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You decorate the house, send greeting cards, and find just the right gifts for those you love. But in the flurry of activity of the holiday season, how can you be sure you haven’t left out something vital? John MacArthur will help you focus on what’s most important this Christmas in his study called The Real Meaning of Christmas.

Do you pray for revival but take no action, or work hard without seeking God? Discover the powerful balance of living with urgency and dependence. Learn to work for the kingdom as if it all depends on you, and pray fervently as if it all depends on God, paving the way for a restored heart and a transformed community.

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While writing her book The Surprising Secrets of Highly Happy Marriages, Shaunti Feldhahn did a massive research study involving thousands of married couples. Her follow-up interviews with hundreds of couples who had the happiest marriages revealed some simple attitudes and actions that can help your marriage today!

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Simple Habits for Marital Happiness -- Build a happy marriage with this free video series! You'll learn four foundational "fall in love" habits, how to overcome marital complacency, how-to’s for connecting through the day, and more.

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Do you have a story or comment on how Focus on the Family impacted you or your family? Leave a message for Jim Daly!

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Marriage expert Shaunti Feldhahn explains why focusing on the good in your spouse can make a big difference in your marriage.

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The Surprising Secrets of Highly Happy Marriages

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Think about the Christian you want to be. What qualities do you want to have? More compassion? More conviction? More courage? What attitudes do you want to discontinue? Greed? Guilt? Endless negativity?

With God’s help you can close the gap between the person you are and the person you want to be. Indeed, the person God made you to be. You can live “from glory to glory” (2 Corinthians 3:18). To inherit your inheritance is God’s vision for your life. Imagine the thought! You as you were intended. It’s a life that is yours for the taking.

Expect to be challenged. The enemy will not go down without a fight. But God’s promises outweigh personal problems. Victory becomes, dare we imagine, a way of life. Isn’t it time for you to change your mailing address from the wilderness to the Promised Land? Are you ready to march?

Read more God Is with You Every Day

For more inspirational messages please visit Max Lucado.

I think it was our older son's first official date with a girl; actually, just a couple of hours at the mall really. The next day he ran into some of the guys from school who just wanted to know one thing about his Friday night. "So how much did you get off her?" I know, it’s gross. They weren't talking about money. They were talking about conquest. Our son actually came home pretty disgusted, frankly. He said, "Man, those guys; they’re messed up!"

I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about “The Surprising Secret of a Real Man.”

Actually, a lot of us men have been raised on a messed up idea of what really makes you a man. Guys of all ages seem to think that it is conquest that makes you a real man: sexual conquest, athletic conquest, financial conquest, business conquest. So many men define their worth, their success, and their masculinity by whether or not they are conquering - conquistadores!

Virtually every guy has been told somewhere in his life, "Be a man!" But by whose definition? Is it your biceps that make you a man, your bank account, your bedroom exploits, being the boss? If you want to know what manhood is really all about, consult the Inventor of manhood. That would be God. If you go by His definition, you get Designer Manhood, and that is the real thing.

And guess what? It is all about conquest after all, but in a very different arena than most of us were ever taught. It's exemplified in our word for today from the Word of God in Proverbs 16:32. "Better a patient man than a warrior, a man who controls his temper than one who takes a city." You say, "Hey, look at these trophies. Look at all the victories I've won. Look, I conquered this whole city!" God isn't impressed. He says, "Oh, yeah? How are you doing with your temper? Are you really patient?"

Here's the surprising secret of a truly powerful man: he is conquering himself!

What's it mean to be a man who is conquering himself? Well, a powerful man conquers his mouth. He eliminates the trash talk, the angry words, the critical words, the hurting words. He knows the power of his words and he controls those destructive words and specializes in encouraging words.

A powerful man also conquers his passions, focusing all his desire on his wife. You know, if he's single, keeping his relationships pure and his body reserved for his life partner. A powerful man also conquers his coldness. He shows his love. He expresses his love so he doesn't leave a lonely son or a frustrated wife or daughter or a mother who just doesn’t know where she stands.

Another conquest that displays real manhood is conquering your hardness; that unwillingness to ever admit you're wrong or that you're hurting. A powerful man conquers his neglect as well; his failure to spend the time with the people who love him, the time they so desperately need. And, bottom line, a truly powerful man conquers his selfishness - his tendency to want everyone to revolve around him.

Many a man has found out he cannot be that kind of a man. The Apostle Paul said at one time, "The things I want to do, I don't do. And the things I ought to do, I don't." He said, "Why is it that I cannot get free of this darkness inside of me?" And then he said, "Thanks be to God, a rescue has come in Jesus Christ."

I can say as a man, and I can say on behalf of many men I know, that they never could have become the man they wanted to be and everyone they loved needed them to be until they surrendered to Jesus Christ, who died for their sins.

Maybe you've never done that. Well listen, I want to invite you to tell Him today, "Jesus, I'm yours." If you want to know more about that relationship, and I hope you do, would you check us out at ANewStory.com.