Every American watching the partial government shutdown understands that this is about more than the shutdown.
Here’s a link to the editorial at Fox News.
Rep. Andy Biggs: Dems ought to focus on America’s security instead of worrying that Trump will get a win
January 3, 2019 By Leave a Comment
Jesus Wants to Bear Your Burden with You
January 3, 2019 By Leave a Comment
Jesus Wants to Bear Your Burden with You
By Rick Warren
“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30 RSV).
For many years I never understood that Scripture, because I didn’t know what a yoke was. When Jesus says, “Take my yoke upon you,” it sounded to me like he was going to give me something else to deal with. My burden is heavy enough already, Lord! I don’t need to take your problems on me!
Then I learned that a yoke is actually a board with two arches in it that you put over two cattle so they can pull a cart.
The value of a yoke is that it halves the load. Without a yoke, one cow’s got to pull that entire load by itself. But if you yoke up the cow with another cow, then the two animals pull the load together, and the load is half as heavy.
When Jesus says to take his yoke upon you, he’s not saying he’s going to give you his problems. Jesus doesn’t have any problems! He’s saying he’s going to share your problems. He’s going to share your load. He’s going to take your stress on himself and bear it with you.
Wow!
He uses three notable verbs in this Scripture: come, learn, and take. Jesus says, “Come to me. Team up with me. Then, learn how I do it. Take on a lighter load. This is going to reduce your stress. This is going to make it easier for you to navigate.”
When you’re yoked with Christ, you move together with him. You move in the same direction and at the same speed. And you move in the right direction and at the right speed.
Pastor Rick Warren: Faith Helps You Focus Your Goals
January 2, 2019 By Leave a Comment
Faith Helps You Focus Your Goals
By Rick Warren
“God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams!” (Ephesians 3:20 The Message).
- You need to set goals because it is a spiritual responsibility.
If you don’t have goals for your life, you have already decided to let other people run your life. When you don’t decide in advance what’s important, you’re letting other people decide. You end up wasting your life, because you haven’t clarified how you want to grow as a follower of Christ.
The Bible says that to be spiritually mature, you have to set your goals and move toward them as you keep your eyes focused on them.
“I have not yet reached my goal, and I am not perfect. But Christ has taken hold of me. So I keep on running and struggling to take hold of the prize . . . I run toward the goal, so that I can win the prize of being called to heaven. This is the prize that God offers because of what Christ Jesus has done. All of us who are mature should think in this same way” (Philippians 3:12, 14-15 CEV).
- You need to set goals because they are statements of faith.
If you’re a believer in Jesus Christ and you set a goal, you’re saying, “I believe that God wants me to accomplish this by this time. This is what I believe God is going to do in my life.”
Goals aren’t just a statement of faith. They stretch your faith. The bigger your goal, the more your faith will be stretched. And that pleases God.
Ephesians 3:20 says, “God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams!” (The Message).
- You need to set goals because they focus your energy.
Focus is the key to an effective life. If you spread your energy out and diffuse it over a whole bunch of things, you’ll make no impact at all. But if you focus your life, it’s going to be powerful, and it will change the world.
You don’t have time to do everything. But here’s the good news: God doesn’t expect you to do everything! The key to being effective in life as a follower of Jesus is to do what matters most and forget everything else. Goals help you maintain that kind of focus.
“I do not run without a goal. I fight like a boxer who is hitting something—not just the air” (1 Corinthians 9:26 NCV).
Democrats need to stop playing games with America’s safety and fund border security now
January 2, 2019 By Leave a Comment
We need to secure our border. There have been many words spoken about the funding fight to do this, but consider these: “The bill before us would certainly do some good. It would authorize some badly needed funding for better fences and better security along our borders that should help stem some of the tide of illegal immigration in this country.”
Here’s a link to the editorial at Fox News.
Commentary: Elizabeth Warren jumps in first
January 2, 2019 By Leave a Comment
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.
Pastor Rick Warren: Two Questions to Ask of Your Goals
December 28, 2018 By Leave a Comment
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.
Editorial: How bad does the ‘Illinois Exodus’ have to get?
December 27, 2018 By Leave a Comment
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.
Farrakhan awash in federal dollars, anti-Semitic hate notwithstanding
December 27, 2018 By Leave a Comment
What does an anti-Semite have to do to get ostracized around here?
Here’s a link to the editorial at Fox News.
Pastor Rick Warren: How Do You Get Back to God?
December 27, 2018 By Leave a Comment
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.
Your Daily Prayer: A Prayer for Loving the Life You Have
December 27, 2018 By Leave a Comment
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.
