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Revelation: How to Open the Eyes of Your Heart
Revelation is a curious occurrence. The word itself means a disclosure of information by a supernatural source in most dictionaries. As I played with the word, I broke it into two parts, ‘revel’ and ‘elation’ because they describe how I feel when the Lord shows me something I did not know before. I’m aware that the word’s root is about revealing but I don’t believe that all word constructions are accidental. I revel in the revelatory. Though God has opened up scriptures or whispered pieces of wisdom to my spirit, a particular revelation comes to mind when I go through my catalog of spiritual happenings. I attended a conference at…
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How to Build a Marriage: His Needs, Her Needs
Sometimes the over-consumption of books can lead one to mistake knowledge for wisdom. This was surely the case for me when we decided to attend a home group on the topic of marriage at our church, Harvest Cathedral, in Macon, Georgia. We attended the group on the strength of our fondness for our pastors, Steve and Debbie Sawyer, though without any high expectations. I remember asking a fellow professor once how his marriage was. It was an appropriate question in the context of our conversation. His response was disarmingly honest. He called it, “functional”. I was still in the throes of our honeymoon at the time so I remember feeling…
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Boundary Lines: The Truth about Personal Balance
The boundary lines in our lives are often indistinct because we err in one of two ways in calculating what belongs inside them and what does not. Scott Peck, in his classic work, The Road Less Travelled, divides these people into those he calls neurotics and those who have a serious character flaw. (By the way, this is a must-read) The first take the blame for everything while the latter takes the blame for nothing. While some of us fall clearly within one of these two categories, most of us straddle the fence between assuming responsibility for everything and refusing culpability for anything. If we take a close look at…