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How to Tell if You Have Self-Destructive Tendencies
I imagine most everyone feels self-destructive at one point or another. Sometimes the teen years can prove too much or during times of great stress, we can all separate from our selves emotionally. But one of a successful and healthy person’s duties is to care for themselves, making sure that they don’t turn their lives into a train wreck that can claim lives other than just their own. Being self-destructive, like most things is a matter of degree. While perhaps some are just a bit careless with their lives, others are bent on ending a relationship with themselves once and for all. Rare is the person who never struggles with…
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Six Signs You Experience an Abundant Life
I suppose each person has their own idea of what an abundant life looks like, but I am pretty sure people agree on what it feels like to lack one. The promise of an abundant life is perhaps one of the most abused promises precisely because of our individual interpretations. And when those interpretations are mostly external, expectations are likely to be disappointed. The one sure place to look for signs of an abundant life is the only one who really understood what one was. And I suppose even Jesus, like the rest of us, suffered interruptions of that life, particularly in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the cross.…
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How to Make All Things New
Every time I think of the scene in The Passion of the Christ where Jesus tells His mother, Mary, Behold, I am making all things new, I feel my heart lurch. This is the hope of the Christian, isn’t it? That the old life with its hurts, angers, and grief is now dead. Our new lives have begun in Christ. And yet, what a disappointment to wake up to find the old habits piled on oneself like a giant load of dirty laundry. I believe that many pastors mean well when they tell us that we are new creations in Christ without mentioning the hard part. Even now, when I…