The angry left-handed broom of America’s cultural revolution uses fear to sweep through our civic, corporate and personal life.
Here’s a link to the column at the Chicago Tribune.

God gives every one of us a unique mission—and he gives us a choice as to whether or not we fulfill that mission.
Here’s a link to Daily Hope.

The cancel culture continues to gain momentum, as more statues across the nation are toppled, and sports teams, major food brands and even music bands are succumbing to pressure to change their names. The logical question on many Americans’ minds is: When does this all end?
Hee’s a link to the editorial at Fox News.

When you think about obedience, is “joy” a word that immediately comes to mind? Probably not. But the Bible tells us to obey God joyfully. And as it turns out, there are lots of great reasons for being joyful as we obey God.

Here’s a link to at Daily Hope.

On Zoom yesterday a friend asked me how I was doing in the midst of the pandemic. “Without dismissing the death and economic pain,” I answered, “honestly, I find the whole thing epic. I feel invigorated and called to serve.”

Here’s a link to the editorial at Fox News.

If you were paying any attention to the news Thursday afternoon — and we suspect you were — you know there is a passionate debate underway right now among political partisans over the Justice Department’s decision to drop the case against General Michael Flynn. They are screaming.

Here’s a link to the editorial at Fox News.

For the past few decades, people have chastised dozens of Republican presidential candidates for shooting themselves in both feet in front of national TV audiences during notoriously bad primary debates. By the end of the last conflict, those left standing have made such fools out of themselves, their own party is embarrassed.

Here’s a link to the editorial at Illinois News Network.

The ruling Wednesday by a federal appeals court allowing the federal government to withhold grant money to so-called “sanctuary” states and localities that refuse to cooperate with federal immigration authorities is an important victory that will help protect the American people from dangerous illegal immigrant criminals.

Here’s a link to the editorial at Fox News.

Focusing on God’s Purpose Leaves Little Time for Envy
By Rick Warren

“Let us run with patience the particular race that God has set before us.”
(Hebrews 12:1 TLB)

When you start to get concerned about something God is doing in another person’s life and envy starts to build, focus on the plan God has for you. Don’t get distracted — center in on God’s will for your life.

There’s a simple phrase in the story of the vineyard workers that the owner says to those who were grumbling about not getting what they deserved: “Take your money and go!” (Matthew 20:14 GW). He’s basically saying to those who can’t get past their envy, “It’s time to move on now. Quit having a pity party. Just get over it!”
Sometimes we get stuck in the past. Maybe you still envy the person who got to be prom king or queen. But why should you let what someone else got keep you from God’s plan for your life right now?

Hebrews 12:1 says, “Let us run with patience the particular race that God has set before us” (TLB). The “particular” race means your unique race — the race that is only for you. God has a plan that he wants you to pursue that is unlike anyone else’s. He planned it for you before you were even born, and it includes better things than you could ever dream for yourself.

Once you begin to discover and pursue the unique purpose that God has for your life, you won’t envy anyone anymore. You’re released from the tyranny of having to be best all the time. You just have to be the best you can be, the person God made you to be.
When you get focused like this on God’s particular race for you, you’ll be so caught up in what he wants you to do that you won’t have time for envy. You’ll be living your life for an audience of one.

Why is there freedom in living life for an audience of one?
How do you know what God’s purpose is for your life?
What experience from your past may be keeping you from pursuing God’s will for you right now?

Give hope, prayer, and encouragement below. Post a comment & talk about it.

By Rick Warren

“Isn’t everything you have and everything you are sheer gifts from God? So what’s the point of all this comparing and competing? You already have all you need.”
(1 Corinthians 4:7-8 The Message)

Instead of focusing so much on what we don’t have and what didn’t happen, we can be grateful for what we do have. This doesn’t come naturally to me, probably not for you either, and not even for the apostle Paul, who said, “I have learned to be content.” Being content is a learning process.

The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 4:7-8, “Isn’t everything you have and everything you are sheer gifts from God? So what’s the point of all this comparing and competing? You already have all you need” (The Message).
Envy is based on the myth that you need more to be happy. Envy always looks at others and asks, “Why them? Why did they deserve it? I deserve what they have.” But gratitude says, “Why me? Why did God give me this? I’m blessed because I don’t deserve what I have.” It totally flips our perspective.
Although we all struggle with envy, it’s hard to admit it because it’s such an ugly emotion. When you’re envious of others, you really want them to fail, because it makes you feel better that they don’t have more than you. That’s pretty crazy, isn’t it? If we could only learn to be grateful for what we have, we could begin to get rid of these feelings of envy.
It’s important to understand that envy is not having a desire or a dream or a goal. It’s good to have those. Envy is not looking forward to something or hoping that something can happen in your life or even wondering if you should have some thing. Envy is instead resenting somebody who already has what you desire or has reached a goal you have yet to obtain. Envy says you can’t be happy until you get that desire or goal. Envy is not being grateful for what you already have.
Yet the Bible tells us that we already have more than we need and far more than we deserve. Every good thing in our lives is a gift from God, and it is up to him to decide when and how he blesses us. It’s up to us to choose to be grateful and make the most of what we’ve been given.
As Ecclesiastes 6:9 says, “It is better to be satisfied with what you have than to be always wanting something else” (GNT).