Stewarding Your Gifts Into Strengths

October 21, 2024 — Craig T. Owens

Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible. 

We have been learning about how God gifts us so that He can use us to build His kingdom. Discovering these gifts and then living in this gift zone is going to require us to stretch out of our comfort zone. So far, we’ve looked at two factors: 

  • Passion—what thrills you? 
  • Pain—what kills you? 

As you look back, the things that thrill you and kill you have probably remained consistent through your life. You may recall moments where implementing your gifts went very well and times when it didn’t go so well. The former makes us ready to try again and maybe expand a little further, but the latter tempts us to shrink back into our comfort zone. The key is to find out how we can be more consistent in using our gifts productively. 

It looks like this: God’s gifts + Our stewardship = Productive strengths. 

God gives the gifts as only He knows best (Psalm 139:16; Romans 12:6; 1 Corinthians 12:11) and then we steward these gifts into productive strengths. 

(Check out all of the Scriptures in this post by clicking here.) 

What does stewardship mean? 

  • The dictionary defines it as the responsible overseeing and protection of something considered worth caring for and preserving. 
  • The Bible always portrays a steward as the one in charge of the precious things in a household—in our case, the Church. 

Jesus makes the role of a steward very clear in his parable found in Matthew 25:14-27. Notice three important things:  

  1. The master gave gifts to everyone of his servants, but he gave “each according to his ability” (vv. 14-15). 
  2. The wise servants stewarded the master’s gift by that way they “put his money to work” (vv. 16-18) 
  3. The master demanded accountability of all of his servants. Two servants acknowledged “you entrusted me” with these gifts (vv. 19-23), while one said, “I was afraid” (vv. 24-27). 

God created each of us on purpose and for a purpose. He gave us the gifts we need to accomplish that purpose. We will only find our fulfillment in life in stewarding those God-given gifts and opportunities in ways that glorify Him. Not only fulfillment here, but then eternal satisfaction when we hear our Savior say, “Well done, good and faithful servant! Enter into your Master’s happiness!” 

The only servants that heard the “well done” from their master were those who realized it was “your money…entrusted” to me. I like how Eugene Peterson brings this out in his paraphrase: 

Make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given, and then sink yourself into that. Don’t be impressed with yourself. Don’t compare yourself with others. Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best you can with your own life. (Galatians 6:4-5 MSG) 

So let’s add one more circle to the passion and pain circles, and that is the circle of proficiency. This is what fulfills us because we can do it so well; it feels so natural for us to be doing this. Proficiency is what really brings together the passion and the pain, and it helps us find the sweet spot. 

Let me give you a couple of examples—one from the Old Testament and one from the New Testament. 

Nehemiah was killed that Jerusalem was in shambles and the people were disgraced (Nehemiah 1:3-4)—that’s what killed him. Nehemiah didn’t go to wall-building school, but he effortlessly strategized, cast vision, organized, planned, procured, and adapted—that’s his proficiency. The wall was built in 52 days, Israel’s enemies were disgraced, and the people had a place to worship again (Nehemiah 6:15-16, 9:1-3)—that’s what thrilled him. 

The apostles and the first deacons in the New Testament church saw that some of the widows were being overlooked in the food distribution (Acts 6:1)—this is what killed them. These new leaders didn’t go to food-distribution school, but they effectively strategized, cast vision, organized, planned, procured, and adapted (v. 3)—this is their proficiency. The widows were cared for, the Word of God spread, and more people became Christians (v. 7)—that’s what thrilled them. 

God gives gifts—we feel that in what thrills us and what kills us. We steward those gifts into productive strengths—we stick with what we fulfilled in doing. Our productive strengths then glorify God as we strengthen and grow the Body of Christ. 

Let me give you four things to consider about your area of proficiency:

  1. What comes easily to me? 
  2. Where do I see both the steps and the completion before others do? 
  3. Where do I experience the greatest ROI of my time and efforts? 
  4. What do I do that thrills me because I ran to because it was killing me, and now it fulfills me to keep doing it? 

With all three of these circles, please take some time to ponder what your sweet spot is. And if you’ve missed any of the messages in this series, you can find them all here. 

