Today's guest post comes from Uwe Bower, a dear friend of mine and core member of STSA Church in Arlington, VA. In today's post, Uwe challenges us to think deeply about the meaning and value of an individual life. What's a life worth to God and what therefore should it be worth to us? If you too are interested in guest posting on my blog, please visit my Guest Post guidelines for more info.
Read MoreWhat on EARTH Am I Here For? (sermon video)
Special thanks to my good friend, Matthew Weybrecht, for the guest appearance at The Well yesterday. Matthew spoke about a topic that many people struggle with: what on EARTH are we here for?
Is the goal of life just heaven? Is this all just a tryout for eternity? Or is there a purpose to life here on earth?
Check out the video above and find out for yourself.
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Stop Believing the LIES
A lie believed as truth will affect your life as though it were true.
(read that one more time please)
I once did a little experiment on a Sunday morning. At the start of the sermon, I told all the people that I had secretly placed four $50 bills underneath seats in the church. I explained it as random act of kindness and I fully convinced them that this was true.
Of course it wasn’t true. It was 100% false. It was a flat out lie (which I've already repented about and confessed :) ). But the fact that it was a lie didn’t matter. What mattered is that people THOUGHT it was true. The reality of it being a lie wasn’t as important as the perception that it was true.
Read MoreHealthy Relationships - SPEAKING OF HEALTH, Part 4
It's the finale in our series, SPEAKING OF HEALTH, and as always, we like to end with a bang! We not only talked about our need for authentic and vulnerable relationships, but we had a live example of what that authenticity and vulnerability looks like.
Be sure not to miss the special cameo appearance from a special guest at the end of this week's message.
And stay healthy everyone!
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The Poverty of Loneliness
“What’s the poorest country you’ve ever been to?” That question was once famously asked to Mother Theresa by an American reporter in the 1970’s. Her response?
“I have been to many countries and seen much poverty and suffering. Everywhere I go people tell me of their hardships and struggles, and ask for help, and I give what I can. But of all the countries I have been to, the poorest one I have been to is America.”
Obviously unprepared for such an answer, the reporter informed Mother Teresa that America was one of the richest countries in the world and questioned why she said it was the poorest. “Because”, she replied, “America suffers most from the poverty of loneliness.”
That was close to 40 years ago. What do you think she’d say today?
Read MoreTHE HARDWARE OF THE SOUL - Speaking of Health, Part 3
We're in Part 3 of our series SPEAKING OF HEALTH and this week, we're looking at the "Hardware of the Soul." In other words, we're looking at our brains and trying to learn how they work and what role different parts play.
Why? Because the more we understand how our brains work, the better we'll be able to a) diagnose a problem when it happens, and b) invest in the health of the various parts/functions of the brain.
So get ready to learn! Class is in now session :)
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Being God’s favourite
Having a twin sister, for many people I am “one out of two”, sometimes I am “the other one”, but often just “one of the twins”. Don’t get me wrong, I love my sister, but it’s also human of me to wish to be seen as the one independent person I am and to be loved as such.
Now I realized that many people feel the same way. We feel like we’re just “one of …”. We feel like we’re just “one of the church-goers”, “one in the group”. Some people feel like they’re only “the brother of …”, “the mother of …”, “the friend of …”. We often feel like we’re just “one out of many” and this hurts, because when we love in a special way, we want to be loved back in a special way too.
Now for the good news.
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Write a Review, Win a Gift Card!
Raise your hand if you’ve read my book, “WHATEVER, GOD”.
Now raise your hand if you like to win free money.
Now raise your hand if you’d like to win free money for doing practically nothing, besides reading my book.
If your hand is still up, congratulations! You’re in luck!
I’m giving away three $20 Amazon gift cards and all you need to do to be eligible is leave a review for my book on Amazon sometime between now and Tuesday, June 19.
Read MoreKILLING THE ANTs - Speaking of Health, Part 2
“You don’t have to believe every stupid thought you have.” Dr. Daniel Amen
That's a summary of this week's message in a nutshell. Too many of us are living as if we are slaves to our thoughts, but in this week's message we saw how we can change our LIVES by changing our THOUGHTS. Specifically, we learned that our thoughts are real things that literally have the power to rewire our brains.
In this week's message, we not only learned the power of our thoughts over our lives, but also a practical way that we can implement God's command to “[bring] every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5)
Read MoreSPEAKING OF HEALTH..., Part 1
“Make us all worthy, O our Master, to partake of Your holies unto the purification of our SOULS, our BODIES and our SPIRITS.” Excerpt from Liturgy of St. Basil
We kicked off a new series this week called SPEAKING OF HEALTH... And in it, we're talking about the importance of health in ALL aspects of life: body, mind/soul, and spirit.
This series has the power to open a lot of eyes about the root of many of the problems and struggles we face today. Maybe it's not just a spiritual problem after all. Maybe there's something more to it...
