Achuckallen

Instigating Better

Blog

A National of Haters

by

A Nation of Haters by AChuckALLEN

I read the following statistics in one of my favorite newsletters from Dr. Jim Denison. In the stats, one significant truth leaps off of the page. That stat? That we are nation that is not only radically divided, but we are a country that is rapidly growing in hate.

A recent survey found that 61 percent of Democrats view Republicans as “racist/bigoted/sexist”; 31 percent of Republicans feel the same way about Democrats. Fifty-four percent of Democrats consider Republicans to be “ignorant”; 49 percent of Republicans feel the same way about Democrats. And 44 percent of Democrats consider Republicans to be “spiteful”; 54 percent of Republicans feel this way about Democrats.

“Only 4 percent of each party consider the other party to be “fair.” Three percent of Democrats and 4 percent of Republicans consider the other party to be “thoughtful.” Two percent of Democrats and 3 percent of Republicans consider the other party to be “kind.”

In 1958, 33 percent of Democrats wanted their daughters to marry a Democrat; 25 percent of Republicans wanted their daughters to marry a Republican. In 2016, 60 percent of Democrats and 63 percent of Republicans felt that way.

Why is our political culture so vehemently divided? Is there anything we can do to change the vitriol of our day?“

If you are over 50 years of age, you might be tempted to think that this is generational and it must be those “millinneials.” If you are under 40 years of age, you might think that the problem must be the old guard. If you are under 30 years of age, you might think that it’s our time to fix this mess. And if you are under 20 years of age, you might actually have the guts to change this mess. All of that rant is simply my beliefs, but seriously…We are on the edge of implosion as a nation that is theoretically “Under God.”

Here are four ways that I think each of us can contribute to the solution of this nation of growing haters:

  • Stop taking any source of national news as truth. Please note that I said ANY SOURCE. If you lean right, Fox News is gospel. If you lean left, CNN is gospel. Instead of commentary, find the simple facts and ask the Lord of all Creation for wisdom to know the difference.
  • Engage the people in your spheres of influence and relationships with positive talk about what is good in this world, in your world and in the present moment. My grandmother was on point when she said, “if you don’t have anything good to say, it’s your fault.”
  • Go do good work! Help serve hungry people. Mentor marginalized kids and families. Give your time to worthy and honorable charities. Prop up and join organizations, churches, schools and businesses that are attempting to make the world a better and safer place, without postering for political camera time.
  • Start your day with gratitude. Nothing will change your attitude, conversations and actions more than sincere gratitude. I start every single day by writing down three things that I am grateful for right in that moment. They aren’t often lofty or benevolent, but they are sincere. And by the way, my gratitude is always pointed to the one that provides me life that day.
  • Go change the part of this world that you can influence for good.
  • Don’t grow weary in doing good.
  • Please don’t get sucked into the vortex of negative, hate-filled speech.
  • Determine to make your day awesome, regardless of the rest of the world’s fights.

PEACE, AChuck

4forFRIDAY with AChuckAllen

by

4forFRIDAY with ACHUCKAllen 01.17.2020

I love to share good reads, learnings, listens and reviews with friends and followers. So, thanks for joining me on my 4forFRIDAY BLOG. Most weeks, the 4forFRIDAY offers recommended Reads, Listens, Learnings and Reviews

A Really Good Movie: 1917

This film is gritty and exhilarating to the degree that I was exhausted walking out of the theatre. I think you will be moved and entertained as you watch 1917! Two young British soldiers during the First World War are given an impossible mission: deliver a message deep in enemy territory that will stop 1,600 men, and one of the soldiers’ brothers, from walking straight into a deadly trap.

A Really Good Italian Meal: di Paolo’s Italian Restaurant

I can be a tough critic when it comes to Italian food, but this gem was awesome. I enjoyed “fresh sausage rigatoni, caprese salad and bailey’s Irish cream cheesecake.” It’s tucked inside a strip center off Holcomb Bridge Rd. Jenny loved the lasagna as well.

A Great Read: This Is the Life: Mindfulness, Finding Grace, and the Power of the Present Moment by: Terry Hershey

This is one of those books that really challenged me. It’s a simple and short read, but Terry Hershey always sharpens me and challenges my orthodoxy. It is a great read for any believer! This book is an invitation to practice, to savor, the sacred present. We are called to be available. To be curious. To be alive. To be willing to be surprised by joy. To know there is power in the word enough.

My Favorite News Service: The New Paper (thenewpaper.co)

Free and delivered without prejudice. This is a three-minute read and gives you a high-level revie of what’s going on in the world.

All Four of my Power Routines Spiritual Journal are available on Amazon.

Instigating the habits of Gratitude, Scripture Reading, Journaling and Guided Prayer is a powerful way to CHANGE THE TRAJECTORY OF YOUR LIFE! Pick up your copies of POWER ROUTINES I, II, III and IV at Sugar Hill Church! OR on Amazon HERE.

A Quote from Robert F. Kennedy

“All of us might wish at times that we lived in a more tranquil world, but we don’t. And if our times are difficult and perplexing, so are they challenging and filled with opportunity.”

The Weekday Podcast and the Weekday Meditation

The Podcast is a 5 minute/day, 5 day/week Cup of Encouragement, straight from the Scriptures. The Meditation is 5 minutes/day, 5/day/week and is designed to give you a combined and guided prayer/meditation experience.

