Unhappy Christians rob God of glory because unhappy Christians don’t point people to God. Grateful Christians are happy and satisfied in God. Let your smile be your testimony of an all-good God.
Summer break is upon us! Jean Holthaus writes, “During the school year, your child’s entire day is structured. This can leave you feeling the need to schedule every minute of the summer as well … and quickly becoming overwhelmed by both the cost and logistics of trying to do so.” Check out Jean’s tips.
“Comradeship and serious joy are not interludes in our travel; but that rather our travels are interludes in comradeship and joy, which through God shall endure for ever.” —G.K. Chesterton
A neuroscientist explains how our left and right brain hear language differently, and how early childhood experiences can impact the way we hear and process language for the rest of our life.
“Does Christianity encourage morbid introspection? The alternative is much more morbid. Those who do not think about their own sins make up for it by thinking incessantly about the sins of others. It is healthier to think of one’s own. It is the reverse of morbid. It is not even, in the long run, very gloomy. A serious attempt to repent and really to know one’s own sins is in the long run a lightening and relieving process.” —C.S. Lewis
Hey, leaders, let me ask you a simple question: Is your workplace a safe place for people to make mistakes? It should be or else we will be limiting the potential of both our teammates and our whole organization. Greg and I unpack this in greater detail in this episode.
“You yearn for a simplified lifestyle, so that your communication with Me can be uninterrupted. But I challenge you to relinquish the fantasy of an uncluttered world. Accept each day just as it comes, and find Me in the midst of it all. … Remember that your ultimate goal is not to control or fix everything around you; it is to keep communing with Me. A successful day is one in which you have stayed in touch with Me, even if many things remain undone at the end of the day. Do not let your to-do list (written or mental) become an idol directing your life. Instead, ask My Spirit to guide you moment by moment.” —Sarah Young, Jesus Calling [1 Thessalonians 5:17; Proverbs 3:6]
“God is God, and since He is God, He is worthy of my worship and my service. I will find rest nowhere else but in His will, and that will is necessarily infinitely, immeasurably, unspeakably beyond my largest notions of what He is up to.” —Elizabeth Elliot
“If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.” —Booker T. Washington
Pornography adversely effects the viewer’s brain, leading to a growing list of physical and emotional problems. Check out this post from Fight The New Drug, in which they report, “No matter what you believe about porn, ‘what is undeniable is that we’re consuming far more of it than at any point in human history, and the effects of this are yet to fully register.’”
I have always loved the fact of God’s laughter—the perfect joy He has must be expressed in perfect laughter! David Mathis writes about the encouragement in God’s laugh: “One way to enjoy the smile of our fiercely happy Father is to tune your ears to the wonders of His laughter.”
Scientists took a cubic millimeter of a mouse’s brain and mapped out the neurons and connections. The result is astounding! In Nature, they wrote, “A cubic millimetre might not sound like much—roughly the size of a grain of sand—but to neuroscientists, it is enormous. One cubic millimetre of a mammalian brain contains tens of thousands of neurons with hundreds of millions of connections, or synapses, between them.” Can you imagine what the human brain is like?! How amazing is our Creator!
“Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed.” —G.K. Chesterton
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I’d like to teach you an important lesson from 2nd Grade. I had the opportunity to interact with some young students, and I think we all learned something valuable.
Check out this episode of The Podcast.
My wife does a great job promoting a growth mindset in her classroom. Check out A Safe Place For Mistakes where I talk about how she fosters this learning environment.
C.S. Lewis shared some great insight about eliminating the Scarcity Mindset, which is a huge hindrance to the growth mindset.
Even if the world’s legal system seems unjust, Jesus says by continuing to press our case with the public servants He has put in place, we are really trusting God to bring us His perfect justice. Check out my full sermon on how the Bible from Moses to Jesus explains how to define the legal term, “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.”
I have lots of new content every week, which you can check out on my YouTube channel.
“A significant amount of research and scholarship (both scientific and theological) indicates that a young Earth is the most straightforward, conservative way to interpret God’s Word. … The most unambiguous way to interpret the Bible is according to its grammatical-historical sense, or the intended meaning of the authors. A literal interpretation accounts for all figures of speech in the text, providing the most straightforward method of exegeting Scripture. To this point, when Jesus quoted the Old Testament, it was always clear that He considered its passages as factual and true.” Check out the post Long Ages and the Bible—What’s the Problem?
“Your brain is made up of neurons that communicate with each other through synapses. Delta-FosB is one of the chemicals that creates neural circuits—i.e., ‘pathways’—to help those neurons communicate more quickly and efficiently. … Basically, what you experience as getting better and better at something is your brain ‘rewiring’ itself to become faster and more efficient at sending the same messages between the same neurons.” This works for both healthy and unhealthy activities. In this article from Fight The New Drug, research shows how regular consumption of pornography is hampering your brain’s ability to have normal, healthy relationships.
