The Simple Life

People are committed to all sorts of things. Some good, some bad and some...well the jury would be out on. Years ago, Bill Bright shared an excerpt written by a young Communist. It said: "We communists have a high casualty rate. We live in virtual poverty, and turn back every penny we make above what is absolutely necessary to keep us alive. We communists don't have the time or the money for movies, concerts, or T-bone steaks or decent homes or new cars. I am in dead earnest. It is my life, my business, my religion, my sweetheart, my wife, my mistress, my bread and meat. I work at it in the daytime and dream about it a night. Its hold on me grows, not lessens, as time goes by. Therefore, I cannot carry on a friendship, a love affair, or even a conversation without relating it to this force which both drives and guides my life. I've already been in jail because of my ideas and if necessary I am ready to go before a firing squad." It is amazing to think ...

Matthew 6:1“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. Religion ruins people’s lives; relationships make lives worth living. Religion is based on what others think God thinks; relationships are based on proximity and inclusion of God in our lives. Religion is based on doing; relationships are based on being. Religion is based on feelings; relationships result in feelings that come from intentionality in time and energy. Religion forces man's way upon God; relationships allows God's love to permeate our very being. Religion creates guilt; relationships promote grace. Religion demands conformity; relationships demand unity within diversity. Religion is about me; relationships are about others. Religion promotes a caste system; relationships promote equality. Religion uses people; relationships celebrate people. Religions give rules; relationships create behavioral di...

We often say things to make a point and have no real basis for the comment. This stems from our extreme narcissism in that we believe that all that we see and understand is all that there is to see and understand. In fact, we become so self-absorbed that anyone who thinks differently than us becomes an enemy and is treated with contempt. The idea of dialogue about ideas has been lost because our personal significance has been tied to us being heard and our ideas being right. So, we fight and fight hard to try and convince the world that we alone, or I alone, am right, and thereby valuable. This notion is most troubling. Recently, Susan Jacoby wrote this in the Washington Post. There has always been a strong correlation between religious fundamentalism and lack of education. About 45 percent of Americans who have no education beyond high school believe in the literal truth of the Bible, while only 19 percent of college graduates do. Two-thirds of college graduates, but only one...

On Sunday, May 16 th, 2010, the Wall Street Journal had an article about nonprofits spying on people in order to secure their money. They told of tactics such as data-mining software that help find wealthy individuals who have shown prior interest in your work or work like yours so you can casually meet them and befriend them in order to one day land the big gift. It is interesting that one of the summary statements of one of the fundraisers was that it is all about establishing relationships at the point of service. Those who are trying to find money for nonprofits know that they need to establish a relationship with you in order to “get” your money. It seems, once again, that our culture gets it wrong. Their narcissism has made relationship all about themselves. We are being trained to have relationships for our benefit, to take your money rather than for loving you and showing you Christ. In fact, the article went on to say this: “ When your favorite non-profit isn’t busy saving...

I was listening to the news reporter asking some tough questions of one of our leaders in Washington D.C. She asked if the choices this administration made were unethical, illegal, or just normal for Washington. The answer was that it was normal for Washington, and therefore the “crime” wasn’t really anything that needed further investigation. The Washington insider was saying that there was a “normal” in Washington that was less ethical, less transparent, less legal than in other places, but that everyone knows that is how Washington operates, so since it is in line with their normal, it is fine. In fact, he said, it is so normal, that this issue will be forgotten in three days. I was amazed as I listened and watched and saw that everyone accepted this answer. Then I began to wonder.    Is there a new normal? If there is a new normal, how did the old (ethical, transparent and legal) become unacceptable? This is interesting and somewhat distant from me, but the concept of livi...

Recently we observed a national day of prayer.   During that day there were several news reports that interviewed those who were opposed to a national day of prayer. There reasons were varied, but most of them were promoting a national day of “reason”.   One, who seemed to be acting as a spokesman for the group called prayer evil and talked about how prayer did more harm than good and should be eradicated from society. The response of the news media was sad in that they gave credibility to such thought.   The man who was interviewed was indicating that “man” was the beginning and the end. He made it clear that he did not need or want any God and that he was convinced that mans reason was all that was necessary. So If I were a reporter, I   would have had a few questions for him. “Where were you when God laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me, if you know so much.   Who determined its dimensions and stretched out the surveying line?   What supports i...

