Personal Discipline | Welcome to Abounding Joy!

So Prayer Doesn’t Work for You, Huh?

Chances are that you have heard someone say, “God doesn’t hear my prayers. My prayers never get answered. I’ve prayed as hard as I know how to pray, but nothing ever happens.” What people usually mean by that is that they have […]

No Thanks. I’d Rather Ruin Everything.

(The following post may seem a little negative to some. I write it with a heavy heart. But, obviously, I believe these things need to be said.) I’m 63. Throughout most of those years I have watched many people do untold damage […]

Read Revelation! Go Ahead and Read It!

The third verse of the Book of Revelation says… “Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and heed the things which are written in it; for the time is near.” (Rev 1:3) Through the years […]

Developing a Hunger for God and His Word

Through the years I have talked with people who have confessed that they had trouble reading amd studying the Scriptures. To them, Bible study seemed to be unpleasant and boring. And they wondered why that would be the case. Do you find […]

Gullible? Cynical? or Discerning?

Have you considered how the adjectives discerning, gullible, and cynical are related? Perhaps these three words point to one of the many areas where growing Christians need to learn to find God’s balance! I think most of us would agree that the first […]

Self-Examination: Not Optional!

After we have been a Christian for awhile, there is a tendency for us to get settled into a more or less comfortable routine. We find our niche in the church. We probably do some personal devotions. We probably pray before our […]

The Struggle to Keep the Good Habits

Habits are strange things, aren’t they? It seems so easy to fall into bad habits! And so difficult to stop them! But it seems so difficult to keep the good ones going! And so easy to stop them! I have previously posted […]

Care for Some Turkish Delight?

One of the many wonderful spiritual lessons embedded in The Chronicles of Narnia (C.S. Lewis) is found in the first encounter of Edmund with the White Witch (The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe). The witch magically produces some tasty candy (Turkish […]

Brilliant… but Foolish

Some of the most academically brilliant people of the world have made themselves very foolish by deciding in advance to ignore God. Sometimes they do it simply because they cannot bear rejection by those whom they consider to be the philosophically elite […]

Tuning in to God–Can You Hear Him?

Most of you are too young to remember the old radios with vacuum tubes and old-fashioned tuners and dials. Sometimes it was very difficult to put just the right touch on the dial to tune in a station. It seemed that there […]