Strife is a time waster. If you could eliminate strife from your life, your free time to create, build, and change things would go through the roof.

Where does strife come from and how can I eliminate it from my daily life?

Buying a used car can be tricky.  They may tell you all about how wonderful that old car is but do they tell you about the oil leak?  The rust underneath?  The bent frame or the flood the vehicle went through?

Satan doesn’t tell you everything, either.   When we read the story of Adam and Eve, we get the full picture of Satan’s “sales pitch.”

HERE ARE THE THINGS THAT ADAM AND EVE WERE NOT TOLD WHEN THEY INNOCENTLY REACHED OUT AND PLUCKED THAT FORBIDDEN FRUIT:

Your eye is the most sophisticated camera in the world.  It takes lenses, reflection, focus, and communication to send “sight” to the brain.

Your spirit must be equally focused to communicate “insight” into your soul. 

Here are three steps I use to “see” further into 2020 and “focus” that image into my soul:

The commercialism of Christmas is in high gear.  Amazon trucks are rolling.  Malls are packed.  Trees and tinsel prepare for the Christmas Day “loot.”

There is a “presence,” an atmosphere in Christmas that’s about a lot more than Santa Claus.

HERE, FOR ME, IS THE “PRESENCE” OF CHRISTMAS:

I love to pray.  It hasn’t always been that way.  I have moved from “desire” to “discipline” to “delight.”

LET ME TELL YOU A FEW THINGS THAT HAVE HELPED ME:

Evangelist Reinhard Bonnke went to heaven this week. Perhaps the greatest evangelist of all time, he watched 79 MILLION people respond to Christ in his 35 years of crusades.

I knew him well.

HERE IS MY STORY OF THIS GREAT GENERAL:

Destiny” is a big word.  It sounds like your whole life in seven letters. 

Actually, it is easier thank you think.  Destiny is when you connect your purpose to the purpose of God.

God has a purpose.  It is eternal.  It was there before the world began.  Some parts of that purpose, however, will not be done until we connect our purpose to God’s purpose.

Here are my four main concepts of how to shape your destiny:

I was surprised the other day when someone told me that many Americans are not even celebrating Thanksgiving.  They see it now as a pointless, even worn out holiday.  Some even disagree that our founding leaders were godly people.

Ok.  I agree it’s more than turkey and cranberry. 

Here are my thoughts about the “why” of Thanksgiving and the things moving in my heart right now about it:

What a stunner.  A man just ran a marathon (26.2 miles) in under 2 HOURS. 

Eliud Kipchoge easily broke the “impossible” goal.  His secret?  “If I keep on running, my body responds.”

Endurance is the ability to push yourself toward your goals when your body, mind, and spirit say, “I’ve had enough.”  Actually, you haven’t. 

What are the secrets of endurance in your life, your marriage, your legacy? 

RESTORATION.  I love that word.  It speaks of hope, of past mistakes being made up for. 

God is a God of restoration.  He doesn’t ignore failure.  He gives us the courage to face failure and defeat what defeated us.

Try these ideas about restoring your past failures: 

I tried a little gardening when I was first married (no money!).  I usually ended up with a huge pile of weeds and some tiny, even microscopic “fruit.”

My neighbor staked his tomatoes with “PVC” pipe and carefully poured water down the pipe to the deep roots of his plants.  He weeded every day.  He fertilized, protected with insecticide (not so good now!) and organized his rows so that each plant had space to grow.

Is it any wonder that his tomatoes looked the size of oranges when mine looked like marbles?

Try these five simple observations on productivity:

Betrayal is as old as humankind.  A strong alliance or partnership is suddenly dissolved.  Close, intimate friends are wounded.  Cynicism sets in as it seems “no one can be trusted.”

There’s hope after betrayal. 

We’ve all been there (including me) and I can help you with a few perspectives:

Elijah had an amazing day.  He wiped out 850 idolatrous prophets and ended a 3 1/2 year nationwide drought by one prayer!  Not bad, huh?  Why in the world is he praying to die the next day?

Mood swings.  They are real.  It feels like the floor disappeared and you are in a free fall. 

What was the source of Elijah’s downward spiral and how did he come out of it?

A policeman has a uniform, a badge, and a weapon.  Without them, he blends into the crowd.  He has no authority.  Wearing them, he carries all authority.

Jesus said, “I have all authority in heaven and earth.”  Why are Christians still living as “victims” instead of “victors?”

Let’s go to work on how you see yourself and why you have lived a life of “retreat” and “defeat”:

The famous hymn, “It Is Well" is one of my favorites.  We all love to sing it but never answer this question:  “Is it well with my soul?” 

HERE ARE THREE KEY QUESTIONS THAT WILL HELP YOU TO KNOW THAT:

We have all made bad decisions. How can you undo them? By making ONE GOOD DECISION. Like a compass, one good decision will start you on the way to navigate out of a world of bad decisions!

Electricity flows through connection.  When connections fray, a “short-circuit” can happen. Living day in, day out for many years can fray your relationship. 

How do you restore the “power” and “magnetism” of marriage? 

HERE ARE SOME THOUGHTS I HAVE HAD TO WORK THROUGH MYSELF IN MY 43 YEARS:

Have you ever thrown something away you wish you had back again?  Whatever you do, don’t throw away your confidence!  You have every reason to hold on to it. 

“Confidence” affects everything:  your spiritual life, your work life, your social life, your moral life. 

Here are five elements of confidence that can shape your legacy:

An insult is a hard thing to handle.  Our pride, position, and even personhood is attacked.  We all tend to automatically lash out in retaliation.

How do you resist the urge to “fight fire with fire?” 

Here are some thoughts to help you calm down and let God fight your battles:

Decisions cause regret.  Someone said, “If you made no decisions, you would have no regrets!”  Regret can paralyze your forward motion for years.

How do you recover from a bad decision…especially one that can never be reversed? God can defeat your regret. 

Here are some steps I have followed to get it OFF my trail: