination of that request.
Driving in my car, alone like I'd never felt and facing a trial of half-truths and misconceptions, I distinctly remember turning the corner toward my closet of a home in the middle of a dilapidated neighborhood where joy remained barricaded on the outside.
This was the end of a tiring day, the end of a tiresome journey, the end of a future so real I had already written the check and never expected it to bounce. I had been lied to so many times, so repetitively over many years and many subjects, I was chocking on the plastic content of it all.

So I asked God, "Tell me the truth. In everything. I want it. I only want the truth. I'm sick to death of lies, from anyone or anything. I want to know, 'What is truth?' And if truth turns my world completely upside down so that up is below and down is above, help me through it, give me truth, as much as I can stand."

I restate that request often, sometimes every week, sometimes every day. It isn't easy, but it's life. Truth, even if it makes me an outsider or unpopular or hated or mocked, I want it. And I have every intention of sharing.

Quote Them

Via the Patriot Post:

"The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny."

James Madison

Quote Them

"I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death."

Thomas Paine

the Word: will the real Hope please stand up

Not today.
I'm not going to say anything.
I'm letting the celebrities and pundits and talking heads slobber over every inch of this Inauguration day.

There are days to speak. Days to listen. Then, there are days to observe, quietly and with God as your only company. And...maybe a glass of wine. Or two.

Today there is hope. There truly is. And it has absolutely nothing to do with Washington D.C. or Oprah or a man some want to crown King.
But hope, real hope, is alive.
It was yesterday, the day before, eight years before, thousands of years earlier, and every moment from then until the end. Hope came with one man, who will never die. And there is where hope resides.

So tomorrow, definitely tomorrow, my comments and sarcasm and observations will return. But today, I think you need something more.

A friend sent me this:


Psalm 37


9 Before long the crooks will be bankrupt;God-investors will soon own the store.

11 Down-to-earth people will move in and take over,relishing a huge bonanza.

13 But God isn't losing any sleep; to him they're a joke with no punch line.

18 God keeps track of the decent folk;what they do won't soon be forgotten.

19 In hard times, they'll hold their heads high;when the shelves are bare, they'll be full.

21 Wicked borrows and never returns;Righteous gives and gives.
28 God loves this kind of thing,never turns away from his friends.
Live this way and you've got it made,
but bad eggs will be tossed out.

35 I saw Wicked bloated like a toad,croaking pretentious nonsense.

36 The next time I looked there was nothing—a punctured bladder, vapid and limp.

37 Keep your eye on the healthy soul,scrutinize the straight life;
There's a future
in strenuous wholeness.

40 God-strengthened, we're delivered from evil—when we run to him, he saves us.