►► Would you please prayerfully consider supporting this ministry? My Patreon supporters get behind-the-scenes access to exclusive materials. ◀︎◀︎

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Links & Quotes

October 19, 2024 — Craig T. Owens

Leaders need to give others confidence to try something new. We need to help people get moving so that we can coach what they are doing. For more great leadership insights, check out The Craig and Greg Show.

I have lots of new content every week, which you can check out on my YouTube channel.

A couple of thought-worthy quotes for pastors. First from David Mathis: “Pastors, observe that in and of itself, mocking is no clear reflection of the faithfulness or fruitfulness of preaching Christ. Wise preachers do not take mocking as an indicator of failure, nor as an indicator of success. Twice in Athens some mock Paul, which may seem like a failure compared to his homiletic triumphs elsewhere. However, others say, ‘We will hear you again.’ And then, in the end: ‘some men joined him and believed’ [Acts 17:32-34]. … How foolish it would be to distract ourselves with the mockers. Or to call special attention to the mocking as some great badge of our own faithfulness. Rather, we have the example of Paul at Mars Hill, who, so far as we can tell, wholly overlooks, with a holy disregard, these mockers and concerns himself instead with those asking honest questions.”

…and then one from John Piper: “Preaching is a happy business. Because even if the text is a hard word that devastates the hearers, the preacher connects the hard word with the gracious word and the hopeful word, and he catches them as they fall. So, in the end, all preaching is a happy business.

“A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both.” —Dwight D. Eisenhower

“For condemnation to work, we must say to God what the devil has said to us and believe it. If I want to stand before God with excuses that make what He said to me void, I’ll have to quote the devil to God. Does that sound like a good thing to do? God’s will for me is not to condemn me, but to liberate me from everything that holds me back from being what He created me to be through an ongoing relationship. To accomplish that, I need to do the opposite of what I used to do when I walked in condemnation. Instead of quoting to God what the devil is saying, I quote to the devil what God has said.” —Jim Wiegand, in Recruiting To Releasing 

Thinking about “how Martin Luther, a professor at Wittenberg University, helped to spark the 16th century Protestant Reformation,” J. Calvin Holsinger conceived the idea of preparing missionaries to US colleges and universities—a ministry called Chi Alpha.

Another great story from the “Here We Stand” series of biographies of notable people during the Reformation. “An attendant asked [King Henry VIII] whom he wished to have at his bedside. The king asked for Thomas [Cranmer]. By the time Cranmer arrived, King Henry was unable to speak. Foxe tells the story. ‘Then the archbishop, exhorting him to put his trust in Christ, and to call upon His mercy, desired him though he could not speak, yet to give some token with his eyes or with his hand, that he trusted in the Lord. Then the king, holding him with his hand, did wring his hand in his as hard as he could (Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, 748).’ The scene sweetly punctuates the most important friendship in the English Reformation. Whatever King Henry believed when he squeezed Cranmer’s hand that day, God used the bond between them to break England free from Roman Catholicism and to recover the one true gospel.”

The ICR reports, “Genesis claims that people in the pre-Flood world routinely attained 900-year lifespans. The best-known example is Methuselah, who had the longest recorded lifespan of 969 years (Genesis 5:27). Skeptics dismiss these great ages as fanciful legends, but recent fossil data are providing unexpected, albeit indirect, corroboration of the Bible’s testimony.” Check out this full report.

“In my experience, each failure contains the seeds of your next success—if you are willing to learn from it.” —Paul Allen, cofounder of Microsoft

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Pre-Political Christians

October 17, 2024 — Craig T. Owens

Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible. 

John Stonestreet used an interesting term (pre-political) that got me thinking about how many government programs would be unnecessary if the Church was doing what Jesus called the Church to do. 

Here’s the full quote from John Stonestreet: “Christian political engagement should hit its fever pitch not during elections. The only way to relieve the political pressures of our day is to build up the pre-political aspects of our life together, especially the family and the Church. When we care well for our children, our neighbors, and our communities, the state doesn’t have to.” 

The Scriptures I reference in this video—Isaiah 3:4-5; Mark 12:28-31; Matthew 25:34-40. 

The post I mention in the video that was prompted by the Isaiah 3 passage is It’s Not “Them,” It’s Us.

If you would like to watch the full sermon from which I took this clip, you can find that here. 

