Category Archives: Personal Development

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Reclaiming a Biblical Worldview takes Humility to Test All Things

Everyone has a worldview, but relatively few people see their world through the eyes of the Bible, even among those who call themselves Christian.  

The Great Commission

Christian people across the world are well familiar with what we call “the Great Commission.”  Jesus, after his resurrection, just before he ascended into heaven, spoke these words to his disciples:

“All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Matt 28:18-20  

Many pastors who avoid debatable or political/social topics, claim they are ‘just called to preach the gospel.’  Others avoid contemporary arguments in society by sticking to their preaching and teaching schedule. These seem to be noble practices to most Christians, but do you think it’s only fair that those who sit down to dine at the table of where they get their spiritual food each week have a responsibility to humbly challenge their spiritual teachers to address controversial topics that are relevant to the issues we all struggle with that are going on in our world today?

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How can God’s People be a Calming Influence in a Society filled with Fear? #361

There are lots of things I’ve learned, as I grew into adulthood and fatherhood.  One that sticks out to me seems to be missed by a lot of people who have not learned yet how to avoid being dominated by fear.  The present crisis in our world really seems to accent this fact.  Simply stated it’s this: “what we don’t understand, we tend to fear.” It’s pretty common, isn’t it?  If you don’t understand how to use a dangerous tool – like a knife or a gun – it’s perfectly natural to keep your distance from that tool because of an indescribable fear.  Once you learn how to use the potentially dangerous tool correctly, you still maintain a healthy respect for the tool, but you don’t have a psychotic fear of it anymore.

When surrounded by uncertain circumstances, fear is a predictable, universal behavior for every age group and in every era of human history. Power-hungry leaders have capitalized on this fact since Nimrod after the Great Flood. Let’s not be ignorant of that fact. Without a firm reliance on the Divine Providence of Almighty God, career government people have endless ways to deceive clueless people into believing their welfare depends on government. They literally make government into an idol.

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Christmas is a time of remembering and anticipating the greatest gift to all mankind – Redemption

When you think about it… really think about it… the season of each year when we celebrate the remarkable advent of our Creator’s incarnation that we call Christmas… it’s truly amazing how God, in His providence, can use this season every year to personally communicate and commune with our deepest soul.  Even with all the distracting commercialism and misguided paganized myths that our society has amassed around the occasion, God is still profoundly using the Christmas season to bring light into the darkness of many minds whom He has chosen to receive eternal redemption. What a gift! 

The beloved disciple John, guided by the Holy Spirit of God, recorded the event straight to the point in the opening of his gospel.  He even showed the distinction between the Savior from the man, who also had the name John – the baptizer – who announced the anticipated Redeemer’s entry into our world. He wrote it this way.

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Christmas celebrations Controversy compels Christian considerations

Let’s Quell the controversy over Christmas and its traditions.

Every Christmas season many of us are confronted with various notions about the origins of Christmas and many cherished Christmas traditions. But what can we learn from the original writers of history itself about these controversial ideas?

It’s been called “the most wonderful time of the year.”  Christmas for most of us has enjoyed a long history of traditions that make the heart of the winter season a rich time of festive celebrations.

For many of us, growing up in America in the late 20th Century, our memories from childhood include the happy songs of Jingle Bells, Deck the Halls with boughs of holly, and “I’m dreaming of a white Christmas.”  There’s nothing wrong with any of that. When I was a child, singing Christmas songs like Silent Night and Joy to the World … around the piano with my grandmother… well, nothing could be more delightful to enthusiastic, ever-optimistic young children. Although Santa, for my generation, played a fairly significant part of the wide array of Christmas traditions… there was never the slightest thought that “the night before Christmas and all through the house…” was ever anything more than an amusing way of celebrating the ‘rest of the story’ that was more fully expressed when we sang “Joy to the world, the Lord is come” and “O Come all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant.”  In fact, singing Christmas carols for our neighbors on cold winter nights in December will always be a treasured memory from childhood, through adolescence, and through college days as a young adult. We never lost sight of the real meaning of Christmas. And no one, that I can remember, ever behaved like a Scrooge or a Grinch that stole the heartbeat of Christmas, which was always about the birth of Jesus, 2,000 years ago.

Many Christians today have lamented the fact that modern commercialized society has made Christmas into a highly secular time of year.

