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October 25 - November 15, 2018
The most lasting satisfaction of life is in our relationships, so why are we trading them in for careers with companies that will drop us like hot potatoes if we miss our quota? Our standard of living must be measured in more than one dimension.
The rat race boils down to the conflict between who we are created to be and who we are tempted to be. Could we define the rat race any more succinctly?
One view, the secular worldview, believes man is the central figure in shaping events. The second view, the Christian worldview, believes God is sovereign and active in everyday life.
The choice between a Christian worldview and a secular worldview is a choice between God’s race and the rat race.
The secular worldview competes directly with the Christian worldview.
We should look at every shard — every idea and theory we discover flowing through our minds — and see which worldview it represents.
Too often we see events and circumstances as unrelated and isolated when, instead, we should try to visualize how they fit into the bigger picture of our worldview.
Dr. Bloom built the case that our society’s “openness” is not one that pursues the truth with dogged determination, but an openness that presses to be “open to all kinds of men, all kinds of lifestyles, all ideologies.” The only enemy is the man not open to everything.
The first step to knowing God’s plan for our lives is the commitment to see ourselves as we really are.
The visible you is the known you.
is never the real you.
Because we don’t take this invisible war seriously, many of us are losing the battle for our minds.
The main reason we lead unexamined lives is that we do not take time to “look at the fish,” carefully looking for more and more. We can always see so much more, if we will only take the time to look.
So don’t make the mistake of saying that Christianity is not working. It is! It is non-Christianity that is not working. Where our culture is wholesome, it is because of Christians and non-Christians who still hold to Judeo-Christian values.
Cultural Christianity means pursuing the God we want instead of the God who is.
The type “D” cultural Christian lives in defeat. There is little, if any, marginal difference between his lifestyle and the lifestyle of the man who makes no claim to be in Christ.
A biblical Christian is a man who trusts in Christ, and Christ alone, for his salvation. As a result of his saving faith, he desires to be obedient to God’s principles out of the overflow of a grateful heart (see Romans
keeping our personal relationship with God in tune. We can become so busy for Christ that we live in defeat in important areas of our personal lives. Christ said to another group of Christians, “I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first” (Revelation 2:2 – 4). Is Jesus saying this to
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The biblical Christian will never live against the Word of God.
Today’s society embraces the three impoverished values of personal peace, affluence, and cultural Christianity.
The man in the mirror will never change until he is willing to see himself as he really is and to commit to know God as He really is.
The difference in men is in how we go about satisfying our need to be significant.
How we each answer the questions “Who am I?” and “Why do I exist?” determines how we pursue our significance.
The heartache comes when you no longer have the position, and you realize people were not interested in you because you were you but because of the position you held, which they believed could benefit them in some way.
To go a step further, play the Game of Tens this way: 1. Name your ten best friends. 2. Name ten family members who love you. 3. Name the ten most memorable experiences of your life. 4. Name ten people who you think will attend your funeral. 5. Name ten questions you want to ask God.
when I embark on a task that will pass the test of benefiting others, a sense that what I am doing is important grows within me.
The difference between self-gratification and significance is found in the motive and attitude, not in the task.
Here’s the significance test: “Does what I
am about to do contribute to the welfare of others in a demonstration of faith, love, obedience, and service to Christ?”
If you are not experiencing the full measure of significance you desire, then apply these diagnostics to your life: 1. Am I trying to win the rat race? 2. Do I fully understand how God keeps score? 3. Am I leading a life of faith, love, obedience, and service? 4. What is my highest hope? 5. How did I score on the Game of Tens? 6. Am I pursuing significance or self-gratification?
gratification? 7. Am I disillusioned with materialism? 8. Has my passive indifference contributed to the decaying state of the nation? 9. Have I been looking for significance in inappropriate ways? 10. Am I willing to pay the price if the cost of being a Christian in society goes up? 11. Am I a talker or a doer? 12. Have I been faithful with what God has entrusted to me? 13. Do I regularly study God’s Word so He can show me the purpose for my life? 14. Am I contributing to God’s agenda? Do I even know what God’s agenda is? 15. Am I a cultural Christian or a biblical Christian?
One of the most perplexing problems men face is that met goals tend to become an unrelated string of hollow victories, increasingly frustrating as more and more are achieved.
The plain truth is that most men either don’t know their purpose in life, or their purpose is too small. A man can do nothing more important than to wrestle with the purpose of his life.
Goals are what we do. Purposes are why we do what we do.
The universal part of our earthly purpose is to be a certain type of man in character (being) and conduct (doing).
There is a sense in which each of us is unique, and God gives each of us a specific call on our lives.
Crafting this Written Life Purpose Statement is the hardest kind of work, exacting and exhausting, but well worth the effort. Once settled, it is a constant reminder of why you exist. It describes in a general and overarching way what your life is all about. It points the way to the meaning and significance we all yearn for. Like a gyroscope, it will help you stand upright whenever you are knocked off balance. Like a compass, it points the way. It answers the questions, “Why do I exist?” and “What do I do with my life?”
In addition to your Written Life Purpose Statement, which is the overarching purpose for your earthly life, you can drop down a level and develop written purpose statements for important areas of your
life.
Work is a holy vocation — it is how God intended us to occupy our time in the perfection of His creation plan. The holiness of vocation is as close to the fabric of Christianity as the dye is to the cloth.
The secret of job contentment is not getting what you want, but redefining what you need.
In pursuit of the good life, most men leave a trail of broken relationships.
No area of a man’s life has more potential for improvement than his relationships.
The results are shocking. The average amount of daily time each dad spent with his kids was thirty-seven seconds, an average of 2.7 daily encounters of ten to fifteen seconds!16
We dads need to give our kids the freedom to be kids.
The duty and role of fathers includes protecting our children from evil as well as teaching them righteousness.
