Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., a fiery populist on the left, announced she is forming an exploratory committee for a 2020 presidential run.

Here’s a link to the editorial at the Chicago Tribune.

Two Questions to Ask of Your Goals
By Rick Warren

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“When you eat or drink or do anything else, always do it to honor God” (1 Corinthians 10:31 CEV).

It’s important to set goals. But not every goal that you can set is a good goal that God’s going to bless.

So how do you know the kind of goal that God will bless? Ask yourself these questions:
“Will my goal honor God?”
What kind of goal brings glory to God? Any goal that causes you to trust him more, to depend on him more, to love him more, to love other people more, to serve him, to serve others, to be more unselfish.
The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 10:31, “When you eat or drink or do anything else, always do it to honor God” (CEV). Everything can be done to honor God. You can honor God by taking out the trash. You can honor God by washing the dishes. You can honor God by doing that mundane task at work. How? By doing it with the right motive: gratitude. If you want your life to bring honor to God, set goals that help you be the best you can be for God’s glory.
“Is my goal motivated by love?”
God is not going to bless a goal motivated by greed, envy, guilt, fear, or pride. But he does honor a goal that is motivated by a desire to demonstrate love to him and to others, because life is all about learning how to love.
Why is it important to have goals based on love? Because if you set loveless goals, you’re going to treat people as projects. You’re going to run all over them to reach your goal. You’re going to run over your spouse, your family members, our friends, and other people as you climb up the ladder of success. God says, “No. You’ve got it all wrong. It’s not about accomplishments. It’s about relationships. It’s about learning how to love.”
“Do everything in love” (1 Corinthians 16:14 NIV). Your number one goal in life should be to learn how to really love your family, your neighbors, and even those who are hard to love. That makes you more like God, because God is love.
PLAY today’s audio teaching from Pastor Rick
Talk It Over

What goals will you set for yourself for the next year? How do they hold up under these two questions?
How does your attitude toward menial daily tasks change when you consider that everything can be done to honor God?
Have you considered how your goals affect other people? When you do, how do your goals change?

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

When he takes office in January, Gov.-elect J.B. Pritzker will have fewer constituents than he might have expected. Unfortunately he’ll also have fewer constituents working and paying taxes to support Illinois’ state and local governments. Every time a worker departs, the tax burden on those of us who remain grows.

Here’s a link to the editorial at the Chicago Tribune.

What does an anti-Semite have to do to get ostracized around here?

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

How Do You Get Back to God?
by Rick Warren — December 26, 2018

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“When you get serious about finding me and want it more than anything else, I’ll make sure you won’t be disappointed” (Jeremiah 29:13 The Message).

I don’t know where you are today. You may be far away from God. Maybe you haven’t been to church in years, or maybe you’ve just been distant for a month or two. Maybe you’ve had one of those weeks where you thought, “I really don’t feel God’s presence in my life.” And yet we all long to be close to God.

How do you get back to him?
This is the pathway back to spiritual transformation—the three things you need to do to get back to God.
Get fed up with your life.
Nothing is going to happen in your life until you get dissatisfied with the way you are, until you can say, “I don’t like this. I’m tired of being stressed out all the time. I’m tired of being frustrated all the time. I’m tired of being overworked all the time. I’m tired of feeling distant from God.”
Why does God let you get to this point? Because he loves you just the way you are, but he loves you too much to let you stay that way. He will not let you waste your life.
God tells us in Jeremiah 29:13, “When you get serious about finding me and want it more than anything else, I’ll make sure you won’t be disappointed” (The Message).
Own up to your sin.
Isaiah 59:2 says, “The trouble is that your sins have cut you off from God. Because of sin he has turned his face away from you” (TLB).
Have you ever prayed and felt like God was a million miles away or like there was this wall between you and God?
Where does that come from? Your sins have separated you from God. But if you feel far from God, guess who moved? God has always been there. He loves you unconditionally, and he’s waiting for you to own up to your sin so you can have a right relationship with him again.
Give up control.
The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 3:18, “We all show the Lord’s glory, and we are being changed to be like him. This change in us brings ever greater glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” (NCV).
True transformation happens when your heart moves from self-centeredness to God-centeredness. Are you there yet?
That transformation doesn’t happen overnight. God is going to work on you your entire life. But to start the process, you have to make a decision to repent and, “in view of God’s mercy, to offer your [body] as a living sacrifice” (Romans 12:1 NIV).
God desires to be close to you and he promises that when we seriously seek him, we will not be disappointed.
PLAY today’s audio teaching from Pastor Rick
Talk It Over

Why is it sometimes difficult to let go of the things that stress you out?
How does confessing sin open the door to spiritual growth and drawing closer to Jesus?
What does it mean to be a “living sacrifice”?

