A previous article looked at certain hard skills that you should teach your children. Now, let’s take a look at soft skills that every child should learn as they grow and mature.

Any, and all of these things will pull you out of step with God and His will. These things can often creep in unnoticed, or maybe unwilling to confront in yourself. Do you a community around you? One that can help you see the things that you are hiding from yourself? Do you have friend that can challenge you on anything you are thinking? You need them. God made you for community. A community that knows it is just as messed up as you. Walk through life together and see how you can be pointed towards Jesus.

One cannot approach the doctrine of justification without first recognizing that mankind is sinful. That sinfulness means that the holy law of God has been, is being, and will continue to be transgressed by mankind. These transgressions leave man in need of justification before the Lord.

Being dad is one of the greatest things you can possibly do. It is entirely possible that you truest calling in life from God is to be a husband and to be a father. Any man can father a child, but a real man learns to be dad.

Communication is the vital foundation to pretty much every positive relationship you have. It is especially important in your marital relationship and the crux of communication is learning to listen well to each other. But, like all aspects of life there are barriers that we allow to fester in our in behaviors that will impact our ability to listen well.

Getting out of the slump takes some effort and work. It starts with acknowledging, maybe only to yourself at first, that you are in one. Bring it into the light. From there, here are steps you can take to get out of the slump.

When sin entered the world, perfect intimacy was lost. Adam and Eve were naked, but now they felt shame, fear, regret. They hid themselves because their intimacy had been destroyed. This battle is still faced each day in your marriage. There are a number of intimacy killers in your marriage today. Let’s take a look at some of them.

For Spurgeon, there is such a thing as election. It is not a false belief, or a fool’s errand. Let’s take a look at what Spurgeon preached about this doctrine.

As a dad, there are both hard and soft skills that you should be handing down to your kids as they grow into adulthood. Taking intentional time to teach these skills to your kids will give them a vital head start as they enter adulthood.

For Spurgeon, baptism is the command of Christ. A command that should not be trifled with or ignored. While he acknowledges that there are a few who disagree with it as a literal act, it can generally be held that baptism is an expected part of the Christian faith. He breaks the doctrine of baptism into several parts. Here is an outline of what he taught.

Marriage is hard. It’s hard when everything seems to be going well and things are good. It’s harder when things aren’t quote clicking on all cylinders like we would want it to be. Take a look at these attitudes and see if any of them are a part of your thinking.

There are three things, by whatever name you call them, that a group must have to be successful. Every other aspect of the group dynamic can fall underneath one of these three areas.

The basis of learning is the personal humility to recognize that you don’t know something, or could be wrong about it. That spirit, coupled with the motivation to seek clarity, ask questions, and alter your own understanding is the grounding of being a life-long learner.

What is the role of the church within the political sphere? How should the church, or the non-profit, approach the questions of political conversation? The idea of the church speaking to the political issues of its day is not new, nor has it failed to be discussed ad nauseam. But, what is the place of the church in speaking to the political and social issues of its day?

There are many factors that go into leadership at any level, but there are certain things that every leader can know about themselves that will help them take their next steps in leadership growth. It is a part of the lifelong learning that should be taking place in your life as a leader. Here are four things you should know well about yourself to be a great leader.

The world needs complete men. And being a complete man is simply immensely difficult to achieve.  Here are the three things that build into a complete man.

The change in the world will be wrought with the children of today being led to be the kind of people truly needed tomorrow. Fathering well looks to instill those values for the future and the need for the parents of tomorrow to do the same.

It is easy to feel like you are not entitled in any way. After all, you have earned your spot through hard work and lots of hours. But, just for fun, here are several signs you are dealing with entitlement.

God promises blessings on His followers. Much like a loving father would seek to bless his children, so does God seek to bless His. God bestows unbelievable blessings on His children. They just don’t look the same as what is seen in the world. Here is a look at the true blessings of God.

Great leadership takes time. Many leaders get caught assuming they are good, if not great. They stall out because they stop learning. They stop thinking about others. They lose sight of their purpose and drift off track. Be intentional about growing as a leader and even more importantly as a human being created by God. Truly great leaders go about making others better.

The truth is that you belong where you are called by God. There is likely a far deeper and broader discussion to that statement. But, regardless, you belong where you are called. Not because of you, but because God has put you there. And God may have put you outside of your comfort and ability in order to teach you to trust His story over your own. Like it is stated above: the real truth is that you don’t belong, but in Christ you can do it.

Growing as a leader requires that you never stop seeking to learn. Learning about your own tendencies, giftedness, background, and experiences is vital. Often, a leader stops learning and develops blind spots. These areas end up stalling the leader out. But you can restart your learning and work to overcome these false beliefs to grow as a leader.

Leaders develop blind spots the longer they lead people. And it can be very easy to try and blame outside factors for that tall in your leadership growth, or the growth of the organization. But it is rarely an outside factor that stalls out the leader. Nearly always, it is internal blocks that exist in the belief system of the leader that impacts growth both inwardly and outwardly.

Have you hit a wall? Has progress ground to a halt? Is your team stuck? Mired in an inability to make decisions? Maybe it isn’t them. It’s you. Leaders, especially ones that experience a level of success, often unknowingly began to hold themselves back with beliefs, operational methods, or task orientation. These things might have worked at a second, or third, tier of leadership but have stopped working as more responsibility has come to the leader. The worst thing a leader can do is to stop learning. You never “arrive” at an apex of leadership ability. There is no mountaintop.

Everybody seems to be in an awful hurry to wait some more. Stress, anxiety, and frustration rule the day. They don’t have to rule your day though. Look at these things and see how you can incorporate them into your daily routines. You just might find yourself getting more done than you thought you could.

People are leaving the church at an alarming rate. Quietly. Not with grandiose actions. Just the quiet patter of feet heading out the door. They leave because they can’t find the real Jesus in that church, or no one has ever done the work to show them what being “in Christ” really means. Is your church pushing a misplaced emphasis for spiritual growth? The mission is really about people, and not anything else.

Jesus told us that it isn’t the healthy that need a doctor but the sick. Churches are filled with people that have learned, and been taught, to keep their broken areas to themselves. But the entire Gospel of Matthew is geared towards showing that Jesus sought after the broken. The despised. The “unclean.” The outcasts. That is who Matthew was. A tax collector. We still don’t really like the tax collectors. Matthew was cut off from everything in his Jewish faith. He was rejected. He was broken. But Jesus called him to follow. And he did. Time and again Jesus stopped to interact with the broken of society. They were special to Him. They should be special to us today.

The things, the leaders, and the people of this world will fail us. If not now, eventually. Our hope rightly placed in Christ will sustain us through all of it. It isn’t that we all just want grace. Without it, we can be and do nothing in the world.

A more liturgical in nature background likely means you are familiar with the history and practice of Lent. More evangelical? Maybe you are curious about adding some of the rhythmic liturgical elements into your spiritual life. Lent provides a unique and special opportunity to grow closer to the Lord spiritually.

Somehow the news always makes its way out. “Sources” have confirmed that arguably the greatest coach in the National Football League will not be inducted into the Football Hall of Fame(HOF) during his first year of eligibility. Bill Belichick has been :snubbed” by the 50 member committee. He did not receive the required 40 votes to be one of the new members of the HOF. The news spread like wildfire with too many to count players, pundits, and commentators weighing in on the news. In the days that have followed news has come out that he missed it by one vote. To many the snub is atrocious and unconscionable. Others immediately blamed the infamous Spygate scandal and theorized the snub acted as punishment for it. Whatever the reason, he will be absent the HOF Enshrinement Ceremony this year. He will have to wait another year.