By Rick Renner
How do you see yourself? As a champion who wins nearly every fight? Or as a loser — someone who struggles along, never seeming to conquer a single problem? How you perceive yourself is very important because it will ultimately affect the way other people see you.
In this podcast, I discuss how to avoid becoming your mistake. We all make mistakes. They are part of life, but we must avoid becoming our mistakes.
One of the most important things that Christians need to grasp, is that we are not defined by what we do, our failures or accomplishments, we are defined by who God says we are.
Jesse Duplantis is a popular American televangelist and recently a left-wing news site shared a video of Duplantis speaking at a fund-raising event for another prominent televangelist, Kenneth Copeland. In the brief clip, Duplantis appears to make the outrageous claim that one of the reasons Christ hasn’t returned yet is because believers are not giving enough money. If Christians just gave more, Jesus would come sooner. I am not exactly sure the full point Duplantis was trying to make as the video seems to be cut off before he provided further explanation on what he meant. But as it stands, I don’t recall the Lord listing an increase in Church giving as one of the birth pangs leading to the Lord’s imminent return in Matthew 24. Though embarrassing for many Christians, these type of stories are a good reminder of one of the fundamentals of the Christian faith. As we read the Bible, we see time and again, that it does not hide the failures of the men and women of God. David, who was …
In this podcast, I discuss one of the worst chapter breaks in the Bible and how it has the potential to profoundly impact your relationship with God.
There are some really big questions out there. In every area of expertise there are people who sit around and discuss these questions. Science is discovering that it knows less and less about the origins of the universe and all that this entails as it asks more and more questions. Questions are everywhere. Most conversations we have are questions. Even going to the store involves questions. “How are you?” Will that be everything for you today?” We use questions to be polite but we could ask questions to discover things about each other. Good questions cut through the superficial judgments we make every day. We also judge people by the way we look. Our clothes seem to speak loudly to each other. When I wear a suit and have my hair perfect and walk into a room carrying a briefcase, I am treated much differently than when I wear my regular clothes or my work clothes. There’s a saying that clothes make the man. They certainly make the image of the man. Then there is …
In an interview with ABC‘s George Stephanopoulis, Ben Carson, who serves as secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development in the US government, made the amazing statement that Americans need to toughen up (he actually said grow up) and quit being offended over everything. And this is all the more incredible considering that Ben Carson is black. Some would argue that he has multiple reasons to be offended in today’s American society. But Carson refuses to go down that road telling Stephanopoulis: “We’ve reached a point in our society where we dissect everything and try to ascribe some nefarious notion to it. We really need to move away from that. We need to move away from being offended by everything, of going through history and looking at everything, of renaming everything. . “I mean, think about the fact that some of our universities, some of our prestigious universities, have a relationship with the slave trade. Should we go and rename those universities? . “It really gets to a point of being ridiculous after …
In this podcast I want to talk about a Christian version of “The Butterfly Effect” that could change your life.
There are two sections of the Bible that many people use as keys to victory in spiritual warfare. These are the Armour of God section in Ephesians 6: 11-18 and the resist verse in James 4: 7. According to them if I put on the full of armour of God and resist the devil, I will have victory. Yet, there are times in which this does not appear to happen. So how can we have victory every single time we battle the devil? The first thing to know about any Bible verse is that the words are not just some powerful enchantment. They must be believed to be true. That is where faith comes in. We must choose to resist or put on the armor. That’s where our mind comes in. The Bible is full of advice on spiritual warfare. Every single book in the Bible mentions it in one form or the other. In fact, it is the sword of truth in Ephesians 6. A sword is a great weapon but it is only …
You have probably never heard of Stephen Langton, but as a Christian you are very familiar with his work and have undoubtedly used it hundreds of times. Langton was the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Canterbury between 1150 and 1228 AD. About a year before he died, Langton created the chapter system that we use in the Old and New Testament today. It was first incorporated in the Wycliffe Bible in 1382 AD and basically used ever since. The verse break down was not created until 1555. Though the chapter and verse system has proven extremely beneficial over the years, the chapter divisions created by Langton have some very horrid breaks, tearing apart stories that were obviously intended to be together. Because of their very nature, chapter breaks suggest what is found in one chapter is not directly related to what appears in the following. Such is the case of what happens between Matthew 3 and 4. In Matthew chapter 4, we have the record of Satan’s temptation of Jesus. But there is a particularly insidious …
I recently did a Google search on fantasy. You probably will not be surprised that the overwhelming majority of web posts have to do with sexual fantasies. There are other fantasies that are way more subtle and way less guilt ridden than these. There are two types of fantasies in which we take part. These are not daydreaming which are usually short-lived imaginations about people or events. The purpose of daydreams is to escape momentarily from our lives and allow ourselves to visit the land of what-if. Fantasies tend to be either forward-looking or backwards reaching. In them we rehearse what could be and what was. They are either negative or positive and often include fulfillment of goals or visions of potential disasters. An example of a negative fantasy is rehearsing past mistakes. When your fantasy has much to do with the phrase, “I should have…”, chances are you are replaying a past event. Your mistake could be real or perceived. This fantasy reminds you that either you were wrong or you were wronged. Emotionally …
One of my favorite crime shows, CSI, has a theme song that goes: “Who are you? Who, who, who, who?” Oddly enough it a song by a band called The Who. So who are you? Are you the same in public as in private? Are you really what you do? Basically we hide our true self while presenting what we think is a more acceptable self to others. This protects us from getting hurt and hurting others. At least that is the rationale. But doesn’t this just exaggerate fear? I mean the longer I hide myself the more I fear someone will see the real me and never ever stop slapping me. I even want to slap myself sometimes. Fear prevents us from being who we really are, so we often hide behind performance, jobs, looks, and other things the world tells us equals success. Don’t believe me? Remember how anxious you were the last time you had a bad hair day? This is all about your identity. Who you are is a fundamental question …
Have you ever thought about your life and wondered what happened? How did I even get here? I always knew I would be a somebody. Like the next great journalist, rock star or great writer. But here I am. I am just me. And what’s wrong with just me? Probably nothing except I did not plan to be just me. I planned to do big things with my big brain and my big ideas. Women talk about the glass ceiling, this idea that they can see the top-level of decision makers but can never attain it. This is not a feminist idea, this happens to men as well as women. You see I was born into a very poor, very tired family. My parents had their dream of farming pulled out from under their feet. They worked extremely hard, taught their kids about love and God, and made us feel loved. But they never recovered. Eventually they moved to BC where Dad became a logger, then a city worker and Mom became a waitress. I …
I remember as a boy living in Shellbrook, a small Saskatchewan town, walking down the main street when a butterfly fluttered in front of me. Almost instantly it was set upon by a sparrow. What followed was an aero-acrobatic display. Though the sparrow was clearly faster, the butterfly was incredibly elusive. It swooped up and down to avoid captures. Sharp turns left, then right. Darting in every direction as the bird repeatedly dove in to catch it. And the sparrow was always a second too late, biting at air as the butterfly made another erratic move with a brain barely as large as a dot on an “i.” Then just as suddenly as it started, it was over. The bird broke off its unsuccessful chase and landed at the top of the one-story building I was walking by. I could see its beak open, as it breathed heavily trying to catch its breath. The butterfly continued its flight as if nothing had happened. It was such an acrobatic display because the butterfly has two sets …
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