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

A Prayer for Loving the Life You Have – Your Daily Prayer – December 26, 2018

A Prayer for Loving the Life You Have
By Nicki Koziarz

“Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone, without comparing themselves to someone else.” – Galatians 6:4

Today’s generation seems to be filled with more opportunities to compare ourselves with each other than ever before. We are constantly bombarded with social media feeds that tempt us to compare. Reality TV show us everything BUT reality. And advertisers tease us with promises that their products will provide perfection.

The reality is, comparison can compromise the individual calling and beautiful life God has given each of us.

If we spend more time looking at what others are doing or have, we could miss what we have and are supposed to do. Staying focused on what good things are happening in and through us will help keep this inner battle of comparison at bay.

Our culture will always try to tempt us with comparison, but God never does. He wants us to love our life just as much as He does. Even if the shoes are scuffed and tight … God helps us love where we are, not where we wish we could be.
What is one thing you are grateful for about the life you live?

Prayer:
God, help me love the life I live right now. Show me the good things I often overlook and help me be content with what I have. Forgive me when I compare myself to others, forgive me for longing for things outside of you and your kingdom. Thank you for loving me right where I am, right as I am. Help me keep my eyes on you. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

A couple of radio stations in Kentucky played “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” on a two-hour loop over the weekend, announcing on Facebook, “We’re not afraid to play it.”

Here’s a link to the editorial at the Chicago Tribune.

When You Look Up, Things Will Look Up
by Rick Warren — December 19, 2018

“When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers—the moon and the stars you set in place—what are mere mortals that you should think about them, human beings that you should care for them? . . . O LORD, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth!” (Psalm 8:3-4, 9 NLT).

We’ve all heard the phrase “Things are looking up!”

But what does it mean?
It means the situation is improving. Your problems are decreasing, and your opportunities are increasing.
This Christmas I want you to remember an important truth: Things will start to look up for you when you start looking up.
In other words, your circumstances will improve when you stop looking at them and start looking at God.
Over and over in the Bible, we see this phrase: “Lift up your eyes.” It’s another way to say, “Look up. Get your eyes off yourself and onto God.”
God said it to Moses. He said it Abraham. Jesus said it to his followers.
There’s an old rhyme that says, “Two men looked out from prison bars. One saw mud, the other saw stars.” In other words, one inmate looked down in despair, but the other one looked up in hope.
You have that same choice, and I hope that you choose to see the stars. God created every one of them. And those stars are the exact same ones that were shining on the night of Jesus’ birth 2,000 years ago—and King David saw the same stars 1,000 years before that, when he wrote these words:
“When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers—the moon and the stars you set in place—what are mere mortals that you should think about them, human beings that you should care for them? . . . O Lord, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth!” (Psalm 8:3-4, 9 NLT).
When we look up and see how big God is, it shrinks the size of our problems. Our problems never seem as big or as overwhelming when compared to the greatness of God.
PLAY today’s audio teaching from Pastor Rick
Talk It Over

When facing a problem, why is it easier to focus on the problem instead of focusing on God?
How does looking at the vastness of creation make your problems feel smaller?
What action can you take this week to take in the beauty of God’s creation so you can take your eyes off your problems?

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

We all need a little Christmas, and the Clintons are the gifts that keep on giving – this time on the discount retail website Groupon. “An Evening with the Clintons,” their 13 city speaking tour, recently opened to a sea of empty seats prompting them to hawk their tickets on the site.
Here’s a link to the editorial at Fox News.

A Prayer to Magnify the Lord
By James MacDonald
“Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together!” – Psalm 34:3, ESV
Over and over in Scripture, when people came to a critical juncture in their lives, they got a fresh view of God. Moses got it. Elijah got it. Abraham, Isaiah, and Mary, the mother of Jesus, got it. And guess what? You’ve got to get it too.

Your Heavenly Father may be saying to you right now, “All right. Let’s get back to who I am.” Pulling over brings perspective.

That’s why the psalmist says, “Oh, magnify the Lord with me!” It’s not that we need to make God bigger than He is. We need to see God for His actual greatness. We need to see our problems in proportion to the majesty of Almighty God. Small God? Big problems. Big God? Small problems.
“Greatness” and “majesty” are good words to describe God, but an even better word is “transcendence.” The word transcendence means surpassing, beyond, above in excellence, in splendor, in majesty, in attribute, in beauty. Beyond all else. Beyond compare. It’s what you feel on a mountaintop, looking out over a valley or an ocean. It’s what you feel standing on the edge of a volcano at sunrise.

You need a fresh view of the greatness of God, or you’re not going to have the strength for what’s to come. Let God take you apart. See His majesty. Hear His Word.
Pray

Holy God, I agree with the psalmist who wrote, “Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised” (Psalm 48)! Thank You for lovingly pulling me over to give me a renewed view of Yourself. I confess that I am tempted to see my problems as big and You as small. But You are a good Father who knows how to give good gifts to Your children, so give me a fresh glimpse of Your transcendence today, I pray. In the matchless name of Jesus, Amen.