2020

Culture Trap

Dr. Mike 2020, Kingdom Paradigms, Traps , , ,

Romans 12:2

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Today’s culture is more influential than ever before. The power of the media, internet, and technology has multiplied the number of influences in our lives. One hundred years ago, children were raised by parents, grandparents, and their siblings. The negative influences were more easily pushed away and hidden from children. As the child grew, they were slowly exposed to the vices that captured a person’s soul.

Now children are bombarded with the same temptations as the adults but without the defensive capacity to manage. If adults have very little strength to push back on the negative advertisements of culture, what can we expect from our children?

Today’s culture is the elephant in the room. We walk, talk, and move about marveling and taking for granted the accomplishments of industry, business, medicine, and education. Yet, at the same time we realize there is a swaying pressure so slightly pulling us toward a way of life which looks glamorous on the outside yet we know deep inside us the emptiness will never be satisfied by the glittering promises of these false prophets.

The cultural machine never stops, slows down, nor rests. Every minute, the machine is bombarding everyone within its sight with an influential message which is design to trap oneself within its grip. If you believe the culture is your friend and wants what is best for you, you have been deceived into its trap of enslavement. Thinking you are free; you have become a prisoner of others manipulating you for their personal gain; an unknowing pawn in someone else’s game board.

Yet as parents and young adults knowing better but struggling to fine oneself through this maze of visual stimulation, vocal noise, and an overwhelming burden of constant choices, where does one go for real, solid answers?

The Bible, a collection of short stories, biographies, letters, and essays written over a 3,500-year period by various authors with a transparent collected theme from beginning to end contains more lessons of human success and failures for the student to grow in knowledge, wisdom, and understanding of how life works.

When one begins to read and learn more about God’s character between the pages, the solid values HE emphasizes for relationships, finance, business, government, etc., and the timeless wisdom repeatedly proven through faithful actions throughout history in many lives, maybe there is something our children and young adults can learn to help them lead a more abundant life than the world’s culture offers?

Yet the best advertisement is a walking billboard of what is in the Bible. Sadly, there are not many highly visible people that our children witness as role models. Maybe each of us needs to form a committee of one and become that person.

One man many years ago, when he intentionally decided he needed a mentor to help steer him through the cultural traps, he wanted the best available person. His choice? Jesus Christ.

In hindsight, one of his best decisions. How about you?

Rooting For You in Christ!

Dr. Mike

Encourager & Founder of
Vocational Leadership 360
Author of e-Books:

 *  Dancing With God: Life-Giving Theology Explained
 *  Great Business Emulates a Good God
 *  Be Radical…Follow Christ!
 *  Simply The Messenger
 *  Unequally Married

Encourage a Friend…Share Today’s Message!

Copyright 2013-2020 Abbaco LLC | All Rights Reserved

Commitment Trap

Dr. Mike 2020, Traps , ,

Psalm 89:8

O Lord God of hosts, who is mighty as you are, O Lord, with your faithfulness all around you?

One of God’s attributes that I admire most is His faithfulness to humanity. He is totally committed to bring forth the family He desires.

He created a Universe and took one ball of rock in one small solar system to build humanity’s habitat. He crafted and engineered all the details with practical function and beautiful form to what we call Earth. He created various life forms small and large each operating independently but also interdependently. And to top it all off, He capped His creation with Man and Woman – made after His image.

He has a vision and a plan which He started eons of time ago and slowly moving the pieces toward His ultimate goal. We witnessed how He introduced Himself to Abraham, and then his son and grandson. As the family grew into a tribe, He continued to move among them leading each generation until they became a nation.

When Adam & Eve rebelled against God, mankind’s Sin didn’t make God flinch. He could have immediately destroyed everything and started over again. But He didn’t. Instead He promised a Messiah to restore humanity back on the track He has always planned for them.

When Jesus appeared on earth, He continued God’s plan in fulfilling the prophecies of Scripture and making humanity more aware of who God IS and His plan for mankind. Not only did Jesus restore the relationship divide between God and humanity, but He also demonstrated what God is like in His actions, words, and teachings.

Today, two thousand years later, God continues to fulfil His commitment made at the beginning of creation. He continues to direct history toward the culmination of a new age when heaven and earth will be merged together into a new world order.   

