Daly Focus Blog
What do you feel when you read this Scripture? “Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest’” (Matthew 9:37-38).
What about this one? “And he said to them, ‘Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation’” (Mark 16:15).
Do verses like these about evangelism excite you? Or do they strike fear into your heart?
By Pat Fitzpatrick
As a young teacher in Atlanta, I developed a mentoring friendship with a colleague who taught Old and New Testament survey. George was a master of the English language like none other I have ever met, which was made even more impressive by the fact that English was the sixth or seventh language that he had mastered in his forty-five years on earth.
I often reflect on a conversation he and I had in the school’s dining hall in the late 1980’s.
Author Lee Strobel is a skeptic by nature. As legal editor for the Chicago Tribune for many years, he was trained not to accept anyone’s word at face value. Every fact was confirmed by at least two sources before it was printed. They even hung a sign in their newsroom which said, “If your mother says she loves you, check it out.”
Lee’s skepticism eventually became cynicism … and then atheism. “If there is no God,” he reasoned, “if there is no heaven, and no ultimate accountability, then the most logical way for me to live is as a hedonist, someone who only pursues pleasure.” And that’s what he did.
A few years ago, Jean and I held a special gathering on Easter Sunday. Our boys Trent and Troy were there, as were our two foster children – 8 and 10 – and a few friends and their children.
As I chatted with the adults in the living room, squeals of laughter erupted out of our kitchen. We all went to investigate and found Jean sitting on the floor covered by Easter grass, and surrounded by dozens of plastic Easter eggs, all opened and the contents strewn across the floor.
The essence of our Christian faith rests on the reality of Jesus Christ’s resurrection from the dead on Easter Sunday.
Although C.S. Lewis is often credited with the succinct summary that Jesus Christ was either a liar, lunatic or Lord, it was the Scottish Christian preacher “Rabbi” John Duncan who once observed in 1859:
“Christ either [1] deceived mankind by conscious fraud, or [2] He was Himself deluded and self-deceived, or [3] He was Divine. There is no getting out of this trilemma.
How big is your marriage’s “joy gap”?
Dr. Marcus Warner and Chris Coursey, authors of the book The 4 Habits of Joy-Filled Marriages, describe a “joy gap” as the length of time between moments of joy.
If you apply that unit of measurement to your marriage, how long has it been? Days? Weeks? Months?
Your joy gap can be especially lengthy if you’re waiting for your circumstances to change, for your spouse to make you joyful, or for God to zap you with joy.
As we prepare for Palm Sunday this weekend and the beginning of Holy Week, I want to encourage you to watch a great new film about the most significant day in history – the day that literally transformed the world.
The movie is called RESURRECTION and it comes out on Discovery Plus this weekend.
On today’s Focus on the Family radio broadcast, I had the privilege of speaking with the film’s producers, Roma Downey and Mark Burnett about it.
Our culture is undergoing seismic shifts in moral reasoning.
A daughter of friends of mine began her college career at a university here in Colorado. At the orientation, both students and parents were warned to use correct pronouns when addressing others. Offending others through the misuse of pronouns was grounds for expulsion from the school.
The conversation surrounding transgenderism is rapidly deteriorating into a monologue. Rather than sincere discussion about science, truth, and compassion for those who struggle, power drives decorum, insisting that people of faith accept gender transition without dissent.
Details continue to emerge regarding last week’s murder of eight people at three different massage parlors in suburban Georgia.
The alleged gunman, Robert Aaron Long, reportedly told police his actions stemmed from a sex addiction he’s battling. Angry with himself, he apparently targeted women who enabled his desires.
It’s impossible to fathom how someone in that position would carry out such evil and horror – but that hasn’t stopped both the Washington Post and The New York Times from trying to pin the blame not just on Long, but his supposed belief system.
In short, reports in both papers have alluded to the 21-year-old’s self-described evangelicalism as the root of his actions, specifically a biblical sexual ethic that calls sex outside marriage sinful.
Sunday’s New York Times cited Dr.
Author Aaron Sharp says that every new dad is like Peter Parker, the mild-mannered character in the Marvel comic series who becomes Spider-Man. A pivotal moment in Peter’s story comes when he’s bitten by a radioactive spider, and his life changes forever … only, he doesn’t immediately realize it.
For a man, that pivotal moment comes the first time his wife says, “We’re having a baby.” The man’s life changes forever … only he doesn’t immediately realize what’s coming down the pike.
Jim Daly is a husband, father and President of Focus on the Family and host of its National Radio Hall of Fame broadcast. His blog, Daly Focus, is full of timely commentary and wisdom designed to help you navigate and understand today’s culture. His latest book is Marriage Done Right.
