02 June 2024
Two-Minute Features | 09 June 2024 | 26 May 2024

Working to Serve Others Anytime, Part 1 (TMF:2370)

Friday, June 07, 2024
Peace to Live By: Working to Serve Others Anytime, Part 1 (TMF:2370) - Daniel Litton
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       We can always be of service to others. And certainly, being of service to others gives us happiness. That’s right, anytime we want to we can help another person or group of people. And not only that, we can do it easily without much effort on our parts. “Sounds too good to be true,” you might say. “How might we do this?” Well, certainly it is through prayer, right? Prayer is easy. It doesn’t require much effort. We can sit in our recliner in our living room and do it. We can do it while we are walking from point A to point B at work. It’s so easy, so effortless. We all know things people need prayer for. We all have a request or two floating around in our heads. Things we’ve heard people say. Things we know people need help with. We think, “I wish there was a way I could help this person, but really there isn’t. There is nothing I can really do to help them.” Hold up. You can pray. We can always pray for others, always throw up the prayer up to God in hopes that he will accomplish what we want for them.

Relinquishing All or Nothing Thinking, Part 3 (TMF:2369)

Thursday, June 06, 2024
Peace to Live By: Relinquishing All or Nothing Thinking, Part 3 (TMF:2369) - Daniel Litton
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       So, what ends up happening with statements like these is that they end up spreading false statements. They end up making Christians look bad because it looks like we are a bunch of labelers, a bunch of naive followers that really don’t know what we are saying. The only way I have found for me to overcome this type of thinking error is to give it up. It is to stop believing every generalization that I am told. To realize that things are often said for ‘shock value’ and have no basis of truth in them at all, or simply, just a small grain of truth. Sometimes people, and yes Christian leaders, want things to be a certain way. But, thankfully, they aren’t that way. The truth is, there are double the good angels versus the bad ones. God has more power than perhaps you believe. Jesus’ love has more control over the power and consciousness of mankind then you may think. Yes, it is in him that all things actually hold together. He is the reason that the world continues to go round and round, that evil doesn’t gain the upper hand and ruin everyone’s lives. The dictum then is shown to be true, “God is in control.”

Relinquishing All or Nothing Thinking, Part 2 (TMF:2368)

Wednesday, June 05, 2024
Peace to Live By: Relinquishing All or Nothing Thinking, Part 2 (TMF:2368) - Daniel Litton
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       One reason I think Christians can so easily fall prey to this is because of what we have been taught about as regards the Bible. We’ve been taught that things are clear cut—that there’s no negotiation with them. These are things like God created the world, Satan is real, immorality is sin, Jesus is going to return, etc. Yes, things like these. And, while these things are all true, this doesn’t mean that we can then take this logic and apply it to everything. You know how it is. We hear things like ‘All the media is bad,’ ‘All Democrats are terrible,’ ‘Everyone in Hollywood is immoral’ and on and on. I know there are some of you out there nodding your head. “What’s the problem?” You may be saying. Yet, none of these statements are true. Not one of them. That’s the problem. So, what ends up happening with statements like these is that they end up spreading false statements. They end up making Christians look bad because it looks like we are a bunch of labelers, a bunch of naive followers that really don’t know what we are saying.

Relinquishing All or Nothing Thinking, Part 1 (TMF:2367)

Tuesday, June 04, 2024
Peace to Live By: Relinquishing All or Nothing Thinking, Part 1 (TMF:2367) - Daniel Litton
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       If we’ve read Psychologist David D. Burns’ best selling book, ‘Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy,’ we know that one of the cognitive distortions that people can suffer with is ‘All or Nothing Thinking’ (see Chapter 3). This is a particularly bad distortion because it makes everything black and white—too easy, too clear-cut. Things often aren’t that way in our world. Not everything is as clear cut as people can make it out to be. And this is especially true when talking negatively about ourselves, or about another person, or another whole group of people. This area has been a particularly bothersome one for me because I have witnessed Christians falling victim to it so frequently in our society. And I am not talking about just naive people. I’m talking about well-educated, perhaps even highly-esteemed people in some cases, becoming deceived by following this distortion, this mindset which is incorrect. One reason I think Christians can so easily fall prey to this is because of what we have been taught about as regards the Bible. We’ve been taught that things are clear cut—that there’s no negotiation with them.

Creating Easy Dictums from Scripture, Part 3 (TMF:2366)

Monday, June 03, 2024
Peace to Live By: Creating Easy Dictums from Scripture, Part 3 (TMF:2366) - Daniel Litton
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       At least to me it seems like it is a tall order. Being kind to everyone all the time? Wow, quite the feat. Yet, we know that the Apostle Paul told us we are treat others with kindness as one of the fruits of the Spirit. We are to treat others well, remember, and especially Christians?Another thing these short dictums are good for is when combating sinful habits, or even Satan himself. We know that Jesus modeled for us the reciting of verses in the presence of Satan when he himself was being tempted. That’s a hard thing, isn’t it, to picture that Jesus ever was tempted, or to think that Satan would even go there? But he did, and Jesus was, and it’s a good thing because it gives us a perfect example. So, if we have our dictums, then we can cut straight to the root of Satan’s temptation. One dictum we could create is, “Sexual immorality harms the body.” Again, not a direct quote from Scripture, but definitely found in there. This cuts straight to the point both of us and for Satan. We say that a few times and then that sin doesn’t seem so appealing anymore.