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Who Are We Serving?

“No slave can serve two masters, for a slave will either hate the one and love the other or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth." - Luke 16:13

It’s easy to get ourselves twisted when it comes to dealing with money. We all need money and material possessions to survive in this world. Many of the things we want to experience and enjoy come with a price tag.

It’s easy for us to look at people who have more than we do and criticize them for either the way that got the money, or their lack of generosity with the money they have. These criticisms are not always wrong. However, the criticism is always wrong if it doesn’t start with ourselves.

Have we done or are we doing anything that violates the principle of loving our neighbor to get the money. Have we done anything exploitative, unfair, unjust, or deceptive (even if it was legal)? Have we been generous with others, either directly or through charity?

Has the pursuit of money become an end for us or does it remain a means to help us do good in the world? We always have to be honest about who we are serving.

I’m Horace McMillon. This is 60 Seconds of Hope. Peace be with you.

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When We Don’t Feel Supported

A few days ago I made a post called, “It Was Worth It” where I talked about giving up my previous life to answer my calling. A fellow TikToker asked about what happens when your family doesn’t support you.

I’ve been blessed to have pretty good support from my family even when they thought I was making a mistake. But Jesus went through this. His family thought he had lost his mind and literally came to get him.

“When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.” - Mark 3:21

Jesus didn’t go with them. First he had a very clear sense of who he was and what he was about. Second, Jesus intentionally surrounded himself with a community of people who believed in him and supported him.

Jesus’s family didn’t believe in him, or at least they stopped believing in him. The folks in his hometown dismissed and disregarded him. But Jesus had already studied with John the Baptist. He had already spent time by himself in the wilderness. He developed a strong sense of identity and mission.

When family doesn’t believe in you, don’t seek out just any advice. Seek the advice of people who you respect, people who have gone through what you have gone through, and have overcome. Look to their example.

Learn from them, but don’t try to copy them. Jesus went on to spend some time praying in the wilderness. His ministry had some things in common with John the Baptist, but it was also very different. John’s harshest critics would not have dreamed of calling him a drunk and a glutton as Jesus’s critics called him. Jesus was his own person.

Finally, Jesus started to surround himself with like minded people, who respected him and shared his mission. They left their homes behind and put themselves in environments where they could become who they were meant to be.

When we don’t feel supported:

1. Seek out good advice
2. Take the time to understand who we are as we apply advice to our lives.
3. Surround ourselves with people who support us and share our vision.
4. Move ourselves into environments where we can thrive.

I’m Horace McMillon. This is 60 Seconds of Hope. Peace be with you.

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What Does It Mean To Believe?

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” - John 3:16

What does it mean to believe in Jesus?

It means that we trust all our footsteps to the trail he blazed. We learn to think and speak, act and react, hope and desire as he did.

We trust that the power of love is greater than the power of hate, and that good will eventually prevail over evil.

We will not bow down to the false idols of money, power, and social status. Nor will we be given to distraction.

Instead of only looking after our own, we seek to be a good neighbor to everyone we meet. We practice kindness, compassion, hospitality, and generosity.

We live joyful lives filled with gratitude for all the good, all the beauty, and all the love that we have experienced. We see the reflection of God on everyone we meet.

We forgive preemptively, serve willingly, and live sacrificially. We forsake revenge, retaliation, and retribution.

We free the oppressed, feed the hungry, and care for the sick. We encourage the discouraged, comfort the afflicted, and welcome the stranger.

Our full commitment and allegiance is to live this way. And even if living this way leads us to dying on a cross, there is still no other way we would ever choose to live.

This is what it means to believe in Jesus.

I’m Horace McMillon. This is 60 Seconds of Hope. Peace be with you.

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How Successful Will Jesus Be?

“Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world but in order that the world might be saved through him.” - John 3:17

If it is God’s desire to deliver the world, and if God has given Jesus this mission, how successful do we believe Jesus will be?

In a short reflection, I cannot begin to fully address this ultimate question. I can point out that Jesus has invited us to participate in his work.

The early church, according to the Gospel of Matthew, believed that the risen Jesus directed us to go into the world and make students/ disciples who learned to think and do as he did.

Jesus has invited us to join him in proclaiming the prophet Isaiah’s words that, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free.”

Jesus invited us to live with these words every day in the way we care for those the world deems to be the “least of these.”

How successful will Jesus be in fulfilling this mission? How successful do we want him to be? It seems to me Jesus has left that in no small part up to us.

I’m Horace McMillon. This is 60 Seconds of Hope. Peace be with you.

