Truth Triumphs

Joshua Harris is a wonderful author who has several provocative books, including I Kissed Dating Goodbye and Boy Meets Girl . He also penned a book entitled Stop Dating the Church . In this book, he argues that it is time for Christians to join and be fully committed to a strong local church. Do you know any church-daters? Perhaps you need to know the symptoms before you make a diagnosis. According to Harris, church-daters are me-centered . In other words, they choose churches which cater to their particular wants. Also, those who date the church tend to be independent . They really don't want to be heavily involved with the activities and ministries of the local assembly. Finally, people who date the church are highly critical about everything, easily finding fault with the leadership of the church. So, I ask again: Do you know any church-daters? Better yet, are you guilty of dating the church? Do you hop from church to church? Are you fully engaged in a local assembly? I

Just a little bit of sin can wreak havoc on an entire life and, consequently, upon many people. For example, the idea of the Hubble Space Telescope was devised, costing some $2.5 billion to bring to fruition. However, whenever this expensive telescope was launched into outer space, NASA learned that a particular lens was off by less than 1/1000th of an inch. However, until the astronauts repaired this minor mistake, the telescope wasn't any better than a regular, inexpensive telescope. Isn't sin similar to that? A small, seemingly minor deviation from godliness could render you ineffective in the kingdom of God. But, why exactly is sin such a popular phenomenon in the present-day church? I think the Broken Windows Theory sheds some light on the current situation. This theory states that as people walk by windows that remain broken, they will assume that no one is control and that breaking windows is a tolerable action in that community. A similar thing may be cause for th

In a recent blog post, I referred to a book entitled Contagious: Why Things Catch On, written by Jonah Berger, who is a professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Today, I would like to offer a brief summary of the book and give his six reasons for why ideas, products, and behaviors catch on. But, before I introduce those six qualities, let me give a brief story that highlights the importance of reading and how one book can alter your life. Berger unashamedly admits that the inspiration for his career came from Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point. If you haven't read The Tipping Point , you need to find a copy. It's pure gold. The point of this short paragraph is to ask you, "What's the one book which will inspire you to make an impact on the world?" Never stop reading. The next book could be transformative. Without further ado, Berger centers his book on describing the STEPPS to contagious content. Social currency.  People have

Most people have fears. Some fears are justifiable; others appear ridiculous to everyone except the person who holds it. Not surprisingly, even famous people had tremendous and unusual phobias about life. The formidable Julius Caesar quacked under the sound of thunder. Samuel Johnson avoided entering a room with his left foot first. One night, a husband was lying in bed whenever his wife jarred him out of his deep sleep. “Burt, wake up! There is a burglar downstairs.” Burt, still groggy from this abrupt awakening, stumbled out of bed and promised to quiet the fear of his wife by confronting this alleged intruder. As he reached the bottom of the stairs, the fear that his wife possessed became a reality: The robber stood there with a gun pointed straight at the face of this now terrified husband. “Hold it right there, sir. Take me to the valuables in this home.” Because he didn’t want to die or endanger his beloved wife, Burt complied and allowed the thief to take what he wanted

Andy Andrews is a remarkable author. His books are inspiring and engaging, and he always succeeds in offering a fresh perspective of life, a skill I think he has proudly developed and shared through his writings. I have read The Traveler's Gift , How Do You Kill 11 Million People? and The Heart Mender .   The Little Things , his most recent masterpiece, is in my possession and at the top of my reading list. But the book of his that I have probably enjoyed the most was The Noticer . In this thoroughly captivating read, he conveys a fascinating story which illustrates the truth that, ultimately, the best is yet to come. Harrison Carpenter's death was not unusual, nothing strange occurred. However, the way in which he was buried intrigued the gazing onlookers, as his body was lowered into the ground. Everyone at the burial could easily see a curious object in his right hand: a dinner fork. Obviously, this wasn't a random occurrence, and onlookers desired to know why

Many years ago, a family with a troubled history decided to hire a professional biographer. They wanted to tell others about their beginning, what they had accomplished in the world, and how successful they had been. The biographer would carefully word the sketchy parts of the story so that everyone outside of the family thought the family was perfect. All was going well until the family expressed concerns about how the biographer would handle the family's black sheep, Uncle George. Uncle George had been executed in an electric chair for murdering someone. How on earth could a biographer make this tragedy sound tolerable? The professional biographer quickly responded to this worry of the troubled family: "No problem. I'll simply say that Uncle George occupied a chair of applied electronics at an important government institution. He was attached to his position by the strongest ties, and his death came as a real shock." This hilariously morbid account illustrates

I have recently been reading an extraordinary book by Jonah Berger entitled Contagious: Why Things Catch On . Throughout this thoroughly engaging read, Berger seeks to explain the qualities of ideas and behaviors that spread through cultures. He posits that "contagious content" possesses social currency, triggers, emotion, publicity, practical value, and stories. In his book, he includes some fascinating research that highlights the prevalence and peril of social comparisons. Several years ago, researchers conducted a study at Harvard University. Students were asked to make a basic decision: Would they rather take a job that pays $50,000 a year (Option A) or one that pays $100,000 a year (Option B)? The catch was that those who would be paid  $50,000 would receive twice as much as their counterparts, meaning that everyone else in the experiment would receive $25,000, while those who would be paid $100,000 would receive only half as much as their peers, meaning that everyone

One of the greatest military leaders of all time was Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821). Napoleon rose to political and military power during the French Revolution. He led the French people to many significant victories, and today, in military academies across the world, his tactics and strategy are studied and analyzed and imitated and followed. The story is told that during the time of Napoleon's reign in France, there was another man named Napoleon. However, this Napoleon lived an immoral, wicked life. He was completely unethical in his dealings with other people. He broke the laws of the land. He had no social or religious mores and defied the lifestyles of decent human beings. Quite appropriately, Napoleon, the political leader, desired to address this issue and invited the rebellious Napoleon to a meeting. After reprimanding him for his misconduct and spoiling the name of Napoleon, Napoleon Bonaparte gave the delinquent Napoleon two options: "You can either change your n

There is a humorous story told about a 104-year-old lady who was asked what was the greatest part of her life. After contemplating the question, thinking about how she could answer it, she hilariously replied, "No peer pressure." She did not have to worry about appeasing anyone who was her age- because there wasn't anyone who was her age. Peer pressure is synonymous with life itself. Seemingly, from the crib, people pressure others to conform to the status quo. This phenomenon is even present in the animal kingdom. For example, those who catch blue crabs in the Atlantic Ocean say that if you catch only one crab, you have to keep a lid on the bucket you are holding him in. However, if you catch more than one, you don't have to worry about a lid. Why? Because if a crab tries to escape, his friends will pull him down. They hold him back. Their thinking is, "If we can't escape, neither can you." Since peer pressure is inevitable, how can you combat it wh

I have just finished reading a book entitled Originals: How Non-conformists Move the World . In this thoroughly engaging and insightful read, Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania professor Adam Grant identifies the surprising characteristics of people who actually change the world. Drawing on a wide variety of sources, Grant defends the notion of strategic procrastination, critiques the usefulness of a devil's advocate, and promotes the idea that originals aren't necessarily qualitatively better than their peers; they simply produce more ideas. Also, he investigates why some children chose to do the right thing: is it a result of their behavior or their character receiving attention? Psychologist Christoper Bryan performed a creative experiment to see how kids would respond when issued different commands. Children ranging from the ages of three to six were chosen to clean up toys around a play area. The researchers randomly gave the children different commands: S