►► Would you please prayerfully consider supporting this ministry? My Patreon supporters get behind-the-scenes access to exclusive materials. ◀︎◀︎

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Great Hardships Can Be Great Opportunities

October 15, 2024 — Craig T. Owens

Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.

The Christians could have used the “great persecution” that broke out against them (Acts 8:1) as a great excuse to hide or to remain quiet. After all, Saul and his hoard were specifically targeting those who were known to be Christians, so keeping quiet or out of sight might have saved their lives. 

Instead, these fearless Christians used this great persecution as a messenger from God to keep them on-mission in fulfilling the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20; Acts 1:8), taking the Gospel to even the despised Samaritans (Acts 8:4)! 

Would they have taken this message to these folks without this “nudge” of persecution? Maybe, but then again, maybe they would have stayed in Jerusalem and delayed too long in sharing with those who lived in the capital city. It’s a really good bet that without this persecution they wouldn’t have come up with the idea of going to Samaria on their own!

I think we can learn some good lessons from this incident. When unexpected difficulties crash into our lives, let’s re-frame our thinking. Instead of using this hardship as an excuse to do less, let’s ask:

  • Do I need to re-evaluate what I have (or haven’t) been doing? Do I need to repent of anything? 
  • Am I on-mission as a Christian witness? Am I consistently using my God-given gifts in God-glorifying ways to point others to Jesus? 
  • How can I live out and proclaim the Word of God even in this unexpected place? 

Let’s be like those Christians who didn’t grumble, who didn’t hide, who didn’t make excuses. But they said, “This is just another opportunity for us to invite people to meet Jesus as their Lord and Savior,” and then they joyfully moved forward. 

►► Would you please prayerfully consider supporting this ministry? My Patreon supporters get behind-the-scenes access to exclusive materials. ◀︎◀︎

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What Can Your Pain Tell You?

October 14, 2024 — Craig T. Owens

Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible. 

Have you ever been trying to finish a DIY project and you’re getting frustrated because there’s one part you cannot seem to complete? Then you phone a friend. They come over, look at the situation, pull the perfect tool out of their toolbox, and quickly fix the problem. You are amazed and they think, “It’s no big deal. I just happened to have the right tool for the job and the skill to know how to use it.”  

We are all gifted, but in different ways. 

God has uniquely prepared you for the situations you will face in your life. David declared, “All the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be” (Psalm 139:16). That tells me that your loving Creator knew the challenges and opportunities you would have, and He has already placed the perfect tool in your toolbox that you will need to excel in that moment. 

We have already talked about how your passion helps you discover your areas of giftedness. Finding out what thrills you and what fills you is one key step on this journey. There’s another aspect of this discovery process that at first seems almost the opposite, but I think they are actually two sides of the same coin. 

If passion is what thrills me, then pain is what kills me. I think a good word for this is zeal. In the biblical context, zeal would be anger at the things that keep people from experiencing all that God has for them—things that keep them from knowing the fullness of God’s glory. 

As Moses grew older, it killed him that the Jewish people were now enslaved by the Egyptians and kept from worshiping God in their own place (Exodus 2:11-12). 

(Check out all of the Scriptures in this post by clicking here.)

We see Moses’ zeal misapplied at first (I mean, he did commit a murder!). This about the differences between a river powerfully flowing within its banks, and a flood when the river overflows its banks. When we use our God-implanted zeal in ways that He hasn’t sanctioned, we make a mess like that flood. But when we use our zeal to glorify God, it is as powerful as a mighty river within its banks. 

We see perfect zeal in Jesus. We see Him cleansing the temple so all worshipers could come close to God (John 2:13-17). We see his anger over the religious rules that kept people trapped in their disease( Mark 3:1-5; Luke 13:10-16). 

If passion asks, “What is God passionate about that thrills my heart too?” then pain asks, “What breaks God’s heart that also breaks my heart?” or “What’s broken that I would love to fix?” 

Zeal moves us to action! 

When we move forward in our zeal, others may say we are meddling or we are sticking our nose in places where it shouldn’t be. But we simply cannot help ourselves. 

In Moses’ initial zeal—without God’s commission—he committed murder and then fled to the wilderness. 

Stephen says, “Moses was well educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action” (Acts 7:22). The word Stephen uses for “educated” means Moses was fully trained to interact success with is culture. And he also says Moses was “powerful” in speech and action. 

