As if I needed another reason to respect the work and testimony of Tim Tebow! Yet he is amazing me again with his Night To Shine—a special prom for people with special needs and disabilities. Amazing! Check out this video of the big night…
Then here is an interview with Tim Tebow the night after the big event, reflecting on why he put this together…
“We can gather that their state [ISIS] rejects peace as a matter of principle; that it hungers for genocide; that its religious views make it constitutionally incapable of certain types of change, even if that change might ensure its survival; and that it considers itself a harbinger of—and headline player in—the imminent end of the world.” Read more of this fascinating piece in The Atlantic: What ISIS Really Wants.
Frank Viola wrote, “Mark it down: As you go on with the Lord, your faith will be sorely tested. You will be tempted to ‘shrink back’ into unbelief. But you—dear child of God do not belong to those who shrink back.” Read more from his post The Crisis Of Faith.
Rob Bell is fast becoming irrelevant himself, by choosing which parts of the Bible he wants to follow, when he states “the Church will continue to be even more irrelevant when it quotes letters from 2,000 years ago as their best defense” for traditional marriage.
[VIDEO] Epigenomes in the human body are like a symphony. How amazing is our Creator! Check out this artistic depiction of how this works—
“Long-term studies have measured the substantial impact of marriage on financial stability, as well as relationship longevity and health outcomes.” Read more in 5 Facts About Cohabitation You May Not Know.
“Since the beginning of the war on poverty, marriage has declined sharply. In 1964, 7 percent of U.S. children were born outside marriage. Today, the number is 41 percent. Society is dividing into two castes. In the top half, children are raised by married couples with college education; in the bottom half, children are raised by single mothers with a high-school degree or less. When compared to children in intact married homes, children raised by single parents are more likely to have emotional and behavioral problems; be physically abused; smoke, drink, and use drugs; be aggressive; engage in violent, delinquent, and criminal behavior; have poor school performance; be expelled from school; and drop out of high school.” Read more in How The Welfare State Penalizes Parents Who Marry.
Parents, check this out: A Letter To My Children About Fifty Shades Of Grey.
“Do you desire God and His way and His promises more than anything, and do you believe that He can and will honor your faith and obedience by being unashamed to call Himself your God, and to use all His wisdom and power and love to turn the path of obedience into the path of life and joy? That is the crisis you face now: Do you desire Him? Will you trust Him? The Word of God to you is: God is worthy and God is able.” —John Piper
“But this is the badge of a true child of God: that a man endures to the end.” —Charles Spurgeon
Kids with Down Syndrome aren’t likely to be singers, as the strain on vocal chords and fine motor skills to move their mouth isn’t usually possible. But Madison defies the odds. And the song she picked to memorize and sing is perfect. Click this link to read more behind-the-scenes information, and then watch this―
[PHOTOS] This is amazing! Womb-Selfies: 5 Amazing Photos Of Preborn Life.
“The enemy of creativity is fear. We’re all born creative, it takes a little while to become afraid. A surprising insight: an enemy of fear is creativity. Acting in a creative way generates action, and action persuades the fear to lighten up.” —Seth Godin
Super Vision: scientists are creating technologies to allow doctors to see inside you better. “It is already possible to peer inside the body with X-rays and ultrasound. But the images produced by such tools are crude compared with those that should be possible with visible light.”
Men’s Health magazine surveyed people on cheating. The results are eye-opening, and sad. It’s far better to do things God’s way!
“All that stuff you have now? You don’t get to keep it. In fact, you never had it. You’re simply a steward of what God has given you. Psalm 24:1 reminds us, ‘The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it.’ Your stuff is not yours. Ever since you grabbed that toy and yelled, ‘Mine!’ you’ve been lying. Everything is God’s!” —Max Lucado
“In March 2014, the BICEP2 radio astronomy team announced purported direct evidence of cosmic inflation, an important part of the modern Big Bang model for the universe’s creation. This announcement was front-page news all over the world. However, these scientists recently submitted a paper for publication that effectively retracts their breakthrough claim, acknowledging that their earlier results were spurious. They admitted their ‘evidence’ was actually an artifact from dust within our own galaxy.” Read more in Big Bang Evidence Retracted.