(Be sure to like, follow, and share. And go to the website on my profile and sign up to receive these messages delivered daily to your inbox for free.)

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Show The World Something Different

“And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever trusts in him may experience eternal life.” - John 3:14-15

It’s not about the confessions we recite, or the speeches we make. Empty words have no power. It’s about lifting up a different example, a model of how to live, and be, and do. It’s about showing the world something different.

The world runs on fear. The world suggests that if we can get enough money, power and status, we don’t have to be afraid anymore. We can hold heads up high anywhere we go. The world suggests that anything we can get away with to get what we want is ok, and we can never have too much.

We lift an alternative way of living, being, and doing. We trust our footsteps to the way of love. We see everyone as our neighbor and do unto them, not as they do, but as we would like them to do to us. We practice kindness, generosity, and forgiveness. We live our lives centered in faith, hope, and love.

Anyone who trusts their footsteps to this alternative way will experience a peace and a wellbeing that the world can’t take away.

I’m Horace McMillon. This is 60 Seconds of Hope. Peace be with you.

(Be sure to like, follow, and share. And go to the website on my profile and sign up to receive these messages delivered daily to your inbox for free.)

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How to Change Our Toxic Environments

“And the LORD said to Moses, "Make a poisonous serpent, and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live." - Numbers 21:8

The people of Israel had become tired of the seemingly endless journey from Egypt to their promise land. Many of them said they would have preferred slavery than to where they were. They even complained that they were tired of the food that God was providing them to eat.

Their lack of gratitude, their impatience, their negative attitudes and toxic thinking created a toxic environment for them live in. The environment became so toxic that poisonous snakes were everywhere. Many of them died from the snake bites.

What was the remedy? They set up a pole with one of the poisonous snakes on it. Everyone who looked at it was able to live. In other words their healing process required them to recognize all the ways that they themselves were toxic and negative. Everyone who was willing to look could be healed.

In other words we change our toxic environments by first looking in the mirror and changing the toxic person we see staring back at us.

I’m Horace McMillon. This is 60 Seconds of Hope. Peace be with you.

(Be sure to like, follow, and share. And go to the website on my profile and sign up to receive these messages delivered daily to your inbox for free.)

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Life Giving Foolishness

“For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” - 1 Corinthians 1:18

The so called wisdom of the world has us killing ourselves and each other. The message of the cross in Paul’s thinking is one in which we crucify our old patterns of thought and behavior. This makes space for the Spirit to resurrect and recreate us. We are freed from the slavery of old ways of life. (Romans 6:6)

In particular, (based on Galatians 5) we stop clout chasing (idolatry and sorcery) where we look for money, power, and status to deliver us.

We stop trying to find our solace in sex, drugs, and alcohol. These can distract and comfort for a while but never bring us peace.

We give up our anger, hatred, and jealousy. These can fuel our fires for a while but they only end up consuming us and never bring us joy.

Practicing radical love, compassion, and forgiveness is foolish to those who are being killed by conventional thinking and living. But we know that in these we find the life giving power of God.

I’m Horace McMillon. This is 60 Seconds of Hope. Peace be with you.

(Be sure to like, follow, and share. Go to the website on my profile and sign up to receive these messages delivered daily to your inbox for free.)

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When We Became Discouraged

“But the people became discouraged on the way.” - Numbers 21:4

The people of Israel had been liberated from slavery in Egypt, but they had not yet made it to their promise land. They lost faith in the process. They were tired and discouraged. In their discouragement they made foolish and self destructive decisions.

Personal development is a process, and life is a journey. None of us gets to where we want to be as quickly as we’d like. Like the people of Israel, most of us have never been to the place we want to go. So it’s easy to become discouraged and make bad decisions.

Becoming financially stable and independent is a journey for most of us. Many of us have signed up for bad loans and gotten caught up in scams, not out of desperation, but impatience. Some have taken ethical shortcuts that costs them everything.

How many of us have become so discouraged while looking for a relationship that we have compromised ourselves in ways we shouldn’t, with people we shouldn’t?

How many of us get so discouraged with the time and effort it takes to get to a healthy weight that we stop eating healthy, and fall back into stress eating, and comfort eating because it is convenient and it feels good in the moment?

When we get tired, when we get impatient, when we get discouraged, we need to remind ourselves that life is a journey. Set backs and disappointments are part of the process. We must encourage ourselves to keep moving forward.

When we are still a long way from where we want to be, sometimes we just need to focus on making the next right step.

I’m Horace McMillon. This is 60 Seconds of Hope. Peace be with you.

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