What’s the price of two or three pet canaries? Some loose change, right? But God never overlooks a single one. And he pays even greater attention to you, down to the last detail—even numbering the hairs on your head! So don’t be intimidated by all this bully talk. You’re worth more than a million canaries. (Luke 12:6-7 MSG) We have a bully for an enemy and he employs 'bullies' right here on this earth to attempt to dissuade us from following Jesus with our whole heart, mind, body, and soul. He uses people - you heard me right - he uses other people to discourage you, get you distracted, and hopefully pull you off-course. What is worse is when we allow our own self-talk to 'bully' us into believing lies about ourselves! God cares more about us than any other creature roaming this earth. Yet, he takes special care and maintains a watchful eye over all creatures, big and small. If he is watchful of their needs, how they find their way in life, what makes us so willing to ...
It isn't the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; it's the pebble in your shoe. (Mohammed Ali) You can’t whitewash your sins and get by with it; you find mercy by admitting and leaving them. (Proverbs 28:13 MSG) I once heard a sermon about the pebble in one's shoe. The longer you ignored it was there, the more damage it caused. It would cause a sore where it caused pressure, wearing a hole in your sock, and eventually breaking down your skin. The quicker one sat down to remove the pebble, the sooner one would be relieved of the pressure. The moral was that all sin is like a pebble in one's shoe - the sooner one confesses it, turning away from it, the quicker one would have the 'pressure' or 'weight' of the sin removed from their lives. The damage that little sin could cause was significant if not repented! The pebble actually didn't give the one with it in their shoe any sense of comfort. Trying to just move it out of the way didn't do the...