The Problem with Things (Shepherd Press)

We are often surprised when our children become unhappy with their toys. It is easy to forget that toys are merely things, material things. In this sense we are often like our children. We are surprised when things don’t make us happy.

The miscalculation of this age, of any age, is to look for hope without looking for God. A culture rich with material things is a culture that will be dominated by bitterness and disappointment. Why? Because things never satisfy. Ultimately, they will always disappoint. Your children can have a closet full of toys. You can have more things than you imagined. The result is the same. When you live for material things you measure happiness by what you can see, taste, and hold. When this happens disappointment is not far behind.

Without the life-changing power of Christ and his gospel, life will disappoint. In the end, someone will say – it doesn’t matter.

The Holy Spirit uses the words of our Savior to speak to a materialistic culture. Jesus taught that life does not consist in the abundance of possessions. Luke 12

When you or your children become disappointed with things or with other people, you have lost sight what has value. You have lost sight of bringing honor to God. You have made the error of thinking that things are to be used for your pleasure rather than for God’s honor. This is true whether you talking about your children’s toys or the new appliance you just bought for your home. Can a toy or appliance be a good thing? Of course, as long as it is pursed with bringing honor to God in the way you use it.

For the Christian all things matter, because all that you do is be done for the glory and honor of God. This life of material things is not all that there is. Things will not lead to happiness, but to disappointment. It is the gospel that matters. The gospel matters because it transforms your ability to distinguish between things of value and things that only pretend to offer value.

The gospel matters because there is only one Person who will not disappoint you – his name is Jesus.

Fighting Peer Pressure By Jay Younts at Shepherd Press | July 18, 2015

The narrative of King Jehoshaphat and King Ahab in 2 Chronicles 18 provides insight into the dynamics of peer pressure. When you or your children yield to peer pressure you are, in effect, dividing your loyalties between God and man. This double-mindedness simply does not work. It results in decision making that is foolish. Many sins that young people become entangled with begin when they yield to peer pressure. This story of King Jehoshaphat demonstrates that young people are not the only ones susceptible to this problem.


Jehoshaphat should have realized that forming an alliance with Ahab was extremely unwise, even stupid! When Jehoshaphat declared allegiance to Ahab he became more concerned with pleasing Ahab than pleasing God. To illustrate this we see that despite a clear warning from God from the Prophet Micaiah, Ahab rejects God’s word and Jehoshaphat follows Ahab rather than God.

Ahab acknowledges that Micaiah is God’s spokesman. Ahab has no concern that the word of God has been spoken. Micaiah then goes on to say just how God intended to bring about defeat for Ahab. Jehoshaphat heard all this, and yet, having done the religious thing by checking with a true prophet, he still maintains his loyalty to Ahab over against God.


In one of the more stunning events in Scripture, verse 28 in this chapter records the actions of Ahab and Jehoshaphat in response to Micaiah’s prophesy.


“So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat king of Judah went up to Ramoth Gilead.”

After hearing from God, both men chose to ignore him. Ahab did so because he hated God and his ways. Jehoshaphat did so because he did not want to offend Ahab. To be sure, this is a case of misguided judgment. It gets worse. Ahab tells Jehoshaphat his plan. Ahab will dress like a common soldier and Jehoshaphat will wear the robes of a king into battle so that Ahab won’t be attacked and Jehoshaphat will. To this, Jehoshaphat, in effect, says, okay I’m good with that and proceeds to go into battle wearing his royal robes.

This judgment is not only flawed, it is disastrous. Yet Jehoshaphat follows Ahab’s plan. Thus we see that divided loyalty is not really divided, it is following the ways of the enemy. This is the real danger of following peer pressure.

In this instance, God is merciful to Jehoshaphat and spares his life despite his stupidity. This narrative is a powerful illustration of what happens when pleasing people becomes the most important thing. It is easy to think – how could Jehoshaphat have acted so foolishly??? But this is what happens to you and me, to everyone when people become more important to us than God.

This is a story you can tell to your children when they are young and refer to again and again as they grow older. There is a straightforward warning here: it is amazing how foolish we can be when we lose sight of loving God and try to please people instead.

Praise you in the storm

I have been mulling the whole day over what to write on my blog. There have been so much happening in my life lately and so much I would like to remember over the years. And yes, so many things to thank God for seeing me through each trials. There were also major avalanches in my life and at one point of time I thought everything was over, whatever I stood for and aspire to be. However, like everything else in life, bad times too comes with expiry dates, they are temporary and do not last forever.

The experiences left me something valuable, it did teach me important lessons that I will cherish all the days of my life. It was like a winnowing excercises where God helped me in reshuffling my identity, sorting out my priorities and impart me the wisdom to realise those who really cared from those who pretend to. I had always been complacent and trusted rather too easily.The major jolt was what I needed to put my life into proper perspective.

I have always been the indecisive type. I usually take into account too many things and too many peoples opinion that I usually end up unhappy about my decisions. In short, I end up not know what I really want or what really mattered to me.

There was one such instance in which I went by the 'white flag' method os resolving a conflict, which did not worked very well in my favor. It was a decent and fair way to end a pending relation, I thought, but it backfired miserably. But the term 'fair' is a subjective word and can be interpreted in myriad of ways. The method I choose also gave lots of scope for the opponent (who might not necessarily like to play fair) to carve out space to try and defame me. It was too late for me when I realise the world had changed. It was no longer interested in what actually happened, but in presentation and self-portrayal.The truth didn't seem important to anyone. They love to be on the side of someone that matters to the masses (everybody loves a hero, even if they are the self-proclaimed ones). Many of my (old) friends changes side, pin-point my weaknesses, magnify the grievances they ever had and said 'they expect nothing better from me'. This I think, was the most hurtful/painful of this chapter. I had been friends with many of them for a many good years of my life, sharing joys and pains. However, imperfect I was, I wish they had the courage to inform me as a friend during those years and not pawn me away just to gain connection (the first chance they get). E-mails were send to everyone connected with me (my friends, strangers in Facebook, my colleagues, my students, my family) to defame me in the worst possible manner. For a while, I did not know what to do about it, I was too shock and too numb to think. I was depressed for months and distanced myself from others. Strategies were discussed on how to handle the issue (beat him up, report to police or GSCASH etc.) but they did not seem to appeal to me.No matter what, I did not want it to get the better of me or end up doing something I will regret many years from now. I told myself, should not let what has happened define me. I cannot control what had happened or what people can do or say about me, but I can definitely control how I deal with it and how much of it I allow to affect or impact my life and future.

Looking back at that peculiar episode of my life, I have no regrets, on all my decisions including how I dealt with the problem. I did have a lot of helping hands from God above, mentors, dutiful friends who stood by me beside a certain wonderful person who gave me the strength to face it all. And for this wonderful person I am referring to, I would not have been able to see his strength of character or his level of commitment to me if all these had not happen. Sometimes a wrong turn (path chosen) leads you to the right person. I do not know what the future hold, but I do believe someone like him who have accepted me at my odds would be brave enough to face any storms. I am extremely grateful for my friends who stood by me, with me and for me when my knees were literally shaking to face the world that was condemning me. The storm subsided once I had the courage to walk on it with them encouraging me. In a way they all saved my life.