Daily Life

Criticism is a Cancer

August 2, 2018 by Tim Sherfy

I heard Pastor Craig Groeschel say in a recent message, “When emotions are high, wisdom is low.” How true. When we let our emotions rule the day, we are destined to say or do something we will regret. Nowhere is this more evident than in our conversations with other people. Too often we find ourselves being criticized for something or we are the ones doing the criticizing. Criticism is a cancer that should be eradicated from the life of every follower of Jesus. Our default interaction with anyone should be that of encouragement (Ephesians 4:29-32).

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Humans, as a rule, love to criticize. Whether from a place of pride or as an act of defense, criticism spills from our lips easily and without warning. Scripture contains many warnings against using criticism, but we have either forgotten or perhaps choose to ignore those parts of God’s Word.

Fear or Faith

July 30, 2018 by Tim Sherfy

Our life is a grand adventure. If you don’t believe it, spend some more time reading through God’s Word. We are part of the most epic adventure of all time. You should be excited by the role you are called to play at this moment in history. This is your moment in the story. Every day, we will face decisions and have to make the choice between fear or faith.

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As Christine Cain put it in her book, “Unexpected”, “…at every juncture in your journey, you will find yourself in an impossible place with a decision to make—to shrink back in fear or to rise up in faith. One will keep you where you are, and one will deliver you to your future.”

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We Need a Revival

July 26, 2018 by Tim Sherfy

I am currently going a through a Bible reading plan that guides me through thirty-one days of praying for my nation. It pains me to see how far the country in which I live is drifting from God. To be clear, I don’t believe there is any such thing as a “Christian Nation” (for an excellent, in-depth study on this topic, see “The Myth of a Christian Nation” by Gregory A. Boyd). The history of my country is filled with atrocities which should never be associated with the name of Christ. Still, growing up in the 70’s and 80’s, it seemed my Country had a far greater reverence and respect for God. My parents feel their generation was even more dedicated to God, and I do not doubt this to be true.

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Even in the 1960’s, A.W. Tozer made this comment: “We need a revival! We need a revival of consecration to death, a revival of happy abandonment to the will of God that will laugh at sacrifice and count it a privilege to bear the cross through the heat and burden of the day. We are too much influenced by the world and too little controlled by the Spirit.”

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Get Over It

July 23, 2018 by Tim Sherfy

A.W. Tozer wrote, “In today’s society, great numbers of people seem unable to deal with God’s revelation in Christ. They run and hide, just as Adam and Eve did. Today, however, they do not hide behind trees but behind such things as philosophy and reason and even theology.” I have seen too much of this and it makes me sick. People hiding beyond their church, association, or denomination anger me. We debate trivial topics instead of being about the mission given us By Jesus.

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Oh, we love to pontificate. We love to make our theological positions known and every one of us is convinced they are correct. I don’t care who is correct about non-essential matters. I only want to make certain I get the essentials right.

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Do You Know Who You’re Talking To?

July 19, 2018 by Tim Sherfy

I believe we too often forget what a privilege it is to pray. At some point, we began to take it for granted. When was the last time you considered what was actually taking place when you began to pray? Prayer is our opportunity to talk to the one and only almighty God of the Universe. We are conversing with the One who designed and created not just ourselves, but everything on this planet and every other planet.

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Truth be told, we should all be far too intimidated and awestruck to even utter a word in His presence. In His grace, He has adopted us as sons and daughters into His family (Romans 8:14-17), which means we not only have a right to be in His presence, we have the intimacy of a familial relationship to be able to speak to Him with ease.