Commentary: Democrats’ smash and smear agenda reaches new heights

September 20, 2018 By Leave a Comment

A nation gawks as Washington sinks deeper into the muck, but put aside your disgust long enough to digest what we’re seeing. Three big things are on display.

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

Filed Under: Columns

Pastor Rick Warren: God Shaped You for Service

September 20, 2018 By Leave a Comment

By Rick Warren

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”God made us what we are. In Christ Jesus, God made us to do good works, which God planned in advance for us to live our lives doing” (Ephesians 2:10 NCV).

God shaped you to serve him.The Bible says, “God made us what we are. In Christ Jesus, God made us to do good works, which God planned in advance for us to live our lives doing” (Ephesians 2:10 NCV).

Before you were born, God had already decided what contribution he wanted you to make with your life. God didn’t put you on this planet just to take up space, to use resources, and to die. No! He put you here to serve him by serving others.

And nobody else can be you. If you don’t serve God the way he intended for you to serve him, then the world misses that part of the jigsaw puzzle.

Another name for good works is ministry. Anytime you use your talents and abilities to help somebody else, you are actually ministering to them. The Bible says in 1 Peter 4:10, “God has given each of you some special abilities; be sure to use them to help each other, passing on to others God’s many kinds of blessings” (TLB).

You know the talents that you’ve got? They’re not for your benefit. God gave you your talents for the benefit of other people. That’s why nobody’s got it all together. God wired the universe so that we would need each other.

When you get to heaven, you’re going to love God, so he wants you to practice now. You’re going to love other people in heaven, so he wants you to practice now. You’re going to grow spiritually in heaven, so he wants you to practice now. And you’re going to serve God in heaven, so he wants you to practice now.

You serve God by serving others. On Earth it’s impossible to serve God directly. The only way you can serve God on Earth is by serving other people. So anytime you help somebody else, God says it’s like you’re doing it for him. You’re practicing on Earth what you’re going to do for eternity.

Talk It Over

  • In what unique ways has God shaped you so that you can serve others well?
  • How are you using your talents and abilities to serve others?
  • How much does your motivation matter when you serve? Why?

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

Filed Under: Columns

Editorial: Pritzker misfires after Rauner’s mea culpa

September 20, 2018 By Leave a Comment

J.B. Pritzker has labeled Gov. Bruce Rauner a failure and called the incumbent’s agenda “radical” and “extreme.”

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

Filed Under: Columns

Laura Ingraham: I’ve known Kavanaugh for 25 years — If this can happen to him, I tremble for our country

September 19, 2018 By Leave a Comment

It’s 1991, all over again. 

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

Filed Under: Columns

Your Daily Prayer: A Prayer to Help You Know God’s Delight in

September 19, 2018 By Leave a Comment

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A Prayer to Help You Know God’s Delight in You
By: Jennifer O. White

He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me – Psalm 18:19

Jesus is known as Emmanuel, meaning God is with us. He has chosen to dwell with us because He is delighted with us. He is also our Wonderful Counselor: our ever-present fountain of God’s wisdom. He is God’s wise Word delivered to us in human form long ago and now present with us by His Holy Spirit.

Are you delighted with yourself?

God longs for us to be united with Him in thought and deed. Choosing to see ourselves through His eyes is a life-changing, joy-restoring act. If we have trouble delighting in ourselves, the Holy Spirit is with us to help us change our thoughts. Here is a simple prayer to help us reach for the help He is ready to deliver:

God, I need help believing that You are delighted with me. Please fill me with Your wisdom and defend me against condemning thoughts about myself. I know I am lovingly, wonderfully made by you. I know that you know every breathe I take, and I know that you are acquainted with all my thoughts, the passions of my heart, my longings and trials. Nothing about me is lost to you, and all you know about me, both the good and bad, never changes your love for me. I know when you look at me you see something ‘very good.’ Help me know these things, help me live confidently and at peace because of your delight in me. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

This simple change can usher in healing in hearts and our relationships. When we rest in God’s love for us, we gain the courage to consider how much He must delight in other people. When we grow in our love of Him, we grow to love ourselves more, and can love others better too. This is the life changing love that God offers all of us!

Editor’s Note: Portions of this devotional were taken from Jennifer White’s A Prayer to Help You Know God’s Delight in You. You can read that piece in full here.

