Is a fish aware of the water it breathes, moves and lives in? Are we aware of the cultural attitudes we are saturated with daily, and how they affect us? Perhaps no more so than the fish. Most of us don't go through our day analyzing what is behind the messages we receive through the media and society in general. We're too immersed in the soup to make sense of it. The fact that we don't notice them doesn't make cultural influences any less real -- or less dangerous. One of the most insidious attitudes of our day is a mindset that is the very opposite of faith. Continue Reading
Search Results for: Why Giving Up
3 Important Differences Between Amusement and Joy
Want to be happy? Me, too. And having that desire doesn't make us shallow people. I've heard some Christian teaching to the effect that "joy" is different than "happiness," that joy is deep whereas happiness is shallow. You know -- happiness depends on circumstances, but joy can be had regardless of the externals -- you've heard the drill. There's some truth there, but it's possible to get a bit religious with this. We can end up squelching joy if we insist it's not even an emotion. Truth is, it's pretty difficult to separate joy from happiness. According to Webster's, happiness Continue Reading
God Wants Friends, Not Just Servants
Have you ever found yourself hesitating to quiet down and listen to God, because you are afraid of what you might hear? If God really speaks to me, he’ll probably send me to deepest, darkest Africa, or at least he’ll tell me I can’t drink coffee anymore. Why do we do this? Why do we assume that our Heavenly Father is only interested in giving us hard assignments or forbidding us pleasure? God called Abraham his friend. He referred to Moses the same way. After they had followed him for a while, Jesus told his disciples, “I no longer call you servants, but friends.” The whole point of Continue Reading