04 June 2023
Two-Minute Features | 11 June 2023

How God Really Views Us as His Children, Part 2 (TMF:2110)

Friday, June 09, 2023
Peace to Live By: How God Really Views Us as His Children, Part 2 (TMF:2110) - Daniel Litton
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       Suppose for a second your son or daughter goes to a friends house for an evening and has a good time. Then the child comes home and says, “My friend’s dad was really nice. I wish you were like his dad.” What is going happen? You are going to feel jealous of the other guy, aren’t you? Well, it’s no different with God. If we say, “I like living in this particular sin; yes, I really like it.” God’s going to get upset and jealous of our lack of devotion to his truth. It’s a wonderful thing, however, that we have God’s grace. Let’s stop for a moment and reflect, what is God’s grace? How could we define it? Grace is deferment of what we really deserve, it is the suspension of what is coming to us, it is his patience in waiting to see if we well change our course, it is his reprieve of judgment. Grace is God’s favor toward us, his generosity in all kinds of ways; it is his wanting what is the best of us—which is often times what we really want.

How God Really Views Us as His Children, Part 1 (TMF:2109)

Thursday, June 08, 2023
Peace to Live By: How God Really Views Us as His Children, Part 1 (TMF:2109) - Daniel Litton
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       The next verse says, “Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, "He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us"? But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” God wants us to be helping ourselves; that is why he gets upset and jealous when we aren’t doing what is good for us. Moses noted God saying this in Exodus 20. There he recorded in discussing people worshipping false idols instead of God: “You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God” (Exodus 20:5, ESV). You see, when we have made a commitment to God, he wants us to be his and wants what is best for us. To understand this, we can just place ourselves in God’s shoes, or try to. Suppose for a second your son or daughter goes to a friends house for an evening and has a good time. Then the child comes home and says, “My friend’s dad was really nice. I wish you were like his dad.” What is going happen? You are going to feel jealous of the other guy, aren’t you?

We are Dominated By the Thoughts We Think (TMF:2108)

Wednesday, June 07, 2023
Peace to Live By: We are Dominated By the Thoughts We Think (TMF:2108) - Daniel Litton
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       Again, it’s so simple, and I think the easiness of this can make some people think it’s not going to work. If we are observing our thoughts—the thoughts we don’t want and of which we want to go away—if we observe those thoughts and let them pass, they will indeed pass after a brief moment of time. The thought will lighten and go away. This is really important because it is the world who is dominated by thoughts they don’t want to think. Interesting isn’t it? Everyone, no matter who we are, has thoughts they don’t want to think about. We have thoughts we know we shouldn’t think about, and we are told in Scripture the thoughts we should allow to flow freely in our minds—those thoughts which God approves of. To be God’s friend and not his enemy, all of that (really, stop and consider this), all of that comes from our minds. If we allow ourselves to dwell on, contemplate, roll over, consider, and whatever else, those thoughts on regular basis, there is no way on this green earth that we can be pleasing to God, and really be his own that he is proud of.

Being a Friend of the World, Part 2 (TMF:2107)

Tuesday, June 06, 2023
Peace to Live By: Being a Friend of the World, Part 2 (TMF:2107) - Daniel Litton
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       How is it, then, that we don’t make ourselves an enemy of God, but rather make ourselves God’s friend? Notice, first, that James informs us that we can make ourselves an enemy of God. It isn’t that James is only talking about a person who doesn’t believe in Jesus versus a person who does. That would be the easy way out. Rather, he is telling us, or really warning us, that we can make ourselves an enemy of God. How do we, though, do the reverse of this? Is it not what I’ve been talking about from the very beginning of our study here? It is through the power of Giving Up Control, the power of surrendering, giving up and surrendering those thoughts which are contrary to the truth, contrary to what God wants. Yes, it is from our minds that behavior comes, and if we are going to have the right behavior, then reasonably that would mean we got to have the right thoughts flowing in our heads. If we let the bad thoughts flow, we are making ourselves an enemy of God. Again, it’s so simple, and I think the easiness of this can make some people think it’s not going to work.

Being a Friend of the World, Part 1 (TMF:2106)

Monday, June 05, 2023
Peace to Live By: Being a Friend of the World, Part 1 (TMF:2106) - Daniel Litton
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       Certainly, there are all kinds of ‘external’ ways we can be a friend of the world and then find ourselves an enemy of God. We can have bad thoughts toward our brothers or sisters, be angry with them, be jealous of them, compare ourselves incessantly with them on Facebook. We can speak malicious things about them, we can say things that aren’t true, and we can believe the worst about them. We can choose to see ourselves as totally awesome, as having arrived at a good, enduring faith, as having no need to grow, as being better than most, as being better than this guy, or that guy. We can not listen to what our mom or dad tells us, we can act like total fools, we can not care about how our actions affect others, we can not show sympathy when sympathy is needed. We can never read our Bibles, hardly go to church, not spend time with any Christians, not spend time with God, forget to pray, and even choose to not believe in God anymore altogether. How is it, then, that we don’t make ourselves an enemy of God, but rather make ourselves God’s friend?