Filed Under: Columns

Pastor Rick Warren: God Wants You to Grow Up

September 19, 2018 By Leave a Comment

By Rick Warren

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”From the very beginning God decided that those who came to him—and all along he knew who would—should become like his Son” (Romans 8:29 TLB).

God created you to become like Christ. He wants you to grow up spiritually!The Bible says, “From the very beginning God decided that those who came to him—and all along he knew who would—should become like his Son” (Romans 8:29 TLB). God’s goal has always been to make you like himself—not to become a god but to become godly, with godly character.

The number one question I’m asked as a pastor is, “Why is this happening to me?” I’ll tell you why: It’s to help you grow up spiritually. Everything in life is designed to help you grow up spiritually—the good, the bad, the ugly, the stuff you bring on yourself, and the stuff that other people do to you. God is not the author of evil. But God can bring good out of bad things.

Instead of asking, “God, why is this happening to me?” ask, “God, what do you want me to learn from this?” Every situation in life will either make you bitter or better. You choose how you will respond to it.

Every problem has a purpose, and the purpose is to help you grow up spiritually to be more like Jesus Christ.

So if one of the purposes of your life is to grow up spiritually and to become like Jesus, what is Jesus like? When you look at him, you see what the Bible calls the fruit of the Spirit. It says, “He will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23 TLB). These are the qualities God wants to build in your life.

How does God produce those qualities in your life? How does God grow character and help you grow up spiritually? God teaches you these qualities by putting you in the exact opposite situation.

He teaches you love by putting you around unlovely people. He teaches you joy in the middle of grief. God teaches you peace in the middle of chaos. He teaches you patience in the Department of Motor Vehicles!

God will teach you all of these qualities throughout your life—and it will take the rest of your life. It’s a process. He will use all kinds of situations in your life to help you develop spiritual depth and become more like Christ.

Talk It Over

  • What kinds of situations have taught you the most about becoming more like Christ?
  • Why do you think so many Christians are still spiritually immature?
  • What priority does spiritual growth have in your life? How might your priorities need to change?

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

Filed Under: Columns

Are we all a product of our environment? You’re ‘dern’ right we are!

September 19, 2018 By Leave a Comment

All of us have to admit, whether we want to or not, that we’re a product of our environment. And sometimes that environment from decades ago pops up at unexpected times.

My parents both went as far as the eighth grade in school, yet I still count them as two of the smartest people I’ve encountered in life. What they lacked in book-smarts they made up for with what I like to call good, old-fashioned horse-sense.

I never, ever heard either of my parents utter a curse word, but they both had a distinctive vocabulary and slang terms that I heard daily. It’s amazing to me that all these decades later that vocabulary still surfaces occasionally.

Let me explain.

Last weekend my wife Lisa and I went to see the SIU men’s basketball game again Northern Iowa. It was a great game, great energy in the Arena and despite a dreadful final two minutes when the Salukis couldn’t make a free throw and let UNI back in the game, it was an outstanding performance and a 75-73 win. As we sat in our seats waiting for the crowd to clear after the game I made this comment: ‘It was a great game but they ‘dern near’ let it get away at the end.’

Every man reading this will understand the ‘look’ that I got from my wife after I uttered that sentence. First, she wrinkled her forehead, turned her head slightly and then, in the form of a question and with a hint of exasperation in her voice said: ‘Dern near? What … does dern near mean?’

I explained that ‘dern near’ means ‘almost.’ And of course she quickly asked why I hadn’t simply said ‘they almost let it get away at the end.’ It was a question I couldn’t answer. ‘Dern near’ just popped out, was my only explanation.

But, that exchange started me thinking about the colorful language and vocabulary that I grew up hearing daily. The realization that these words that I heard as a kid and still occasionally use as an adult might just vanish someday made me feel old and a little nostalgic.

The following morning, with ‘dern near’ still on my mind I grabbed a pen and paper and started writing down some great old-fashioned slang words that will undoubtedly go the way of the dinosaur someday.

Here’s my partial list:
‘Galavantin’ – This is a word I heard from both parents often during my high school days: ‘You need to get home early, I don’t want you to be out ‘galavantin’ around all night.’ To my parents, ‘galavantin’ meant driving up and down the same streets all night long or standing on a corner with a bunch of other knuckleheads. When I heard the word ‘gallivantin’ I took it as a direct deterrent to me having fun.

‘Tarnation’ – As I mentioned, my dad didn’t curse, so I always took this word to be a replacement for the word ‘hell’ because he often asked me: ‘What in tarnation is wrong with you?’