So why does Moses say of himself that he is not “eloquent” and “slow of tongue” (Exodus 4:10)? Literally, Moses is saying, “I might make the same mistake that I made previously.” 

Moses looked back on his initial stumble and was fearful he may misfire again. He was comfortable staying in his restricted comfort zone, but this attitude made God angry (Exodus 4:10-12). 

Saul in his zeal for the rules and traditions of Judaism, persecuted the Christians. After he became a Christian, we see the same zeal—calling out Barnabas and Peter, and asking the Galatians who has bewitched them to stay entangled with meaningless traditions. 

We usually discover our giftedness by looking backward. The devil would love for us to see our previous missteps as disqualifications for future service. But God says that He can use all of these things for His glory (Romans 8:28). We have to surrender our fears to Him if we want to soar out of our comfort zone and into our comfort zone. 

Let me give you three things to consider:

  1. What do you find yourself praying about more than anything else? 
  2. What do you move toward that others ignore or move away from?  
  3. What topic do you talk about all the time?  

Here’s your homework: Think about the three things to consider regarding pain, and then consider where your passion circle and your pain circle may overlap. 

If you’ve missed any of the messages in our series Living In Your Gift Zone, you can find them all here. 

►► Would you please prayerfully consider supporting this ministry? My Patreon supporters get behind-the-scenes access to exclusive materials. ◀︎◀︎

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Links & Quotes

October 12, 2024 — Craig T. Owens

Is it okay to pray a prayer written by someone else? Sure! But let’s use those prayers merely as guides to help us form our own personalized prayers to our loving Heavenly Father. I shared a whole series on prayer that you may want to check out.

I have lots of new content every week, which you can check out on my YouTube channel.

T.M. Moore wrote, “The Holy Spirit comes to dwell in believers with an agenda. His agenda is not ours, and unless we can put our agendas aside, we will never line up with His to realize more of the presence, promise, and power of the Kingdom of God. The Spirit has not come to make us ecstatically happy. He has not come to fulfill our every wish. He comes to bring forth in us distinctly Kingdom values and virtues: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. He comes to distribute among us spiritual gifts, God-given abilities to serve one another in caring and sharing ways. He comes to empower us as witnesses for Jesus, both in how we live and what we say. And He comes to build our churches up into Christlikeness by our unified and focused work.”

I am really enjoying these mini-biographies of key leaders in the Reformation presented by Desiring God. One that I found especially fascinating is about Menno Simons—“If you are familiar with the contemporary Mennonites, you may be surprised to learn that the group’s founder started as a Catholic priest who had never read the Bible.” Yet, near the end of his life, Menno wrote, “Although I resisted in former times Thy precious Word and Thy holy will with all my powers…nevertheless, Thy fatherly grace did not forsake me, a miserable sinner, but in love, received me…and taught me by the Holy Spirit until of my own choice I declared war upon the world, the flesh, and the devil…and willingly submitted to the heavy cross of my Lord Jesus Christ that I might inherit the promised kingdom.”

“What strikes me is that there’s a very fine line between success and failure. Just one ingredient can make the difference.” —Andrew Lloyd Webber 

This past Sunday I spoke to my congregation about how Christians should behave biblically during an election season. Someone forwarded to me a related graphic from the Pentecostal Evangel magazine (a publication of the Assemblies of God) from 1984. I love these reminders for Christians!

Researchers unveiled the largest brain map ever completed. It was of a fruit fly, whose brain “includes nearly 140,000 neurons and captures more than 54.5 million synapses”! It took four years to complete this map. “All told, the researchers identified 8,453 types of neuron—much more than anyone had expected. Of these, 4,581 were newly discovered.” This level of complexity and order in a fruit fly is astounding to me. Can you imagine what it would take to map the much larger and more complex human brain?! Truly, David was right when he said that we are wonderfully made by our Creator!

“Freely, willingly and joyfully do good to everyone, serve everyone, suffer all kinds of things, love and praise the God who has shown such grace. Thus, it is just as impossible to separate faith and works as it is to separate heat and light from fire!” —Martin Luther

“Faith the mother of all good works justifieth us, before we can bring forth any good work: as the husband marryeth his wife before he can have any lawful children by her.” —William Tyndale

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The Craig And Greg Show: Good, Better, Best

October 10, 2024 — Craig T. Owens

Listen to the audio-only version of this podcast by clicking on the player below, or scroll down to watch the video.

