Charis

In his weekly column on Christian music, Christianity Today writer Russ Breimeier writes about the power of those fish symbols many Christians like to put on their cars. He says that if we want the credit for good behavior when we drive, “then we need to accept the downside of the fish. It brands us as a Christian…

I’m listening to Joel Osteen teaching on “Expecting the Best.” He’s talking about the difference between faith and fear and our perspective. He quoted 2 Timothy 1:7, “God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” This is a scripture I’ve spoken over myself a lot because of my struggles with fearful thinking. But Osteen made a point I had never considered before.

He says that the Amplified Bible explains “sound mind” as “a well-balanced and disciplined mind.” Osteen makes this point: “In other words, we’re not going to have any power if we don’t first know how to discipline our mind. We’re not going to live in victory if we don’t know how to control our thought life.” …

In today’s Utmost devotional, Chambers writes this rather startling statement:

If you are debating as to whether or not God can deliver from sin, then either let Him do it or tell Him that He cannot.

Startling, I say, because of its directness and simplicity.…

Chri Sumberg, in an essay called “The War on Common Sense” (published in Orion), writes, “why not begin by stating what we already know: The Good Book is not a conservative text. Neither is it a liberal text. It is a spiritual text; and as such it is—or should be—above the political fray.”

Though I doubt […]

The October Enjoying Everyday Life (from Joyce Meyer Ministries) has an article on the faith of Christopher Columbus. It includes some amazing quotes from Columbus:

It was the Lord who put into my mind the fact that it would be possible to sail from here to the Indies. All who heard of my project rejected it […]

I cannot do everything so I choose those things which are vital and excellent and of real value. I have wisdom and I am able to distinguish the highest and the best things for me to do.—Philippians 1:10

from Joyce Meyer’s The Secret Power of Speaking God’s Word