Christmas Eve Strike in Venezuela
The U.S. operations against alleged Venezuelan drug traffickers ramped up on Christmas Eve, according to U.S. President Donald Trump, who indicated that for the first time the U.S. strikes on alleged Venezuelan drug traffickers moved from offshore targeting of boats to an onshore facility believed to be an “implementation area.”
Resolved
How about you stop playing the games and go ahead with no New Year’s resolutions this time? It will save some time, energy, and feelings of guilt when you abandon them a few weeks later. However, if you are resolved to make intentional changes to life in the coming year, here are several real-life resolutions that will bring about lasting impact to both you, your family, and the world around you.
Putting Infants to Death
Now, Canada is poised to follow Nazi Germany’s disturbing example by killing itself on a road marked with eugenics and alleged human progress. As highlighted in an Atlantic magazine article this past September, the Quebec College of Physicians has raised the idea of extending Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) program to cover infants under one year old in cases of “severe deformities.”
As we know, once the barrier of killing the innocents is breached, there is no upper limit on the willingness of experts to end suffering, advance efficiency, and embrace despotism.
Fraud in Minnesota
Those who are ultimately found to be responsible for any proven fraud should be held to account, regardless of political affiliation.
What about your life and mine? How squeaky clean are our personal and business practices? If held up to the light, would they pass scriptural muster? They should, but human nature is such that they only will if we subject ourselves to the scrutiny of transparency. Matt 10:26-27 reminds us that all which is concealed will be made known and encourages us to proclaim in the daylight what God has instructed in the secret place.
What I Learned This Week: When I Deferred Instead of Dealt With It
What if the thing weighing on you most right now isn’t complicated at all — it’s just waiting for you to embrace the awkward and deal with it?
Document Dump
One thing is clear and it is consistent with the track record of human history: The human heart is desperately wicked (Jer. 17:9). It is easy to exclaim shock and acknowledge these crimes as horrific—and they are—but the inclination toward an evil like this runs naturally through your human heart and mine. But by the grace of God go you and I.
Precious Metals Soaring
As a Jesus follower, your posture toward money, wealth, and material possessions is one of the most important factors in your aim for a vibrant walk with Jesus. That statement might seem a little jarring, but God’s Word repeatedly returns to money matters to determine the health of your heart.
Good, Better, Best
Friend, you have been waiting. You have been longing for the fulfillment of what is promised. Your anticipation has been building. The wait can seem long and the pressure of the building anticipation intense.
But the celebration on the other side of the anticipation will be oh so worth it!
The long-anticipated Savior of the world has come! We celebrate the end of the waiting on Christmas! Death is defeated and the silence is no more! Allow the built-up pressure of your anticipation to burst forth into rejoicing!
Keeping Christ in Christmas
It would be silly to say that every year Christmas sneaks up on the world, but in a weird way it does. Every year. Every single year. Oh, not the celebration of Christmas, but the reality of Christmas seems to sneak up every year. Even in the church it can feel like the underlying reality of God coming as man gets lost in the production of a wonderful Christmas seasonal celebration. Undoubtedly the world is struggling with a broad secularistic move. And it can easily be argued that the church is as well. However, you can lead your family towards keeping Christ in Christmas this year and every year.
What I Learned This Week: When “We’ll Get to It” Becomes the Problem
What if what you need right now isn’t a better system or more clarity — but the courage to commit to the one action you already know needs to happen?
You’re Pardoned
You and I should be devoted to a merit-based application of justice that holds the guilty accountable (Is. 1:17) and avoids partiality (Deut. 10:17). We should personally abide by these precepts, and we should expect the same of our elected leaders.
How to Disagree Well
Disagreement can be and is highly constructive for a team. Healthy disagreement can help spur creative solutions, prevent big time mistakes, and push better decision-making across the board. Too often, disagreement is seen as disloyalty, or destructive to the team. And done wrongly it can certainly harm the spirit of the team. It can easily escalate into something far more and unintended. There is a way to disagree well when you find yourself in an environment that fosters healthy conflict. It can be scary at first, but when done well it will make everyone better.
You’re Fired
Competing forces will contend for the place of authority in your life. You cannot serve two masters (Matt. 6:24). Romans 13 encourages you to subject yourself to the authorities of this world, but to do so mindful of Who has the ultimate authority. Our guiding passage as The Equipped community, 2 Timothy 3:16-17, reminds us it is the authority of scripture that holds highest priority in our life. It is that authority to which we ultimately and resolutely yield.
Pipe Bomb Suspect Arrested
Is there something long unresolved you need to be free of? Your God is slow to anger (Ps. 103:8) and ready to forgive (Ps. 86:5). Don’t carry it any longer.
Create a Category
What categories are you creating in that powerful God-fashioned brain of yours? What things are your Reticular Activating System learning to flag and highlight for you? In addition to Kia Souls, Costco plaids, and John Deere mowers, are you meditating on things that feed your soul or rob your joy?
Double Tap Strike
Ecclesiastes 4:9-12: "Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up. Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone? Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken."
Two are better than one. Who are you supporting? Who are you able to lean on? Independence is held up as a virtue, but as Jesus followers we are clearly instructed to be accountable to each other.
Leading Change
Change is an inevitable part of life and creation. God knit together an incredible creation that can adapt and grow throughout its life. It is amazing to see it in action. We don’t have to be afraid of change, but we should have an idea about how to handle it well.
National Guard Shooting in D.C.
Two innocent young people serving their country were tragically gunned down. That is the reality of this story. There are many competing narratives aimed at pointing blame in one direction or another, but the most important point for The Equipped community is to acknowledge those who have been harmed and are grieving, and to look for ways to come to their aid.
Send over End
We want to accomplish a solution for suffering when God’s plan all along has been to send His power through us into that suffering.
To be candid, at first blush this sounds like an awful trade! Who in their right mind would want to shift from aiming at solutions to aiming at association with the problem? On a human plane, this is a laughable proposition.
But when Jesus chose to associate with our sin and suffering, it proved to be the very mechanism by which our redemption was secured, and we are called to follow His example!
Illegal Orders and Sedition
As for you as a Jesus follower, there will be every temptation to take a default position in favor of whichever political official you are more naturally inclined. Instead, proactively decide to walk out Proverbs 18:17. As always, remember to aim for flourishing and ask yourself how to personally achieve an impact toward that end.