Steve Cummings - Faith, Life & Culture

Living a life of excellence makes you attractive, gives you influence, open s  doors  of opportunity  for you , and provides  for  you a platform from which to serve God in everything you do.   Here are some biblical examples of this DAVID  played a musical instrument with excellence ― so excellent ,  in fact ,  that he was brought to the king’s palace to play so that the king would feel better  ( 1  Samuel 16:15-17) .  It worked, and it pleased the king greatly. David’s skill and excellence as a musician ended up being the first step  in him eventually becom ing  the king himself . H e would go on to influence  numerous generations  for God. In fact, through his lineage ,  the  Savior of the world  would be born. And it all started with his  skill and  excellence  at playing a lyre . I’ll bet it took a lot of practice and commitment. SHADRACH, MESHACH,  and  ABEDNEGO  were gifted with excellence  “ten times better than all the other servants” i n King Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom ( 1 Samu

What a world we are living in! Our country is struggling greatly on so many fronts. In my lifetime I don’t remember a time when there was more civil unrest, division, anger, and flat out hate in American society. It feels like a civil war is going on. The lack of civility and love for one’s fellowman is sad. It’s even scary! The world just seems to be so angry and spinning out of control. Several years ago, I read a cute little fictitious story that might help all of us to see the need and importance to love one another more, be kinder and more understanding of one another, really listen to voices that are not your own with a desire to understand as much as being understood and help to create needed change. The little story I want to share with you creatively illustrates the ideas that I would like to promote. I hope you enjoy the story. THERE’S A MOUSETRAP IN THE HOUSE A mouse looked through the crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife open a package. “What food might this con

You have heard it said many times before, “Just follow your heart.” That statement sounds so warm and fuzzy, but according to God, it is one of the worst and most dangerous pieces of advice you could ever get or give when it comes to matters of absolute truth with eternal significance.   The prophet Jeremiah wrote: “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is (Jeremiah 17:9)? Translation: The heart is not the solution—it’s usually the HEART of the problem.   “Follow your heart” is really code for “Follow your feelings.” You can believe something to be true, but that doesn’t make it true. What sounds true will not set you free. Only “the truth will set you free.” Following your feelings can be incredibly dangerous. Mark Twain once said, “It isn’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just isn’t so that gets you into trouble.”   It doesn’t matter how much you believe something in yo