A Plain Book Of Common Sense For Your Life And Christian Faith

Table Of Contents

Chapter 1: Adversity (93 articles)

Chapter 2: Answers (1 article)

Chapter 3: Assurance (1 article)

Chapter 4: Blessings (1 article)

Chapter 5: Build (3 articles)

Chapter 6: Change (9 articles)

Chapter 7: Children (1 article)

Chapter 8: Choices (23 articles)

Chapter 9: Christ (41 articles)

Chapter 10: Commitment (2 articles)

Chapter 11: Communication (7 articles)

Chapter 12: Communion (6 articles)

Chapter 13: Confusion (1 article)

Chapter 14: Control (4 articles)

Chapter 15: Costs (1 article)

Chapter 16: Courage (1 article)

Chapter 17: Crisis (4 articles)

Chapter 18: Darkness (5 articles)

Chapter 19: Death (12 articles)

Chapter 20: Decisions (2 articles)

Chapter 21: Defend (1 article)

Chapter 22: Denial (3 articles)

Chapter 23: Depression (4 articles)

Chapter 24: Desire (1 article)

Chapter 25: Destiny (1 article)

Chapter 26: Disappointment (1 article)

Chapter 27: Doubt (2 articles)

Chapter 28: End Times (2 articles)

Chapter 29: Eternal Life (1 article)

Chapter 30: Excuses (1 article)

Chapter 31: Expectations (4 articles)

Chapter 32: Failure (2 articles)

Chapter 33: Faith (95 articles)

Chapter 34: Fear (6 articles)

Chapter 35: Finding God (2 articles)

Chapter 36: Foolishness (1 article)

Chapter 37: Forgive (2 articles)

Chapter 38: Forgiveness (4 articles)

Chapter 39: Frustration (2 articles)

Chapter 40: Future (6 articles)

Chapter 41: Giving (6 articles)

Chapter 42: Goals (1 article)

Chapter 43: God Vs. Satan (2 articles)

Chapter 44: God's Love (1 article)

Chapter 45: God's Power (2 articles)

Chapter 46: God's Voice (4 articles)

Chapter 47: God's Will (3 articles)

Chapter 48: Goofiness (1 article)

Chapter 49: Grace (4 articles)

Chapter 50: Greatness (1 article)

Chapter 51: Grief (1 article)

Chapter 52: Growth (11 articles)

Chapter 53: Healing (31 articles)

Chapter 54: Heart (1 article)

Chapter 55: Heaven (4 articles)

Chapter 56: Hell (3 articles)

Chapter 57: Heresy (1 article)

Chapter 58: Holy Spirit (31 articles)

Chapter 59: Honesty (2 articles)

Chapter 60: Hope (121 articles)

Chapter 61: Humility (6 articles)

Chapter 62: Hypocrisy (1 article)

Chapter 63: Ideas (1 article)

Chapter 64: Inner World (1 article)

Chapter 65: Integrity (2 articles)

Chapter 66: Joy (1 article)

Chapter 67: Leaning (1 article)

Chapter 68: Light (3 articles)

Chapter 69: Listening (5 articles)

Chapter 70: Living (111 articles)

Chapter 71: Loneliness (1 article)

Chapter 72: Love (95 articles)

Chapter 73: Man's Will (1 article)

Chapter 74: Meditation (9 articles)

Chapter 75: Mind (9 articles)

Chapter 76: Miracles (1 article)

Chapter 77: Mistakes (11 articles)

Chapter 78: Need (2 articles)

Chapter 79: Openness (3 articles)

Chapter 80: Others (20 articles)

Chapter 81: Pain (14 articles)

Chapter 82: Past (1 article)

Chapter 83: Patience (2 articles)

Chapter 84: Peace (2 articles)

Chapter 85: Pentecost (1 article)

Chapter 86: Persistence (4 articles)

Chapter 87: Planning (5 articles)

Chapter 88: Possibilities (1 article)

Chapter 89: Power (8 articles)

Chapter 90: Prayer (15 articles)

Chapter 91: Pride (1 article)

Chapter 92: Promise (2 articles)

Chapter 93: Protection (3 articles)

Chapter 94: Purpose (3 articles)

Chapter 95: Rebirth (1 article)

Chapter 96: Redemption (1 article)

Chapter 97: Repentance (1 article)

Chapter 98: Responsibility (2 articles)

Chapter 99: Rules (2 articles)

Chapter 100: Sacrifice (4 articles)

Chapter 101: Salvation (2 articles)

Chapter 102: Satan (7 articles)

Chapter 103: Security (1 article)

Chapter 104: Seeking (6 articles)

Chapter 105: Self-esteem (1 article)

Chapter 106: Self-image (1 article)

Chapter 107: Self-interest (1 article)

Chapter 108: Selfishness (4 articles)

Chapter 109: Self-pity (1 article)

Chapter 110: Sex (1 article)

Chapter 111: Sin (11 articles)

Chapter 112: Society (9 articles)

Chapter 113: Song (1 article)

Chapter 114: Spirituality (2 articles)

Chapter 115: Strategies (2 articles)

Chapter 116: Success (1 article)

Chapter 117: Suffering (35 articles)

Chapter 118: Surrender (7 articles)

Chapter 119: Tenderness (1 article)

Chapter 120: Thankfulness (5 articles)

Chapter 121: Thanksgiving (1 article)

Chapter 122: Thinking (19 articles)

