Set Your Mind Above

Send us Fan Mail We have had an incredible amount of rain from the storms, which is good considering we just planted 150 trees on the farm. That's quite the process - you have to prepare the soil, firmly ground it, and make sure it's oriented properly - pointed in the right direction.  As a matter of fact, this is the exact process we must go through in teaching others the gospel. We mus...

Send us Fan Mail I recently had a conversation with a friend who helps to run a memory care facility. She told me that while some days are very hard for residents, the blessing of such a difficult disease is that the next day they have no memory of what happened before that made them so miserable or angry. Each day is a reset, a new day.  Forgiveness works much the same way, doesn't it? When...

Send us Fan Mail Spring has sprung. What once was lifeless brown and dead is now starting to team with the signs of life. Trees are blossoming, birds are singing, and my spirit could not be more thrilled about it.  Nature teaches us about the nature of God. We serve a God with the power to take dead things and bring them to life. He demonstrated such power through creation. He demonstrated such po...

Send us Fan Mail My son turned 5 years old today, and it seems like the last five years have just flown by. Life has a funny way of passing us by. A good friend reminded me last night that time is the only currentcy we spend without knowing our remaining balance, so use it wisely.  Are we vigilant and intentional with our time? If not, we might end up losing and never getting back the precious tim...

Send us Fan Mail Our youngest has another double ear infection, and it came on fast. There was no warning, and suddenly she was miserable. As I held her tonight, I sat and watched my ice melt in my glass - it was slow, and it was subtle. What a contrast.  We need to remember that spiritual growth and spiritual deterioration are not like an infection - neither happen overnight or are sudden. They a...

Send us Fan Mail We got a big snow dump again, and the kids wanted to go outside and play in it. This was the best kind of snow, the kind that packs tight so you can make snowballs and snowmen. The kids asked me to teach them how, and I explained you have to apply pressure and press the snow in your hands - that's what makes it stronger.  Life works the same way with our faith. We've got...

Send us Fan Mail Kylie and I have been doing a healthy living challenge, and at the start it was very tough - especially what felt like a very restrictive diet. But the longer we've done it, the better we've felt. I've started to realize how poor my diet was before, and it wasn't the way I was designed to eat. Our new way of life is freeing - and I don't want to go back. ...

Send us Fan Mail Bee's a pretty incredible. The female honeybee is capable of stinging a predator or what she considers dangerous, but not to protect herself - to protect the colony. Her act is self-sacrificing and selfless. She lays down her life for others.  That is the nature of love. It puts the needs of others first. That is the kind of love Jesus demonstrated for us - laying down his li...

Send us Fan Mail My grandmother a few days ago was put on hospice care, and I called to tell her goodbye just the other night. In Christ, we don't grieve as those who have no hope. She has fought the good fight, she has finished the race, she's kept the faith.  Death is a part of life, and we will all face it. But for Christians, death is a release from this broken world and birth into s...

Send us Fan Mail I noticed a table at our local Chick-Fil-A I had never noticed before. It said the following, "This table was built by artisans from A Better Way Ministries. The materials used were salvaged from unwanted and abandoned homes. The hands that built it belong to a person who also once felt unwanted and abandoned. Love, compassion, and grace are powerful tools."  In the same...

Send us Fan Mail Happy New Year Everyone!  Are you ready to change? If it doesn't challenge you, it won't change you. Make the right choice. Being a disciple isn't a New Year resolution. It is a discliplined choice that you make all year long for the rest of your life. Is it time?  #SetYourMindAbovePodcast

Send us Fan Mail It happens every year with young children. You get them the things on their wishlist for Christmas, but then later on Christmas morning, you find them not playing with the gift - but the box it came in.  We are not unlike children. God designed this world and the things he has made to direct us back to the real gift, himself. Unfortunately, mankind would rather ignore the gift of...

