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Do Not Fear Stepping Outside Your Comfort Zone

We are hardwired to seek comfort. For most of human history, this instinct kept us alive. Being uncomfortable from hunger meant you were starving. Your body demanded rest or it would break down from overuse. You sought acceptance from your tribe because being an outcast meant death—whether from enemy tribes, predators, or the psychological toll of isolation.

But here’s the problem: we don’t live in that world anymore. When was the last time you were chased by a saber-toothed tiger? Yet we still operate as if we are. We still avoid discomfort at all costs, and ironically, this instinct that once saved us is now killing us—physically, mentally, and spiritually.

The philosopher Voltaire once said, “History is filled with the sounds of silken slippers going downstairs and wooden shoes coming up.” Hard circumstances create great figures, nations, and empires. Overindulgence in comfort leads to their demise.

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Do Not Fear Impossible Situations

When You’re Stuck Between a Rock and a Hard Place

There’s a legendary story from the Korean War about General Lewis B. “Chesty” Puller. His battalion of Marines found themselves completely surrounded by enemy forces—outnumbered 29 to 1, outgunned, and out of options.

Instead of panicking, Chesty declared: “They are in front of us, behind us, and we are flanked on both sides by an enemy that outnumbers us 29 to one. They can’t get away from us now.”

He and his men fought their way out while losing very few soldiers.

Most of us would panic in impossible situations like that. When we feel surrounded and pressed in on every side, when every path seems like the wrong choice, we tend to panic, retreat, or give up.

But the apostle Paul had a different perspective: “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed. We are perplexed, but not in despair. We are persecuted, but not abandoned. We are struck down, but not destroyed.”

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Do Not Fear Your Own Insecurities: Lessons from Moses

When Fear Warps Our Reality

We all know the feeling. That coat draped over a chair becomes a menacing figure in the dark. The small spider on the bathroom wall transforms into a life-threatening monster. Fear has a way of distorting our perception, making things appear bigger, scarier, and more threatening than they actually are.

A heavy metal band called Our Last Night says the acronym F-E-A-R stands for “false evidence appearing real.” That’s exactly what fear does—it warps our reality and makes us act irrationally.

But some of our biggest fears aren’t external at all. They’re not about spiders, snakes, or heights. Sometimes our most paralyzing fears are internal—fears about ourselves.

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High Five Thursday!

Interesting turn this week. Here is my list of my

Top 5 Not-So-Preachable Bible Verses

WARNING: Reader discretion may be advised.

Genesis 1:29-30
Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.

Wait…so, every animal was originally created to be strictly vegetarian? Apparently so. I guess this means that in God’s original design, humans were not encouraged to eat steak, hamburgers, or chicken nuggets. I suppose this also applied to lions and tigers and bears, oh my!

A world in which every creature is vegetarian, thus eliminating the need to kill any other living being. Try preaching that right before the monthly pot-luck!

Genesis 6:4
The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.

Angels came down to earth, had sex with human women, and those women gave birth to what some interpret as “giants”?? Some even go so far as to say that Goliath descended from these Nephilim. I challenge you to try and find a way to preach this verse without sounding completely off your rocker.

Exodus 4:24-25
At a lodging place on the way, the LORD met Moses and was about to kill him. But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her son’s foreskin and touched Moses’ feet with it. “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me,” she said.

First of all, why would God set out to kill Moses, whom He just commissioned to lead His people out of Egypt? Secondly….eww? Of all the severed body parts to have pressed against my foot….gosh.

Judges 19:29
When he reached home, he took a knife and cut up his concubine, limb by limb, into twelve parts and sent them into all the areas of Israel.

This just sounds like straight up inspiration for a horror flick. The priest lets his mistress get gang raped, and then he hacks her into pieces, inciting an all out civil war. Yes, folks. This is in the Bible.

Ruth 3:8-9
In the middle of the night something startled the man; he turned—and there was a woman lying at his feet!
    “Who are you?” [Boaz] asked.
   “I am your servant Ruth,” she said. “Spread the corner of your garment over me, since you are a guardian-redeemer of our family.

To be honest, I have heard lessons on Ruth before. But for the most part, the preachers/teachers try to skirt around the issue. But I think any average reader would automatically assume the implications of “lying at his feet” and “spread your garment over me.” Well, whatever Ruth was trying to do, I definitely did not get this type of dating advice from any trusted Christian source….
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Egyptian Archaelogical Museum

We were told before we went in that if you were to spend one minute at each display in the Archaeological museum, it would take you nine months to get through it all, and I believe it. This huge building is packed with statues, pottery, jewelry, etc. from all periods of ancient Egyptian history. For time’s sake, I will only tell about three main highlights for me.

First, we had an opportunity to enter the royal mummy room. It was incredible to stare into the face of Ramses II and Queen Hatshepsut. Their bodies have been preserved so well that most of the mummies still have hair, teeth, fingernails, etc. One thing I noticed was that most of the Pharaohs on display died in their early to mid 40s, yet Ramses II lived to the grand age of 65 (granted, he suffered from numerous health problems). I couldn’t help but wonder what these rulers would think if they knew that their mummified bodies were now on display thousands of years after they died for hundreds of thousands of foreiners to gawk at? I know I would not be happy at all if that many strangers were staring at my 3000 year old body.

Second, we got to see the Stella of Meremptah, a huge stone in which the life and times of this Pharaoh are chronicled. The most interesting part about this discovery is the fact that the Pharaoh records, “There is no seed left of the Hebrews in all of Egypt.” This is one of the key archaeological finds supporting and setting a limit on the date of the Exodus.

Finally, one of the main attractions of the museum is the wing dedicated to all the assortment of stuff found in the tomb of King Tutankhamun, everything from pottery, to bed frames, to hockey sticks, to chariots, to the gold mask of his coffin. It was truely impressive to see how many treasures this short-lived Pharaoh was buried with. We’re talking about hundreds of millions of dollars worth of gold, silver, fine jewels, and other assets. Scholars have found out as much about Egyptian culture from the discoveries in Tut’s tomb than just about any other single discovery. I can’t even fathom how much more stuff would have been buried with the more important Pharaohs, like Ramses II or Thutmosis III.

Again, there is so much more I could write about, but these were the highlights of the museum.