Category: Confrontation

11/19/2024 0 Comments

Hidden Things

Jesus performed many miracles in the cities He walked, which should have authenticated His message, and yet most of those He encountered would not repent of their sins. Their hardheartedness kept them from recognizing the hand of God’s Son at work and connecting their need to listen to Him. He criticized them for their attitude and warned them of God’s impending judgment (Matthew 11:20-24).

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8/16/2024 1 Comment

Valor II

The word valor originates from the Late Latin valorem and means strength or moral worth.[1] In the sense of strength, we think of one’s mind or spirit that enables them to take on danger or engage in acts of bravery and courage. In the sense of moral worth, valor is displayed by an unshakeable commitment to right conduct and virtue. A person who honorably refuses to engage in wrongdoing despite the pressure to do so displays valor.

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6/5/2024 1 Comment

Humiliated

Chester* and his team of five saw that their boss, Attila, was in trouble. Without consulting his managers, Attila hastily overcommitted his company to fill an order of 1000 Demoplastique to a client with zero patience for lateness. Attila’s company experienced 600% growth since COVID and shipped to over 120 countries. Lately, however, they had more orders than they could fill in time, and a missed deadline with BroadStar could result in a slew of lawsuits because their CEO was a cutthroat, unforgiving leader.

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4/18/2024 1 Comment

Diatribe

Joshua 22:15-16--They went to the Reubenites, Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh, in the land of Gilead, and told them, “This is what the Lord’s entire community says: ‘What is this treachery you have committed today against the God of Israel by turning away from the Lord and building an altar for yourselves, so that you are in rebellion against the Lord today?’”

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11/30/2023 0 Comments

Taking Blows

Fragile. Thin-skinned. Does it increasingly seem that we live in an age when many Christians cannot take criticism or rebuke of any sort without getting defensive and angry? Try confronting a believer over sin and see how that goes. Observe someone’s attitude or comment on questionable conduct, and be prepared to be attacked or shunned. Myles Munroe wrote in Waiting and Dating, “Being open to correction means making ourselves vulnerable, and many people are not willing to do that.”

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6/19/2023 0 Comments

Using Discernment

Ann faced a challenging situation in her new supervisory role with a nonprofit company that recently hired her. One of the employees, Calista, who worked on a different team, was giving her a tough time. Calista had applied for the job Ann now held and resented that she was not chosen. She used Ann’s inexperience to belittle her on calls (shared by others in the organization) and was rude when speaking to her. Ann realized she needed Calista’s help, but she first had to figure out a way to win her over, and that did not seem easy. So she asked for prayer from her close friends and asked God for His assistance.

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5/17/2023 0 Comments

Put the Spotlight on Me!

Loren and Ralph Erickson

On Saturday, family and friends gathered to honor and remember Ralph Erickson. Ralph lived a whole life of 90 years, serving as an Army Chaplain, a Clinical Pastor, and a Grief Counselor. Married twice (both of his wives, Joanna and Darlene, passed away), Ralph was a man who loved Jesus and who cared deeply about his family and people. He served as an Army Chaplain for 24 years, with two tours in Vietnam. He received the Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star, and the Air Medal (a medal for aviators awarded him for the incredible number of hours he spent on helicopters to minister to troops).

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12/6/2022 2 Comments

The Best Message Never Preached

Dan with Ralph Holland

Ralph was invited to preach by pastors who had seen his television program broadcast throughout Latin America. Two pastors met him at the airport and took him to the venue—an auditorium full of worshipers. As the service progressed, the host pastor asked Ralph to be finished preaching by 9:00 p.m. so people who required public transportation could make the last bus. Two groups provided music and even played some of the same songs. An offering was taken, and the person facilitating it decided to preach a short message and then had one of the bands come up and play yet another song. By the time Ralph was introduced to speak it was 8:55!

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9/20/2021 0 Comments

Woe

We know from Genesis 5 that Enoch was the seventh generation from Adam, and he is the supposed writer of The Book of Enoch considered an apocryphal book and part of the Pseudepigrapha. Enoch 100:8 states:
“Woe to you, ye obstinate of heart,
Who watch in order to devise wickedness;
Therefore shall fear come upon you
And there shall be none to help you.”

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5/11/2021 0 Comments

Jerusalem

Today as I’m writing this Hamas is firing rockets into Tel Aviv and Israel is conducting counter air strikes. Seeing conflict flare up in Israel made me curious so I consulted the internet: “What city has been conquered the most?” The answers were quite interesting. Don Tano, a full-blooded Sicilian, claims that Palermo is the most conquered city in the world.[1] The Telegraph lists the top seven most conquered cities in the world as: the Northumberland town, Berwick-upon-Tweed, Palermo, Szczecin (Shcheh-cheen) and Gdansk (formerly Danzig) in Poland, Edirne (Adrianople) in Turkey, Jerusalem, and France’s Nice.[2]

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3/7/2021 0 Comments

Mama, You're Singing in the Cracks!

