Lifting and encouraging people must happen in any situation if it is to happen in the darkest situation.

When things are easy, we easily become lazy. When things are tough, we easily curse. On-purpose happiness, however, is not only contagious—it is unilateral. Happiness is only real when it is a choice made regardless of its backdrop of circumstance.

While difficult situations test and strengthen our skill for emotional self-control, they also prove whether our happiness is real. A diamond cut is a diamond through and through. A water glass once spilled spills water, not anything else, not even diamonds.  · · · →

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For years, the world’s brightest and most talented have been harassed and dismissed for their ingenuity. Newness goes against the old grain by definition. Newness would say, “Oldness goes against tomorrows grain.” They old guard cudgels and dominates—for a time—not because it is right, but because it is old and big.

“Teamwork” is the nonsense the old guard uses to excuse what it wants.

Calculated non-offense failed American businesses and, now, every establishment-favored candidate in the Republican party.

Why do captains despise the the turbulence that gives speed to their sails? Calmness itself was always their plotted destination.

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Life results from choices.

When corruption erupts through a society, somewhere there lies a long trail of bad decisions. When government can’t control crime, it’s doing something wrong—either unethical or incompetent. When large companies impose themselves on the rights of their customers—the people—, the customers made a bad choice in giving those companies their patronage to begin with. When children grow up to be foolish, the parents did something wrong. When we aren’t happy with our own lives, we probably overlooked more than one opportunity to learn.

The notion of choice and consequence seems nice, until it compels.

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Achieving anything takes time. Don’t quit. You’ve heard it. But, remember something else: Be busy.

The best way to know that things are working is if you are working.

Get busy. When you don’t see the results you want, don’t just do random things—that’s called “dilly-dallying”. Instead, start constructive avalanches; get good things going that will require you to do more work when they succeed.

Many people fail because they are afraid of having too much work. But, the more successful you are, the more you will want to work. Successful paths entail work. That is where to go.  · · · →

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Needs and wants present choices. Often times, we think we must choose between needs, only to find that most of what we think we need is only a want.

When our eyes get bigger than our stomachs, we over-spend and break our budgets and are forced to start from scratch. That’s when we rediscover our proper place.

Once you learn to trim your own spending you get ruthless with yourself, you take a liking to straight-shooters, and get irritated with uber-polite yes-men. If we haven’t been there we tend to criticize the manners of people who have.  · · · →

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Breaking out of chains is not easy. Succeeding at any goal requires losing some skin, making ripples on the water, kicking up dust, and evicting the status quo.

Someone will always object.

If you want to do anything, you must ask yourself: Does objecting make someone an expert? Does disagreeing give one person the right to filibuster another person’s choice?

Freedom, victory over evil, vibrancy, and a healthy, thriving life have requirements. While many people don’t object to these ends, someone always come up with excuses to interrupt their only means.

Don’t let anyone steal your dreams, not even whiners.  · · · →

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Only God’s rules can lead to great prosperity and only God’s rules can keep it.

After the Bible partially tamed and civilized the West, after more civilization spread with more Bible influence to the New World, and after the prosperity of the New World spread across the globe, God’ prosperity is no longer secret nor a commodity.

But, having piggybacked off of the benefits of the wisdom of few, the masses have been given the keys to a car like children who don’t know how to drive. Only death can come of this. And, the children will think everything unfair.  · · · →

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To people who always cower and tout false humility as a virtue, confidence seems like pride. Someone raised in a barn would call mom a Nazi for asking people to take their shoes off at the door.

It’s not that mom wants to hawk everyone, but everyone should want a clean house. And, it takes some confidence to even ask, just as it takes confidence to take off your shoes when asked, without being offended. Gratitude requires confidence.

It’s interesting how the people who complain the most about someone else’s purported “pride” usually complain about a lot of other things.  · · · →

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Psalm 122:6 prays for peace in Jerusalem. Many political leaders think along a spectrum with being pro-Israel at one end and being pro-peace at the other. Yet, the Bible seems to have them together. When Donald Trump explained that he wanted to remain objective in hopes of negotiating peace, many thought he was being less-supportive of Israel. However, those who have listened to Trump, rather than listening to Trump edited, knew otherwise. Perhaps, those who read their Bibles recognized that seeking to have peace in Jerusalem is the strongest pro-Israel position. Strange that the most pro-Israel candidate is compared to Hitler. continue reading

Patience is paramount.

When a hypocrite crosses your path, God is hoping you respond to him without hypocrisy. When a heretic enters the fold, Holy Angels keep records of your own heresy—whether your actions prove your belief that God is sovereign and stronger. When someone tries to harm your love ones—or your country—Jesus is there as the King of Kings, watching to see whether you will respond within his golden rule.

When trouble crosses your path, do you enjoy God’s method of giving you endurance enough to scale mountains or do you rebuke Him for it?  · · · →

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In the Gospels, Jesus teaches us to judge a man by his fruit. This does not mean that we judge him by his activity, but that we judge his activity by what that activity produces. This is also what he meant when he said, “I search heart and mind, yet I render to each according to his work.” God does not judge by our busyness, but by the value of our business.

Activity is good or bad based on what lasting effect comes after. While it is wrong to condemn any person, we can always judge any fruits of labor.  · · · →

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My rich dad often talked about four things that affected his bank account: 1. wild belief in big possibilities, 2. judging people by fruits, 3. accepting criticism from people who have the results you want, 4. delayed luxury gratification.

Judging by results is hard to learn. Where there is smoke, there is a fire. Things grow where we plant them. Successful people re-evaluate their methods if they see bad results. But, failures often limit themselves with artificial “can’ts” and don’t accept the truth fruit tells.

So, the rich know how to get richer and the poor are able to stay poor while wanting otherwise.  · · · →

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The real reason American voters prefer Donald Trump is violence. Jesus said that, from the beginning, the Kingdom of Heaven was a kingdom of violence—and that the violent take by force.

Many analysts are trying to understand why Trump is so popular. Many agree it is not Conservatism. But, America is made up of God’s people. He’s willing to be violent rather than politically correct.

We could view Trump as a patriot. He loves his home country and he is willing to alienate anyone and lose everything for his country. That makes sense, a president who loves his country.  · · · →

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We live in prophetic times. Normal rules aren’t working.

Gravity still works. The tide comes in and out just the same. But gravity and the tide don’t make things fall quite like they used to. Old rules are being broken and new laws of life are taking over.

We won’t be able to move forward unless we can read the writing on the wall. And that takes a prophetic gift.

And that’s the thing about prophets: they are gifts. The prophets themselves are gifts. They’re not certified by study; they are given by God. And, we should say, “Thank you.”

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