Send us Fan Mail Having three young children, especially around the Holidays, can be very chaoitic. But while that's true, I need to remember how quickly this stage flies by - and how much I will miss it. I only get one chance to impact my children, how will I use this time?  Even Mary, the mother of Jesus, took moments to take in his upbringing and treasure the moments in her heart. We would...

Send us Fan Mail "It's A Wonderful Life" is my alltime favorite Christmas movie, and among my favorite movies period. The story climaxes with two expressions concerning George Baily - one a note written by his guardian angel Clarence, "No man is a failure who has friends." The second, a toast from his kid brother Harry, "To my big brother George, the richest man in to...

Send us Fan Mail I recently started drinking Mushroom Coffee, and it is as bad as you can imagine. It's hard to swallow. I thought about just quiting, but I decided to try and doctor it up with oatmilk and honey and found that is much more enjoyable. I don't taste the rougher things anymore.  Sadly, many people treat Jesus this way. They don't like his teachings that are hard to swa...

Send us Fan Mail I was at Starbucks the other day when this lady came in wearing a shirt that made me do a double take. It said, "Not aspiring to be humble." Wow...it's one thing to be proud out of ignorance. It's another to be proud by choice.  Without humility, we cannot love. Without humility, we cannot be transformed. Without humility, we are enemies with God and without gr...

Send us Fan Mail Have you ever cleaned underneath your couch? You never know what you might find under there. On the surface your sofa looks clean, but when you dig a little deeper and pull it back - there are all kinds of things hiding beneath the surface.  If we are not careful, this is the way that we can be spiritually in our lives. On the surface we have the appearance of righteousness and go...

Send us Fan Mail I started a program called "Reading Buddy" with a local elementary student. It turns out, he is a wonderful reader that just lacks confidence. With some encouragement, he has already grown tremendously, but more than that, we have grown close to each other.  This is exactly the kind of relationship Paul & Timothy would have, and the kind of relationship Paul expects...

Send us Fan Mail Hurricanes have devastated Florida, North Carolina, and Tennessee. You absolutely hate to see the destruction and hardship caused to others by these storms. Our prayers go out to all those suffering.  But even in the midst of so much loss, there has been so much good in response. Christians have banded together to serve others and help those in need. Unity in service have been dem...

Send us Fan Mail Hurricane Helene came through and did some damage to our area, but absolutely nothing compared to other areas of the country. At first, our kids were pretty upset about no power and no tv/internet. But once they learned that that other people were losing their entire homes and communites, that was no longer important. They needed some perspective.  I think we all do. We can be so...

Send us Fan Mail When you become a parent, it's easy to get overstimulated by the end of the day. Constantly being asked questions, touched, etc. Same goes for teachers, btw. I saw a video where a kindergarten teacher was asked a question or had her name said by students to get her attention 627 times! What keeps them from burnout? Why do they do it? Because they love their kids, and love the...

Send us Fan Mail This past week, everyone in my family came down with Covid one by one. Everyone, that is, except me. We seemed to be on the upswing, and I prided myself in thinking I had some kind of super immune system to not get sick. I spoke a little too soon, because by the time everyone else had recovered, I was sick.  Pride comes before a fall. Often we can pride ourselves in thinking we ar...

Send us Fan Mail Mumuration is an amazing spectacle where birds move in what to the naked eye looks like complete unity. They are capable of doing this because of keen senses that allow them to anticipate the movements of the rest of the flock, and they do not merely look to the bird next to them for cues - but they are in tune with a great number of others all at the same time.  The body of Chris...

Send us Fan Mail We are creatures of habit aren't we? I found myself mindlessly doing a few things this week that made no sense - but I did them anyways simply because I was in the habit of doing them. It was monotonous - harmless, but clearly old habits die hard.  Well, while these are harmless - if our worship becomes so routine that it is mindless and monotonous - that is dangerous. We mus...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome back after an extended break from the podcast! It is crazy to think that in just a few short weeks our oldest two kids will be going to school for the first time. It's a big change. But bigger ones will come in the future, because it is our goal to prepare them to leave. While they will always be welcome in our home, we know that one day they will go off to make their...