When should you wisely confront someone during interpersonal conflict? Timing is everything, so your confronting should not take place too early, too late, or in the heat of the battle. Solomon penned: “A man finds joy in giving an apt reply, and how good is a timely word” (Proverbs 15:23). The wise king warned of […]
The When, Why, and How of Wise Confrontation
Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How of Wise Confrontation
During interpersonal conflict, do you struggle with confrontation? Confront literally means “face to face.” Only after first taking your conflict to God, ignoring insults, turning the other cheek, and overlooking an offense, can you wisely and lovingly confront another person. Who should you confront? Examine the relationship you have with the person involved in your […]
Desires Are For Our Transformation – Live a Holy Life in the Spirit (1 Thessalonians 4:6-8)
How can we honor God with our longing for sexual intimacy? Paul taught that desires are for our transformation: “And that in this matter no one should wrong his brother or take advantage of him. The Lord will punish men for all such sins, as we have already told you and warned you. For God […]
Desires Are Not For Our Elimination – Control Your Body (1 Thessalonians 4:4-5)
The electrical current of sexual temptation travels from our world’s images straight to our desires, equipped with enough voltage to kill. However, this is nothing new. When Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, the Greek sex culture was perverted, especially in Thessalonica, even at its religious sites. Marriages were arranged between girls 13 to 14 years-old […]
Desires Are Not For Our Gratification: Avoid Sexual Immorality (1 Thessalonians 4:1-3)
The apostle Paul likened marriage to the relationship between Christ and the church, teaching that a husband desires respect from his wife, and a wife desires to be loved by her husband (see Ephesians 5:31-33). Still, our culture is performing an all-out assault on this covenant, exploiting the desires of both genders. Since a man […]
The RSVP (Matthew 22:11-14)
In Jesus’ Parable of the Wedding Banquet, during the celebration, the king observed the guests who had jammed the wedding hall. To his dismay, he had found someone without proper wedding clothes. The king treated him in similar fashion to those who had rejected his invitations by ordering his death sentence. At first glance, the […]
The Invitation (Matthew 22:1-10)
What have you done with your invitation to the biggest celebration on earth? In a discussion with the religious, self-righteous leaders of His day, Jesus addressed this question in The Parable of the Wedding Banquet (see Matthew 22:1-14). The Invitation Rejected (Matthew 22:1-7) Jesus began the story by setting the scene. He described a king’s […]
Solomon’s Secrets to Leading Leaders – Develop Our Skills (Proverbs 22:29)
To lead leaders, we must develop our skills. Solomon invited: “Do you see someone skilled in their work? They will serve before kings; they will not serve before officials of low rank” (Proverbs 22:29). So, how do we become skilled in leading leaders? First, we work hard. Solomon observed: “Lazy hands make for poverty, but […]
Solomon’s Secrets to Leading Leaders – Speak with Grace (Proverbs 22:11)
In order to lead leaders, we must speak with grace. This is held at a premium in our world today. When the heat of interpersonal conflict rises, we have a tendency to speak with a harsh tone, one that demands what we want. Wisdom offers a different way. Solomon counseled: “One who speaks with grace […]
Solomon’s Secrets to Leading Leaders – Love a Pure Heart (Proverbs 22:11, 29)
Have you ever struggled with influencing your boss? Are you unable to effectively communicate with your spouse? Does the coach of your team seem immovable? In our sinful nature, we have a tendency to respond to conflict with other leaders in three foolish patterns. First, we act with an impure heart, one with mixed motives, […]
Thermometer or Thermostat (Romans 12:2)
Do you ever ask God what His will for your life is? Often, we wonder about the source of the temperature in our life. We ask ourselves, “Is this desire merely from me or is it from God? How can I know if this is really God’s will?” The answer comes from whether we are […]
Comparison, the Thief of Joy (Psalm 37:4)
Do you find yourself continually wanting to be first, right, best, richest, or highest? Each of those traits has one thing in common: comparison. When we compare ourselves to others in order to determine where we rate, we are, most likely, experiencing pride of life, which is a heart issue (see 1 John 2:16-17). President […]
Three Habits of Highly Destructive People – Pride of Life (1 John 2:15-17)
How do you keep score in life? We all select some sort of measurement of success that drives our behavior. It might be money, accolades, assets, degrees, vacations, or even our good works. When we keep score of our successes by standards diametrically opposed to God’s, we focus on measuring our record of achievement by […]
Three Habits of Highly Destructive People – Worldly Power vs. Godly Power (John 19:30)
Have you pursued control apart from God, this week? Herod the Great learned firsthand the results of lusting for power apart from our Creator. After a lifelong pursuit of the lust of his eyes, Herod died out of control, lying in the darkness of his Jericho palace in 4 BC. Historians say that he passed […]
Three Habits of Highly Destructive People – Lust of the Eyes and the Light of Christ (John 8:12)
Are you locked in the darkness of the lust of the eyes? Are you desiring power apart from God? The light of Christ will set you free. Jesus searched to humbly unlock and gently restore the spiritual inner beings of everyone. He spent 90 percent of His life in Nazareth, a city nestled on ten […]
Three Habits of Highly Destructive People – Powering Up (Proverbs 27:20)
Solomon taught that the eyes are never satisfied (see Proverbs 27:20). We desire one more deal, one more illicit relationship, one more achievement, one more title, one more company. Consequently, whether at work, home, in the community, or even at church, we power up on others to achieve more. We power up physically, claiming, “I’m […]
Three Habits of Highly Destructive People – Power (1 John 2:15-17)
Do you desire control apart from God? Worldly power is the desire for more control than we were designed by God to have. The apostle John called it the lust of the eyes, the second of three habits of highly destructive people: “Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone […]
Three Habits of Highly Destructive People – Pleasure and Temptation (1 John 2:15-17; 1 Corinthians 10:13)
Are you struggling with any sort of physical temptation? It might be over-eating or restricting; sex outside God’s design or even withholding yourself from your spouse; over-training or not exercising at all; or the abuse of alcohol and drugs. John referenced this as the lust of the flesh (see 1 John 2:16). Regarding our physical […]
Three Habits of Highly Destructive People – Pleasure (1 John 2:15-17)
Do you pursue satisfaction of your desires apart from God? In our fallen nature, we lust for sex outside God’s design. We crave food beyond that which is healthy, life-giving, and nutritional. We restrict intake in order to feel thin. We pursue the rush of a drug or the escape of alcohol in attempts to […]
What Can We Learn from Solomon? (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14)
Life apart from God is meaningless. A divided heart led to a divided kingdom. It’s the first sin. It’s the wide gate. It’s love of the world. King Solomon pursued earthly knowledge for the sake of contentment, possessions for the sake of significance, military might for the sake of control, money for the sake of […]