September 5th, 2007
Editor’s Note: The following is a report on the practical applications of Brienne Murk book, Eyes Wide Open: Avoiding the Heartbreak of Emotional Promiscuity, (Regal Books, 2007).
Abstaining from sex before marriage is a wise decision, but it’s not enough to keep your heart from being broken. If you give your emotions away at the wrong time or to the wrong person — even without giving your body away — you’ll still end up with deep heart wounds that God never intended you to suffer. But if you guard your heart and pursue purity in every part of your life, you’ll experience the blessing of God’s best for your relationships.
Here’s how you can avoid the heartbreak of emotional promiscuity and pursue true purity: (more…)
September 5th, 2007
How Both Sexes Can Win
From the Series—Battle of the Sexes
Feb 18, 2007
From : www.theaterchurch.com
This evotional begins a new series: The Battle of the Sexes: How Both Sexes can Win.
There is an awful lot of confusion about what it means to be a man and what it means to be a woman. Some of the misconceptions are promulgated by our culture. Unfortunately, some of the misconceptions have been promulgated by the church. The goal of this series is to cut through some of the confusion by doing a little reverse engineering. I like to think of Scripture as the human source code. It reveals God’s original intent. (more…)
September 5th, 2007
What’s Wrong with this Worship Service?
The answer surprised me
by Robert D. Smith
A few years ago, on a business trip, I visited a church near my hotel. Arriving a bit early, I was greeted warmly by the pastor.
Unfortunately, the service was different from what I was used to. The music was not to my taste, and the order of service was unfamiliar.
Why would people have a service like this, I wondered. It really doesn’t facilitate worship at all. I wish I’d asked a few people where I should go this morning.
I was relieved they weren’t having Communion. No telling what they would do to that. (more…)
September 5th, 2007
What’s So Great about Being Single?
Plenty! Here’s why.
by Camerin Courtney
I’ll admit it—there aredays when if I were to write an article called “Why Being Single Stinks,” it would fill volumes. Days when the entire congregation at my church seems made of happy couples and their charming children—while I sit in my pew alone. Or when I receive still another wedding invitation and can’t even picture whom I’d ask to accompany me, let alone whom I could someday walk down the aislewith once my turn comes.
But thankfully, this isn’t the whole story. Just the other day my roommate, Karen, and I were enjoying our Saturday morning tradition of banana chocolate-chip pancakes—she dressed in plaid flannel pants and a tie-dyed t-shirt and I in my pjs and a Pebbles Flintstone-inspired ponytail. As we plopped down in front of the tube to watch a rerun of Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman, I flashed her a smile and asked, “Aren’t you glad we’re single?” She looked at (more…)
September 5th, 2007
Speaking to the Secular Mind
We can’t win non-Christians if we don’t know how they think, and we can’t know how they think if we never enter their world.
by Bill Hybels
Driving home from church one day, I pulled behind a guy on his Harley-Davidson. I noticed a bumper sticker on the rear fender of his motorcycle, so I pulled closer. It read: [EXPLETIVE] GUILT.
After the shock wore off, I was struck by how different his world was from the one I’d just left, and even from the world a generation ago. In my day, we felt guilty, I thought. Now, it’s not only “I don’t feel guilty,” but “[Expletive] guilt.”
There was a time when your word was a guarantee, when marriage was permanent, when ethics were assumed. Not so very long ago, heaven and hell were unquestioned, and caring for the poor was an obvious part of what it meant to be a decent person. Conspicuous consumption was frowned upon because it was conspicuous. The label self-centered was to be avoided at all costs, because it said something horrendous about your character.
Today, all of that has changed. Not only is it different, but people can hardly remember what the (more…)
Avoid the Heartbreak of Emotional Promiscuity