It’s good to be good, but good is never great. As leaders we have to consciously work to avoid the trap of good. Join Greg and me as we discuss how to make your good better, and your better best.

  • [0:15] I share a poem my grandma taught me. 
  • [1:09] What happens to our leadership if we become satisfied?
  • [2:10] Striving for perfection is also a terrible trap for leaders.
  • [4:12] What happens if leaders settle for merely “satisfied”?
  • [5:40] How to send the message to your team that we’re going to keep raising the standard.
  • [8:17] Some people are looking for excuses to remain complacent.
  • [9:59] At some point, leaders will have to take a risk to raise the standard.
  • [10:49] Why do people want to cut corners? How do we avoid this trap?
  • [13:19] How do we get motivated to go farther?
  • [15:45] A couple of great examples of leaders who pulled people to excel.
  • [17:36] We have to keep working or it’s going to be more work!
  • [19:10] A quote from Charles Sorenson that is insightful.

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.

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Make Your Bible Studies Stickier

October 9, 2024 — Craig T. Owens

Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible. 

I want to give you some thoughts to take your Bible studies even deeper. Here are three strategies to make your Bible study time stickier—sticking in your heart and your mind.  

Check out this episode of The Podcast. 

The Scriptures I reference in this episode are Matthew 13:10-13 and Luke 8:18.

Here are some study Bibles I have used and reviewed: 

And if you are interested in the posts and videos where I talk about how to handle difficult-to-understand passages of Scripture, check out Handling Tough Texts and The Lens for Difficult Biblical Passages. 

►► Would you please prayerfully consider supporting this ministry? My Patreon supporters get behind-the-scenes access to exclusive materials. ◀︎◀︎

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How Christians Can Live Biblically In An Election Season

October 7, 2024 — Craig T. Owens

Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible. 

Much like Jude who had a message he wanted to deliver to the saints, but was compelled by the Holy Spirit to address something concerning him (Jude 3-4), I, too, was excited to deliver the next message in our series on discovering your gifts and then living in your gift zone. But I am deeply concerned about the words and actions of Christian saints during these past election cycles. 

(Check out all of the Scriptures I reference in this post by clicking here.)

I recently heard John Stonestreet say, “Currently, politics is carrying far more cultural weight than it is able to bear.” I agree: Christians are putting far too much emphasis on political candidates than the Bible would suggest. 

I frequently quote something from Charles Colson that always makes people smile. He said, “Salvation will never arrive in Air Force One.” The flip side is true as well: Neither will the Apocalypse arrive on Air Force One. 

We have to remember that the Most High is sovereign over all the nations of the earth, and He gives them to whom He choose (Daniel 4:25, 32). When we think that our candidate or our party is the only way our nation can be saved, aren’t we elevating the political process above God’s plan? 

I hope this doesn’t come as a shock to anyone, but there are no perfect candidates, perfect political parties, nor perfect party platforms. We can study our Bibles, pray, study the candidates’ lifestyle and policies, but ultimately we will have to cast a ballot for an imperfect candidate. 

God doesn’t have an “R” or “D” next to His name. He has not endorsed a political candidate. You may be sitting next to someone right now that is going to vote for the opposite political party that you will be voting for. And the way we interact with those people—whether they are fellow Christians or not—is deeply concerning to me. 

Moses saw a couple of fellow Israelites fighting each other, and he asked them, “Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew” (Exodus 2:13). The Hebrew word rea means a friend who is also a fellow citizen. These Hebrews were citizens of Zion, but they were living in Egypt, and they definitely weren’t treating each other in a way that would be a testimony to the Egyptians. 

When Stephen retold this portion of the story in his sermon, he phrased it this way, “Men, you are brothers” (Acts 7:25-26). Stephen used the Greek word adelphos which literally means “from the same womb.” But the Christians used this word to mean brothers and sister in Christ—people with whom we will spend eternity. 

Let us always remember that others who are participating in the American political process are BOTH fellow US citizens AND brothers and sisters in Christ. 

