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Winning!!! (Part Two - Less Self)

“You’ll know you’re winning when you are no longer thinking about yourself.” There is more to the story. It always amazes me that Evil found a way to corrupt humanity, then in humanity’s weakened and corrupted state, somehow focused the rest of man’s energy on what was wrong with him in that very state Evil initiated. The painful irony and audacity. Since that fateful day, man has spent his years…

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Winning!!! (Part One - Needs Met)

“You’ll know you’re winning when you are no longer thinking about yourself.” There it was, a sparkling result, indeed synthesis of the many things I had been talking over with my “Papa.” I have found my weekly trips to visit my mother have provided me with a rich opportunity for communion with my God of endless solutions. And today was no exception. Simply summarized by one compelling sentence.…

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My Blue Towel

Recently, I was playing in a golf tournament with my nephew at Anthem Country Club in Henderson, Nevada. We were in golfer bliss as we played the course in the hot Nevada sunshine. Then, on the second or third round, I had something incredulous happen to me. It was a little thing that represented a much bigger thing. We had just parked the cart and were chatting with one of the staff at a booth.…

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God Did What???

Tonight’s topic while undoubtedly very sensitive and personal speaks to a broader misconception that prevails in the minds of men. Not much time goes by without hearing some testimony bared concerning understanding amidst a great tragedy. Often the thesis being how God did something quite terrible or else allowed something disastrous to happen in order to present a deeper lesson. One man…

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Consider Your Ways...

Spoiler alert, nothing I say tonight will be about you improving your behavior to get something from God. In times past when I heard this verse from Haggai, my mind immediately shifted to what improvements I needed to make. I used to think it was a condemnation so I didn’t “consider my ways” very often. (smile) When understood in its context it becomes clear it is more about being honest with…

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The Correct Order!

I’m going to propose something tonight you may find a bit insulting. We all learned a certain way to live life. Because we were unaware and did not know better we were easy prey. We were taught a way to live that really didn’t involve God. Oh sure, we made obligatory appearances and some attended church on the regular, but aside from those prescribed times, we really didn’t involve Him in our…

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The Real Communion...

It’s that time of the year when folks partake of a communion service. I think they feel sometimes that there’s a little magic in the bread and wine. As if there is a special property associated with the symbolism. Some folks do communion every Sunday, good for remembrance and not so good when practiced as part of the ritual. One group demands that the people participating in communion be worthy…

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Think Solutions...

Recently, we purchased a huge swing set from Costco. The Summit Vista to be exact. Raised high above the aisle in the store it was impressive to say the least. How much would the grandkids love this, we mused. Then it came time to load the boxes. Enter the first clue. Despite their foreboding weight, I still clung to the idea that the boxes contained large pieces of wood I could easily manage…

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Wired Differently?

You know, there’s much talk these days about folks being wired differently. In other words, some folks apparently come out of the factory with different wiring than other people have. People don’t show tenderness and love and then report, “I’m just not wired that way.” Others skulk around like recluses, terrified of the world at large and then exclaim, “I’m just not wired that way!” Some more…

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Your Mind Has No Power!

I understand this topic may be a little heady for you (smile), but your mind has no power. There is no power in your mind that you can focus outward by your thoughts or anything else in order to make something happen. None. The self-help gurus have sold you a bill of goods. Accordingly there is no power reservoir you can tap into purely from your own brain either. But, here we are living amidst a…

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The Entrance Exam for Heaven...

I think it would be a fair assumption that most people hope to get into heaven. Heaven being that place where we live with God forever. Yet, so many religions and creeds and dogmas exist, all with different entrance exam requirements. Some preach self-denial as a response to their “wicked” flesh. Others have extensive lists of things one cannot do in order to please God and subsequently publish a…

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Learn the Right Lesson...

Recently, I attended a weekend seminar focused on living our identity in Christ. There’s more to that, of course, but for now this is how the weekend started. We took a dreaded redeye flight from Salt Lake City to Tampa. It was scheduled to leave at 11:30 pm. but ended up one hour late. Now on the flight past midnight we are already tired. When we finally landed after a 3 hour nap according to my…

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Narratives...

Living life as we do, we spend our days evaluating and analyzing our experience. It’s the strangest thing. We interact with the world, then we tell ourselves stories about what it means. We really have no way of knowing what someone means, other than asking them, and even then you still my not know. We gather some evident facts and add them to some other facts and form a conclusion. But, in…

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Faith Versus Fear...

The concept of faith or belief has been wrestled with for centuries. It’s almost universally known that faith gets the job done. The Olympics would testify to that with some kid winning gold because they actually thought they could. Yet for most people, faith is a real head scratcher. I will sheepishly admit to spending time looking for keys and principles and even magic tricks like The Secret.…

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Trust In Your Sound...

I’m not sure if you watched the Grammy’s last night, but there was this beautiful 80 second segment aired by Spotify designed to encourage young artists to trust their own sound. So many young artists began so soon because they trusted their inner voice more than a whole world that said otherwise. Arrested by the moment, I asked myself, are you trusting in your own sound or have you traded that…

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Dimmed By Your Own Imperfections...

Your light force is the life you have inside you. When your life is functioning effortlessly; when your life is unencumbered; when your life is more about accepting rather than grasping, your light shines bright. On those sunny days where you walk about absorbed in the moment with no anxious concern for what happened yesterday or might happen tomorrow, your light is shining brightly. When you’ve…

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The Futility of the New Year, New Me, Mindset...

I’m going to say some things today that might shock you. I mean the accepted norm is that all people are broken in some capacity and in need of constant renovation. The notion that there is a part of you needing to be fixed and until that thing is fixed, nothing else will work out for you. Enter the billion dollar self-help industry. The whole premise being that there is a part of you that needs…

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