Dr. Henry Halley, in his Halley’s Study Bible, observed, “Note, too, the unceasing emphasis on the resurrection throughout this book. It was the pivotal point in Peter’s sermon on Pentecost (2:24, 31-32), in his second sermon (3:15), and in his defense before the Sanhedrin (4:2, 10), It was the burden of the apostles’ preaching (4:33). It was Peter’s defense in his second arraignment (5:30). A vision of the risen Christ converted Paul (9:3-6). Peter preached the resurrection to Cornelius (10:40). Paul preached it in Antioch (13:30-37), Thessalonica (17:3), Athens (17:18, 31), and Jerusalem (22:6-11), to Felix (24:15, 21), and to Festus and Agrippa (26:8, 23).” You can check out all of the Scriptures he mentions in this quote here.
Stephen Witmer asks an important question: “Which is closer to the center of your life as a Christian: what you’re doing for God, or what God has already done for you through Jesus Christ? Which one grounds your identity more deeply, affects your mood more frequently, rouses your passions more highly? Your answer to these questions will deeply shape the stability, tenacity, happiness, boldness, and humility of your Christian experience. Jesus wants to provide you grounds for unshakable joy.” Check out this example Witmer shares from an exchange between Jesus and His followers.
“Informing your opinion of the comparative merits of Christian men, never forget the old rule: ‘distinguish between times.’ Place yourself in each man’s position. Do not judge what was a right course of action in other times, by what seems a right course of action in your own.” —J.C. Ryle
God holds human life as precious in His sight. Whenever anyone asks me why I support the sanctity of human life, my answer is simple, “Because God holds it sacred.” Consequently, God punishes those who devalue human life.
My friend, Pastor Tim Dilena, shares a thought about how God often uses people as the answer to our prayers.
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I want to give you a leadership practice that is going to set you apart from the crowd. It’s all about leveraging an amazing feature God has designed in our brain.
Listen to the audio-only version of this podcast by clicking on the player below, or scroll down to watch the video.
Stress might have six letters, but it seems like some leaders have a knee-jerk reaction to treat it like a four-letter word. While it might be nice to fantasize about an stress-free life, this is both entirely unrealistic and detrimental to your leadership. The truth is, a mild amount of stress can be helpful to you personally, as well as your organization as a whole. Join us as Greg and I unpack why you should embrace a bit of stress in your life.
[0:14] I have a brain block to start the show!
[0:59] Let’s define stress in a work environment, as opposed to simply work tension.
[1:51] An interesting study about allowing moderate stress to remain in the workplace.
[5:30] Mild stress is helpful for our brains.
[7:37] Stress expands and strengthens our team connections too.
[10:26] Can stress help increase someone’s work performance?
[13:01] Our physical bodies use a stress hormone called cortisol. How can leaders maximize its effects?
[14:38] Stress can help us rise to the challenge in a way that easy times can’t.
[16:02] I share an example of a teammate who grew through stress, as well as a supporting quote.
[18:40] Greg shares a negative example of an organization that became stress-free and drifted toward failure.
[19:30] When times are easy, we can begin to slide into apathy.
[22:40] Should we teach crisis leadership to our teams? If so, how should we do this?
Check out this episode and subscribe on YouTube so you can watch all of the upcoming episodes. You can also listen to our podcast on Spotify and Apple.
Don’t give in to F.E.A.R. When the devil’s lies make us afraid, remember that F.E.A.R. stands for false evidence appearing real. The Holy Spirit can help you find the true evidence in God’s Word that will confront and dismantle the false evidence.Check out this full message here. I have lots of new content every week, which you can check out on my YouTube channel.
“Meanwhile it is also necessary for the ruler [pastor] to keep wary watch, lest the lust of pleasing men assail him; lest, when he studiously penetrates the things that are within, and providently supplies the things that are without, he seek to be beloved of those that are under him more than truth…” (Gregory the Great). Check out how T.M. Moore unpacks this quote.
The Culture Translator” newsletter from Axis has this sobering reminder of the dangers of pornography.
What it is: An eye-opening essay in The Free Press describes the impact of pornography on a teen’s developing brain.
What it tells us: The author of this piece, Isabel Hogben, is a homeschooled high schooler living in Redford City, California. In one of several devastating lines, Hogben details how she stumbled upon PornHub when she was only ten years old, even as her very present mother was “making sure I was eating nine differently colored fruits and vegetables on the daily.” Hogben goes on to explain that today’s pornography depicts a synthetically augmented and physically brutal type of sex that makes Playboy magazine look “like an American Girl Doll catalog.” She notes that teens who have never had a physical sexual encounter can’t know the difference between what fake sex and real sex is supposed to be like, skewing their expectations, and that her peers think selling nudes online is normal. As she examines the way porn causes scientifically-measurable changes in the brain, Hogden concludes that porn is not “content” as much as it is a dangerously addictive substance not unlike street drugs.
