Stuff I Learned Yesterday

The word gospel simply means good news. For many of us when we hear the word gospel we think of good news that Jesus came and died to pay the penalty for our sin and provide a way to reconcile us with God. That is indeed good news! That is gospel. We often hear gospel messages about Jesus, but we don’t often hear about the gospel message that Jesus himself preached. Is it possible that we’ve misse...

Small moments can become unknown investments which make ripples decades for decades. Don’t underestimate the impact a small moment can have on someone’s life. Be engaged and authentic. Make the time count. Take time to let someone know when they’ve impacted your life in a positive way. Kind words are like honey—sweet to the soul and healthy for the body. The post 643- Ten Hours Maximum appeared fi...

There are two women who still inspire me today. They remind me that no matter where you are in life, no matter your financial situation, no matter what difficulty you’re going through or mountain you’re on top of, you are never too good to treat someone with respect and even offer them something extra to brighten their day, and you’re never too poor to be able to find someone who needs help more t...

In 2019, my daughter and I attended San Diego Comic Con together. It was a week of highs and lows as she got to drive a boat for the first time, a memory she still talks about often. Cons are a great place to take your kids and create great memories. When I talk about the benefits of going to cons, I’m not just talking about comic-cons. The con in comic-con is short for convention, but there’s ano...

The resurrection is everything. Paul put it this way, “if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.” After all, if a man who claimed to be God, received worship as if he were God, forgave sins claiming he had the authority of God, claimed that he would die and three days later be r...

Well, here we are again in a month with five Mondays, which means it’s Monday Mailbag day! For this installment of the Monday Mailbag I have one contribution I’d like to share with you. It’s from Andrew, and he's sharing lessons he's learning from running and starting a podcast. The post 639- Monday Mailbag appeared first on Golden Spiral Media- Entertainment Podcasts, Technology Podcasts & Mo...

Tiana is so inspiring. Rather than looking at the loss of her father and her fellow chef as a reason to quit, she let it propel her to be even greater to honor him and the dream that they shared. Her work ethic is uncompromised. When others try to derail her or get her to take time off, she refuses. She stays focused on her dream, works hard, puts in the extra time and effort that she knows it wil...

I love this podcast. In so many ways, I am the most boring guy in the world. I work from home. I don’t go out of the house much. I wear the same 6 or 7 shirts in the winter and another 6 or 7 shirts in the summer. Most of them are blue and some form of plaid. I like routine, sometimes to a fault. I have a spreadsheet for everything, and my life is pretty much consistent day in, day out. The only t...

How many of us go to work every day to jobs that crush us and eat away at us. How many of us have bosses that yell or toss out insults? Maybe they are driven only by results, never pausing to think or care about the well-being of those in their employ. It can beat us down emotionally, psychologically, and even physically. Success comes in the preparation, and the preparation comes by communicating...

It’s not fun to be exposed whether it’s related to your receding hairline or your personal sin. Trust me. I know about both of these all too well. We humans do a pretty good job of convincing ourselves that we have our moral act together. We have a sin problem, every single one of us. And God is holy, morally perfect. Jesus teaches that the only way a perfect God and a sinful person can be reconci...

A wise person once said that fools buy things they don’t want with money they don’t have to impress people they don’t like. This is the adult version of bungee jumping to try and be like your step-brother. Stop basing your decisions on what you hope or perceive to be the opinions of people who don’t even care about you. Base your decisions on those closest to you and put your focus on those people...

We’ve seen it depicted in countless ways for all of our lives. Families torn apart by a variety of things, most of which can be summed up by failing to be present. I will always be grateful to Sammy for teaching me this valuable lesson at such a young age: wherever you are, be there. It helped me establish boundaries that have protected my marriage, my family, and my career. Boundaries are incredi...

That Greek phrase "Na einai kalytero anthropo apo ton patera toy" translates to “Be a better man than your father.” Being a better man than our fathers should be the goal of each one of us. Whether our dad set a low bar or a high bar, we owe it to our families to not only be the best we know how to be, but to learn from others so we can be even better than we could otherwise be. My dad heroically...