Chapter 123: Treasures (1 article)

Chapter 124: Trials (4 articles)

Chapter 125: Trust (1 article)

Chapter 126: Truth (9 articles)

Chapter 127: Understanding (1 article)

Chapter 128: Victory (16 articles)

Chapter 129: Vision (12 articles)

Chapter 130: Wisdom (2 articles)

Chapter 131: Witness (1 article)

Chapter 132: Witnessing (2 articles)

Chapter 133: Works (3 articles)

Chapter 134: Worry (2 articles)

Chapter 135: You (15 articles)

Chapter 1: Adversity

Sub-topic: Adversity And The Light

Article Content: Can adversity lead to the Light? Any adversity, any hurt, any heartache, any illness, any sickness, any infirmity, any obstacle of any kind has a spiritual component. This spiritual component can lead to the Light and the love we call God. The belief any adversity can lead to God is a belief you can prove to yourself to be true. The belief any adversity can lead to God will transform any adversity in your life into an opportunity to find Him. This belief, when proven to yourself, becomes certain knowledge God will lead you to Christ as the Light of the world. When you find Christ as the Light of the world in your adversity, you will then find Christ is the total essence of victory in any circumstance under any condition.

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Sub-topic: Adversity As A Teacher

Article Content: Adversity can be used to teach us and guide us. Adversity can be used by God and used by us to learn the wisdom of God. If you are in adversity you surely must be thinking But how can pain, disappointment, and failure teach me? If God really wanted to tell me something, He wouldn't have to do it with a whip or put me in such dire straits. If you are thinking this way then you are right. God does not do anything with a whip. God is not the source of your misfortune. God is not the source of what you might call bad luck. However, God can help you use bad circumstances to your advantage. Although you might be saying, Use it to my advantage? Give me a break! There is no way I could use all these bad circumstances in my life to my advantage! However, there IS an advantage. To find the advantage, you just have to learn to be taught. You have to be willing to let God lead you and teach you in your adversity. In addition, if you are willing to let God work in your life whether you are in adversity or not, you live differently, think differently, and walk and talk differently. With God as your teacher, you learn to live a victorious life instead of living a life in defeat. Some people look at surviving and thriving in adversity as saying we make our own luck. We do make our own luck, but we must all understand what we call luck depends upon how we live, not upon good fortune falling upon us for no apparent reason. God can help you turn your lemons into lemonade if you will open your mind, heart, and soul to learn His teachings and learn His ways.

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Sub-topic: Adversity As A Way To Find Hope

Article Content: Psalms 25:5 (NIV) Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my savior, and my hope is in you all day long. Finding and keeping hope alive in our life is work. The ability to find and keep hope alive is learned by working through adversity in our life. As we work through adversity, one of the most important factors in finding and keeping hope alive is the quality of making ourselves teachable. The more willing we are to be taught by God, the more we learn. Like being a student in school, the more willing we are to learn, the more we learn. In school, if we are rebellious and do not pay attention, we lose out and learn little or nothing at all. With God as your teacher, you can take on the darkness and take on adversity with a winning attitude rather than sitting in bewildered silence over your circumstances. In addition, things happen differently when you are seeking wisdom from God while you are in adversity. When you take in and learn the wisdom of God, everything within you changes. Even if your outside world of adversity has not changed, learning the wisdom of God changes you on the inside, and being changed on the inside means you have been touched by God.

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Sub-topic: Adversity As An Opportunity

Article Content: In the question or controversy over whether God does bad things, what is often intermingled in the debate, but quite often discounted, is a most important truth about God and adversity. Within every adversity, God presents a special door of opportunity for each of us to find and open. The door of opportunity in adversity is often hidden from our view. The door of opportunity is most often slammed shut when adversity strikes. What we too often and wrongly expect is for God to show us the door. We wrongly expect God to open the door for us before we find our door of opportunity. We too often and wrongly expect God to arrange things in adversity so we will not have to seek, ask, and knock to find our door of opportunity. We too often and wrongly expect God to pick us up and carry us through our door of opportunity once we have found the door. Unfortunately, the truth about God and the truth of life will clearly show us when adversity comes in our life, we must first find the hidden door of opportunity on our own by seeking and asking. We must then try to open our door of opportunity by knocking. When the door of opportunity opens we must then gather our resources together and walk through the door. What is most important of all is God will always, always, always give you a door of opportunity in every adversity. What is also most important is how you must you seek, ask, and knock, for the door will be opened. A New Testament example is the Apostle Paul's imprisonment which gave Paul opportunities to blaze trails for Christ. We see from Paul's life how Paul was an opportunist. From the seeds of adversity in Paul's life grew the fruits of opportunity to serve God. Suffering gives us a door of opportunity. When we view suffering or adversity as an opportunity, our view of suffering or adversity gives us enormous power.

