09 April 2023
Two-Minute Features | 16 April 2023 | 02 April 2023

Avoiding Negative & Critical Christians, Part 2 (TMF:2070)

Friday, April 14, 2023
Peace to Live By: Avoiding Negative & Critical Christians, Part 2 (TMF:2070) - Daniel Litton
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       Now, I understand, that eliminates those groups of people, whole bodies of churches, who are immediately disqualified from giving a fair representation of God. We see it all the time. There are those in our world who have been highly critical of Christians. They point out the hypocrisies that are immediately apparent in a lot of church-going people. This just isn’t found in the older generations either. It isn’t the Baby-boomers and the Gen X’ers who are only the offenders here, as is often believed. No, actually, there are some among the Millennials that give those folks a run for their money. Millennials can be legalistic. They can be hard to get along with. They can be very negative. They can be rule orientated and contradictory in the way they go about living their lives as well. You know some who are like this. Surely you do. I want to present a reasonable God, a God who cares, one who is actually on our side. I want the truth of the Bible to be easy to understand, easy to implement, simple to have a relationship with God. Isn’t this what we all want?

Avoiding Negative & Critical Christians, Part 1 (TMF:2069)

Thursday, April 13, 2023
Peace to Live By: Avoiding Negative & Critical Christians, Part 1 (TMF:2069) - Daniel Litton
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       Who wants to be around a negative person, especially a negative Christian? A negative Christian denotes that there is nothing to be gained by having a personal relationship with God. We don’t want people in lower levels of consciousness to think upon seeing us that all God adds to our lives is more negativity that has to be dealt with in the form of rules and commands. That doesn’t do anybody any good. Who is going to want that? Who is going to want to restrict freedom and have something negative? Yet, if that is what we project to the world, people aren’t going to believe in Jesus, they aren’t going to want to trust in God, and they aren’t going to be want to be around us. Now, I understand, that eliminates those groups of people, whole bodies of churches, who are immediately disqualified from giving a fair representation of God. We see it all the time. There are those in our world who have been highly critical of Christians. They point out the hypocrisies that are immediately apparent in a lot of church-going people. This just isn’t found in the older generations either.

A Consistent Positivity in Our Speech, Part 3 (TMF:2068)

Wednesday, April 12, 2023
Peace to Live By: A Consistent Positivity in Our Speech, Part 3 (TMF:2068) - Daniel Litton
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       God help us from negative people. What should be our responses as we sit down and mediate about things? We should hear, “It’s amazing all the good that this person or that group is doing for others! They are making a big difference.” We should hear, “A lot of people mean well in our society. How blessed we are to live in the United States.” It should be said, “It was nice how so and so helped me the other day. People sure are kind toward one another.” If we hear mostly negative, or if we hear a mixed bag of the negative with the positive, statements that fluctuate based on a person’s mood, then we see more and more disobedience to God. It all starts in the mind, in the thoughts we think. If we aren’t thinking faith-filled thoughts, then there is no way we can speak positively when the time arises. It’s up to us to make the change—to put aside the negative character traits and embrace the positive ones. God isn’t going to do it for us. No, we have to do it through his power, his enabling.

A Consistent Positivity in Our Speech, Part 2 (TMF:2067)

Tuesday, April 11, 2023
Peace to Live By: A Consistent Positivity in Our Speech, Part 2 (TMF:2067) - Daniel Litton
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       No matter how good you think you are in living out your Christian life, in how closely you follow the Bible and what it says, the reality is if that’s really true then that is going to be demonstrated in mostly positive speech. A person is going to be speaking blessings mostly. If you sit down and have a conversation with a person and what you hear is: “Boy, things are sure messed up in Washington. Look at this and that,” or you hear, “Sin is just increasing more and more in the world. The world is dark and dreary” or if the person says, “People are always up to no good. No one can be trusted,” if you hear these things, then you know you are dealing with a person on the lower levels of consciousness. Our speech gives away were we stand in our lives. The reality is, your negativity has blinded your focus on the positive things in the world, those things that the Apostle Paul told us to think about (see Philippians 4:8). You think you are wise in your ability to recognize sin and be sad about it. Actually, all you’re doing is being disobedient to God.

A Consistent Positivity in Our Speech, Part 1 (TMF:2066)

Monday, April 10, 2023
Peace to Live By: A Consistent Positivity in Our Speech, Part 1 (TMF:2066) - Daniel Litton
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       James points us to a consistent level in our speech. Since we know that our speech comes from the thoughts we have been thinking, as Jesus told his disciples, then we know that the thoughts we contemplate on in our minds matter greatly. But the point here is consistency. This is what I’ve been saying all along. This is why I have been saying we need to reach the higher states of consciousness. James said God doesn’t want us speaking good and bad, positive and negative, helpful and hurtful, at the same time, alongside each other. No, James tells us God wants us to be consistently positive in our speech, which means we need to be consistently positive in our thinking. And in order for this to happen, a transformation in our lives has to occur. For many, it simply hasn’t happened yet. No matter how good you think you are in living out your Christian life, in how closely you follow the Bible and what it says, the reality is if that’s really true then that is going to be demonstrated in mostly positive speech.