Last week we began discussing 5 Outstanding Objectives to Current Event Opinions: 1. Jesus clearly defined marriage (Matt. 19:1-9, Gen. 2:21-24). This week, let's continue...
I remember approximately 33 years ago when I was in college at the University of Tennessee. One of my assigned roommates was a writer for the school newspaper and was on a polar opposite side of my political spectrum. One afternoon, my roommate and I got into a political discussion. The discussion quickly spiraled downward into a very heated argument which ended with me picking up my roommate and slamming him into the wall (please forgive me…this was approximately one year before I had given my life to Jesus)! As you know, there are two things that can really get our...
Over the last few weeks we began to discuss “6 Attitude Axioms”: 1.Our attitude determines our approach to life (Prov. 23:7). 2. Our attitude determines our relationship with people (Rom. 14:19). 3. Our attitude can be the difference between success and failure (Phil. 4:13). 4. Our attitude will determine how we approach our daily tasks (Ps. 118:24). 5. Attitude can give us an uncommonly positive perspective (James 1:2-4). 6. Religion makes for a bad attitude, but relationship makes for a good attitude (Luke 15:11-32). This week, let's continue...
Over the course of my life, I’ve had some very “interesting” things happen to me. I’ve been bit by a shark, chased by an alligator, I’ve had two different people pull guns on me at two different times, I have been heavily persecuted and totally lied about, Anne and I went through a miscarriage, and almost 21 years ago I could barely walk and barely talk, and just about died. Of course, worst of all, my favorite college football team lost two national championships! In each and every one of those things, God delivered me out of them all (see Psalm 34:19)…and...
A few years back I was about to preach at a church in East Tennessee. The Saturday night prior to this engagement I was out to dinner with my parents and lovely wife. When the waitress came and gave us our water, she spilled them all over my dad and me. Not just a little bit…it looked like we wet our pants! As you can imagine our waitress was mortified. She braced herself for the abuse she thought she was about to encounter. To her surprise we all laughed about it and truly encouraged her. We chose joy and a...
Last week we began discussing 6 Attitude Axioms: 1) Our attitude determines our approach to life (Prov. 23:7) This week, let's continue: 2) Our attitude determines our relationship with people (Rom. 14:19). Not too long ago, the Stanford Research Institute published an interesting study that revealed the following: The money you make in any endeavor is determined by: 1. 12.5% product knowledge 2. 87.5% people knowledge If our entire future is tied to people, don’t you think we should learn to get along with them?! One of the greatest ways to relate with people is to put yourself in their shoes. When your teenage son comes home and...
A while back, Anne and I were going to pick up our son, Johnathan. He was at his grandmother’s house and a serious storm was brewing. Therefore Anne and I decided to pick him up and take him home. As we were rapidly driving to his grandma’s house, the storm clouds began to look more and more ominous. It was then that Anne began to implore me to stay at John’s grandma’s house once we arrived! Now you know how guys are! I told Anne, “No problem, we can make it back in time to our house before the storm hits”...
Last time we began discussing 13 Aspects of Attitude. This week, let's continue...
Last week, we began discussing 13 Aspects of Attitude: 1. Attitude is your “advance man” 2. People meet your attitude before they meet you! This week, let's continue...
It’s easy to have a good attitude on vacation! It’s easy to have a good attitude when everybody in your life is doing what you want them to do (which happens once in about every 76 years)! It’s easy to have a good attitude when all your circumstances are favorable! It’s easy to have a good attitude when your college football team just won the national championship! It is entirely different when people and circumstances are against you and your favorite college football team just had its first losing season since 1988! The mighty apostle Paul had some pretty lousy things happen...