Category Archives: Christian Life

Christian Life isn’t all the time “happy-face” and positive. Yes, there are times of joy. Yet, intense life lessons rarely make me smile or laugh when I’m going through them. Endurance, patience, stamina, fortitude, tolerance, persistence, serenity, determination, courage and grit during these periods are God’s opening to make mere words a reality. Here we’ll be honest about the practice of our Christian faith.

Enjoy Wealth! Avoid this Mistake

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I held out the bag of gold and waited for him to grab it.

Gold-nuggetsHe just stood there. He made no move. He just stared at me with empty and clueless eyes.

“Here this is for you,” I swung the sack from side to side like a pendulum.

“What is it?” He spoke without hope. He spoke without joy. Thoroughly numb.

“The answer to your dreams. A treasure.”

“Yeah right.” He shifted his weight from his left foot to his right foot, a nervous dance.

“I’m serious!” I smiled and put on my most welcoming face, while continuing to hold out the wealth of a lifetime.

“Naw, I’m not interested.” His eyes suspicious.

“What?” I couldn’t believe that he wouldn’t take this free gift.

“I’m okay. I don’t need anything.” He glanced to his right, averting eye contact.

“But it’s gold!” I pushed the bag toward him. “Just take a look.”

Reluctantly he pulled his right hand from his jacket pocket and took hold of the bag. With both hands he tugged at the drawstring at the top of the sack and peeked inside. The nuggets sparkled back at him in the morning sun. With a tight grin he asked, “What’s this, fools gold?”

“It’s a chance to have what you’ve been missing.”

He looked me in the eye once more. “I appreciate the offer, but no thanks.” With that he turned and walked away.

 

Audio:

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Have I walked away from God’s offer of gold?

To my shame I have. I’ve lived in poverty when the riches and resources of Heaven have been made available to me.

When God sent Jesus He sent a treasure of incalculable wealth. I can begin enjoying His gold in my next breath. In other words, I don’t have to put off using the assets of God. The wealth of God, through Christ, is for now and extends into forever.

The question, then, is will I continue to live in poverty, trapped by my poverty mentality, when I don’t have to?

What would you say? What would you do?

This offer is so much more than mere material wealth and temporal well being.

Thanks for listening to Lee’s Nite Radio.

 

Books for You

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Challenging Yourself to Live On the Edge

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STRAIGHT FORWARD CONCEPT

Do you look up synonyms?
I do.
I just looked up a synonym for harmony:

Harmony=

  • In agreement
  • In accord
  • In sync

Harmony is a word that implies connecting something or someone together to bring about unity.

 

DIFFICULT to APPLY

Immediately I felt some conflict.

Why?

Because my human behavior isn’t at first action cooperation (collaboration, assistance, teamwork).

  • How about you?

My first human reaction is resistance, it’s conflict (argument, skirmish, warfare) rather than harmony.

  • How about you?

I’m apt to disagree (differ, bicker, clash).
I’m not prone to agree (concur, concede, see-eye-to-eye).

  • How about you?

 

BUT WHAT IF

But what would today look like if I decided to practice harmony?

What if today, for example, I decided to live in harmony with God?

  • What might happen?

What if today, for instance, I decided to live in harmony with someone I don’t particularly like?

  • What might happen?

What if today, as an illustration, I decided to live in harmony with me?

  • What might happen?

 

IT’S POSSIBLE THROUGH G.H.S.*

In review, I faced three (touchy-feely) actions:

  1. Harmony with God
  2. Harmony with others
  3. Harmony with me

I’m making a list of what my harmony possibilities would look like in my everyday world.

For example at my job.

For instance in my marriage.

As an illustration with a cranky neighbor.

To apply any of this would mean living on the edge.

 

What’s on your list ?

 

* G.H.S. (God’s Holy Spirit).

 

Song:

Break Every Chain

 

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At Least 3 Things to Ask When Stuff Hits the Fan

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One:

Who’s responsible for this?

  1. Someone else
  2. Circumstances
  3. Demons
  4. God
  5. Me
  6. All of the above
  7. I don’t know

Two:

How can I make this work for me?

  1. You can’t
  2. Talk it over with friends
  3. Listen to (supposed) experts
  4. Ignore it until the pain goes away
  5. Pray
  6. I don’t know

Three:

Where can I go to get this fixed?

  1. Nowhere, it’s hopeless
  2. Make a deal with the devil
  3. Jesus
  4. I don’t know

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Thought:

It seems that our common experience is that at some point “stuff hits the fan.”

I haven’t seen anyone escape hard times, even if they appear to have escaped hard times.

I can easily make a list of times

  1. times when I lacked money,
  2. times when I felt forsaken,
  3. times when dying seemed a better choice than living.

When I need to get things fixed when I need something mended that seems impossible to mend I usually start with, “I don’t know what to do.”

Of course, this doesn’t mean something positive can’t be accomplished.

This is so because God is above and beyond my circumstances and nothing happens to me that surprises God.

I need to realize three things:

  1. God is present wherever I am,
  2. God knows what to do in any situation, and
  3. God can be trusted even when stuff hits the fan.

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Honestly, it makes sense to start with God’s counsel and wisdom because doing so causes our perspective to improve. And further, we see our circumstances differently.

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Song:

Lauren Daigle: Rescue

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