Nicholas Herman took the name Brother Lawrence after his conversion to Christianity, and he wrote some amazing thoughts about prayer. Here are a few of his quotes.
“The real heart of integrity stays in place whether the test in adversity or prosperity.” —Chuck Swindoll
[VIDEO] A heartwarming story with dogs. What could be better than that?!
“Everything the world has to offer, God is better and more abiding. There is no comparison. God wins—every time. The question is: will we have Him? Will we wake up from the trance of this stupefying world and see and believe and rejoice and love?” —John Piper
A nice mini-biography on Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
Max Lucado says, “You cannot be anything you want to be. But you can be everything God wants you to be!” Read more in his post All Things New.
“No prayer is at all likely to bring down an immediate answer if it be not a fervent prayer. ‘The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much’ [James 5:16]; but if it be not fervent we cannot expect to find it effectual or prevalent. We must get rid of the icicles that hang about our lips.” —Charles Spurgeon
“The Christian is in a different position from other people who are trying to be good. They hope, by being good, to please God if there is one; or—if they think there is not—at least they hope to deserve approval from good men. But the Christian thinks any good he does comes from the Christ-life inside him. He does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us.” —C.S. Lewis
A great overview on what really happened in the Crusades.
[VIDEO] John Maxwell says what is on the inside is always more attractive than what is on the outside―
Are you subscribed to The Overview Bible Project’s summary of each book of the Bible? Check out this summary of Genesis and then subscribe.
“On this planet, there are about 7,000 living languages. 1,860 of them do not have a single word of Scripture. 4,500 languages do not have a full Bible. That’s more than 1 billion Bibleless people.” Read more in There Is No Good Bible For Over A Billion People.
My friend Jeff Bonzelaar has a thoughtful post called To Drink Or Not To Drink.
“Worry is anti-trust. If you’re worried, you don’t trust something: your kids, their friends, strangers, the church, even God. Can He take care of your children? Certainly. Jesus says, ‘I tell you, stop being anxious and worried about your life.’ Pretty blunt. Stop it! Easier said than done, huh? Worry tests your trust, so hand your children to God and let Him babysit your babies when you’re not around. He’s pretty good at it!” —Max Lucado
Planned Parenthood continues to disgust me. Read 5 Little Known Facts About Planned Parenthood and tell me why we taxpayers are helping subsidize their operations.
DON’T SEE THIS MOVIE! Why Fifty Shades Of Grey sends the wrong message.
“Hell is at stake here, not just the loss of a few extra rewards. … So we warn each other: Don’t drift away. Don’t love the world. Don’t start thinking nothing huge is at stake. Fear the terrible prospect of not cherishing the promises of God above the promises of sin. But mainly we must focus on the preciousness of the promises and help each other value above all things how great the reward is that Christ has purchased for us.” —John Piper
[VIDEO] President Obama is finally making Pastor Saeed Abedini’s captivity in Iran more of a public issue. Check out this video, and go here to sign this petition.
The folks from The Overview Bible Project have a huge infographic about the 12 tribes of Israel. Check it out!
“The God who in the old creation did all this, can He not work today? He made the world out of nothing, can He not make new creatures without the aid of human will? His Word fashioned the creation of old, and His Word can work marvels still.” —Charles Spurgeon
“This verse [Psalm 119:67] shows that God sends affliction to help us learn His Word. We should ask how affliction helps us understand God’s Word and keep it. There are innumerable answers, as there are innumerable experiences. But here are five: (1) Affliction takes the glibness of life away and makes us more serious so that our mindset is more in tune with the seriousness of God’s Word. (2) Affliction knocks worldly props from under us and forces us to rely more on God, which brings us more in tune with the aim of the Word. (3) Affliction makes us search the Scriptures with greater desperation for help, rather than treating it as marginal to life. (4) Affliction brings us into the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings so that we fellowship more closely with Him and see the world more readily through His eyes. (5) Affliction mortifies deceitful and distracting fleshly desires, and so brings us into a more spiritual frame which fits God’s Word more.” —John Piper
[VIDEO] Duane from DW Video has a new project for any organizations operating in Michigan called “Buy Local.” I did a promotional video for the En Gedi Youth Center which turned out pretty nice. (By the way, if you’re in Michigan and you would like to have a free promo done by Duane for your organization, please click here.)