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Sub-topic: Adversity, Pain, And Faith

Article Content: In adversity and pain, you need faith. In adversity and pain, you need someone to believe in, to depend upon, to use as a resource, and to supply you with power you do not normally have. In John 5:19 Jesus gave them this answer: I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. 20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, to your amazement he will show him even greater things than these. 21 For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it. 22 Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, 23 that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him. 24 I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life. 25 I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. 26 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself. 27 And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man. 28 Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice 29 and come out--those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned. 30 By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me. 31 If I testify about myself, my testimony is not valid. 32 There is another who testifies in my favor, and I know that his testimony about me is valid. 33 You have sent to John and he has testified to the truth. 34 Not that I accept human testimony; but I mention it that you may be saved. 35 John was a lamp that burned and gave light, and you chose for a time to enjoy his light. 36 I have testimony weightier than that of John. For the very work that the Father has given me to finish, and which I am doing, testifies that the Father has sent me. 37 And the Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me. You have never heard his voice nor seen his form, 38 nor does his word dwell in you, for you do not believe the one he sent. 39 You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me to have life. (NIV) In Jesus there is life, even in adversity and pain. In Jesus, we can believe. In Jesus, we can trust. This gospel of John illustrates the power available to us when our life is broken and torn to pieces. When adversity strikes, some people self-destruct through self-centeredness. Their self-centeredness is the result of not having Christ in the center of their life. When people self-destruct, both the cause of their self-destruction and the result of their self-destruction is hopelessness caused by not having Christ at the center of their life. Healing from our brokenness and healing from our adversity and pain requires our cooperation and obedience to Christ plus an acknowledgement of our brokenness. We must recognize our brokenness in order to be able to take our brokenness to Christ.

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Sub-topic: An Incredible Victory

Article Content: Joe: I have little hope. I am forgotten. John: If you are forgotten who forgot you? Joe: God and other people forgot me. John: I know what you are saying. You are saying no one knows or cares about you, and what you are going through is something you have to go through alone. Joe: Yeah. You do not see anybody coming to the rescue do you? You do not see anyone being a Good Samaritan, do you? John: No, I do not see anyone. No Samaritans, no do-gooders, no helpers, no, I do not see anyone. However, you cannot see God either and He is there within you. God is the ultimate helper. When no one else knows or cares, God knows and cares. Joe: I would like to believe you but after all, He is invisible. This whole God thing could be a joke. John: Yes, I admit it could be a joke, but reasonable people do not laugh about God, and they do not laugh at you or your situation. You are not forgotten or overlooked by God. You would not be forgotten or overlooked by people of compassion and caring either. Joe: Then why doesn't God do something? Why doesn't He get me out of this mess? Why doesn't He make things better? John: He can and He will, if you let Him. He can and He will, if you will let Him talk to you and teach you. Here is the ultimate truth and the ultimate deal. God wants us to use every bit of our adversity for His glory. When we use every bit of our adversity for His glory, God wins an incredible victory. Then when God wins an incredible victory, so do we. Psalm 25:5 (NIV) Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my savior, and my hope is in you all day long.

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Sub-topic: Answers To Questions About Misfortune, Tragedy, And Trauma

Article Content: In searching for answers and meanings about misfortune, tragedy, and trauma, the easiest answers come to us when the causes of tragedy and trauma are clearly related to human sin. We would all like to have easy answers when it comes to sin as a cause of tragedies. However, Jesus noted misfortune, pain, and suffering come to both the righteous and unrighteous. Matthew 5:45 He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. (NIV) Why would God have created a system like this? Wouldn't it be more fair for the bad people to always get theirs? When we look at how Christ instructs us to live, then we see His teachings have a love only foundation. God has created conditions for our relationship to Him to be based solely upon our loving Him. We must love the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit for who He is, what He is, and we must be willing to throw off our sinfulness.

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Sub-topic: Bad Times

Article Content: Everyone has bad times in life. No one is immune from adversity. For some people, the adversity may come late in life and these people are devastated if they have never tasted adversity before. For other people, bad times surround them at birth and adversity follows them for life. We must understand bad times fall on a person's life regardless of their race, creed, economic status, age, or origins. We must never expect the good times to roll on forever. We must never expect good times to come to us and stay forever. If we expect the good times to roll on forever, we will be in shock when disaster strikes or bad times fall upon us. Our willingness to admit bad times do happen enables us to prepare our heart, mind, and soul in advance for what may come. Indeed, the person who prepares in advance today for potential bad times in the future has a decided advantage when bad times fall. In addition, the person who prepares in advance for bad times has a greater sense of well-being and security during the good times because necessary preparations have been made. We must not delude ourselves into thinking everything will be comfy and cozy in the future. A construction manager in parts of the world where bad weather strikes should prepare in advance for bad weather conditions. A person who needs to fight traffic jams every day should prepare for adverse traffic by leaving at an appropriate time. Knowing bad times may fall does not need to make us unhappy. Knowing and preparing in advance for adversity can give us a peace, happiness, and security no matter what happens to us in the future.

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Sub-topic: Be Unwilling To Suffer

Article Content: Suffering can wring us out if we are willing to let the suffering do whatever the suffering wants to do to us. When we are in suffering, we have to be unwilling to suffer. When we are suffering, we have to take on a feisty attitude against the pain, discomfort, and disorientation suffering often brings. When you are in suffering… Be unwilling to go along. Be unwilling to hurt. Be unwilling to be in pain. Be unwilling to cave in. Be unwilling to give up. If you take on this kind of refuse to lose attitude against the suffering, suddenly you are empowered against whatever the suffering wants to do to you.

