Life Over Coffee

When children are young, they believe their parents are impressive in about every way. As they grow older and create proper categories for living well with others, they begin to see their parents’ good and bad behaviors. Observing flawed lives in the family dynamic does not have to be harmful to the children if the parents consistently clean up their messes by active repentance. However, suppose the husband and wife are not modeling a practical picture of Christ and His church while repenting along the way. In that case, it can have a detrimental impact on their children, even pushing them away from the family and Christ. Biffy was one of those kids, as you are about to read from the letter he wrote to his dad.

Read Here: https://rickthomas.net/dear-parents-will-you-stop-your-arguing-please/

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We live in two worlds at the same time, the physical and spiritual. We can see, touch, taste, smell, hear and intimately engage each other in the physical realm. The spiritual world is all around us, too. But differently. We cannot touch, taste, smell, hear or see this world, but it is just as real. Imagine this: it takes all our lives to learn how to live well in the physical world. What about the unseen realm? How difficult it must be to live well with what we cannot see. The temptation would be natural to dismiss the spiritual world, but that would be a mistake.

Read Here: https://rickthomas.net/spiritual-warfare-some-tips-on-how-to-fight/

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Shows Main Idea – The novelty of social media has turned deadly but many Christians do not know how it's eating away at the soul of the church. It has been so subtle (and fun) that we are amusing ourselves to spiritual death. And we're exporting our cyber behavior to our children as they grow up in a world where gathering worshiping, and spurring one another on to love and good works is for past generations. The process of life in the cyber world happened in four strategic steps.

Show Notes: https://rickthomas.net/podcast/ep-407-the-new-and-dangerous-way-christians-build-community/

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The angry heart does not have to direct its frustration toward anyone to complicate that relationship. All the angry person has to do is stand in the vicinity of those who receive the spillover of their anger. Whether you’re mad at someone or intoxicating the room with your frustration, it will damage your redemptive goals with the casualties. Every partner, parent, pastor, and peer must learn to bring sinful anger into submission to Christ, or it will complicate the lives of others.

Read Here: https://rickthomas.net/when-the-parents-anger-complicates-the-life-of-the-child/

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Every child to varying degrees is treated poorly by a parent. I wish I had another story to tell. Victimization is not okay or straightforward, but it is a fact about the fallout of fallenness. If the child does not know how to process the hurt or cast it on Christ, they will probably grow up bitter, as I did. The good news is that even if you find yourself in the snare of bitter victimization, there is a way out. There is help and hope because Christ came to set captives free, which is what He did for me.

Read Here: https://rickthomas.net/the-reason-i-stopped-hating-my-dad-2/

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Shows Main Idea – One of our long-time supporters posed a question about demonic activity on our forums. He suggested that biblical counselors and Christians generally do not devote adequate time and concern to demonic activity. His concerns and valid, and our supporters may read that thread here. In this episode, I'm addressing some of the problems and how to think through demonic activity practically.

Show Notes: https://rickthomas.net/podcast/ep-406-should-christians-place-an-emphasis-on-demonic-activity/

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I have been accused (my word, not theirs) of writing too much about how husbands need to change. Of course, my “accusers” are husbands. They may be right. I do think a lot about husbands for two primary reasons. I am a husband, which motivates me to give more thought to how to be a better one, and men should be servant leaders in their families, so I typically begin with me—how can I change? But those priorities do not negate the truth that some women are mean. So, to all husbands everywhere, let’s talk about those mean wives and the husbands who must work extra hard to love them well.

Read Here: https://rickthomas.net/mean-wives-and-their-husbands-who-should-love-them-anyway/

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Transformation starts in a person’s soul as he relates to God while refusing to make excuses for why things are the way they are. The motivation for change must be a singular desire to glorify God while giving lesser consideration to the things happening in an individual’s life and relationships. If a person focuses more on horizontal complications than God-glorifying, vertical necessities, it will be challenging to bring their soul to a place of authentic, long-term heart change.

Read Here: https://rickthomas.net/i-knew-i-could-not-stay-angry-and-progress-in-my-marriage/

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Shows Main Idea – The DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition) is the manual that the APA (American Psychiatric Association) uses to identify psychological (soul) problems. In March 2022, the APA published a new DSM-5 Text Revision (DSM-5-TR). It is to the secular community what the Bible is for the Christian community. Dr. Daniel Berger shares his opinions on the DSM and the latest changes.

Show Notes: https://rickthomas.net/podcast/ep-405-dr-daniel-berger-discusses-the-new-dsm-5-tr-text-revision/

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Two radically different things are knowing God through personal study and experiencing Him in the crucible of suffering. This autobiographical short story briefly walks you through the worst day of my life, the day I met the Lord in the crucible of suffering. Everything changed that day, and it took years to process His fearful work in my life. The good news is that after He completed this phase of my life, I was on the right track for an unimaginable adventure with God. But first, the hard part.

Read Here: https://rickthomas.net/28th-anniversary-worst-day-life/

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