Top 10 Posts on LHT Insights in 2015
by Erik Jones
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We take a look back at our most popular blog posts of 2015.
Not only are we reaching more people than ever before, but we continue to work hard to provide better biblically based content that is relevant and helps you make sense of your world and life.
Here are the top 10 Insights posts from 2015:
1. Fighting the Works of the Flesh: Selfish Ambitions
"Christians are to do nothing through selfish ambition—because Christians are to develop a lifestyle of service and selflessness."
Excerpt:
Selfish ambition can be characterized as a lifestyle based on “get”—which typically uses and disregards others on a quest to advance the self. Satan the devil is the prime example of this attitude, which is also a human work of the flesh. He allowed his pride and violent discontentment to alter his mind into actually thinking he should rule in place of God (Isaiah 14:13).
Since this work of the flesh is so closely linked to Satan’s problem, it is important that we all be very careful to make sure it is no longer our problem.
2. God’s Problem With Same-Sex Marriage
"God created men to be men, and women to be women—and, joined together in marriage, these two radically different genders are to become one flesh, one cohesive unit far greater than the sum of its parts."
Excerpt:
I imagine you’ve already had your fill of opinions—and if you haven’t, they’re not hard to find. Instead, let’s focus on a subject most churches seem to be skirting around or completely misinterpreting: the reason God will never condone same-sex marriage.
An honest look through the Scriptures makes it clear that God has never approved of homosexual acts and, in fact, labels them as an abomination (see Leviticus 18:22; 20:13; Romans 1:26-32; 1 Timothy 1:8-11; Jude 1:7, just to list a few). Despite some churches’ attempts to contort the Word of God into a stamp of approval for same-sex marriages, the inspired Scriptures are clear: Homosexual acts are sin.
But why?
3. The Most Important Key to Answered Prayer
"If we are living a life of sin—breaking God’s law—and are not seeking forgiveness and change, God will not hear our prayers because we have disconnected ourselves from Him."
Excerpt:
Do you pray? If so, do you feel like your connection to God is strong and that your prayers are answered? Or do you never pray? Or are you just learning about true Christianity and seeking to start a relationship with God based on prayer?
Whatever situation you find yourself in, there is one key you must understand in order to have your prayers heard by God.
4. Ancient Hebrew Artifact Found in Russia May Confirm Biblical Prophecy
"The big question is, what was this turn-of-the-era Sarmatian woman in Russia doing with a Northwest Semitic seal from four to eight centuries before her time?"
Excerpt:
Haaretz, an Israeli news source, asked: “How might a Judean gemstone have made its way to a Black Sea warrior woman’s collection?”
Archaeologists and historians have not yet published a theory to answer that question, but it is likely they will speculate that it is merely an example of trade in the ancient world.
But could there possibly be more to it? In fact, it is very possible that this discovery sheds light on an even greater ancient mystery.
5. Lust: Satan’s Daily Attack on Men, Part 1
"Men are very visual, so when Satan purposely places other visuals rather than a loving wife before our eyes, we have to fight our body’s natural response."
Excerpt:
At work you spend eight hours around two or three women with very short miniskirts and blouses that reveal their cleavage. On your way home from work, you stop at the store. In the checkout line there are at least four different half-naked women on covers of magazines smiling at you surrounded by such headlines as “5 Ways to Have Better Sex.”
After dinner you watch a little television or a movie: It is a Russian roulette game of change the channel or fast-forward the movie when a sudden sex scene or flash of a woman’s barely clothed body comes on the screen.
The point is, we are surrounded.
6. Five Steps to Overcome Your Quarter-Life Crisis
"Most young adults look back on this challenging time and say it led them to make positive changes in their lives."
Excerpt:
But you’re not really trapped—it’s an illusion. It may take a few years, but most young adults look back on this challenging time and say it led them to make positive changes in their lives. They’re in a better place now.
So how do you navigate your quarter-life crisis and come out more energized and at peace? Let’s pull back the curtain to understand why your life is in crisis. Then let’s look at some first steps to getting yourself headed in the right direction.
7. When the Stranger in Your Gates Wants You Dead
"The first step of the real solution lies in humbling ourselves as a nation and seeking the face of our Creator—acknowledging that our ways aren’t working."
Excerpt:
The last 20 years stand as a sobering testament to the destruction that even a few dedicated jihadists can accomplish, and the current state of the Middle East is a continual reminder of what an army of them can do. The fear of unwittingly opening ourselves to such an enemy is far from unreasonable.
That’s the context for the quote at the top of this article. It’s been floating around my newsfeed in an attempt to advocate against accepting any refugees at all. If even a small handful are looking for an opportunity to bring America to its knees, why take the chance? Why risk eating any grapes at all when you know some are likely to kill you?
Except …
8. 4 “Christian” Excuses for Keeping Halloween
"No matter how good you try to make poison look, it is still poison and should not be ingested."
Excerpt:
This horror-filled holiday, with its clearly dark origins and practices, should horrify Christians, right? Unfortunately, many are neck-deep in it. According to a 2006 Gallup Poll, only 11 percent of Americans had religious objections to Halloween. A National Retail Federation survey shows that over 157 million Americans will celebrate Halloween in 2015. For a country where around 70 percent of adults identify themselves as Christian, this should be the real horror!
Why do professing Christians celebrate a holiday that is so obviously dark and evil?
9. #LoveWins or #TruthLoses? What Today’s Supreme Court Decision Really Means
"Today’s decision is being hailed by many around America as a celebration of what they call the extension of rights or the victory of love. A trending hashtag on social media is #LoveWins. Some are comparing it to the civil rights victories won by African-Americans in the late 20th century".
Excerpt:
This is nothing new. It goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden when our first parents, Adam and Eve, rejected divine law. Instead of meticulously obeying what God said was best for them, they decided to choose for themselves. This decision set mankind on a course of deciding for ourselves what is right and wrong.
Sometimes we humans see the logic of God’s law and choose right. But like Adam and Eve, all too often we reject God and His law. Unfortunately, in this area as in others, America has formally chosen the latter.
10. Terrorism in Paris, Coldness in Heart
"The lawlessness and coldness of terrorism is obvious. Not so obvious is the cold that can creep into all of us, and in many different ways."
Excerpt:
So as we watch the morbid news tonight, I find myself thinking, “I’m so tired of it! This isn’t how I planned to spend a peaceful Sabbath evening! I don’t want to hear this!”
But despite this internal voice saying, “You don’t have to sit there listening to the unfolding details of yet another gruesome terrorist attack—just pick up the remote and turn it off!” another part of me is answering, “Don’t you dare!”
Why? Because I fear something happening, something spiritually and emotionally bad for me, and you.
I fear growing cold.
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Date Posted: December 31, 2015
About the Author
Erik Jones
Erik Jones is a full-time writer and editor at the Life, Hope & Truth offices in McKinney, Texas.