Life without commitment is a purposeless one. God demonstrates throughout history He is totally committed for our success. Every time the nation Israel messed up, He was there to brush off the pain and restore the people. Every time you and I mess up, He is there to quickly respond at our request. In fact, He has already forgiven us before we even ask Him. He is totally committed toward raising children to become mature, seasoned adults in the world tomorrow.

How committed are we in our families, marriages, and relationships? Or do we shy away to make commitments because of the work involved or the risk of failure?

If you want to live a purposeful and meaningful life, then you need to make commitments. Rarely does anything good happen without commitment. A life without commitment is an irresponsible and cowardly act built on fear and immaturity. Without commitment, wars are loss, relationships are destroyed, businesses fail, nations disappear, dreams lie empty, innovation is a fantasy, and lasting failure becomes your friend.

Jesus is our role model. He made the commitment. He left heaven for earth, lived a vicarious life for you and I, fulfilled Scripture, raised a Church, and returned to heaven actively engaged intervening for humanity working toward the culmination of all things.

Remember, commitment is not the trap. The trap is the failure of living life without commitment. So what commitment are you afraid to make?

Rooting For You in Christ!

Dr. Mike

Encourager & Founder of
Vocational Leadership 360
Author of e-Books:

 *  Dancing With God: Life-Giving Theology Explained
 *  Great Business Emulates a Good God
 *  Be Radical…Follow Christ!
 *  Simply The Messenger
 *  Unequally Married

Encourage a Friend…Share Today’s Message!

Copyright 2013-2020 Abbaco LLC | All Rights Reserved

Faith Trap

Dr. Mike 2020, Traps , ,

Matthew 17:20

He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.”

Sometimes the simplest of concepts are difficult to grasp.

Take for example, Jesus’ statement above. He associates faith with the smallest known seed of his time. He didn’t associate faith with the seed fully grown into a mustard plant; nor did He compare faith with the seed when watered and roots are developed or leaves bloom. Instead He focused on the seed itself.

Most often, those of us in the Western world emphasize faith as a mental exercise of what we know. We hear the phrase, “grow one’s faith” and think if we spent more time reading the Word or listening to tape sermons our faith will grow. Yet, when our prayers are not answered (we think), or God is not blessing us (our opinion), we fall into the trap of thinking our faith isn’t large enough to generate the results we desire in life.

To grow one’s faith isn’t necessary a mental exercise of enlarging our “faith muscle”. Instead to grow one’s faith is more of taking what little we already know and acting on it.

The Hebrew word most often translated faith is “Emunah” (Strong’s #530). It is an action-oriented word meaning “support”. Unlike Western thinking which places the emphasis on having faith in God, the Hebrew word places the action on the one who “supports God.”  It is not knowing that God will act or can act, but rather I will do what I can to support God.

So, if you want to grow your faith, it takes more than just reading the Bible and listening to Christian music and sermon messages. It’s about taking what you already know and living it out in your daily life.

The early Church didn’t have the tools (smart phones with Bible plans, YouTube with video sermon topics, Google and blogs of Biblical knowledge) at their disposal as we have today. Instead, they took the gospel message and found ways to express God’s Way through their everyday work, speech, and relationships.

To grow one’s faith is about becoming more like Jesus in everyday life. It’s asking God how can we support His Kingdom work right now from where we are currently residing. It’s about walking and communicating with your heavenly Father on a continuous basis.

When you act upon His vision and purpose of life in your tiny corner of the world, you will find yourself growing in faith. The fruit of your actions will exhibit the depth of your faith.

Head knowledge is valuable, but not enough. Heart knowledge is more meaningful, but still not enough. Yet when both are combined with action, supporting God’s vision and purpose for life, faith comes alive and grows.  

Rooting For You in Christ!

Dr. Mike

Encourager & Founder of
Vocational Leadership 360
Author of e-Books:

 *  Dancing With God: Life-Giving Theology Explained
 *  Great Business Emulates a Good God
 *  Be Radical…Follow Christ!
 *  Simply The Messenger
 *  Unequally Married

Encourage a Friend…Share Today’s Message!

Copyright 2013-2020 Abbaco LLC | All Rights Reserved