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Paul invites us to “embrace the power of salvation’s full deliverance, like a helmet to protect your thoughts from lies” (Ephesians 6:17 TPT). It’s dangerous to go through life without the helmet of salvation. Yet, most people do exactly that. They wear no supernatural protection. And when they slip and stumble, they get hurt. Please don’t be among them.

How does one acquire this helmet? Simple: Ask for it. The gift of salvation is yours to receive. Turn your heart toward Jesus in prayer. Tell him you are a sinner in need of a Savior, and he will gladly and immediately receive you into his family. It really is that simple—and marvelous. And once he saves you, God enrolls you in his mental training course. Stinking thinking is a spiritual problem. It requires a spiritual solution, and God provides it!

Read more Tame Your Thoughts: Three Tools to Renew Your Mind and Transform Your Life

For more inspirational messages please visit Max Lucado.

A team of landscape architects studied the effects of providing a fence around a preschool playground. On playgrounds without fences, children tended to gather close to the school building and their teacher and didn’t stray away. But on fenced-in playgrounds, they enjoyed the entire area. The researchers concluded that boundaries can create a greater sense of freedom. This seems counterintuitive to so many of us who think boundaries restrict enjoyment. Yet fences can provide freedom!

God underlines the freedom His boundaries provide for us. In offering the Ten Commandments to Israel, He promised that a “prosperous” life would result from living life within His divine boundaries. “Walk in obedience to all that the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live and prosper and prolong your days in the land that you will possess” (Deuteronomy 5:33). Here the concept of prosperity includes a life lived with good results—a life of quality.

Jesus, who fulfilled the law with His death on the cross, proclaimed, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31-32). Indeed, God’s boundaries are for our good. “Fences” can free us to enjoy the life God created us to experience with Him.

Many church leaders think of their staff as family. But if they're family, can you fire them? Jon Gordon has coached hundreds of professional sports teams and companies and explains what it takes to...

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What happens when truth itself feels up for grabs?

In this episode of Behind the Seal, host Michael Martin sits down with journalist and author Bonnie Kristian to unpack what she calls our epistemic crisis — a breakdown in how we discern truth in an age of misinformation, conspiracy, and cancel culture.

Together, they explore how fake news and social media shape our faith and politics, why Christians are especially vulnerable to conspiracism, and what it takes to reclaim a thoughtful, redemptive discourse culture. From the dangers of mob mentality to the hope of cultivating habits of discernment, Bonnie’s insights offer a path toward restoration, clarity, and Christ-centered truth in a noisy world.

Learn more about Bonnie’s book Untrustworthy and discover how to live faithfully, think clearly, and love well in the age of information overload.

Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more conversations that strengthen leaders and ministries.

About Bonnie Kristian:

Bonnie Kristian is the editorial director of ideas and books at Christianity Today. She is a fellow at Defense Priorities and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today.

Additional Resources:

ECFA.org/LeaderCare

Bonnie’s Substack

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Your “healthiest” leader could be the one quietly hurting your culture. In this episode, Craig shares two hidden leadership blind spots. Learn how to spot them early, address them quickly, and lead your team toward greater impact.

Get the free leader guide for this episode here: https://www.life.church/leadershippodcast/leadership-blind-spots-that-hold-you-back.

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Craig Groeschel is the founder and senior pastor of Life.Church and one of today’s most trusted voices in leadership. Since 2016, he’s shared practical, empowering leadership insights to help you grow through the Craig Groeschel Leadership Podcast.

Thoughts.  We cannot see them.  We cannot always predict them.  But we cannot deny this about them:  They define our lives.  Think well, live well.  Think poorly, live poorly.  It’s no wonder that God urges us to “be careful how you think” (Proverbs 4:23). God loves us too much to let us lead a life marked by poor thinking.  He made our brains.  He can retrain our brains.

I embrace and cherish a Christian worldview.  Namely, God made us, saves us, pastors us, and is coming back for us.  The promise of heaven thrills me, and the assurance of God’s love sustains me.

The secret sauce for thought management is a genuine faith in the God of the Bible. Invite Jesus to change you by changing your thoughts.

Read more Tame Your Thoughts: Three Tools to Renew Your Mind and Transform Your Life

For more inspirational messages please visit Max Lucado.

Ginnie Hislop received a standing ovation as she was handed her master’s degree diploma in 2024. Why? It came eighty-four years after she’d completed her coursework! In 1941, she needed only to submit her thesis. But her then boyfriend, George, was suddenly called to serve during World War II. The two quickly married and headed to his army outpost—leaving Ginnie’s nearly realized degree behind. But after a lengthy pause, she was finally able to complete what she’d started.

Ezra was a student of Scripture—one who truly had an “advanced degree” in God’s law—who’d been waiting years to return to Jerusalem from exile in Babylon. “Ezra had devoted himself to the study and observance of the Law of the Lord, and to teaching its decrees” (Ezra 7:10). Zerubbabel and a group of Israelite exiles had been permitted to return from Babylon to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem decades earlier (2:1-2). And now Ezra, who had “the gracious hand of his God . . . on him” (7:9), was leading more exiles to Jerusalem. God would use him to reform and restore the proper worship of Him according to Scripture: “Ezra opened the book [of the Law]. All the people . . . bowed down and worshiped the Lord” (Nehemiah 8:5-6).

Ezra had to wait decades, but he completed his calling in God’s strength. In His power, let’s persist in finishing the work He has for us.

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Thank you for listening! Your support of Joni and Friends helps make this show possible.

Joni and Friends envisions a world where every person with a disability finds hope, dignity, and their place in the body of Christ. Become part of the global movement today at www.joniandfriends.org.

Find more encouragement on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and YouTube.

Satan aims to derail our thinking with unruly and ungodly thoughts.  Hence Paul’s challenge from Romans 12:2:  “Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mold.” By the power of Jesus, you can avoid being conformed and, instead, be “transformed by the renewal of your mind.”

What a choice word!   The process of turning a caterpillar into a butterfly is called metamorphosis.  God promises you a metamorphosis…an even greater transformation.

Are you stuck in your head?  Are you ticked off at the world?  Are you on edge like DEFCON I?  There is hope!  The thoughts that have characterized your past need not characterize the rest of your life.  God will move you from worm to butterfly. He will transform you by the renewal of your mind.

Read more Tame Your Thoughts: Three Tools to Renew Your Mind and Transform Your Life

For more inspirational messages please visit Max Lucado.