The Church. Is it where we have to be?

    

    Why do we go to the church? What keeps us there? Is faithfully attending Sunday services and working on our jobs all that God wants us to do? Or does He have some higher purpose for us Christians?

    All these questions come up from the "blessed discontent" that I was talking about a year ago. It's basically just a healthy desire for more of something. A person is content when he's doing something that he likes and other people honestly testify that he is doing it well. 

    Let's bring up some examples. I was video recording sermons and I was dedicated to my responsibilities. People said that I was punctual, my technical skill were excellent, and I could be relied upon. However, after many years I started to seriously feel that it's not what I'm excited about. So, in this case there was a testimony, but there was no desire. I also tried to lead a home group. I was praying and fasting about it for months, and when it finally started, I was full of expectations. However, within a year of my faithful service, people told me that I'm not doing well by zero attendance for weeks before I finally closed the home group. 

There was passion, but no testimony.

    

    So, can it be that a Christian in the situation like mine may realize that living a church life is not something that he was made for? Can there be talents within a Christian that are of little value in church, but of high demand outside? If so, then most his life is going to be outside of church's walls. Is it really God's purpose?

    

Nugget

Honesty is a luxury for which you have to pay with your relationships.

Thought of the Day

The highest quality study happens when you open the book, read it yourself, and try to apply it.

Thought of the Day

The way how you start the day will oftentimes dictate how productive it's going to be.

Thought of the Day

Two things that keep me going on. Two things that help me to choose the right life-path.
     1) Full assurance that God sees everything in my heart and my life.
     2) Ability to value His opinion more anything in this world.

Which faith is more "right"?

   

     Within Christendom there're many groups who have wide array of beliefs. Some seek to fulfill the Scriptures word for word, some interpret the Bible more figuratively, others don't even consider themselves worthy to open the Holy Book. Each Christian group has its own opinion on all aspects of a believer's life. But, which faith is better?

     I think the answer is in us. The more we are focusing to approach closer to the true faith, the farther from us it becomes. Whenever we are striving to bear a good "fruit," God will prune us. Those believers who are looking inside of them, try to determine the desires God has put within their hearts, and seek to fulfill them, they are definitely on the right path. Action through faith makes us closer to Light than anything else. 

Psychology of Conversation

   
      Have you noticed that when you are expressing your opinion, your interlocutor sometimes takes another view even though he doesn't really adhere to it? A similar situation could have happened to us,

                              [someone else] "I think this is awful!"
                              [you]                "Well, it might be not as bad as you think."
                              After sometime.
                              [you]                "Oh, that's horrible!"
                              [someone else] "Let's look at it from a different angle..."

     There's some kind of a mechanism deep down in our psychology that motivates us to do that. Maybe it's an inner feeling to continue the conversation? To do that people must take the opposite sides, so there  would be something to talk about.
      A wise person will use this phenomenon to his advantage. We can notice it during conversations with our relatives and friends. It may help us to distinguish between their true opinion from the opinion they were obliged to take. We can watch after ourselves, so that we would not take the position we actually oppose. And, we can make another person to do what we want by motivating him to take the position we want.
      Let's consider another case:

                              [you]                "Why am I such a looser!?"
                              [someone else] "Dude, you are awesome! What are you talking about?"
                              After sometime.
                              [you]                "See how cool I am?"
                              [someone else] "Don't be so silly! It's only a half-truth."

     In the conversation, we are trying to strike a balance. It looks nasty for us when a person tries to magnify himself. We have an immediate desire to pull this person down. Also, we don't like to see a someone with low self-esteem. It looks like a balance in the conversation is most important, but that's exactly what makes the conversation unattractive. We have nothing to talk about if we are in agreement on everything and nothing disturbs us. Irony isn't it?
     So, in the conversation we need a conflict, a topic which we can discuss. But, instead of talking about the differences between us, we need to target a solution to a mutual problem. This conversation is going to be productive and leave a positive effect on us.