Life on Planet Earth on Thought Life

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One thing is certain: if you don’t shape your life, it will be shaped for you. And to shape your life, you need to know how to shape your mind—you need mind-management.

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You will always find what you are looking for. Think about the difference between two birds: a vulture and a hummingbird. Vultures soar high in the sky, looking and searching. What does a vulture find...

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What We’ve Learned About the Mind

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Jennie Allen

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Proverbs 4:23, Luke 6:45, Matthew 12:34-35, Luke 6:45, 2 Corinthians 10:5, Proverbs 17:22

Did you know that more has been discovered about our minds in the last twenty years than in all the time before that? Did you know that an estimated 60 to 80 percent of visits to primary care physicia...

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Help with My Chaotic Thoughts

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Jennie Allen

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2 Corinthians 10:5, Matthew 6:22-23, Luke 11:34-35, Psalm 19:14, Matthew 15:18-19, Mark 7:20-23

In the first chapter of her book, Get Out of Your Head , author Jennie Allen shares a vulnerable and honest moment from her own life about just how hard it can be to focus in a world of distraction...

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Craig Groeschel

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Our lives are always moving in the direction of our strongest thoughts. What we think shapes who we are.

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Clay Scroggins

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Many of us tend to be passive with our thoughts and feelings. We treat them like they rule us, like they are in charge of us, and not the other way around. We forget that our thoughts and feelings are...

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Caroline Leaf

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Mind-management is a skill that needs to be learned and constantly upgraded as we grow from childhood into adulthood. For every new experience we need a new set of mind-management tools.

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It’s Your Dream

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Tom Costa

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Isaiah 41:13 , Daniel 6:16-23 , Exodus 14:13-14 , Psalm 34:4, Matthew 14:25-31, 2 Timothy 1:7

An elderly man had horrible nightmares, the same event happening over and over in his dreams. He would dream that an enormous green dragon was chasing him, and he would become frantic. Then, just abou...

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Craig Groeschel

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In recent years, an entire discipline of modern psychology has developed called cognitive behavioral therapy. This breakthrough teaching reveals that many problems, from eating disorders to relational...

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Thomas Merton

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Genesis 22:1-14, Exodus 3:1-12 , Isaiah 6:1-8, John 12:24-26, Romans 6:3-11, Psalm 46:10

To enter into the realm of contemplation one must in a certain sense die: but this death is in fact the entrance into a higher life. It is a death for the sake of life, which leaves behind all that we...

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Jerry Bridges

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Temptation

Our minds are mental greenhouses where unlawful thoughts, once planted, are nurtured and watered before being transplanted into the real world of unlawful actions... These actions are savored in the m...

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Edmund Bourne and Lorna Garano

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The truth is that it’s what we say to ourselves [the self-talk of our thought life] in response to any particular situation that mainly determines our mood and feelings.

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Seeking Integration Between Faith and Politics

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Kristen Deede Johnson

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I grew up near Washington D.C. surrounded by politics…I helped with the campaign of a friend’s father as he ran for state office, watched our friendly county supervisor become a US congressman, and le...

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I Don’t Know What to Do

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Kate Bowler

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The Following is an excerpt by Duke University Professor Kate Bowler, soon after finding out she has stage four cancer as she sits in her hospital bed following surgery: “I’m going to need for you to...

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You Can Do Better

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James Bryan Smith

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In his excellent book, The Magnificent Story , James Bryan Smith shares this short little anecdote from the world of bumper stickers. While funny, it also brings up the commonplace idolatry that ...

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Should You Have A Best Friend (In Ministry)?

Author

John Townsend

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Scripture

1 Thessalonians 5:11, Galatians 6:2, Romans 12:15, John 15:13-15, Proverbs 18:24, Proverbs 27:17, Ecclesiastes 4:9-10

In this excerpt from Dr. John Townsend, the renowned psychologist and author, shares a story from his time in seminary, where one of his professors and mentor changes his mind regarding the importance...