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Sub-topic: Blessings Out Of Disaster

Article Content: Years ago a tornado struck the prairies of Minnesota, killing many, injuring hundreds and almost demolishing the town of Rochester. An elderly doctor and his two sons worked for days aiding the stricken, bandaging wounds, and setting broken limbs. Their heroic work did not go unnoticed. Financial backing was offered for a large hospital, provided the doctor and his sons took charge. They agreed. Founded in 1889, their clinic soon attracted wide attention. For years, from fifteen to twenty operations were performed daily. People came from all walks of life to the 'Mayo Brothers' Clinic. When the tornado struck, people reacted with, God has forgotten! Yet blessing came out of disaster, and today this prairie city is known around the world. This disastrous tornado resulted in a blessing to uncounted millions. What seemed to be a time of anguish and travail resulted in unimaginable blessings and victory. Each of us must strive to find a way to turn our own anguish and travail into blessings and victory.

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Sub-topic: Blindness

Article Content: We do not like to feel guilty. Feeling guilt is a bad feeling. We are afraid of feeling guilt. Often our fear of guilt is the reason we do not want to talk about sin and the reason we are not set free. How could we not see the obvious when it comes to our sin and our feeling guilty? How could we be in church all our life and not see what Jesus wants us to do? Jesus wants us to surrender our sin to Him and be free of our guilt. He died so our sin could be washed away. Most of us know this as a fact. But how many of us have truly given our sin to him? Christ died so the terrible yoke of sin could be lifted from us now, while we are still alive. 1 Peter 3:18 For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body, but made alive by the spirit. (NIV) How could so many who know this fact have missed the point of actually surrendering? How could most of the world have missed it? If He taketh away the sin of the world we must ask when is our sin taken away? Our sin is taken away when we see what our sin is. When we see what our sin condition is and we reach out to Christ our sin begins to die. John 12:24 I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a simple seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. (NIV) Our condition is such that the phone is ringing. We know Jesus is calling, we know without a doubt He is calling. However, we are so blinded by our sin we do not have the vision to see Christ on the Cross and therefore we do not answer His call upon our heart.

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Sub-topic: Choices In Adversity

Article Content: Regardless of your circumstances, you can make choices. Your power to choose may not appear to be much at first. However, your power to choose is the power you can use to control who you are, what you do, and how you respond to adversity and darkness. Commit your life to making choices when adversity or darkness strikes in your life. Then, when you make choices, you are empowered. When adversity falls upon you…

●You can choose: to be enthusiastic or you can choose to be dour, sullen, and pessimistic.

●You can choose to be happy you are alive or you can choose to be extremely unhappy.

●You can choose to be filled with joy or you can choose to be filled with darkness.

●You can choose to give others a lift or you can choose to bring others down.

●You can choose to see life as a time to be lived up or you can choose to see life as a time to be endured.

●You can choose to be rich in spirit when you are poor or you can choose to be poor in spirit when you are rich.

●You can choose to see others in a spirit of unconditional love or you can choose to see others in a spirit of love only under certain conditions.

●You can choose to see the potential in all things or you can choose to see only the fault in all things.

●You can choose to live in a spirit of acceptance or you can choose to live in a spirit of rejection.

●No matter what you choose, always embrace and make the decision to make a choice.

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Sub-topic: Controlling How You Live

Article Content: Although we do not control where or when we die, we can control how we live and what adversity in life does to us in the meantime. The idea of taking charge, of taking on life rather than letting life take on us is not so revolutionary an idea on the surface. However, the idea IS revolutionary underneath. The idea of controlling our life is revolutionary when we take charge of our heart, our mind, and our soul. For many of us, our life seems to be controlled by powers and forces beyond our control. We do not control our aging. We do not control some of the issues we face in our health, in our relationships, in our finances, or in many of the other aspects of our life. However, if we want to do so, we can control how we respond to what we face in life. We can control whether we respond with despair or with hope. We can control whether we respond with weakness or with power. We may not control many of the exterior circumstances of our life. We can control our interior circumstances. We always have a choice in controlling our life. We always have a choice every minute over how we will and can respond to every circumstance.

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Sub-topic: Counteracting Adversity

Article Content: How do we counteract physical, emotional, and social adversity? First, we must have the right attitude. Then, we must know the truth will set us free. To counteract adversity you have to know two facts: (1) There is life in your spiritual being (2) There is death in your physical body. After you know the facts, then you must take the following actions.

●To counter any adversity you must raise your awareness to the spiritual and beyond your material or physical body.

●Raising your awareness to the spiritual and beyond the physical heals you.

●Awareness-raising of the spirit depends upon your ability to give and receive unconditional love as you get outside of yourself. When you are trapped inside yourself you are trapped in your physical body.

●Your physical body ought to be a servant to your spirit. However, your spirit is often a slave to your physical body, especially if your physical body is in pain or your body is suffering some kind of adversity.

●When you are ill and hurting, you tend to ignore your spirit.

●Most importantly, remember you are a spiritual being having physical experiences, and you, by your choice, do not need to be a physical body having a spiritual experience.

●Recognizing this truth…the truth you can be spirit first and physical body second…can change everything in your life.

●The change coming from realizing you are spirit first and body second begets to you life dominance, life power, and a victory over circumstances.

●Consequently, within every adversity, you can choose to live within a shield of Light. You can actually live within this shield of Light because your real nature is that of a spiritual being.

●With your intention to do so, you can put your body's needs, deprivations, and discontents under the control of your spirit.

●Instead of living in or living with physical negatives, you can live in and live with the positives of peace, love, and joy when negatives come into your life if you work at the spiritual level of things.

●When you live in the spirit rather than in the physical, there may be deprivation but there will also be an overflowing of God's love within you to compensate for the deprivation.

