I’m firmly convinced that the goals we set for ourselves account for one of the most crucial factors of all in helping us to experience happiness. Goals bring life into focus. They give meaning and purpose to life. But they must all be grounded in God’s plans and purposes. Climbing Mt. Whitney I have a …
Category Archives: Partner Ministries
65810 10. Marriage and Parenting
I have found that there is nothing that seems to affect our happiness more than our close relationships, specifically those of marriage and parenting. Your marriage partner is typically more intimately involved in your life than anyone else and your children usually run a close second. However, it is important to remember that how we …
65811 11. Happiness – It’s Your Choice!
Our happiness is not something that happens to us. It is something you and I have control over. God’s Word has so much to teach us about how we can make choices that will help us to experience not only his perfect plan for our lives, but his peace and joy and contentment. This book …
65509 9. Pride: It’s All About Me
It is no accident that we start our tour of the sin families with the sin of pride. In some sense, pride is the foundational sin. As Bible commentator William Barclay declared, “Pride is the ground in which all the other sins grow, and the parent from which all rebellion against God’s commands. Pride may …
65510 10. Fear: From Doubt to Dread
Fuss and feverishness, anxiety, intensity, intolerance, instability, pessimism and wobble, and every kind of hurry and worry—these, even on the highest levels,” declared spiritual writer Evelyn Underhill, “are signs of the self-made and self-acting soul; the spiritual parvenu.”1 A parvenu is someone who has been raised to a new position but has not yet acquired …
65511 11. Anger: When Mad Is Bad
Some years ago, I (Henry) traveled to Zimbabwe for a conference and spoke about forgiveness. Afterward, a couple asked to speak with me in private. They were from Uganda, and they told me their story. During the brutal reign of Uganda’s Idi Amin, the couple received a note telling them that their twenty-six-year-old son had …
65512 12. Overindulgence: Enough Is Not Enough
In my (Henry’s) early years, one of my biggest problems was with drinking. Though I grew up in a Christian home where drinking was frowned upon, I rebelled in my teenage years and started drinking in bars, at parties, and in the homes of my friends. Early signs of the danger in this lifestyle did …
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65513 13. Dissatisfaction: The Restless Heart
In his autobiography, Just As I Am, Billy Graham told the story of meeting two men on a Caribbean island he was visiting with his wife, Ruth. One of the wealthiest men in the world asked us to come to his lavish home for lunch. He was seventy-five years old, and throughout the entire meal …
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65514 14. Immorality: Sex Misused
Lust is the ape that gibbers in our loins,” declares the character Godric in a novel by Frederick Buechner. “Tame him as we will by day, he rages all the wilder in our dreams by night. Just when we think we are safe from him, he raises up his ugly head and smirks, and there’s …
65515 15. Deceit: Showing a False Face
You may remember the scandal from the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City in which a French ice skating judge scored a Russian pair higher than the Canadians Jamie Salé and David Pelletier, who had turned in what was widely considered a superior performance. But do you know how the truth came out? With …