The Church IS full of hypocrites. That’s the point. The point of church is to help each other grow. To hold each other up, study together, pray together, worship together, and serve together. Warts, flaws, struggles, and everything. For you Christians, let’s be ever mindful of how our behavior affects others. We are called to a higher standard. Let’s do our best to uphold that, yet not act as if w...

Of course, each of us have seen the glow of the city before, but this time it was different. This time it seemed much, much brighter. But the truth is, it had been so long since either of us had ventured outside the lights of the city or the major highways coming into the city, that we’d forgotten just how big the glow is when you remove yourself from it. It’s not just the lights or hustle and bus...

I’ve seen countless photos and videos of the Lincoln Memorial, but seeing with my own eyes was magnificent. Many consider Lincoln to be the greatest president of all time, and it’s hard to argue otherwise. The details carved into every part of the memorial left me in awe. I felt like I was standing at the feet of greatness. It’s easy to see why Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would stand at this very s...

Rat Race. No, I’m not referring to the 2001 film starring Rowan Atkinson, John Cleese, and Cuba Gooding Jr. I’m referring to that trap many of us fall into. Wikipedia says a rat race is an endless, self-defeating, or pointless pursuit. The phrase equates humans to rats attempting to earn a reward such as cheese, in vain. Don’t get me wrong, this is not entirely bad. After all, our career is how we...

The Bible is alive, it does speak to me. As I read it and go through my day, it shapes my thoughts and actions. It challenges me to grow in every part of my life, teaches me how to be a better husband, father, and worker. It teaches me about the character of God, morality, history, how to manage money, and so much more. It reveals my shortcomings and transforms my mind.  The post 627- Daily Bread...

Today is Monday Mailbag day and we have contribution from John. Here's John's submission. The post 626- Monday Mailbag appeared first on Golden Spiral Media- Entertainment Podcasts, Technology Podcasts & More .

During the second quarter of a football game last season as the crowd was raucously cheering on the home team, my friend leaned over to me and said, “Can I ask you a question?” “Sure,” I said. “What’s the secret to raising girls?” Of all the questions he could have asked me in that moment, I never would have guessed that would be it. The post 625- Committing to Growth appeared first on Golden Spir...

The fact is, AI and robotics are coming. If they haven’t already started to change or disrupt some part of your life, it’s only a matter of time before they do. For me, I’ve discovered ways to use AI to better my skills and provide improved services to my clients. But I’ve barely scratched the surface of how AI can be used in my industry. It’s challenging because AI is changing quickly and what AI...

As a parent, I have tried very hard to keep this principle in mind. I haven’t always been good at keeping my emotions in check so that I can assess the situation objectively, but when I have been able to check myself, my kids and myself have been better for it. We are all going to mess up and cause accidents, especially the youngest among us. The post 623- Remembering Happy Accidents appeared firs...

Many depictions of the Christmas story include the wise men at the manger most likely for the sake of simplicity. That doesn’t mean the Bible is incorrect, but that depictions of the story are incorrect. What some skeptics do consider to be a contradiction is the differences in where the family lived and traveled after Jesus was born. Are these indeed contradictions that disprove the Biblical stor...

Elephants do indeed have excellent memories. If you’re like me, you think of this fact as a good thing. That is, if someone says you have a memory like an elephant, you’d take it as a compliment. Today I’m going to flip that on its head, show how it can be a negative, and hopefully help you examine your own life to see if you have a memory like an elephant. The post 621- Finding Freedom Through Fo...

John looked at my problem and offered up his idea of the best solution. Like C-3PO I looked at that path as too rocky. Not only was it more than I had the budget for, I knew that building the app was just the beginning. I’d have to keep a developer on retainer for bug fixes, updates, and security management. I didn’t want to be in the software development business. So I looked for a smoother path....