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Life Without Hope of Resurrection: An Atheist’s Explanation of the Human Condition

Author

Bertrand Russell

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John 3:16, Jeremiah 29:11, Psalm 139:13-14, Romans 8:38-39, 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, Revelation 21:4

Sometimes it is helpful to see what life looks like on the other side of faith, that is, for those who believe that God does not exist. Bertrand Russell, the renowned philosopher and avowed atheist, h...

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Mike Yaconelli

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Brokenness

I’m unfinished. I’m unfixed. And the reality is that’s where God meets me is in the mess of my life, in the unfixedness, in the brokenness. I thought he did the opposite, he got rid of all that stuff....

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Alfred North Whitehead

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We think in generalities, but we live in detail.

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On Winning? Considering Kevin Durant and Anthony Bourdain

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Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

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There is but one truly serious philosophical problem and that is suicide. Albert Camus Two events recently collided in my mind and coalesced into this short essay: The first was a relatively in...

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Adapted from “The Precious Blood” in The Valley of Vision

Author

Arthur Bennett

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Scripture

Psalm 51:1-2, Luke 23:39-43, Luke 15:11-32, Ephesians 2:4-5, Romans 5:8, Isaiah 53:5

Leader: Blessed Lord Jesus, before your cross I kneel and see the heinousness of my sin, my iniquity that caused you to be made a curse, the evil that provokes divine wrath. All: Show me the enormit...

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The Way God Enjoys Getting Things Done

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Joni Eareckson Tada

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Weakness

Years ago, when I took that fateful dive into shallow water and broke my neck, never did I think that God was honing me for leadership. All I could do was retch at the thought of sitting down for the ...

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What if I Mess It Up?

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Max Lucado

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Some time ago I heard a dear friend describe the day she became a Christian as the most wonderful day of her life. She said the next day was the worst day of her life. I asked why. She explained, “I a...

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Christopher Parkening’s Search For Happiness and Purpose

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

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Scripture

Psalm 37:4, Colossians 3:23-24, Matthew 16:26, Ecclesiastes 2:10-11, 1 Corinthians 10:31

Considered perhaps the greatest guitarist alive, Christopher Parkening appeared to have it all. Signed to an international recording deal as a teenager, Parkening traveled across the world playing bea...

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Summarize Your Life in Six Words

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John Ortberg

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Life

If you had to summarize your life in six words, what would they be? Several years ago an online magazine asked that question. It was inspired by a possibly legendary challenge posed to Ernest Hemingwa...

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God’s Business

Author

Frederick Buechner

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Priorities

If we want to turn in the direction of what is life giving, we are going to have to let go of Winter. “’Let go’ of the dark, which you wrap yourself in like a straitjacket, and let in the light. Stop ...

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Thoughts on “Let Go and Let God”

Author

Frederick Buechner

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Control

Scripture

1 Peter 5:7, Matthew 6:27, Psalm 46:10, Romans 15:13, Song of Solomon 2:11-13

If we want to turn in the direction of what is life giving, we are going to have to let go of Winter. “’Let go’ of the dark, which you wrap yourself in like a straitjacket, and let in the light. Stop ...

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Author

George MacDonald

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"The one secret of life and development, is not to devise and plan . . . but to do every moment’s duty aright . . . and let come—not what will, for there is no such thing—but what the eternal Tho...

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I Once was Lost

Author

Travis Dickinson

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Jonah 1:4, Genesis 3:8-19, Matthew 18:12-14, Luke 15:11-32, Psalm 23:

I once was significantly lost. When I was a college student in northern Wisconsin, my dad and I were hiking on a trail that was somewhat familiar to me. I had been on this trail just a few weeks befor...

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A Life Changed by a Stolen Gideon Bible

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Andy Cook

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Steve May tells the story of “Dee,” who grew up in east Tennessee in an affluent, but unchurched home. Dee’s time at college involved as much wild living as it did studying, and soon her life became a...

life on planet earth on Thought Life

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