Daly Focus Blog
Years ago, back when video stores were still around, my wife and I went looking for a well-known film that told the story of Easter. We couldn’t find it on the shelf, so we asked the young lady behind the counter if they had it available. She pointed us to several kids’ videos that explained how to decorate eggs. We said, “No, we’re looking for a video about the real story of Easter.”
Judging by the confused look on her face, she had no idea what we were talking about.
Earlier this year, Focus on the Family officially re-launched Brio Magazine, our publication for teen girls. It’s a positive, godly alternative to most of the influences out there today for teenage girls.
Our “Brio girl” for the inaugural issue was Sadie Robertson. Many of you know her from the A&E reality show Duck Dynasty and from Dancing with the Stars a few seasons ago.
She’s just 20, but she’s an impressive young lady, and we’ve asked her to join us in the studio today to share how she is fearlessly living out her faith and using her public platform to be an excellent role model for girls.
Did your boss sneak anything into the fine print of your job description that warned you your work required suffering?
A college degree? Maybe.
Hard work? Sure.
Suffering? Probably not.
Church-planting hopefuls Peter and Carol Chin were told directly and openly by leaders overseeing their training to prepare for suffering.
God uses difficulty to purify our faith and to spur us toward stronger character. That’s often particularly the case for those serving in ministry. Peter and Carol expected a few speed bumps.
Gerald Harvey Jones, a former industrial arts teacher who would go on to become one of America’s most highly regarded painters by creating masterpieces that hearkened back to simpler times when virtues such as faith, courage, patriotism, hard work, and compassion were revered, has died. He was 84.
“G. Harvey,” as he was known to his fans and collectors, was a friend of mine, as he was to many around Focus on the Family. A man of incredible generosity, Gerald began a tradition in 1987 of commissioning a yearly painting for the ministry, which we were then able to make available to our friends.
“Why should I focus on my past? It’s over. I can’t change anything about it.”
Answer: If your past still affects your present, it’s not really in the past.
Wounds from our past can imprison us within ourselves. Satan is a master at dredging up old hurts and using them against us. Sinful and dysfunctional behavior today is often in reaction to the pain that litters our yesterdays.
Guilt, shame, bitterness, resentment, and anger are a long, slow path to destruction.
John Murphy was on a routine training jump at Fort Bragg when it happened.
He’d just gotten home from a deployment to Afghanistan a couple of months before. John was a proud soldier who was so eager to serve, he dropped out of a full Army ROTC scholarship at Michigan State so he could go straight into active duty.
John grew up with godly parents who loved the Lord and who loved him. But he was a nominal Christian at best.
Do you get the feeling that we’ve crossed a line in this country?
I do.
As I mentioned yesterday, the most recent outburst of bloodshed and mayhem – the tragic gunning down of twenty-six worshipers at the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, Texas – has left most of us breathless and reeling.
It’s dawning on us that, somehow or other, senseless violence has become the “new norm” in America.
Again and again celebrities, news anchors, and politicians have responded to this unthinkable situation with a familiar refrain:
“We’re sending thoughts and prayers to the victims and their families.”
Most of us appreciate their sentiments.
Not again.
That was my first thought Sunday when I learned about the tragic shooting at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas.
As you know by now, 26 people were killed when a gunman burst into the 11 A.M service of the small congregation and opened fire.
The youngest victim was a pre-born child. The oldest was 77. The church pastor’s 14-year-old daughter was also murdered.
Additionally, 20 congregants were wounded.
Reports today suggest the gunman was deeply disturbed and motivated by a dispute with his ex-wife’s family.
It was 500 years ago today that Martin Luther was famously reported to have nailed his 95 Theses to the door of a Wittenberg church.
At the time, Luther only wanted to talk about his opposition to the sale of indulgences to absolve sin; he never thought his call for debate would lead to changing the religious and cultural history of the world.
But that was, of course, what happened – and Protestant Christianity was born.
Ladies, how would you describe yourself? Would you use the word “beautiful”?
If you answer “no,” you’re not alone. In fact, according to author Elisa Morgan, the vast majority of women around the world, including Christians, don’t feel beautiful.
They see beauty in others – friends, relatives, celebrities, models on magazine covers – but they don’t see it in themselves. That’s partly because women see their outer flaws – “This is too big,” “that is too small” – but it’s also because a woman’s “ugly list,” as Elisa calls it, goes deeper, to the soul.
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.
