24 July 2022
Two-Minute Features | 31 July 2022 | 17 July 2022

Wanting Something Too Much, Part 2 (TMF:1905)

Friday, July 29, 2022
Peace to Live By: Wanting Something Too Much, Part 2 (TMF:1905) - Daniel Litton
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       Here’s what happens when we want something too much. Because we desire it so much, it cuts off God’s flow of power to help us to receive whatever it is. The craving, having become strong, brings forth death. You will find, for instance, that a person who is say, in their mid-thirties and isn’t married (and who wants to be), you will often find in talking to that person that they simply have too strong of a desire to in fact get married. And this has caused God’s power to be relinquished. Their strong desire has prevented them from receiving that which they have wanted to receive. They’ve spent a great amount of time on dating websites, going to this date and that date, considering this person at church (the one who really didn’t match what they wanted), old and young, and they’ve gotten nowhere. What is the key to this person’s dilemma or anyone’s dilemma in this type of situation? Simply to say, “If I get married that is good. However, if I don’t, I’m am satisfied with that as well.” Now, for some of you right now, that sends shockwaves through your body. Making a statement like that seems absolutely terrifying.

Wanting Something Too Much, Part 1 (TMF:1904)

Thursday, July 28, 2022
Peace to Live By: Wanting Something Too Much, Part 1 (TMF:1904) - Daniel Litton
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       Through all of this, though, while we as humans, or Christians, do in fact do good, there is the other part of us. There’s the other side. It’s what the Bible calls sin. And the Bible even says we all have a sin-nature. That’s why we need Jesus’ sacrifice. Yes, we have desires. We have good desires and bad desires. I have noticed unfortunately that even the good desire tends to become a negative if we are not careful. I wish I didn’t have to say that, but it’s true. What I mean is that often the desires we see as good become too strong. Too strong of a wanting for anything pulls us away from God. When that happens, we can’t say, “All that matters is God.” We end up saying, “All that matters is my career, and of course God.” We say, “All that matters is finding a wife, and of course God matters too.” Or, we say, “All the matters is reaching retirement, and yes, of course, God matters as well.” None of these statements work for us. They violate the first command Charlton Heston received on the mountain.

Trials Teach Us Things, Cause Us to Grow (TMF:1903)

Wednesday, July 27, 2022
Peace to Live By: Trials Teach Us Things, Cause Us to Grow (TMF:1903) - Daniel Litton
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       Trials teach us things—they allow us to grow. Other people’s trials also teach us if we let them. Trials can bring us closer to God, but really, if they do that it is because we weren’t close enough to him in the first place, right? When we are able to live life positively, to be on that positive flow of water, we see things differently. Eventually, nothing seems to be too dramatic—too bothersome to us. Verses 13-15: “Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death” (ESV). We as Christians do a lot of good. Really, on a human-level, all humans do varying degrees of good, right? You don’t have to be a die-hard Christian to be one who participates in the basic good for others. In fact, our American society prides itself on people doing good for others. We see it in the good times and in the bad times.

Satan's Will & Natural Change (TMF:1902)

Tuesday, July 26, 2022
Peace to Live By: Satan's Will & Natural Change (TMF:1902) - Daniel Litton
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       Now we can see better into why God allows Satan to do certain things. Satan thinks he is causing ruin, but God sees past that to the good. Looking at trials in light of giving up control we see that if we do not have too strong of an attachment to anything we really succeed. Jesus is the only One who is constant. The writer of Hebrews told us we are to fasten our ship’s anchor onto him. And in that analogy, the waters represent life. Water moves around; things change. God doesn’t change. With this in view then, negative things happening isn’t as shocking because we have given up strong attachment to things. We have our parents, our spouse, our children, our career, our house, our church, our money, our reputation. At the end of the day, though, because God is really all that matters, changes to these things while they make us sad perhaps for a certain prescribed time, they don’t hurt us for the long-term. This is the crown of life. We receive the crown of life when we are able to navigate our ships through the waters safely.

What is the Crown of Life? (TMF:1901)

Monday, July 25, 2022
Peace to Live By: What is the Crown of Life? (TMF:1901) - Daniel Litton
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       What is this crown of life that James is talking about? In one sense, when we come to the end of our lives, having made it there, no matter who we are in the Christian realm we are going to receive the promise of living our lives (after we transcend this earth) with the Lord Jesus forever, no matter where he is at. That’s all good and dandy. That’s the future, and it will be glorious; it will be realistic and awesome at the same time. However, there is more to it I think when James discusses the crown of life here. I’m not much into Greek, but to understand this phrase here better it literally means that we “will receive the crown [that is] life.” In a sense, reading it that way it seems to be something that we receive while we are still currently living this life on the earth. It all goes back to what I’ve been saying. Trials then produce good for us. See that? It’s not just me saying that to make you feel good. It’s the actual end result of the trials that James is talking about here.