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Let’s be sure our kids discover the Real Santa Claus

by Dennis Petersen

I wanted to write a personal little Christmas letter to all four of my dear kids and 10 grandkids.

Would you agree that Christmas ought to be far more exciting than the ‘tinsel-town’ fluff that’s typically merchandized so heavily in our desensitized, fast-paced society?

I wanted my own kids to get this clearly so they’d be able to help my grandkids to personally know the One for whom the original Santa Claus sacrificed his life… but you all might like to use it yourselves in sharing this Christmas season in a life-changing way with your own family. You could even gather your little ones around you to read this short review of how we got some of our Christmas traditions.

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Americans Rediscovering their Covenant with God

By Dennis Petersen

Are you ready to help people rediscover America’s covenant with God?

America’s people have been dumbed down deliberately by a secular and demonic agenda to make us all ignorant of truth, ignorant of common sense, ignorant of Scripture, and particularly ignorant of our own history.  We should all know the fact that God’s prophet clearly prophesied that His own people (“My people” He said) “are destroyed for a lack of knowledge” (Hosea 4:6). When we speak that message, it can be a prophetic wake-up call for those who might be listening closely to what we’re saying. But another problem is that many, in the true Ekklesia of God, lack the mature personal mentors who can coach them to be guided by the Holy Spirit.  We all need that guidance to discern what is true, and to learn from the events and lives of the past that are able to witness to the incredible grace and power of God.

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Thanksgiving 4 Centuries after Our Pilgrims’ First Celebration #323

November every year in America is historically a time of remembrance and Thanksgiving. What other culture in the world has a tradition like that?

To better appreciate the roots of this special season for us as a people, let’s unravel the chain of events that helps us understand the implications of what led to the divinely innovative beginning of a whole new national identity.

Nobody I know does that better than my friend Bill Federer – Listen as he describes parallels between the treacherous 16th century time of the Pilgrims and our time 400 years later.

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Thanksgiving in America – a legacy worth reclaiming #316

 Dr Marshall Foster, the brilliant Christian historian, American patriot, and founder of the World History Institute, was a master teacher of the story of America’s brave pioneers. His remarkable documentary called “Monumental,” produced in collaboration with patriot actor Kirk Cameron, is a profound telling of one of the best kept secrets among the historic places in the story of the birth of the American nation.

Two years before he died, Dr Foster wrote a brief summary of some of the providential events in the story that 21st century families seldom know about the people that inspired the tradition of American Thanksgiving. It was published in the March/April 2019 issue of the World History Institute as “The Pilgrims: The Untold Story.” See it at: https://s3.amazonaws.com/media.cloversites.com/7b/7b1202d0-06c2-40f6-b287-4071ddc76a28/documents/Mar-Apr_2019_v1r2-singles.pdf

All of Dr Foster’s journal issues are archived at World History Institute | Journals or https://worldhistoryinstitute.com/free-downloads/journals

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Our Personal Quest to Reclaim a Legacy of Thanksgiving #367

by Dennis Petersen

 A lot has been researched and written about the proven personal benefits of living with a habit of expressing genuine gratitude.  It turns out that thankfulness is not typically a result of being happy, but rather, the opposite is true.  People who deliberately and openly confess their thankfulness to others are the happiest of people.  And isn’t it interesting that those who recognize that their lives have a purpose are the ones who are prone to give thanks to their Creator and to those around them.

Have you discovered your purpose?  Do you have a clear reason why you’re excited to get up in the morning?  If you have a mission to drive your daily goals, you’re a much happier person than those being driven by just a survival mode.

America is a nation of people with a centuries-old tradition of celebrating annual solemn days of Thanksgiving.  Yet, it seems that our current generation has almost no concept of the deeply personal conviction of the crucial importance of gratitude.  And it’s pretty obvious that that gratitude should most deservedly be directed to the Almighty Giver of every blessing and perfect gift in our lives.

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The Most High God raises up kings and takes down kings

The entire world of humanity witnessed one of the most pivotal events in history on January 20th 2025.  That reality of what began to happen then was well-expressed in the opening remarks of Donald Trump’s first address to our nation, eight minutes after taking his oath of office as the 47th President of the United States of America.

TRUMP: “The golden age of America begins right now!” (applause) From this day forward, our country will flourish and be respected again all over the world. We will be the envy of every nation and we will not allow ourselves to be taken advantage of any longer. During every single day of the Trump administration, I will very simply put America first.

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