Elisabeth Elliot put it this way, “The love life of a Christian is a crucial battleground. There, if nowhere else, it will be determined as to who is lord: the world, the self and the devil, or the Lord Christ.” (1)

Elisabeth returned to the United States with her young daughter in 1963. She became a well-known author and speaker. One of her focus topics was sexual purity. She wrote a book entitled, Passion and Purity: Learning to Bring Your Love Life Under Christ’s Control. She wrote from the perspective of an earlier era when moral standards were clear and more biblically consistent.  But she relates to those of the current culture as well. She presents God’s timeless standards of purity without hesitation or...

Do you ever talk to yourself? Most of us do. Pro golfer, Tiger Woods, talks to himself while walking the fairway of a golf course. He coaches himself about the next shot he wants to hit. Self-talk is beneficial. It helps to hear yourself speak out loud (or in your head) what you are seeing, thinking, or feeling. It is a key part of emotional intelligence. Self-talk can lead to better practices and outcomes.

Would you be surprised to learn that self-talk is mentioned in numerous passages in the Bible? Yes, the practice of consulting with yourself or speaking to your soul is prevalent in scripture. Consider these few examples:

1. Nehemiah 5:7-Nehemiah is angry when he hears of the usury and oppression of the poor by fellow Jews but before ...
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Most of you are familiar with weight loss and goal weights. So am I. It seems like I’ve been on some form of weight control since I’ve been in my forties. Elsie coined a phrase that has helped me. She calls her upper limit her “screech mark,” as in putting on the brakes with the accompanying screech sound of a hard stop. A screech mark is a boundary. It tells me that I have set a boundary on how much weight I will permit myself to weigh. If I hit the screech mark I’ve got to put on the brakes and get back to sensible eating and exercise.

Screech marks can keep us from being mastered by a substance or behavior. First Corinthians 6:12 says, “All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. ...

She died at 32 years of age. She was one of the great singing voices of the 20^th Century. Who was she? She was Karen Carpenter who, together with her brother, Richard, formed the hit singing group, The Carpenters. Karen literally starved herself to death at age 32 (1950-1983). The official cause of death was listed as heart attack brought on by anorexia nervosa, a condition few knew or understood in the 1970s. Why did she starve herself? In high school someone called her “fatty." Karen couldn't get that voice out of her head and it drove her to dieting. Her weight dropped from 145 to120 lbs. but then she kept losing weight. Food was the enemy. At the time of her death she weighed less than 90 lbs. Karen Carpenter starved...