“Do nothing that you would not like God to see. Say nothing you would not like God to hear. Go no place where you would not like God to find you. Never spend your time in such a way that you would not like God to say, ‘What are you doing?’” —J.C. Ryle
“Learning to say no is not just about courage, but also learning how to prioritize your life and become more productive.” —John Maxwell
One of the things that contributes to “quiet quitting” is a lack of passion. But when the leader has conveyed a compelling vision for all that the organization is doing, that vision fuels the passion to work excellently. Vision can change a “have to” attitude into a “get to” attitude. Check out the full conversation Greg and I had about quiet quitting on the Craig And Greg Show. I have lots of new content every week, which you can check out on my YouTube channel.
“One important key to success is self-confidence. An important key to self-confidence is preparation.” —Arthur Ashe
“Strange as it may seem, the first rule of gracious speech is sincere listening: ‘So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath’ (James 1:19). Being an attentive and sincere listener is like cutting a swath through the jungle. It creates a path along which conversations can develop and people can journey together.” —T.M. Moore
J. Warner Wallace discusses how scientists who were Christians used their biblical worldview to drive their scientific pursuits. As a result, Christian scientists have been awarded more Nobel Prizes than any other group of scientific contributors!
“The devil will not stand by quietly and watch his realm decline and erode. He counterattacks with rage; his onslaught is fierce. One of the tricks he uses is to preoccupy Christian workers with issues that are detrimental to a healthy relationship with Christ. The scenario is all too familiar: a Christian worker gets busy in the ministry and work takes priority over relationship with God. He no longer has the time to sit at Jesus’ feet in quiet solitude and listen to God’s Word. Spiritual emptiness comes unnoticed and with it vulnerability to satan’s sifting (Luke 22:31-34); dishonest handling of monies or power or an illicit relationship is justified, and whoa! immorality has lured and sent such a Christian worker tumbling. He commits what he has preached against. Sin is dangerous. Sin is destructive. Its price is very costly—separation from God, irreversible stigma, damage to family relations, loss of ministry, loss of reputation, a black mark on God’s work, and the list goes on.” —Sobhi Malek
Our Creator gave us an amazing gift of the human brain! I love the fascinating new discoveries that scientists are continuing to make. Like this one: “To be spatially capable creatures, humans need their brains to tell them 1) where things are in relation to themselves and 2) where everything is in relation to everything else—the so-called allocentric map of space. To navigate an environment, the brain seems to generate a mental representation of its surroundings. This is often called a cognitive map.” Read more about our cognitive map here.
I hope you have had a chance to see the movie “Sound of Freedom.” Thankfully, this has gotten a lot of people talking about how to eliminate sex trafficking. Fight The New Drug has an excellent post on how you can spot and report human trafficking, and you should also check out Operation Underground Railroad, which was founded by Tim Ballard (whom Jim Caviezel portrays in the movie).
“It will be a comfort to me all my life to know that the scientist and the materialist have not the last word, that Darwin and Spencer, undermining ancestral beliefs, stand themselves on a foundation of sand.” —C.S. Lewis
“[God] does not need us. If we stay away He is not impoverished. He does not need us in order to be happy in the fellowship of the Trinity. But He magnifies His mercy by giving us free access through His Son, in spite of our sin, to the one Reality that can satisfy us completely and forever, namely, Himself. ‘You make known to me the path of life; in Your presence there is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore’ (Psalm 16:11).” —John Piper
“Good preachers are good learners, and not just of the Scriptures. They need to understand the times and the ways the times impact the people they are called to serve. Preachers who know their sheep well, as our Good Shepherd exemplified for us, will hear their concerns, understand their thoughts, discern their hopes and fears, and be able to preach in a way that speaks directly to their souls with transforming grace and power. Let us strive to be sons of Issachar when it comes to the ministry of God’s Word.” —T.M. Moore
This week I shared another exclusive video with my Patreon supporters. Please consider supporting this ministry at just $5 per month. I also shared this public video especially for my fellow pastors:
John Stonestreet wrote about our amazing brain. What a marvelous thing our Creator has given us! Here is just one example: “In 2013, a collaboration between Japanese and German scientists created one of the most realistic brain simulations ever attempted. They used what was, at that time, the world’s fourth-largest computer, containing over 700,000 processor cores and producing an eye-popping 1.4 million gigabytes of RAM. The machine worked at top speed, crunching numbers for over 40 minutes. In the end, it produced just one second of simulated brain activity.”
Unhappy Christians rob God of glory because unhappy Christians don’t point people to God. Grateful Christians are happy and satisfied in God. Let your smile be your testimony of an all-good God.
Craig T. Owens 