This is the fifth article about understanding the process of our thinking and reason and now I would like to shift gears into the action we should be engaged in regarding dealing with evil. How and why we think makes all the difference in how and why we should act. From my experience, most Christians don’t have a good thinking and reasoning process engaged in their lives and thus bounce from one idea and sermon to another. Our soul was meant and designed by God to function on our acquired knowledge, experience and wisdom in order to have a successful life. But what happens when we fail to follow through with an actionable lifestyle based on these God-given principles? That is what we will be dealing with in the next few articles. 

I read two articles recently about two very different Christian leaders. Both are high-profile men who speak to thousands of people daily yet they are so different in both their personal lives and their weaknesses. They both have learned to live with these weakness, one by covering it up and the other by confessing and leveraging it. They both are respected throughout the body of Christ and you would recognize their names. They are responsible for thousands of people in ministries as well as millions of dollars worth of assets. Now, I’m not so impressed with people who have such influence until I discover what’s going on behind the scenes and whether their ministry and personal lives are honest reflections of themselves as genuine followers of Christ.

Everyone loves to hear a good story. The problem is we don’t think our stories are that good. I have talked to people all around the world and found that we all have the same problem. Unless you’re an extrovert, people struggle with sharing Christ! The truth is, even extroverts struggle with sharing their faith. Why? Because deep down we all know we are flawed. We have problems in life. We don’t have it all together and never will and this intimidates us.

The Thanksgiving holiday has come and gone and I hope it brought joy to your family.  I wonder, though, if we are more full of turkey or more full of realizing how blessed we are to know God as our Heavenly Father and Jesus our Savior? The freedoms we enjoy living with in America are amazing but our consumer culture always seems to leave us wanting more.  If we are more thankful, shouldn’t we consider reaching out to people with the love of God these next few weeks before Christmas? If God loves the whole world as the book of John 3:16 states, shouldn’t we have a deep concern for the world that Christ died for?

As we approach the holiday celebrations of Thanksgiving and Christmas, I thought it would be healthy to remind myself and others about just how important it is to cultivate a thankful heart.  I can certainly get wrapped up in the spiritual war that is going on in our country. I constantly need to be reminded of the words of the apostle Paul when he states clearly that we don’t just wrestle with natural things, like politics and general nastiness, but we wrestle with all the evil and wickedness of a Satanic agenda. That agenda is eradicating the peace of God and promoting hatred and distrust.  That can not happen.  A spirit of thankfulness is what will miraculously bring forth growth and victory!

This is the third article on what it means to be fruitful and how many people are more interested in just looking good.  This is partially because being fruitful is hard work and people are normally looking for the easiest way around things. If you haven’t read the first two articles on the same subject I would encourage you to do so before reading this one.

When I was growing up keys were very important. Keys to your car, your house etc. Today we have “Key-fobs” that send an electronic signal to many of our devices. Our garage doors have them so you don’t have to get out of your car. My front door has a keypad that I punch in a code to enter and I can even open it for someone at the front door when I’m out-of-town from my iPhone.  With Sue’s car she doesn’t even have to pull the key-fob out of her pocket because it unlocks the car by “sensing her presence”. The side mirror even moves out and welcomes her arrival. Keys, whether electronic or mechanical, are incredibly important.

Ever notice how we automatically blame someone or something when things go wrong? My personality leans toward looking for what’s missing and identifying the missing element. I have always been a trouble-shooter at heart and it has gotten me into some tight spots with people. Sometimes my analysis comes off as judgmental and, even though what I see or don’t see is true, my method of revealing those facts hasn’t always been with tack or wisdom.  

The last article on “Are We Running From God’s Purpose?” used the book of Jonah.  I used the text and story of Jonah to start partly because it’s a famous book that most people have heard in Sunday School or from a sermon. I wanted to show how Jesus would try to expose people’s excuses for not living for God when they called themselves God’s people. If you haven’t read part one on this topic, start there.