• Engage

    No More Masks

                  As the days grow shorter and golden leaves fall from trees, we pack up Halloween decorations in preparation for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Although a few costumes may linger in photos on the fridge, everything else is set aside for another year. However, there’s one thing that few of us ever put away: the everyday masks we live behind. We all have masks of one sort or another. Reasons vary. For some, our masks protect us from going too deep or being too real. For others, masks allow us to live more boldly as the alter ego we espouse. Still others crave physical and…

  • Impact

    The Ninth Opportunity

    The Ninth Commandment states that we are not to lie (Exodus 20:16). Lying is one of the six things that God hates (Proverbs 6:16-19. Proverbs 12:22). To lie is to NOT speak the truth, typically with the intent to deceive. This includes slander, which is the spreading of false reports to destroy the reputation of others; gossip, which is the spreading of reports of things not validated to be true (i.e., rumors); perjury which is the swearing of an oath to things that are not true, exaggeration which is stretching the truth typically due to PRIDE and being hypocritical which is living a life that is a lie (1 John…