Randy told us the following story at our elders’ meeting. A young boy was sitting at the piano playing a well-known song when his mother came up behind him and started singing. The boy stopped playing and looked up at his mother and said, “Mama, you’re singing in the cracks!” The poor woman was off-key and the boy wanted her to know it.

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9/11/2020 2 Comments

Heroism

On November 18, 1952, LT E. Royce Williams from his ship the USS Oriskany, off the coast of Korea, was given a bombing mission against North Korean targets as part of a strike group. The pilots flew near a river that bordered the Soviet Union. Upon completing their mission, they received information that 7 MIGs were scrambled to intercept them. Williams was ordered to return and provide protection for his ship.

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6/6/2020 2 Comments

Why (and How) Everything Matters

The word everything has two meanings: every single thing or total; all; and, something enormously important. For this writing, both definitions apply. I was quite taken by how powerfully this word weaves throughout Scripture. From a number of passages beginning in Psalms, and camping primarily in the New Testament, I have constructed seven key premises that in turn give us a strong foundation as Christians with which to tackle any and all issues. My desire is to specifically address the two major issues that dominate our society at this time: politics and racism/prejudice. By the sheer complexity and magnitude of this undertaking this devotional will require your patience and time to digest.

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4/7/2020 0 Comments

By What Authority?

In the week leading up to Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection, He first made His authority clear to a young, unbroken donkey which He triumphantly rode into Jerusalem. His ride stirred a quick-gathering crowd that placed their robes on the road and spread leafy branches in front of the One they hoped would be their King. Matthew wrote, “The whole city was shaken, saying, “Who is this?” (Mathew 21:10).

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3/25/2020 1 Comment

Scared and Sustained

Have you ever been so afraid that you dropped everything you were doing and left everyone you knew to run and hide? Elijah did that and his petrified escape is an amazing story.

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1/29/2020 0 Comments

Civil Disobedience

Meditation
Exodus 1:15-17--Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, “When you help the Hebrew women give birth, observe them as they deliver. If the child is a son, kill him, but if it’s a daughter, she may live.” The Hebrew midwives, however, feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt had told them; they let the boys live.

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4/20/2017 0 Comments

In Private

There is a popular phrase passed along by leaders, “Always praise publically, criticize or correct privately.” Unfortunately, this gets violated all too often in organizations where insecure or unthoughtful people publicly criticize employees, family members, or co-workers. I once had a fellow team member complain to the program director over his offense at some of my closing remarks. Rather than just come and tell me, he went “over my head.” When the director mentioned his complaint to me I was surprised and lost respect for a fellow leader who prides himself in leading yet was unprofessional by not speaking directly to me.

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3/30/2016

Accusations

The Army requires every company to conduct what is called a Command Climate Survey. The purpose of this survey is to let leaders know the health of their organization by giving soldiers the opportunity to anonymously write positive or negative observations about a wide range of issues within their unit. In the headquarters company for the division I commanded, several people wrote that I had favorites. The inference was that I spent a disproportionate amount of time with certain people—some of whom were directly named. The criticism was petty and, probably fueled to some extent by jealousy, but I could not ignore it or it would just continue to fester and cause deeper problems.

8/14/2015

After These Faithful Deeds

Meditation
2 Chronicles 32:1—After these faithful deeds, Sennacherib king of Assyria came and entered Judah. He laid siege to the fortified cities and intended to break into them.

5/3/2014 0 Comments

A Gentle Answer

You could hear them screaming at each other five offices away. Heads poked out to see what was going on—I was afraid words would escalate to blows, but fortunately that did not happen. Don looked like he was going to have a heart attack, his face was beet red and he was shaking. Rich’s jaw was clenched and his palms rolled into fists but with three of us coaxing we managed to get them separated and back into their own offices.

I asked Rich what happened. He said he went into Don’s office to ask how Allie was doing on the project she was working with him. Don told him she was worthless and to get out of his office, he was sick of taking Rich’s broken employees and felt like Rich deliberately was out to make his life miserable. Rich said the way Don spoke penetrated his brain and hit his anger button. He knew Allie had her weak areas but he was proud of her hard work and resented Don’s judgmental attitude. Furthermore he didn’t appreciate the way the older manager always blamed people instead of trying to get along. So instead of finding a response to deescalate the tension, he spoke the first thought that raced across his brain, “Don you are a loser and I’m sick of trying to help you.” Those words brought Don out of his chair and began a two-minute shouting match.

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