The Daily Memo

Charles Spurgeon said, “I will never have it that God created any man, especially any Christian man, to be a blank and a nothing. He made you for an end. Find out what that end is. Find out your niche and fill it. Do something in this great battle for God and Truth.” Mark Twain proclaimed a serious truth in the following statement. “The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.” Wow. Perfect. Everyone…

He was brought up on one of the roughest estates in Manchester. His father was an alcoholic. He left school at fifteen. He ran away from home. He lived on the streets. He joined a gang. He got involved in crime and ended up in prison. When he came out, he joined the army. He went through two divorces. In 1994, he walked into our church and did [Alpha]. He encountered Jesus and was filled with the Holy Spirit. He started visiting prisoners. He joined the [HTB] team to head…

Some days it’s as if we’re walking perfectly in sync with the Lord. And other days we can’t seem to find Him anywhere. Though many of us try to control this ebb and flow of feeling near to Him, the pattern is likely to continue this side of heaven. That’s why we need to take Jesus’ invitation seriously: “Come to Me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28). Participating in the process of our sanctification&mdash…

“One of the dangers of having a lot of money is that you may be quite satisfied with the kinds of happiness money can give, and so fail to realize your need for God. If everything seems to come simply by signing checks, you may forget that you are at every moment totally dependent on God.” - C. S. Lewis Do our motivations for work matter to God? Proverbs 16:2 tells us that, “All a person’s ways seem pure to them, but motives are weighed by the Lord.;…

People enjoy feeling in control of their own schedule, and it can be frustrating when things don’t go according to plan. Yet whoever truly desires to walk in obedience to God must cooperate with His time frame. Consider how you pray about situations in your life. Without realizing it, you may be demanding that the Lord follow the schedule you’ve constructed based on your very limited human wisdom. Yet if we believe God is who He says He is, how can surrendering…

Before we go any farther in our search, I need to make the offer of Christianity clear: There is a way The world often evaluates decisions in terms of pros and cons, benefits and drawbacks. What happens if we apply that same thinking to spiritual matters: What are the benefits of following God’s wisdom? Or, in other words, Why should we seek to obey the instructions given in Scripture? First of all, in seeking God’s wisdom, we acquire a deeper understanding and…

Before we go any farther in our search, I need to make the offer of Christianity clear: There is a way to be good again. The hope of Christianity is that we get to live life like Jesus. That beautiful goodness can be ours. He can heal what has gone wrong deep inside each of us. The way he does this is to give us his goodness; impart it to us, almost like a blood transfusion or mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. We get to live his life—that is, live each day by the power of…

As you work to make one or many areas of your life better, there is a powerful principle you can use called “The Consistency Effect,” which is simply, “Small things done consistently, over time, lead to big things.” Commitment is good; it can get you to the starting line. It can set your intention. It can get you through January. But consistency will get you to July, September, and next December. You can change your life with small, consistent steps…

James Cameron, director of the movie *Titanic,* describes the Titanic as a ‘metaphor’ of life: ‘We are all living on… [the] Titanic.’ When the Titanic set sail in 1912, it was declared to be ‘unsinkable’ because it was constructed using a new technology. The ship’s hull was divided into sixteen watertight compartments. Up to four of these compartments could be damaged or even flooded, and still the ship would float.,…