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Q.Our son is about to graduate from law school. He took out a loan to cover the cost, but we’ve always been debt-free and have been paying on it to help him out while he finishes his studies. The balance on the loan right now is around $30,000. He has a job waiting for him after he graduates, so we’re thinking about telling him it will be his responsibility to finish paying off the loan at that point. Is that wrong?

Four days before Christmas, I found myself at the Montgomery Humane Society adopting a beautiful little black puppy. 

I was finally ready after losing my beloved 11-year-old shelter dog to cancer last year. He was named Clarence, after the guardian angel inIt’s a Wonderful Life, because I truly believe that he was a gift from God to give me hope and comfort during an extremely difficult time in my life.

During my Advent series, 25: A Christ-mas Adventure,we walked through Scriptures that focused on reasons why we can worship Jesus.  One area concentrated on some of the prophecies written about the coming of Jesus.  The Bible says that He would be born of virgin, in the city of Bethlehem, from the tribe of Judah.

We get a clear picture of the lineage of Jesus from the Old Testament. It has been said that Jesus fulfilled over 300 prophecies written about Him. We can have certainty that He is our Messiah and, as Scripture foretold his first coming, so we can trust the Bible’s reliability on His second.

We have all heard the statistics: 50% of people make some kind of New Year’s resolution, but 88% of those resolutions ultimately fail. That is more than a little discouraging. But I still believe in New Year’s resolutions. I believe in them as a convenient opportunity to evaluate life and to make choices about living life better. I have done a fair bit of reading on how to make resolutions work, and it turns out that though there are many reasons your resolutions may not work, the most common ones are easy enough to avoid. Here are some tips on making wise resolutions and on making them stick.

We crave affirmation and praise. This is so because we are made in the image of God, who is both the object and source of love, adoration, praise and wonder. Yet we are haunted because there is much about us that invites shame more than it does admiration. We miss the mark and we miss the boat, failing not only to measure up to God’s standard, but also our own.

A sloppy budget is a lot like a car that won’t start.

It may look nice, but if it doesn’t take you where you need to go, what’s the point?

Planning a monthly budget takes time and practice, and it needs to be refreshed every now and then. It’s time to look under the hood and get your budget working for you again.

I eagerly am anticipating the good things 2018 has in store. January is often the time of reflection where we make resolutions. We may promise to improve the quality of our lives by eating right, exercising, stopping being grumpy mothers and wives, cutting off credit cards, seeking further education, etc.  All of these are excellent resolutions. We should want to be the best we can, striving to achieve levels of success in our lives.

RRJ:  Was there a specific moment in your life where you understood Jesus as Savior and Lord, or did that happen gradually?

Keon:  I was raised in church because my mom was a Christian and pianist at five different churches in Mississippi. (Back then, church was only open one Sunday a month.)

I was baptized at an early age, but it wasn’t until I was 17 and my friends invited me to their youth retreat called DiscipleNow, hosted by First Baptist Church, that I truly believed. The youth minister, Troy Amster, gave an invitation. During that moment I felt God’s presence like never before. I accepted Him in my heart and that’s when I drew closer to Him. I received Him as my Father, Savior and Lord.

One day my wife, Debi, and I were startled by a bumping noise coming from somewhere behind the clothes dryer. The noise would make repetitive bumps and then stop for a time and start back. I pulled the dryer out from the wall and disconnected the cord from the outlet.

Essentialism

by Greg McKeown

Life is complicated. Life is full of responsibilities and opportunities, planned duties and serendipitous possibilities. There is so much we could do, but so little we can do. Many of us battle our whole lives to focus on those few, significant items that we should do must do, and yet so few of us ever feel like we are even nearly succeeding.