Are You Playing The Game That No One Wins?
February 18, 2025 by Julie Morris
Filed under Health and Fitness
By Julie Morris
If you knew a game was impossible to win, would you play it?
Millions of people are playing–and losing at this game–without even knowing it. Maybe you’re one of them.
I’m talking about the Blame Game. You know, the one that says when someone else is “it,” you’re excused from all responsibility.
A New Thing
February 17, 2025 by Karen King
Filed under Faith Articles
By Karen King
Isaiah 43:19 KJV- “Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.”
As a new year dawns, traditionally it is a time to make New Year’s resolutions. Some people want to be more organized; others want to lose weight or spend more time at the gym; many Christians want to study their Bible more. It is easy to make a resolution but it is hard to keep it.
Failed New Year’s Resolutions
February 16, 2025 by Darren Marlar
Filed under Humor
By Darren Marlar
January 1st – I resolve to read my bible in one year. Day one.
January 2nd – I read day two in my bible.
January 8th – Say, wasn’t I supposed to be reading my bible every day? Well, I guess I blew it. The whole year is a wash now.
That’s how it always happens. In January I promise I’m going to do 100 sit-ups a day, give up sugar, run five miles each morning, and contribute all of my spare change to those less fortunate while making time for eight hours of prayer every evening before bed. About three hours later I find out exactly how weak my resolve truly is when I hear the muffled sound of the vanilla ice cream calling me from the freezer. I try to ignore it, but end up failing. I give up and say to myself, “Oh well – maybe next year. Now where’s that chocolate sauce? Hmmm… a new episode of CSI is on tonight. Ooh, it’s an eight hour CSI marathon… sweet!”
Pointing Fingers
February 15, 2025 by Cheri Cowell
Filed under Daily Devotions, Life Topics
By Cheri Cowell
Have you ever spent time with someone who finds fault with everything and everyone? These people drain us. It’s easy if we just chime in, but tiring if we’re working hard not to join them. While walking by someone dressed inappropriately a negative comment slips, then the conversation quickly turns to the loose morals of society and how our mother never would have let us out of the house dressed that way. How easily we use our superior yardstick to judge others.
In Jesus’ day, the religious leaders were the keepers of the moral codes, and thus arbiters of who was acceptable to God. If anyone had studied the codes they would have discovered no one followed them and thus no one deserved acceptance. In order to cover this weakness, the elite created more difficult-to-track rules. Following rules—and pointing fingers when they were broken—consumed them.
Jesus came along and said, “I am setting up a new kingdom with a new way.” He knew we couldn’t keep all the rules, and that keeping rules was not the point. He wanted us to simply love others as we have been loved, and to give grace as we’ve been given grace. That doesn’t leave us much room for pointing fingers, does it?
A Horn, A Drum, And A Gun
February 14, 2025 by admin
Filed under Christian Life, For Him
By Ed Crumley
In the early years of my life, at least the ones I can remember, I wanted the same three things every Christmas: a horn, a drum, and a gun. Not sure why. We were in the midst of World War II, so at least the gun could’ve had something to do with the war. Maybe I wanted the musical instruments to make my war games sound more dramatic. Or, perhaps I could blame Roy Rogers, our musical cowboy hero, who always got the bad guys with his nickel-plated revolvers blazing.
During those times you couldn’t buy many toys, so Dad made Christmas presents for us. He got out his tools and built things out of wood. Big things like a rocking boat or a rocking horse complete with mane, bridal, and saddle. Those were fine secondary gifts as long as the three required items mentioned above also came in Santa’s bag.
In later years, our Christmas present requests migrated more toward clothes. My brother and I both had to have SMU football jerseys with the number 37, the number of our local hero, Doak Walker. I don’t know why Ken couldn’t have had some lesser player’s number instead. In junior high, my gift request reflected fashion. There was a cool kid at school who was the original Fonz. I had to have the same jacket and scarf that he wore. Funny, but when I put them on, I didn’t look like The Fonz.