Check out the video above and you’ll see what I mean.
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What Every Parent Wants from Their Child
Parents, if you could get your kids to do one thing, what would it be? Think before you answer. This is your chance. Don’t waste your one wish. You want something long lasting – something that will bear fruit in the long run. What would you say? Ready for my answer?
OBEDIENCE.
The most important trait that we, as parents, need to instill in our children is obedience. Obedience to teachers. Obedience to police officers. Obedience to librarians, bus drivers, firemen, and of course, most important of all, OBEDIENCE TO PRIESTS – especially the really cool ones who blog and do stuff like that!
Nothing is more important than this. Agree?
Read MoreKINDNESS FOR LIFE - The KIND that Breaks, Part 6
Our kindness challenge has come to end, but not before we went out with a BANG in the finale of The KIND that Breaks.
In this message, we talked about three things we can do to turn our 30 day kindness challenge into a 30 year (or more) kindness lifestyle. In addition, I got some help from some fellow STSA members who were willing to share their stories about how showing kindness has impacted them.
"Our happiness depends FAR more on how we choose to treat others, than on how we ourselves are treated."
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Whose Plan is Better: GOD'S Plan or YOURS?
Don’t answer too quickly. Of course we all know the “right” answer. We all know that God’s plan is better than our plan and that His ways are higher than ours. We know the right answer in our head, but let’s be honest – it’s not always easy to believe it, is it?
What happens when our plans get changed against our wishes? When the thing we planned for doesn’t happen the way we want it to or in the timing we "need"? What happens when our perfect plan is turned upside down by God against our wishes? What then?
Read MoreKindness When It Matters Most - The KIND that Breaks, Part 5
"Anyone unwilling to forgive is usually thinking of what was done TO THEM vs FOR THEM."
It's easy to be kind to those whom we deem worthy of our kindness (loved ones, friends, family, etc.), but there's another category of kindness that we need to look at as well. And that is kindness to those who have hurt us.
In this week's message - Part 5 of The KIND that Breaks - we look at the subject of FORGIVENESS and how we can display "Kindness When It Matters Most."
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How Hungry Are You?
I ask myself that question every year when we take our annual family vacation to Myrtle Beach – the All-You-Can-Eat capital of the world! It seems like every restaurant in the area offers some kind of buffet special - giving you the chance to fill up on your choice of a variety of culinary delights (personal favorites are Captain Georges, Angelos Italian Buffet and of course, Mammy's Kitchen!).
There's so much food to choose from, the question becomes not "what do you have to offer", but rather "HOW MUCH DO I WANT TO EAT?"
Read MoreCARRYING OUT KINDNESS - The KIND that Breaks, Part 4
It's Part 4 in The KIND that Breaks and this week we're moving from THOUGHTS (nixing negativity) and WORDS (practicing praise) to ACTION! But what we discovered is that it isn't always the big actions that communicate love; often it's the small ones.
So as we set out to Carry Out Kindness this week, remember to think SMALL, not big.
Read MorePRACTICING PRAISE - The KIND that Breaks, Part 3
It's time for the 2nd element in our 30 day kindness challenge: PRACTICING PRAISE. The goal is to find one positive thing that you can sincerely praise or affirm about your person and then tell them AND tell someone else.
According to research, that one simple activity can make a HUGE impact on even the most challenging of relationships.
Why is that? Check out part 3 of The KIND that Breaks and see for yourself.
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How to Know When You've Really Changed
In my line of work, I get all kinds of questions from all kinds of people. People want guidance: “can youhelp me make this decision?” People want answers: “why would God do that?” People want comfort: “what can I do to get through this?”
But there’s another line of questioning that’s become quite common recently and it might surprise you. People want ASSURANCE – they want to know that what they’re doing is the right thing and that they’ve done it correctly. This applies to us more today than ever before – especially to all of my fellow perfectionists and "results-oriented" friends out there.
If that's you, beware: the spiritual life poses a significant challenge to you.
Read MoreNIXING NEGATIVITY - The KIND that Breaks, Part 2
And we're off! The 30 day kindness challenge has begun and we kicked it off by discussing the first of three components: Say nothing negative, either TO your person or ABOUT them to someone else.
And before you say "That's easy; I'm not a negative person" - be sure to check out this message above. We discussed 4 different types of negativity and you might be surprised to find out what else falls under the negativity umbrella.
All that and more in part 2 of The KIND that Breaks.
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For Me, to Live is Christ
We’ve all heard St Paul’s famous words in Philippians 1:21 in which he boldly declares: "For me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain."
Powerful words aren’t they!? But have you ever stopped to think about the implications of such words? After all this isn’t just catchy slogan found on printed mugs and tees for the hipster Christian to wear loud and proud – are they? Certainly not!
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