●External changes within your body and within your world take place when the spirit rules the body through love.

●Change on the spiritual level is concerned not with what you do, but who you are.

●Using these principles, you can live your life with love in spite of disability.

●Using these principles, you can conduct your life with peace and serenity in spite of adversity.

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Sub-topic: Counting The Blessings Of Adversity

Article Content: Because of your adversity, people can learn to count their blessings and come closer to God. Because of your adversity, people can become less greedy, more caring, more loving, and more compassionate. Because of your adversity, people can pray who never prayed. Because of your adversity, people can reach up to God who might have ignored Him. Understanding how the magnitude of your victory over your darkness influences thousands of person's lives is critically important. In reality, the darkness tries to extinguish hope and the Light in your life. The darkness also tries to extinguish hope and the Light in the life of thousands of people you know. The darkness cannot extinguish hope and Light if you do not let the Light be put out in your own life. Counting the blessings of your adversity requires you see beyond the obvious. Counting the blessings of your adversity requires you try to see all things as God sees them. Counting the blessings of your adversity requires you learn the lessons adversity can teach you. Counting the blessings of your adversity is one of the most difficult activities of your life, yet counting the blessings of your adversity has one of the greatest payoffs in accumulating wisdom and experiencing the love of God.

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Sub-topic: Dealing With Issues We Do Not Control, Part 1

Article Content: Are there circumstances beyond your control in your life pointing you in a certain direction? None of us control the time, place, and circumstances of our birth. We do not control our genetic make-up. We do not control who our parents are or were, nor do we control the conditions under which we were reared. In our youth, we may not be given a good shot at life. In any part of our life, we may be blinded by circumstances over which we have no control. However, if we have been born blind or if the circumstances of our life have kept us in the dark we can still learn to survive and prosper. God gives us an innate ability to learn from life. Each of us has been given the ability to learn from every darkness and learn from every adversity. Even battling against the darkness, we can still learn where things are when we cannot see. Each of us, to some degree, is born in darkness. We must grope around in life to succeed. Some of us have had more advantages keeping us safe and alive in God's love and grace. Some of us have not had these advantages of safety and security. However, to control those factors in our life seemingly out of our control, one of our first priorities is to learn where things are in the darkness. One of our first priorities in life is to learn all about the shape, size, and place of where things are in our darkness. Only from learning or figuring out all about our surroundings in our darkness can we begin to gain power and control over what seems out of our control.

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Sub-topic: Dealing With Issues We Do Not Control, Part 2

Article Content: Many people are born in adversity. Many people experience fear. Everyone experiences death over which we have no control. However, circumstances over which we have no control can point us in God's direction. Although accidents, mishaps, or traumas are not the will of God or the work of God, we can still get messages from God during every darkness. In every darkness, we can see patterns in the circumstances of our life. If we were born with burdens built-in, born with handicaps or disabilities, or we were reared in circumstances which tear away at our humanity, God is still for us and not against us. No matter what we have had to live with or live through, God still speaks to us. God still shows us His way, no matter how dark our circumstances. If, on your life map, you lay out the dark circumstances of your life seemingly beyond your control, remember to look for the directions God gives you in each place of darkness.

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Sub-topic: Dealing With Life Issues Or Letting Them Slide

Article Content: Sometimes not doing anything can be easier than trying to fix what is broken. Coasting along on the highway toward our destruction can be easier than turning right or left and driving on a rough and uncertain side road. Life issues can have such a gripping and ripping effect upon us dealing with an issue is often as difficult or more difficult than living with the issue. Telling a person they cannot drink again after years of living in a culture of beer and booze drinkers…at a hangout where everyone knows them, sympathizes with them, laughs with them, and seems to be their friend…seems to be a ripping away of what gives people of this persuasion the only substance they have in life. In our disdain of things sinful, Christians must remember as ugly as sin is the life of righteousness following repentance and acceptance of Christ can be excruciatingly painful for a person with a life issue. Life issues can grip us and rip us making us slaves. Life issues are able to make us slaves because we think life issues have a payoff. The drug induced high experienced when on drugs is a physiological and sometimes mental high. When a person is on a drug induced high they are totally removed from the pain, problems, stresses, strains, grief, and worry of life crashing upon them when the high is gone. For a few minutes, the binge eater forgets all about the after affects of eating too much. For a few minutes, the gambler, the over-spender, and the person addicted to destructive behaviors is high above the forthcoming pain surely to follow. However, when we play with fire we get burned. The person enslaved by issues must come to a point in their life where they must make a decision whether to try and deal with the issue or just keep on being a slave. Some of us have major issues that can, have, or will enslave us. Others of us have minor issues. A few lucky people have no real issues. For those people who live in slavery to issues, there is hope. If you live in slavery to issues, remember God wants you free. If you live in slavery to issues, God wants you totally removed, renewed, and regenerated in heart, mind, body, soul, and spirit. When you decide you want to be free, God is with you and will not forsake you if you do not forsake Him.

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Sub-topic: Dealing With The Root Cause Of Adversity

Article Content: The darkness from Satan is the root cause of all adversity, illness, sickness, disease, and slavery. To deal with the root cause, deal with your response to the darkness. If the darkness has its way with you, the darkness will render you helpless, hopeless, and lifeless. Your focus in adversity should not be on the cause or the darkness, but upon your response. When you start looking at your response to the darkness, suddenly you begin to have power. When you start looking at your response to the darkness, the darkness is no longer the central part of your perceptions and your thought processes. When you begin to look at your response to the darkness, you can see you have the power to help yourself. You find hope in your life where there seemed to be no hope. Then your life takes on meaning and purpose. To deal with the root cause of adversity, deal not with the adversity, but always deal with your response to the adversity.