‘High falutin’ – This word was aimed at somebody putting on airs or giving the assumption that they had a higher status in life than they did.

‘Lollygag’ – Both parents used this word regularly, usually when they were telling me I was not going to ‘lollygag’ around the house all day and be lazy and do nothing.

‘Dilly dallying’ – This phrase was used often when I was trying to stall and get out of some form of work around the house. ‘I’m tire of you dilly dallying around, go get the yard mowed.’

‘Beatenest’ – This was one of the most unique words that they used and I still say it once in a while normally when talking about politicians. ‘That’s the ‘beatenest’ thing I’ve ever seen.’ In other words, it beat anything ever witnessed before.

‘Dad-blame-it’ – This was my dad’s pet word and I’m certain it replaced many expletives. When he said this word, it was time to take a step back. If he ever tossed out ‘dad-blame-it’ back-to-back, it usually didn’t turn out well for me.

‘Dad-gummit’ – This was just a milder form of ‘dad-blame-it’ – used when an incident didn’t require a raised voice.

‘Malarkey’ – Apparently back in that era there were a lot of people full of this because I heard my dad say many times: ‘He’s so full of malarkey it’s not funny.’

‘Well, I’ll swan’ – Used by my mother often to express wonderment or amazement. She would see something happen and then hang onto the first word a long time and say: ‘We-l-l-l-l … I’ll swan!’

‘A lick of gumption’ – Gumption meant common sense and a lick was apparently the smallest measure known to man. ‘That guy doesn’t have a lick of gumption.’

Yes, we are all a product of our environment and looking back and rehashing all these old and glorious slang words makes me realize again that I had it pretty ‘dern’ good.

Filed Under: Columns

Pastor Rick Warren: You Need the Support of Your Spiritual Family

September 18, 2018 By Leave a Comment

By Rick Warren — September 18, 2018

”God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure” (Ephesians 1:5 NLT).

The Bible says, “God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure” (Ephesians 1:5 NLT).God wanted more than angels and animals and plants. He wanted a family. The Bible says the whole reason you exist is because God wanted you to become a part of his family, and that family is going to last forever.

Your spiritual family, God’s family, is going to outlast even your physical family. Physical families don’t last. They grow up, they move away, they die. But the spiritual family of God is going to go on and on for eternity.

The Bible says that God never meant for you to go through life alone. In fact, God hates loneliness. When God created man, he put him in the Garden of Eden, a perfect environment, and the first thing God said was, “It is not good for man to be alone.” God wants you to be part of the family of God.

What is God’s family? “That family is the church of the living God, the support and foundation of the truth” (1 Timothy 3:15 NCV). The church, the body of Christ, is not an institution. The church is not a bureaucracy. The church is not an organization or a social club. The church is God’s family. It’s not about rules and regulations and rituals and religion. It’s about relationships. It’s about love.

The church is “the support and foundation of the truth.” What happens when a building has no support and foundation? It collapses. Those of us in California understand this more than most because we have earthquakes. If you don’t have a good foundation under your building, it’s going to collapse when the earthquake comes.

God says your life is the same way. You’re going to experience some earthquakes in your life—financial earthquakes, health earthquakes, emotional earthquakes, relational earthquakes, career earthquakes. When those tough times come along, you’re going to collapse if you don’t have a spiritual family to support you.

You cannot fulfill God’s purposes by yourself. God wired us to need each other. We need each other in the family of God.

Talk It Over

  • God wants you to have the support of your spiritual family when life’s earthquakes come. How can you support someone in the family of God who is experiencing tough circumstances right now?
  • How do others in the family of God know the best ways to support you when you need it?

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

Filed Under: Columns

Walter Wendler: You, You, You, not Me, Me, Me

September 18, 2018 By Leave a Comment

An effective leader must do everything within his or her power to create a strong organizational culture. Teamwork, knowledge of process, values shared by all workers, a clear understanding of organizational purpose, and a shared goal of attaining that purpose are the foundation for a positive culture according to Edgar Schein, the father of understanding organizational culture.

Walter V. Wendler

Herb Kelleher had a fix on how to create a strong culture. He said in a typically disarming fashion, “A company is stronger if it is bound by love rather than by fear.” The power in this thought is simply that love exists person to person. In addition, real love is always outward bound. Inward bound love is narcissism.

