Facts or Feelings: Faith or Failure

What matters most to you: how something makes you feel or whether it's right and true? This is actually a very important question because it's a clear reflection of character.

It rarely feels good to be corrected or admit we're wrong and ask forgiveness. And it doesn't feel good to stand up for what's right in a group that rejects us. 

No one likes feeling bad, ashamed, responsible, hated, or vulnerable—but sometimes we're all of those things. 

Accepting correction and genuinely repenting are important aspects of maintaining a healthy relationship with the Lord.

God says, “I live in a high and holy place, but I also live with people who are humble and repentant, so that I can restore their confidence and hope.” Isaiah 57:15

Doing what's right and speaking up for biblical truths proves our loyalty and protects us from false teachings: 

“Just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him...See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy...”  Colossians 2:6-8

Very often the things that make us “feel” bad are the things that make us spiritually healthy. So let's quit basing our values on feelings.

See Faith Should Fuel the Engine, with Feelings in the Caboose.

Would you like to do a short Bible study on this devotion? Check out today's Bite Size Bible Study.

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Lies in Disguise: The Beginning of the New Morality

“When Romans 1:18–32 describes the depravity of mankind, sexual sins play a prominent role. We are rightly concerned with the personal and cultural damage that comes from approving LGBTQ+ lifestyles, but our moral decline did not begin there.” Chapter 13 in Lies in Disguise

How did we get to the point described in Romans 1:30 where people are “God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil”? 

The answer is found in reading the context (Romans 1:18-32). It's a process starting when people “suppress the truth” in any area. For example, fifty years ago, sex outside of marriage was considered ungodly and damaging by both Christians and non-Christians in America.

When people began suppressing that truth, they still knew that LGBTQ lifestyles and abortion were damaging. But accepting one sin always leads to accepting other more destructive sins.

If we think mankind has reached the final limit, we're naive. We may not be able to turn things around, but we must not remain silent or give in to compromise. God's morals are healthy, protective, loving, and wise. 

Whenever people suppress the truth, they develop lies-in-disguise (half-truth arguments) to approve them. 

So let's stick to the whole truth and trust God's Spirit to give us the strength and wisdom to repent of our own sins and speak up graciously but firmly about the sexual sins destroying our nation and destroying people's lives.

May God give us wisdom and courage!

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This is one important reason I've written Lies in Disguise, Half-Truths Many Christians Believe. It's time for us to understand how to address these sins unashamedly. It's time for us to realize that loving someone means warning them of spiritual danger. 

Lies in Disguise can equip you to understand and address these important issues. And it's even more valuable if you study it with a friend or small group because it offers “Digging Deeper” questions to help you apply the truths in practical ways. 

 💙 Currently available from the publisher with a discount: Lies in Disguise. Also available on Amazon and CBD. And in the UK: CLC-UK or Eden UK.

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Lies in Disguise: Intolerant Tolerance

 “Our culture has gradually accepted and promoted increasingly immoral views about sexual intimacy, and those views have led to a new half-truth definition of tolerance. This new definition is used as a self-righteous shaming tool to promote uniformity of thought.” 

The quote above is from Lies in Disguise, Chapter 12: “Half-Truth: Tolerance Means Approval.”

You may not realize how much hatred this new kind of tolerance produces, but it basically condemns every Bible-believing Christian who is unafraid to graciously share God’s loving warnings.  

Chapter 12 provides a clear definition of true tolerance, points out some serious contradictions in the view I call “intolerant tolerance,” and helps us defend our freedom of Christian speech. 

Remember that God placed us in this time and place of history (Acts 17:26-27). One responsibility we have is to share the message of Christ with others, and the message includes warnings about sin. We must not keep quiet to accommodate intolerant tolerance! 

“Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.”  Luke 9:26

Lies in Disguise is incredibly helpful in explaining a variety of the half-truths that are negatively influencing the church, giving us Scriptural and logical ways to refute these lies.  

It's a much-needed book, and it's ideal for individual or group study, with questions at the end of each chapter.  

💙 Currently available from the publisher: Lies in Disguise. Also available on Amazon: Lies in Disguise. And in the UK: CLC-UK or Eden UK.

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3 Ways to Maximize Your God-Given Gifts

As a stay-at-home mom who loved raising her children, I never thought I'd be a devotional blogger and the author of two books in my senior years. But I see how God used my life experiences for this later-in-life ministry.

For example, I've loved writing poetry since I was a young child. I was editor of my high school newspaper, and after becoming a Christian, I enjoyed writing my own Bible studies. For a few years, my kids and I published a little newspaper for our homeschool group. And I genuinely enjoyed the writing assignments in seminary.

Do you realize that God is using the details of your life to develop your gifts? And sometimes He reveals gifts you didn't know you had!

That's why we should:

1. Learn from every experience.
Mistakes and successes are good teachers.
Proverbs 9:9

2. Humbly listen to correction.
Listening to more mature/experienced people keeps us from learning everything the hard way.
Proverbs 19:20; Proverbs 10:17

3. Never stop learning.
Be a life-long student of God—never retire (Psalm 92:12-15).  And remember that "to those who use well what they are given, even more will be given. But from those who do nothing, even what little they have will be taken away" (Luke 19:26).

God designs each of us uniquely. Let's never stop learning and serving.

"God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another." 1 Peter 4:10

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For more on this subject, see Slip on Your Own Shoes and A Popular Lie: You Can Do Anything You Set Your Mind to Do!

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Info about the devotional Wisdom for Life

Info about Lies in Disguise, Half-Truths Many Christians Believe 

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Which Do You Value Most: Sincerity or Truth?

By Marika Marton

 

We may be passionately sincere about something we believe, but that doesn't mean we're right. Sincerity is important, but when it is separated from truth, it becomes deception.

Deception does not require bad motives, only a false source. In other words, good intentions are not enough if we are not grounded in the truth. We can be sincerely wrong.

As Paul explained to those who sincerely thought the law could save them: “I know what enthusiasm they have for God, but it is misdirected zeal… Refusing to accept God’s way, they cling to their own way…” (Romans 10:2–3).

What is truth? We can discover it only by returning to its source—God. Jesus calls Himself “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). Truth is not merely a concept; it is a Person who is the ultimate source of all truth.

Truth is not subjective. Not “everyone has their own truth,” as some believe. Nor is truth based on feelings. It is objective because it can be tested and verified. 

Unfortunately, people can sincerely believe in a false Jesus and false teachings because they do not know their Bible well.

Some Christians even believe they are helping people through occult practices (e.g., Reiki, yoga, or the Enneagram) because they have good and sincere intentions.

But they are deceived. Sincerity must always be connected to truth in order to be useful. When it is rooted in a false source, it will cause more harm than good.

Therefore, be sober-minded and test everything against Scripture. Be sincere—but be rooted in the truth.

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See also: The Choice Is Yours

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