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Sub-topic: Dealing With The Rough Times

Article Content: For many people, at every turn of life, on the road of life there is a roadblock, a pothole, bad pavement, or a wall. However, with Christ as our infinite resource we can deal with the roadblocks, potholes, bad pavements, and walls. This is not to say we do not feel the effects of the rough road. Persons of faith have an incredibly effective way of dealing with the rough times...an incredibly effective way called faith in God, faith in Christ, and faith in the power of the Holy Spirit.

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Sub-topic: Devastation And The Light Of God

Article Content: No matter how devastating an adversity may be, when we truly love the Light of God, the Light of God shines in our darkness. The Light of God can put the desire of our heart into proper perspective. When we can see ourselves and see our world with the Light of God shining within us, we see past the devastation and darkness. When we have the Light of God shining within us, we would rather do what the Light desires of us, even in our moments of darkness. The pain of our darkness and devastation, no matter the cause, is fed by the darkness. When the Light of God is brought into our darkness, the darkness disappears. The darkness does not fill the emptiness in our soul. The darkness only stirs up a pain-filled hunger and thirst in our soul to such an extent we will often do anything to take away the pain caused by satanic evil. However, the Light of God fills our emptiness and replaces the devastation in our soul with a peace and contentment beyond our understanding.

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Sub-topic: Dictating The Terms Of Our Life

Article Content: We may not be able to dictate the terms of our outside life because of obstacles, burdens and circumstances we cannot control. However, we can determine what our life is like on the inside. What we must ultimately strive for in life is not to try and avoid obstacles or circumstances outside of us, but to be smart enough to win at life by dictating the terms of our inner life. We must try to be smart enough to beat back the inner opponent in us who whispers in our ear to give up, all is lost, the game is over, and to stop trying. Your greatest obstacle in life is not a car refusing to run, a job you cannot find, or your loneliness. Your greatest obstacle in life is your dark inner opponent telling you everything is lost when, in fact, you can find fullness and meaning in life in spite of your dark obstacles, situations, and circumstances. When you dictate the terms of your life, you dictate how you will win by declaring your inner life is controllable and you are the controller.

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Sub-topic: Education And Taking Charge

Article Content: In any adversity, knowledge and wisdom are mandatory if you want to take charge. In any adversity, to take charge you must become a specialist in your well-being, in your issue or issues, and in your adversity. In any adversity you must know everything about your adversity to take charge and take control. When you deal with experts related to your adversity, you must challenge the experts, challenge the doctors, challenge the counselors, challenge the consultants, challenge the advice givers, challenge the writers, and challenge the know-it-alls. Take charge by becoming an active participant, not a passive victim in your adversity. Never be willing to sit back and let others run your life.

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Sub-topic: Eight Things To Do Against Insurmountable Odds

Article Content: Assuming you pray from your heart each day: 1. Refuse to play the victim by refusing to see yourself as the victim. 2. Educate yourself about the insurmountable condition and educate yourself about yourself, about life, and about God. Educate yourself about your insurmountable condition, about growing up, about maturing as a human being regardless of your age or prospects in the future. 3. Become your own specialist in your own domain regarding the circumstance you are in. Know everything about your adversity. 4. Challenge the experts, the doctors, the counselors, and the know-it-alls, but challenge them only on solid points based upon your own research into the conditions you face. 5. Become an active participant in the circumstance and not a passive victim. Do not be willing to sit back and let others run your life. In many adversities, we must let others run part of our life in order to deal with or get out of the adversity. Our response to helplessness of insurmountable odds is one of the keys to getting out of the adversity alive. 6. Demand dignity from yourself, refuse to quit, and refuse to let the adversity touch you or deal with you. What does it mean to not let adversity touch you? In most adversities, we are plunged into a darkness stripping away our dignity. We lose contact with who we are, what we are, what we believe in, and the ways we relate to the world in more normal times. Most often, we go willingly along with things in adversity in normal circumstances we would never accommodate. Do not let yourself be led, pushed, pulled, or jerked around without your assertion of your dignity. 7. Demand person-hood from yourself. In your darkness, you can get very, very lost. In your darkness, your circumstance may seem to have no way out. In your darkness, you might be thinking there is no light at the end of the tunnel. We must demand from ourselves an attitude to be better, not bitter. We must demand from ourselves an attitude of forgiveness instead of wanting revenge or wanting to get even. We must demand an attitude where we respond with soft kindness instead of hard and bitter anger. 8. Demand control regardless of the circumstance or the course of the circumstance. Demand control regardless of the nature of the adversity. Demand control from within yourself. How will you handle the frustration of wanting to be in charge but not being able to take charge? Take charge of the minute and let the hour take care of itself. You can be in charge of some things but not necessarily all things. Being in charge is something you have to demand from yourself. Being in charge of small things is the way you achieve control over large things. Really decide when you eat, how you eat, what you eat, what you wear, when you bathe, what you watch, and what you read. Avoid, at all costs, the hopeless and helpless ride of grief, pain, and anxiety we ride when we are in the darkness. Above all, look upward and outward.