I don’t have a clever introduction for this post, so let me just give you the conclusion right up front―God has more desire to give than most of us have desire to ask.
Elisha told King Jehoash that God was ready to give him complete victory over Israel’s enemy, but Jehoash had a hard time grasping this (see 2 Kings 13:14-19). He was hesitant to ask God for too much, so he only asked for a little. This made Elisha mad!
I think the reasons why Jehoash was timid in his asking of God are some of the same reasons we wrestle with today.
(1) Elisha was dying, so maybe he thought God’s Spirit would depart with him.
Maybe you’ve had a spiritual giant in your life, and when they died you thought, “Who is going to be able to pray for me now?” God doesn’t have favorites. He desires that all of us come to Him.
(2) Jehoash was sinful and didn’t think God would want to help him.
You can’t increase your value in God’s sight because you live perfectly. God loves you perfectly just as you are. Don’t get me wrong: the Holy Spirit will speak to you if you need to repent, but God doesn’t only listen to “perfect” people.
(3) Jehoash thought God had a limited supply, or he thought he had a quota in how many requests he could make of God.
The whole genie-in-the-lamp concept has crept into the mindset of too many Christians. We think our genie-God will grant us a limited number of wishes, or we think He will try to find a loophole to get out of a difficult request. God desires that we keep on asking Him, keep on seeking Him, and keep on knocking on His door (see Matthew 7:7-11).
God is glorified when we ask Him to do what only He can do.
God is pleased when we keep asking of Him largely.
Again. And again. And again. AND AGAIN!
I’ll say it again―
If you would like to read some other thoughts on prayer from our series The Prayers Of Elisha, please click here and check out all the links in the comments.
Do you suffer from any of these? Things that hold us back from serving others.
Dave Barringer shares 10 subtle actions that you should pay attention to in your marriage.
“Let me warn you of second-hand spirituality; it is a rotten soul-deceiving deception. Beware of all esteeming yourself according to the thoughts of others, or you will be ruined. … O I do pray you, do not be satisfied with being persuaded into something like an assurance that you are in Christ, but do know Him—know Him for yourself.” —Charles Spurgeon
“Sinning is believing a false promise from the world above a true promise from God.” Read more in Jared Mulvihill’s post We Should Be Weeping.
Eurasia Northwest has a really cool infographic on the use of healing words in the Bible.
Seth Godin says, “The chances that everyone is going to applaud you, never mind even become aware you exist, are virtually nil. Most brands and organizations and individuals that fail fall into the chasm of trying to be all things in order to please everyone, and end up reaching no one. That’s the wrong thing to focus on. Better to focus on and delight almost no one.” Check out the rest of his post Almost No One.
[VIDEO] This year’s NFL MVP Aaron Rodgers is doing some cool stuff for kids―
How do you define “healing”? Check out this comprehensive list of Scriptures posted by Eurasia Northwest that may expand your definition.
Parents, beware of the book-turned-movie Fifty Shades Of Grey! Dr. Miriam Grossman has four blog posts about the dangers of seeing this movie or letting your kids see it. Check out the posts here.
“Unceasing prayer may sound complicated, but it needn’t be that way. Do this. Think of prayer less as an activity for God and more as an awareness of God. Seek to live in uninterrupted awareness. As you stand in line to register your car, think, ‘Thank you, Lord, for being here.’ In the grocery store as you shop, think, ‘Your presence, my King, I welcome.’ As you wash the dishes, worship your Maker.” ―Max Lucado
Tim Elmore reminds us that the next time a young leader approaches you with a “zany idea,” you might do well to listen to him/her. After all, he lists some really smart people who totally missed the future!
“If there be any deed of kindness or love that we can do for the very meanest and most obscure of God’s people, we ought to be willing to do it—to be servants to God’s servants.” —Charles Spurgeon
John Piper and the Desiring God crew have a list of 24 free ebooks. Good stuff!
[VIDEO]
A beautiful stories about a sister’s love for her brother―
Craig T. Owens 