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Is complaining constructive or is it destructive? Learn how complaining may be affecting your success in life.
Rod Reynolds — “Should We Complain? by COGMessenger is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. 
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Does obeying God have any benefit? Are God’s people destined for a life of blessings or a life of hardship? Rod Reynolds discusses how it pays to obey God.
“Rod Reynolds – Does it Pay to Obey God?” by COGMessenger is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Uncertainty is one of the biggest challenges to faith that a Christian will face during his or her lifetime. The history of the world shows us that stability and instability ebb and flow across vast regions of the globe often leaving citizens wondering what the future will bring.
We live in uncertain times and the great unknown about the future can be a source of worry. At times we might feel as though we are all alone and vulnerable to every bad thing the world has to offer.
About three years ago I suddenly fell very sick, the kind of sick where you are convinced that you might die any minute. I don’t say that lightly, I have been sick with the flu and various viruses in times past where I ran high fever and stayed in bed for days or as in one case was even hospitalized for three days. But, I have never been sick to the point where I was sure I would die at any moment and I had no idea whether or not God would deliver me. Maybe you have been in a similar situation where you wondered if God would deliver you.
Thanksgiving Day is just around the corner, and yet we hear very little if anything on the radio or TV concerning preparing to give thanks, or about the original intent of Thanksgiving Day celebration. About the only thing we are likely to hear on TV or radio are advertisements from grocery stores selling turkeys, etc. Magazines are typically no better, as they usually just focus on the thanksgiving meal, and are concerned only with how to make this Thanksgiving the most decadent ever, or perhaps on how to trim calories from the meal.
It is significant that this holiday has not been commercialized to death like Halloween and Christmas. Thanksgiving, unlike Halloween, Christmas and Easter does not have its origins in pagan antiquity. It was created instead out of an earnest desire to thank God for the very things necessary for life. Thanksgiving has little more impact on Americans today than Labor Day does, being reduced to little more than a speed bump between Halloween and Christmas, with many just using the holiday as an excuse to over eat. Continue reading
Throughout our Christian lives God lets you and I make choices. God does not force us to follow His laws and commands. Rather He gives us the ability to exercise free will to go our own way. He will, however, point us in the right direction, and it has been that way from the very beginning, starting with our first parents, Adam and Eve.
God set before Adam and Eve blessings or cursing, life or death and then He instructed them to CHOOSE LIFE (Genesis 2:8-9, 16-17; cf. Deuteronomy 30:15-20), but ultimately the decision was theirs to make. God has the same approach today in regards to you and me.
After eating of the forbidden fruit Adam and Eve hid from the presence of the Lord as he walked through the Garden (Genesis 3:8-10). They hid because they were afraid; they felt as though they no longer could look their creator in the eyes. They felt flawed and weak because they knew they had directly disobeyed. This is what sin produces, it produces fear, uncertainty, lack of faith, and takes away courage because ultimately our only source of courage is God. Continue reading
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