Ready for the Spiritual Battle? You can be.

This week I taught a lesson from Ephesians about spiritual battles. You likely know the passage about putting on the armor of God. A final word: Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places. Therefore, put on every piece of God’s armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then after the battle you will still be standing firm. Stand your ground, putting on the belt of truth and the body armor of God’s righteousness. For shoes, put on the peace that comes from the Good News so that you will be fully prepared. In addition to
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Reviewing the Jesus Contract

When Joni and I recently purchased a new house we visited the title company to sign the official documents. The person from the title company relentlessly pushed papers in front of us along with a brief description of what we were signing. My memory may not be exact but it was something like this. This one says that the builder is transferring the deed to you. And this one says that you have paid the taxes that you owe to Caesar. This one says that you agree to let the HOA control everything you think and do. This one says that you are paying us random fees that you have no idea what they are or why they are needed but you have no choice. This one says a lawyer gets a lot of money for cut and pasting into a standard document. It was a mind-numbing process and by the end I probably would have signed anything put in
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One Thing Grace Doesn’t Cover

I talk about Grace so much that the auto-suggest on my phone pops up the word as soon as I hit “G”. I suspect that sometimes you faithful readers wish I would mix up my topics. The truth is I cannot. Understanding grace rocked my spiritual world and changed my walk with God in dramatic and wonderful ways. I regularly extol the virtues of grace for a follower of Jesus. Grace compels you to trust others with you. Grace compels you to trust Jesus with your sin because you can’t manage it yourself. Grace compels you to forgive because you have been forgiven. Grace compels you to accept others and not judge them. Grace compels you to move toward the unlovable and not away. Grace compels you to sacrifice when you desire security. Grace compels you to love when your heart is hateful. Grace compels you to trust God when you are afraid and weak. The amazing thing about God’s
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Twitter Rules from Jesus and Paul

Social media is depressing. After a taking a recent sanity exit from Twitter a song from my (much) younger days triggered the musing for this week. The song Easy to be Hard was written for the musical Hair but it became a big hit as a cover for Three Dog Night. The lyrics could have been written today about the disappointing interactions on Twitter, Facebook and other platforms. How can people be so heartlessHow can people be so cruelEasy to be hardEasy to be cold. I could sing those lyrics almost anytime I cruise through the comments section on Twitter. The dialogue is often mean, unforgiving, and disheartening. I get particularly distressed when people of faith descend to that level of discourse. People who have proudly labeled themselves in their bio as followers of Jesus use language on social media that once would have made a sailor blush. Regular readers of my musings know I am not a purveyor of
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Time for a Family Conference!

While our three sons were living under our roof there were five words that struck fear in their hearts. “Time for a family conference”. They knew that I was about to have a conversation with them and I was going to do most of the talking. I suspect they felt I was being punitive when I called for a conference. The truth is I was pursuing protective love and not punishment. Protective love sees a family dynamic that is hurting someone in the family and when one in the family is hurting all of us are hurting. When I see the current dynamics of my Christian family I wish I could call a family conference with a heart of protective love. I see social media posts from friends who identify with Jesus that are downright mean and ungraceful. Some repost things that are supposed to be funny but are disrespectful. Others repost sensational stories without verifying them. All of those
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The Cancel Culture and Grace

Cancel used to be a fairly straight forward transaction. You canceled a reservation to dinner. Your flight was cancelled. Now cancel can mean your reputation and very career can be ruined if you offer an opinion that is controversial or unacceptable in the crazy court of social media. The normal sentence is shaming the person who dared offer some thought counter to the prevailing cultural trends. I understand pushing back against hateful stereotypes and name calling. That needs to be called out. But more and more this technique is being used to silence the heartfelt convictions of people who simply have a different world view. Questioning a cultural trend now results in public shaming, bullying, and harassment. I loathe the strategy of organized shaming to silence speech and cultural discourse. One of my personal hypocrisy tests is to examine my own propensity to “cancel” others that I don’t agree with. I might not launch an online attack but the reality
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21 Connect: Day 13 – Comparison is the Thief of Joy

Comparison is poison to the soul. I either contrast myself to someone doing something better than me and feel downcast, or I measure myself to someone failing and feel better. Perhaps that is my cue to refer to the Instruction Manual again. Paul writes about this very problem that was happening in the church at Corinth: Oh, don’t worry; we wouldn’t dare say that we are as wonderful as these other men who tell you how important they are! But they are only comparing themselves with each other, using themselves as the standard of measurement. How ignorant! (2 Corinthians 10:12) Writer Ann Voskamp notes that we try to measure how we are doing with imperfect—and even dangerous—measuring sticks: Measuring sticks try to rank some people as big and some people as small—but we aren’t sizes. We are souls. There are no better people or worse people—there are only God-made souls. There is no point trying to size people up, no
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