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Sub-topic: Encountering Obstacles

Article Content: After crossing over or conquering an obstacle, stay far away from the obstacle. Do not go back to the obstacle. Do not look back at the obstacle. Do not think about the obstacle. Human beings sometimes have a fixation with challenges or obstacles to their success. Obstacles, if we let them, can grab us and possess our thinking and even possess our heart. Once you have conquered or overcome an obstacle, move on. You must not spend time celebrating the successful crossing or conquering of an obstacle. You must not celebrate the conquering of an obstacle, for the time of celebration is wasted time the enemy or satanic opponent can use against you. Obstacles must be regarded as respectfully as you regard the satanic opponent. The satanic opponent can and will place obstacles in your path.

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Sub-topic: Facing Adversity Instead Of Running Away

Article Content: Have you ever wondered why you can't get away from your problems and adversities? You can run away from everything and run away from everyone except yourself and God. You cannot run away from God because God lives within you. You cannot run away from yourself because you carry yourself with yourself everywhere you go. To achieve victory in life, you must not run away from your adversities, but face your adversities head on. To forcefully face your adversities head on, you must learn to put your mental and spiritual adversities outside yourself. Because you cannot run away from yourself or God, better to live from the inside out, rather than from the outside in. If you live from the outside in, then wherever you go, you permit these outside adversities to come inside of your life. Living from the outside in is the weak way of living because you bring the outside adversities inside of you and you are then weakened. Living the weak way has no escape. We conquer the adversities inside of us by taking our adversities and putting our adversities outside of us where the adversities belong. To achieve victory, you must stay within yourself. To achieve victory you must remain strong rather than letting the outside adversities come inside of you to weaken you. If you let your outside adversities come inside of you and you then let your inside adversities control you because the inside adversities are inside of you, the only way to try to get away from your internal adversities is to run away. However, you cannot really run away from what you carry inside of you. To get away from your inside or outside adversities, you can pretend your inside or outside adversities do not exist. However, pretending your inside adversities do not exist does not help. Most of the time, pretending our inside or outside adversities do not exist only makes things worse. Pretending is the opposite of believing. Pretending our adversities do not exist is lying. Pretending our adversities do not exist, used in the place of believing we have power over our adversities, only leads to a further piling on of our difficulties.

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Sub-topic: Fighting Back

Article Content: There is in each of us the capacity to be on fire for God and for Christ. To have this fire and maintain this fire for God is sometimes incredibly difficult. In your life, Satan puts adversity, pain, and suffering upon you without your will and without your consent. Satan can put a disability upon you robbing you of all your energy, all your enthusiasm, and all of your life force. However, as long as you have a mind you can come against Satan. Satan might kill your energy and put you on the floor but he can't get your mind if you are determined to keep your mind in Christ and Christ only. Satan can't make you wish Christ was not your Savior without your consent. Satan can't make you renounce your faith in Christ without your consent. Satan can't make you desert and run the other way without your consent. The apostle Paul noted, 2 Corinthians 12:10. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (NIV). In your life, when you are weak against Satan, you can be and must be determined to be strong in your faith for Christ.

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Sub-topic: Finding Peace, Power, And Love In Adversity

Article Content: Peace, power, and love in adversity are found in the kingdom of God within us, not on the outside of us. However, where do we normally look for peace, power and love? When we look for peace, power, and love, we wrongly look outside of ourselves rather than within ourselves. We never learn peace, power, and love are within us if we always try to live outside of ourselves rather than inside of ourselves. If we continue to try to live outside of ourselves, we have one problem after another. If we continually try to live outside of ourselves, our problems never stop, and we never find any power, peace, or love on the outside. To find peace, power, and love in adversity, look within where Christ is always alive always supplying us with an abundance of peace, power, and love.

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Sub-topic: Forgive God

Article Content: We must forgive God. We do not need to forgive God because has done anything wrong. We must forgive God because we can often hold God accountable for obstacles, illnesses, and pain God did not create. We can become angry with God for allowing things to happen. We may often think, How could God do this to me? God is at fault. Life is not fair. God is not fair. God is to blame. If we think this way, we must forgive God. We must release ourselves from the crippling resentment against Him. We may not approve of all God's methods or results, but we can learn to accept Him working in the world as we learn to trust Him. The result of forgiving God is to be closer to Him and to be immersed in His healing. Instead of blaming God and asking, Why me? we must ask, To what end? Illness, disability, and misfortune are not a result of God's punishment. Adversity is something God can use for your benefit and so can you. God is always present. God is with you to walk with you, to talk with you, to guide you, and to assure your victory. From you, God wants victory. God wants victory every time, all the time, God wants victory from every second of your life. When you forgive God, you have scored big points in achieving His victory.

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Sub-topic: Getting Out Of Your Circumstances

Article Content: The problem in our life is we often fail and once we have failed then we too often get to a point of being trapped. We may not be able to get out of our failure-laden circumstances. As another example of being trapped by circumstances, let's take a typical state legislature. Generally speaking, these people can't get along and they seemingly cannot get out of their circumstances. In the Middle East, we have a Middle East problem and the problem is people seemingly cannot get along. They cannot get out of their circumstances. In many communities, there is a sin problem. Sin has taken such a grip on so many people they think they cannot get out of their circumstances. In addition, the problem with many people is they feel greedy. They feel there is a problem if their money is not enough. Many people feel if they don't get a new thing then their life will be a mess and they cannot get out of their circumstances. As we look at these problems, all the problems have one root cause and the cause is sin. People who do not get along with each other is an example of sinful behavior. Letting sin get a grip on you is a sin. Never wanting to break the grip of sin is a sin. Greed is a sin. To break the grip of sin and sin's greediness, turn away from the sin, turn to Christ dying for you on the cross, and kneel down before Him in holy sorrow as you give up all you are to Him.

