You’ll Have to Pay Extra if You Want to Check Your Baggage

If you’ve ever traveled on an airline, you’re quite aware that packing light is the smartest choice. Airlines are demanding beefy fees for heavy baggage. If your bag weighs over 50 pounds, you could find yourself paying anywhere from $90-$300 per piece according to the rules of Delta and Continental Airlines.

Bottom line? If you want to bring your baggage along, you’re going to have to pay.

The same is true with Christians. If you’re determined to carry around emotional and spiritual baggage, you’ll be paying the price. That’s why the Word tells us in Hebrews 12:1 to “throw off everything that hinders us, and the sin that so easily entangles us, and let us run with perseverance, the race marked out for us.”

If a plane is carrying too much baggage, it can crash. The same is true with us. We can’t run with perseverance when we try to strap a heavy load to our backs. Anger, bitterness, jealousy, hurt, rejection…You can label all of these “heavy baggage.” Hanging onto them will weigh us down, at best, and completely cripple us emotionally and spiritually, at worst. Read more

What’s in Your Spiritual Junk Drawer?

If you are like the average American, one of the drawers in your kitchen is most likely the designated “junk drawer.” This is the drawer that you conveniently use to hide…err, I mean store miscellaneous items that you aren’t really sure what to do with. My junk drawer contains recent bill receipts, a burned out light bulb from the bathroom vanity (so I can take it with me when I purchase another one instead of just guessing which one to buy), an extension cord, scotch tape, scissors…no wait, the scissors are always missing, random screws that have fallen out of things, buttons, coupons I think I might use, address labels that I’ve torn off of envelopes….well, you get the point. Read more

Finding The Power to Overcome

Writing about The Backwardness of New Year’s Resolutions really got me thinking. In that post we went over the fact that most resolutions, 95% in fact, are abandoned within months of making them, and 80% are said to be discarded by mid January. That’s quite a bag of abandoned goals, don’t you think?

Since most New Year’s resolutions consist of positive changes that we already know we should make, let’s take a closer look at the power we will need to actually achieve and overcome in this life. Read more

The Backwardness of New Year’s Resolutions

As Christians, we realize (or should realize) that salvation is free. It’s not something we can earn and there is nothing we can ever do to deserve it. That’s the beauty of it. We were once lost and helpless…we needed hope and direction and God sent His Son to set us free from the sinful state of the world we were born into. We made the decision, asked Jesus into our heart, and then the trouble began… Read more

No Reason to Complain…You Already Won the Lottery

If you truly grasp the fact that your sins are forgiven….not in a fleeting way, but actually and consciously make yourself aware of this truth, what can there possibly be to complain about?

You have to admit it, we all do…We are tremendously spoiled. We often sit around contemplating what we would do if we won the lottery, but have you ever considered that you already have? Read more

Finding the Place of Contentment

Webster’s Dictionary defines contentment as: a feeling of calm satisfaction.

As we approach these last days before Christmas, I suppose I could write to you about a million other topics. We could talk about last minute gifts, family traditions, or the real meaning of the season. Instead, I feel that a root issue among many Christians today is contentment.

Peace and contentment go hand in hand, since you really can’t have one without the other. When we find ourselves discontented or lacking peace, we often look to the wrong things for relief. Our culture teaches us that our internal problems and feelings are a direct result of outside circumstances. If we feel discontented, we often think that a nice holiday, new goals, more money, or a trip to the mall for some retail therapy will ease our pain. Maybe we feel discontented because of a strained relationship and we think that if we could just make it better, everything would be okay. Read more

Are You Passing Life’s Tests?

If you haven’t read the book, A Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren, go ahead and put it on your Christmas list. This powerful book takes you through a 40 day spiritual journey that will help you to answer life’s most important question, “What on earth am I here for?” Once you’ve read the book in its entirety, it is still a good one to keep by the bedside for reference purposes. Opening mine to a random page the other day, took me to a paragraph that has stuck with me all week. It was about tests…

Why Are We Tested? Read more

It Aint Over Til It’s Over..

Originally credited to baseball Hall of Famer, Yogi Berra, this is an applicable phrase for many of us today.

Usually, I try to generalize my blog posts so that they can apply in some way to everyone…Not today. Today I’m specifically speaking to people who feel they are used up, thrown away, and don’t have any chances left. Maybe you’ve been through a painful divorce, the death of a loved one or even the death of a child. Maybe you’ve been the victim of verbal abuse, a spouse that has been unfaithful, or fired from a job that you’ve proudly held for years. Things like this can send you reeling, leaving you feeling betrayed and even abandoned by God.

Before you fall too far into a state of confusion, hurt, and bitterness…let’s take a look at what God says about our pain and suffering here on earth. Read more

Constant Contact With God….Is it Possible?

Whether you are new in your Christianity, or have been walking with God for years, the need for constant contact with Him does not change. Just like food is a necessary to meet your physical needs, contact with God strengthens you and keeps you centered.

What is Constant Contact with God?

I’m glad you asked….I’ll start off by telling you what constant contact with God is NOT, and then we’ll work on what it is.

Constant contact with God does not mean that you need to ignore your every day duties, join a convent, or put your life on hold while you develop a relationship with your Creator. Often, individuals who have a true desire for a relationship with God, end up feeling overwhelmed when trying to pinpoint exactly what it is. This is proven by how many times we hear the reasoning involved. Have you ever heard someone say, “I’d like to pray more…I just can’t find the time.” Or maybe you’ve witnessed your own failed attempts at carving out a particular time to get alone with God. Read more

Dreams and Desires…Have You Settled for Less?

A recent article covered the topic of becoming like little children in attitude and spirit. It covered the gratitude, the trust, and the open-mindedness that God wants us to return to. This sparked yet another train of thought. Our dreams and desires.

What do you dream about? No, not the dreams that you have after too much pizza and a late night in front of the television. Let’s talk about the dreams and desires you once had for your life…Dreams about your purpose, your calling,  and your destiny.

How Did You Get Here?

Depending on what road you have traveled to get to where you are now, you may be looking at your life with contentment and satisfaction, or you may be wondering about a few crossroads that led you to your current situation.

You may wonder if you made the right career choice or chose the correct city to put down roots. If you are currently standing in a place that feels as if you may have “settled” for less than you had hoped for, then this article is for you… Read more

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