Reliable Truth

Have you ever noticed the competing desires in your life and how they can be so contradictory? For example, if you want to be healthy, fit and live a long life, but you also smoke cigarettes and drink heavily, at some point, you realize your model breaks down. The competing interests require that you choose a side, and you finally understand freedom is not the ability to do whatever you want, as your desires can be endless, easily colliding with each another. We believe we are only free if we can do whatever our heart wants.

Author Tim Keller says that sometimes you have to deliberately give up your freedom to engage in activities and thought processes that will enable you to release yourself to a richer kind of freedom. Do you want that kind of freedom?

Child psychologist David Elkind believes there are at least three contemporary sources of stress that mark our age as a difficult one. First, due to the alarming increase in violence and crime, we are more afraid. Second, due to rapidly changing job markets, technology, and economic factors, we are more professionally insecure. Finally, due to widespread separation and divorce, we are more alone.

These words were written several years ago but they still ring true today. I think when we faced riots in our streets, businesses boarding up their windows, and curfews being enacted, many people experienced a great deal of anxiety. However, as I have worked with men over the years, it is hard to determine if a man is struggling with fear, because we do a good job concealing it. In our culture, real men are not supposed to be afraid, so we fake it. Is it possible to have real peace? And is this life all there is?

In March of 1965, I remember driving home from the beach. It was a Sunday. We stopped to pick up a black man who was hitchhiking to Selma. I remember my Dad asking him if he was participating in the march and the man said that he was going to see his girlfriend.

Then something happened in August of 1965 that is still seared in my memory. Our family went to New York to attend the World’s Fair. One day we stopped by Macy’s department store. I was thirsty and looked for a water fountain. When I finally found it, I noticed there were two fountains, one for blacks and one for whites. To this day I can remember how stunning this was to me. Yet this is the world I grew up in.

I think many of our leaders are trying to determine how we find our way out of this racial divide. How do we deal with the sin of racism? I keep hearing of new legislation, but really, will new laws root out a heart of superiority? Can a law make a white person love a black person? I’m now 66 and wonder if much has really changed from the 1960’s. Tune in to my podcast to hear more!

Most issues regarding money are judgement issues. For this reason we all need wisdom in the handling of our finances. 

There are 3 questions that the Bible and the book of Proverbs asks us about money: 1) How did you get it? 2) What is money doing to you? and 3) What are you doing with what you have? 

Learning the answers to these questions can reveal the heart of our attitude toward money and give us true financial freedom.  

This is Part 2 of my two-part series. I hope you enjoy it!

Billy Graham once said, "If a person gets his attitude toward money straight, it will help straighten out almost every other area in his life." 

I couldn't agree more! If your attitude on money is right, it's easier to develop the proper balance between work and family. Most issues regarding money are judgement issues, and for this reason we all need wisdom in handling our finances. There is much wisdom in the book of Proverbs, especially in the area of relationships, work and finances. 

This is Part 1 of a 2-Part series. I hope you enjoy it!

British scholar C. S. Lewis says that, “Every time you make a choice, you are turning the central part of you, the part of you that chooses, into something a little different from what it was before... You are slowly turning this central thing either into a heavenly creature or a hellish creature.”

Could there be a slow deterioration of the quality of my life based on what I am sowing and reaping? And if so, am I willing to sow in a different direction?

In this week's podcast, Richard Simmons III discusses sowing and reaping, and how the quality of our choices truly determines their outcome. Join us!

Do you feel alone and separated from God?

Are you longing for something or someone that can truly satisfy the deepest longings of your heart?

You can go to the greatest resorts, eat at the finest restaurants, drink the finest wines, play on the world's top golf courses, have great sex, but the problem is when you wake up the next morning, you're still thirsty.

These are wonderful things, but they don't satisfy you fully, because ultimately, our thirst is in our souls - we have a thirst that can only be satisfied by the Spirit of God. We were made in the image of God and we need to know our Creator. 

This is God's great Rescue Mission - Christ became a man, and has come to rescue and free us from our brokenness and the powers of darkness.

We cannot rescue ourselves - let Him rescue you today!

This is Part 2 of Richard's 2-part interview with Carrie Abbott, host of Relationship Insights Radio show based in Seattle. You can find this and hundreds of other interviews at carrieabbott.com.

If you could ask God one question, and be guaranteed that He would answer, what would it be?

Recently USA Today conducted a survey asking this very question - the number 1 question people wanted to ask God was this, "What is my purpose here?"

In this podcast, Richard discusses his personal journey in searching for his purpose in life, and how this led him to write his most recent book The Reason For Life. In this book, Richard writes that purpose implies design. If this is true, then there must be a Creator.

Be encouraged - your life matters! In Christ, life makes sense!

This is Part 1 of a 2-part interview with Carrie Abbott, host of Relationship Insights Radio show based in Seattle. You can find this and hundreds of other interviews at carrieabbott.com. 

It seems that when it comes to pain and suffering, I think our natural first response is, how do I get this out of my life? Most of us are more concerned with how things are going to turn out, but God is more concerned with how we’re going to turn out. That’s His focus.

How do you prepare for the storms of life? How do you respond to them when they come into your life?

Dr. Hans Selye, the first true pioneer in discovering the impact of emotion on a person’s health, wrote 30 books on the subject, and at the end of his life, he summarized everything he’d learned in all of his years of research. He concluded, “Vengeance and bitterness are, as the emotional responses to our circumstances that will do us the most harm,” but “gratitude is the single most nourishing attitude for a person’s good health and well-being.” 

This is Part 2 of a two-part series on Pain, Suffering and Evil. If you missed Part 1, be sure and go back and check it out!

Why does God allow pain, suffering and evil in the world? And why is it that suffering sometimes causes people to turn away from God? I believe we're not dealing with a problem that needs to be solved - rather, we're dealing with a mystery to be understood. 

My purpose in this podcast is for us to gain understanding and make sense of the pain, suffering and evil around us. This topic leads to a very important question we should all ask ourselves - What is the ultimate good in life? Please tune in and join us!

Next week in Part 2, we'll deal with how to prepare for, and then respond to pain and suffering when it enters into our lives.