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Sub-topic: God As A Part Of Our Life During Adversity

Article Content: Does God have to become a part of our life during adversity? Many people who are in crisis get defensive when they are told to turn to God. In adversity, everyone has the option or choice of leaving God out or ascending up to God every moment. What we must all clearly understand is we have the freedom to include God or exclude God in our adversity. We must also clearly understand there is always a result to everything we think, believe, and do. There is always a result for including or excluding God in our life. When we have an inclusive mind, a mind including the power of the universe we call God, there is always a result produced by having this inclusive mind. There is always a result when we include the power of the universe in our heart and life. When we have an exclusive mind, a mind excluding the power of the universe from within us, there is also a result produced...the result produced is darkness. The result of excluding God in your adversity is to live only in emptiness...an emptiness full of darkness. The result of including God in your adversity is you include the Light of the universe in your darkness...and then the darkness is no more.

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Sub-topic: God's Action In Our Suffering And Adversity

Article Content: God has two choices in our suffering and adversity. God can either put His hands on us to fix things or not put His hands on us to fix things. In either case, our fundamental thoughts, questions, doubts, beliefs, and certainties must remain fixed, no matter what God does or does not do. We can ask, Why doesn't a prayer to Jesus bring me a solution, a cure, or a fix to my problems? In answer to the question, the truth is…Jesus always has compassion on us and He always loves us. Whether we get a cure or a miracle from Jesus will not change the fact Jesus loves us. In some hearts and minds, Jesus is made out to be a person who only acts because we want Him to act or because we think we can make Him to act. However, Jesus will act only in ways to bring Him glory, even if bringing Him glory is not to answer our prayers like we want them answered. The value of a strong and relentless faith in God comes to us only when we keep believing, keep hoping, and keep trusting in God despite any action or inaction of God. When Jesus does not heal us, or fix us, or give us what we ask, it should make no difference to us or to our faith in Him. Miraculous fixes, solutions, and cures do not always happen because the miraculous is not always in God's will. However, our wholeness, our faithfulness, our righteousness, and our unselfishness in all matters is a part of God's will for us. God's will is for wholeness, faithfulness, righteousness, and unselfishness to always be in your heart and in the heart of every person on earth. Most important of all, God's ultimate healing, the healing you find only in your heavenly home, is within your reach and within the reach of every person on earth. In considering God's action in our suffering and adversity, we must all understand God will not be put to the test. God not being put to the test is one reason why we do not see automatic healings and miracles at a simple command. After all, if you really love Him, why would you want to test Him? Healing and miracles are not a matter of show business. Jesus healed people because He loved them and had compassion on them, not because He wanted to put on a show.

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Sub-topic: God's Will In A Time Of Suffering, Part 1 Of 2

Article Content: To find, keep, and have hope while we try to get through our times of suffering and adversity requires we fit our life into the will of God. To more fully understand how we can have hope by knowing the will of God we can characterize the will of God as wind. Wind has force and power. Although we cannot see the wind, nor can we capture the wind in a bottle, we can still use the wind. To go against the wind requires us to exert extra force as we push into the wind. When we have the wind at our back, the wind pushes us along and can help us on our way. To take advantage of the wind we need to be able to have the wind at our back. To have the wind at our back, we need to know in what direction the wind is blowing. If we are not moving in the wind's direction we can expect to be blown about and even be blown off course. Although we cannot capture the wind in a container or bottle, we can still use the wind by building windmills. The windmill has a vane. The vane always keeps the rotating blades of the windmill facing in the direction of the wind. The wind applies pressure against the blades forcing the windmill's rotor to turn. Although we cannot capture the wind directly, we can capture the force of the wind by converting the rotating force of the windmill's rotor into electrical power or use the windmill's mechanical power. Like the wind, the will of God is a power and a force. In our times of suffering and adversity, we can choose to move in the same direction as His force or will. We also can choose to go against His will. We cannot capture or bottle His power but we can use His power if we know the direction of His will. Just as the windmill has a vane to keep its blades facing the direction of the wind, each of us must have a spiritual vane to keep us sensitive to the direction of God's will. For many people, no part of God remains more aloof and more apart from them than His will for their life. Some of the mystery of God's will can be unraveled but not all of His will. However, what we do know about God's will is substantial. Our great quest in life must be to do as much of God's will as we know how to do, no matter what obstacles we face at the time.

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Sub-topic: God's Will In A Time Of Suffering, Part 2 Of 2

Article Content: The big picture of God's will is a picture God readily gives us. However, most of us do not want to bother with the big picture of God's will. We want the small picture. We want hour by hour details and instructions concerning what He wants us to do. God has given us His big picture directions through the wisdom and guidance of the Bible. Unfortunately, we often have trouble living our life according to the big picture instructions found in God's word. In truth, we may never get our detailed minute by minute account of what God wants from us because we are too ignorant of His big picture instructions for us. If we cannot live our life in ways glorifying God and restoring hope to others according to God's big picture directions, God (being a rational being) would certainly not be inclined to give us minute by minute details we could not follow.