Self-centeredness wreaks havoc on any organization both for the individuals who comprise it and the goods, products and services produced. The power of Herb’s perspective is not just a touchy-feely engagement. According to a Strategy+Business, Herb’s contention was that at Southwest Airlines, “People are business.” Nice sentiment, but what value does it have in the marketplace? Well, by 2004, the Southwest Airlines that started in 1971 became the fourth largest airline in the United States with 30 consecutive years of profitability. In addition, and more astoundingly, $1 invested in Southwest Airlines’ 1972 public offering was worth $1400 in 2004.

Put people first. For Southwest Airlines, it was about putting employees first—even in front of customers. For Herb, customers occupied second chair, and stockholders were the caboose. This is a powerful testimony to what happens when a corporate culture values the work that people do regardless of the position they hold. A few things must happen if that is to be the case.

Precept One:  Leaders should do everything possible to accept and even celebrate well-intended failures. When someone in the organization attempts in good conscience to do something right, good or just in response to the need of someone served, and something goes awry, that is not failure. Instead, it may be the highest form of accomplishment. Fear of failure drives people who are there to serve into a mindset of no service at all, a mindset of self-preservation. Life is choked out of the heart of the servant and the soul of the enterprise.

Precept Two:  Leaders should welcome dissenting opinions intended to move the organization forward to greater heights of service. In too many organizational cultures, yes-men and yes-women rule the roost, and quality wilts just as a tree starved of water dies. Healthy differences of perspective create strength, not weakness.

Precept Three:  People must have confidence in leadership meaning what it says and saying what it means. Clarity in vision that people can easily grasp and embrace is essential. An unclear sense of purpose of leadership increases as proximity to the point of service decreases. The enterprise and the customer both lose.

Precept Four:  There must be passion for purpose. Everyone at every level must sense that everyday actions help meet the primary objective of the enterprise. If the worker bee cannot connect the dots back to primary purpose, the organization will fail miserably. Importantly, fault lies with leadership. This morning when I came to work I had a conversation with Marilyn who cleans my office. She told me that even though she is not an employee of the University—she works for a contracted maintenance company—our students are her students. She felt an obligation to clean the buildings, “To help students get an education.” How powerfully effective would be our university if everyone, from myself to this custodial worker, expressed that passion in action.

Precept Five:   If leaders do not champion the purpose of the organization every day in thought and deed, the organization will fail. Our university is here to serve students, and, as a public institution, the taxpayers of the state of Texas and the Panhandle. But our first priority in service is to faculty—to create a place where faculty can ply their craft. Such a sense of purpose will elevate the act of teaching to where it must be in the framework of actions that comprise the University. This happens at the very first contact that a student has with the University. For many that’s a campus visit or an application for admission. There should be in those processes a purposeful commitment by all engaged to connect the students’ desire to learn with the faculty members’ desire to teach. Processes should be crisp, clean, efficient, timely and painless. This is value-based leadership according to Brent Gleeson, combat veteran, and author of “TakingPoint: A Navy SEAL’s 10 Fail-Safe Principles for Leading Through Change,”

Strong organizations put energy where service occurs.

Strong universities do the same.

Filed Under: Columns

Your Daily Prayer: A Prayer for God’s Design

September 18, 2018 By Leave a Comment

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A Prayer for God’s Design
By Matt Chandler

“Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness” … So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”  Genesis 1:26a-27, NIV

In this passage, we get what theologians have called for a few millennia the Imago Dei, the image of God, and the idea that men and women are different from all of creation because we have been made in the image of God.

The Imago Dei is God’s investment in humanity of God-like glory and moral capacity to reign and rule the earth as His representatives. This is what sets us apart.

What are the implications of the Imago Dei? There is an intrinsic human dignity that places us above everything else in the creative order.

We have an intrinsic value because of the image God has given to us. It’s not a functional thing as much as a gift from God. And it shapes how we view humanity — those we live side-by-side with and those we’ll never meet.

Yet we forget this amazing truth, and sin messes us up, and we treat each other in ways that must break God’s heart.

What if we could really grasp that we have intrinsic value because we are made in the image of God? The difference would be incredible. This is God’s beautiful design for us, and we were made to walk in this beauty.

Write one area where you consistently look to the world (created things) for purpose or meaning. What would change if you began to look toward God and His good design in that specific area?

Father, I thank You for our sameness. I thank You that we are brothers and sisters by Your design. May that truth shape how we view others, but first, may it shape how we view ourselves. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

 

Filed Under: Columns
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