In J.R.R. Tolkien’s Return of the King, when Gandalf sees fellow citizens and friends at each other’s throats, he exclaims, “Work of the enemy! Such deeds he loves: friend at war with friend, loyalty divided, and confusion of hearts.” Indeed, the enemy of our souls would love to see the chaos of a nation at war with itself; especially to see Christians at odds with each other. 

Paul said, “Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers” (Galatians 6:10). On the flip side, Jesus said that when we think or speak poorly of a fellow human, we are in danger of judgment (Matthew 5:22). 

Listen to Paul’s appeal to his friends at Philippi—

Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from His love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind.

And then he specifically addressed a couple of sisters in Christ who were ad odds with each other—

I plead with Euodia and I plead with Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. Yes, and I ask you, my true companion, help these women since they have contended at my side in the cause of the gospel, along with Clement and the rest of my co-workers, whose names are in the book of life. (Philippians 2:1-2, 4:2-3) 

The politicians we have are always downstream from culture, which means we have allowed those sorts of politicians to be in place. 

John Stonestreet used a phrase I hadn’t heard before, but I think it’s appropriate: “Christian political engagement should hit its fever pitch not during elections. The only way to relieve the political pressures of our day is to build up the pre-political aspects of our life together, especially the family and the Church. When we care well for our children, our neighbors, and our communities, the state doesn’t have to.”  How true this is! 

I wrote something this summer based on Isaiah 3:4-5. In essence, I wrote that God gives nations the “leaders” they deserve. They are leaders in that they occupy an office, but they don’t lead people nor care for the citizens—they don’t have wisdom to lead nor do they care about anyone but themselves. This is the inevitable result for a nation that turns its back on God! So if we think our political and civic leaders are self-focused, unskilled, and childish, we should look in the mirror. It’s not “them,” it’s us. We have to change—turning wholeheartedly to God—and only then God can change our leadership. 

We need to be praying for our governmental leaders, not vilifying them. We need to be speaking well of our fellow US citizens. We need to be especially treating our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ well. 

Our hope is not in the results of an election. Our hope is in Jesus. The way we treat BOTH fellow US citizens AND brothers and sisters in Christ will either point people to Jesus or to manmade political systems. 

I pray we can do better at pointing people to Jesus! I pray I can do better! 

►► Would you please prayerfully consider supporting this ministry? My Patreon supporters get behind-the-scenes access to exclusive materials. ◀︎◀︎

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Links & Quotes

October 5, 2024 — Craig T. Owens

When a teammate seems to choke in a pressure-packed situation, good coaches help them learn from their mistake and get right back into the game. This is how leaders help their teammates go from choke to clutch. Check out the full conversation Greg and I had about this.

I have lots of new content every week, which you can check out on my YouTube channel.

“Most of us who aspire to be tops in our fields don’t really consider the amount of work required to stay tops.” —Althea Gibson, tennis great

“There is only one way forward when vindication is delayed: total forgiveness. And I can give you a motivation to forgive totally greater than any other that could be conceived: you do it for an audience of One. Yes. That’s it. That is how you do it! Total forgiveness comes easily when you realize you are doing it for God and the glory of Jesus Christ!” —R.T. Kendall

More archeological evidence supporting the historicity of the Bible. Here are the top ten discoveries related to the Book of Jeremiah.

ICR reports: “Millions of years of erosion should have toppled all the beautiful sandstone arches out West, yet many hundreds remain.” But following the biblical timeline of Creation and the Flood makes it unsurprising that the arches are still standing.

Dr. Glenn Sunshine offers a beautiful, biblically-centric prayer for our nation, especially during this current election cycle.

“A coach is someone who can give correction without causing resentment.” —John Wooden

October is the month Protestants remember the start of the Reformation. The folks at Desiring God have a wonderful resource available by email every day during October called Here We Stand. Each day you will receive an email with a mini-biography of a key character in the Reformation. I am thoroughly enjoying these each day. Sign up here.

None of us are self-made. God created us on purpose and for a purpose. He gave us the gifts we need to accomplish that purpose. We will only find our fulfillment in life in stewarding those God-given gifts and opportunities in ways that glorify God. Not only fulfillment here, but then eternal satisfaction when we hear our Savior say, “Well done, good and faithful servant! Enter into your Master’s happiness!”

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