Joel Osteen famously said in a tweet, "It’s God’s will for you to live in prosperity instead of poverty.” God’s Word, however, teaches that it is not always God’s will for His people to experience prosperity. Jesus was born poor and he died poor (click to open). Surely, the servant is not greater than his master. God’s Word also teaches that sometimes poverty is God’s will for His people. The apostle Paul died in abject poverty in the cold and damp Mamertine Prison in Rome. He had to request Timothy to bring him warm clothing for the coming winter. The Prosperity Gospel teaches the opposite.
Read moreA Proverb for Mom and Dad
Last week, six-year-old Mason Stonehouse used his dad’s cell phone and the Grubhub app, to order over $1000.00 dollars of food. He ordered 5 plates of 20-piece jumbo shrimp, chicken sandwiches, chili cheese fries, over $400 of pepperoni pizza, ice cream, etc. After the home deliveries just kept coming, the dad, Keith Stonehouse, figured out what had happened. The dad had let his son use his cell phone to play games for thirty minutes before bedtime. Keith found his son hiding under the comforter on his bed. When his dad asked Mason why he did it, Mason replied, “I don’t know, I was hungry.” Well, Mason went to bed hungry that evening. Mason was not going to reap any of the benefits of his misdeeds. His parents also took the $115 in his piggy bank to help off the food debt. Obviously, Mason lost his cell phone privileges.
Parenting at times can be very challenging.
Read moreHow to live in a culture of death!
Kent R. Hughes reminds us that we live in a culture of death: “We play violent video games, watch documentaries on serial killers, and murder our unborn.”[1] The culture of death got pushed back a few steps recently. Last week, the North Carolina legislature passed a 12-week abortion ban. There can be no abortions after 12 weeks, a bill that is more restrictive than the existing law. The governor of North Carolina, Roy Cooper, on Saturday, held a rally in order to publicly veto the bill that had been adopted by the legislature.
On Tuesday the General Assembly overrode the governor's veto of the bill and thus, this particular ban on abortions after 12 weeks in the state of North Carolina will become law. The result is as one senator said, the lives of “millions of unborn children” will be saved.
Read moreBeware of the Home Wrecker!
Some of you remember advice columnist, Ann Landers. Ottis of Wisconsin wrote Ann Landers: Eleven years ago, I walked out on a 12-year marriage. My wife was a good person, but for a long time, she was under a lot of stress. Instead of helping her, I began an affair with her best friend. This is what I gave up:
Read moreAm I the kind of friend I would want to be friends with?
I called a dear friend this week. I met this friend the first week of our college freshman year. He of late has had a difficult life. For some reason, I remembered a book I read years ago: How to Win Friends and Influence People. Why has this book been so popular? This book written by Dale Carnegie in 1936 has sold 30 million copies worldwide. It still sells 250,000 copies annually. The Library of Congress in 2013 ranked this best seller as the 7th most influential book in American history.[1] Why has this self-help book been so popular?
Warren Wiersbe answered: We need Proverbs “Because just about everybody has ‘people problems’ and wants to know how to solve them.”[2] God’s manual on developing people skills was written long before Carnegie’s best seller. God wrote Proverbs to sharpen our people's skills for his glory.
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