Psalms 4:4-5 (NLT)  4  Don't sin by letting anger control you. Think about it overnight and remain silent. Interlude 5  Offer sacrifices in the right spirit, and trust the Lord. It is sometimes easy to allow sin to control me, to think about things I should not think about, to be angry with someone, to sow seeds of hate and disgust. More often than not, I want to speak first and think later. I would much rather run into the situation, rather than walk away from it. I would much rather solve it, than live with it. This is good to a degree, but there is another side to the coin. In some ways, the problems in my life are problems that could have been set up by God to allow me to let Him work them out. It could be that the best course of action is one of silence. It could be that I need to meet with God, go to bed, and ponder what is going on, rather than spewing my thoughts out the instant they arise. There are times in my life where my desire for "resolution" outwe...

Media   posted by   Dannah Gresh   on 04/27/10 A few weeks ago, a colleague in the Christian publishing and speaking world suddenly needed an audience with me and my team...and fast. You see, over the weekend his eight-year-old daughter had a sleepover with a nine-year-old friend. When his fourteen-year-old got on the Internet after they’d used it, she found herself seeing images no girl (or woman, for that matter) should ever see. His heart was broken by the fact that both of his little girls had been forced to look at images that rip the innocence right out of girlhood. It should not surprise you that this happened. It happens in most houses everyday. It may be that you were the eight year old, or the fourteen year old that it happened to.  The fourth most-searched word on the Internet for kids ages 7 and under in 2009 was “porn.” For all kids up to age 18, sex was No. 4, porn No. 5. (According to data collected by OnlineFamily.Norton.com.) This supports some resea...

It seems as if we have minimized the Holy Spirit in the Evangelical community in the United States. We have replaced Him with good things, things that He could use, but things that have indeed replaced Him. Instead of counting on the Spirit of God to lead our leaders we count on the majority. Ministries have studied secular businesses and figured out how they need to operate, and they have replaced the Spirit of God with long range plans, feasibility studies, strategic plans, etc. The individual has replaced the Spirit of God with the plethora of books available on any topic. Psychology seems to be equal to if not more important than God's Spirit, and we place our hope in our doctors, insurances and retirement plans. What would happen if the Spirit of God was trying to get someone to give away their retirement money? Would that individual even be listening, or has the logic of the day replaced the Spirit of the Lord? What if God wants a successful business man or woman to leave h...

What if we have this thing we call Christianity wrong? What if it is built upon what is perceived as best for us, rather than on what is best? What is the best? Is it Christianity really about Christ? Is it about dying to self? Is it about glorifying God? Is it about living and dying in the manner it was meant to be? If it is about God, then why have we made it about man? That could only lead to disaster. It seems to me that so often we do everything we can to make God, Creation, and our churches about us. Our prayer times are about us, our giving is to causes that benefit us, our “giftedness” is about us, our pastor needs to be about us, our voice needs to be heard, our friendship wanted, and our lives need to be affirmed. Not only has it become acceptable, in essence, to worship man; it has become the norm.   We now gather in our ministry meetings and talk about what we are capable of doing. We make long range and strategic plans according to what we see us being able to do. ...

A new, controversial dormitory option known as gender-neutral housing is gaining support at some colleges in California and across the nation. In the 1970s, many U.S. colleges moved from having only single-sex dormitories to providing coed residence halls, with male and female students typically housed on alternating floors or wings. Then came coed hallways and bathrooms. Now, some colleges allow undergraduates of opposite sexes to share a room. About 50 U.S. schools offer this housing choice, according to Jeffrey Chang, who co-founded the National Student Genderblind Campaign in 2006 to encourage gender-mixed rooms. Participating schools include UC Riverside, UC Berkeley, Stanford, Cornell, Dartmouth, Sarah Lawrence, Haverford, Wesleyan, Pitzer College and the University of Michigan. Chang estimates that at schools where the option exists, only 1 to 3 percent of students living on campus choose a roommate of the opposite sex. [Source: Los Angeles Times, March 15] Does anybody really...

There is a great problem in our culture today that is not unique to the Godless. Our nation is trying to live without God. There is not room for Him in government. There is no room for Him in public. There is not room for Him if He is not one we control, so we either ignore Him or make Him up in order that we might be able to control who He is and what He is about. The consequences of this are enormous. Without God, the only and true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, there is no reason for life, there is no “way it should be,” there is no “ethos,” no absolutes, no norms, no “as it should be.” Without God there is purposelessness. We become accidental blobs of protoplasm, we shrink in importance, and have no reason or ability to be significant. Without God there is no right and no wrong. There is only good and bad, and that scale keeps moving as it needs something to be compared to. Without God, abortion is an issue, “family” needs a new definition, and things that were once...