Both of these resources are available on the Sugar Hill Church APP or WeekdayPodcast.com & WeekdayMeditation.com

Go in Peace, AChuck

Lean Not and Find Your Way-Your Best Year

by

Lean Not and Find Your Way by AChuckAllen

Today, I’d like to walk through Proverbs 3:5-6. This simple and powerful passage of Scripture can radically change the trajectory of your year and give you a huge leap into Your Best Year,

Proverbs 3:5-6

“[5] Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. [6] Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take. ”

These two verses are among the most beloved in all the Bible. This text is striking in its simplicity. There is nothing difficult about it. It has been the hope and encouragement of countless multitudes of God’s people across the centuries.

Here is the obvious question: —”Lord, what do you want me to do?” Proverbs 3:5-6 suggests the basis on which godly and wise guidance will come. It is a short and simple…yet a Waterford Crystal Clear course in knowing God’s will for your life.

In our thinking, the word trust means to rely upon or to have confidence in. But the Hebrew word is stronger. The word means to put your full weight on something. To trust in the Lord is to lay your whole weight upon him.

In many versions the words “Do Not Depend on” is translated Lean Not! “Lean not to your own understanding.” It means to rest upon for partial support. You lean on something when you are not strong enough to stand alone. Do not depend…Do not lean…on what? On yourself.

The word understanding refers to our mental processes by which you look at a problem, you analyze it, and you decide how you are going to solve it. Understanding is simply the decision-making ability that God has given you.

When you take the word “depend,” put it with the word “understanding” and add the negative, you get an idea like this: “Use all your mental powers, but do not lean on them for total support.” Don’t trust in your own ability to figure out your life. So what do we do? It is a simple A, B, C.

a. Pray – Set your heart and prioritize your calendar to maximize the wisdom that the Lord will give you when you ask for it.

b. Fast – Set your life, for a season, apart from the things that you crave or desire more than the Lord.

c. Honor the Lord in energizing your prayers and fast by acting on what the Lord directs you to do!

I think that “seek or acknowledge” doesn’t do full justice to the original text. In the Hebrew this word is an imperative. It is a command. You could translate this by saying, “In all your ways know him.” It’s the kind of knowing that comes with personal experience. It means to know something through and through.

Seen in that light, we might translate verse 5 this way: “In all your ways know God intimately. In all your ways know God deeply. In all your ways know God personally. In every area of your life know God intimately, deeply and personally because when you know God that way in every area of your life, then he will direct your paths.”

“He will make your paths straight.” That brings me to the fifth word, which in the King James is translated “He shall direct your paths.” That is not bad. But I think the NLT is a little better: “and he will show you which path to take.”

It has the idea of a road which appears to be impassable. It seems to have a million turns and twists. As you study it, you discover that portions of the road are washed out, others are filled with potholes, still others with huge boulders. In some places the road apparently becomes a dead end.

It is the road of your life. That’s the road you are traveling right now. As you look at it, it appears to be covered with potholes and rocks. Some of you have come through a week filled with potholes and obstacles.

The Divine can and will fill the potholes and remove the obstacles.

Here is God’s message to you from Proverbs 3:5-6. If you will know God in every area of your life, he himself will take personal responsibility to make your way smooth and straight. This is why I finish every worship gathering with the blessing that He can more your crooked path straight! He will remove the obstacles if they need to be removed. He will fill in the potholes if they need to be filled. He will redirect the detour so that what seemed to be a dead-end turns out to be the shortest way to reach your destination.

Don’t lean for support on your own human understanding. In all your ways know God intimately. He will take the path of your life which seems to go up and down and around and sometimes seems to curve backwards , and he will make your way straight.

Many of us want to go through life leaning almost completely upon our own understanding. This the opposite direction of Your Best Year. A lot of us are basically control freaks. I number myself among that group. This passage is a warning to all of us control freaks who lay out life the way we want it and then say, “Here, God, you can now bless it.” God says, “I don’t work that way. You know me first. Put me first in everything including all your plans and all your thinking and all your scheming. Put me first. And I then will make your way straight.” “Then I will bless it.”

This is a revolutionary way of looking at life!

Here is the teaching of this passage stated in one sentence: God is much less concerned with what you do than with what kind of person you are. He is much less concerned with what you do; he is much more concerned with what kind of person you are.

Proverbs 3:5-6 ends with a promise. “He will make your paths straight.”

The Almighty, Transcendent God of the universe, he will direct your paths. That’s the God who says, “If you will but know me, I will take care of the details. Trust me. Rest your full weight on me. Know me in everything. And I, the God of the universe, will direct your paths.”

The will of God for your life is that you, in all your ways should know him because when you know him in every area He has said He will direct your paths. He promised, and He will not fail, He will direct your path.

He can give you Your Best Year!

Go in Peace, AChuck

Three Simple Steps to a Better Marriage

by

Three Simple Steps to a Better Marriage, by AChuckAllen

I’ve been married twice. Once for 25 years and again for 13 years. Over the collective 38 years I’ve learned three things that can improve and strengthen every single marriage. After my first wife passed away in 2005, I was determined that I would be single and travel to every NFL stadium and every MLB stadium and settle down in a quiet little town in Southwest Florida. Two years later, I fell in love and asked Jenny and her four girls to marry me an my two girls. 13 years later, I’m happy, healthy and almost to the end of college tuition for 6 daughters. Just praise the Lord!

In the 38 years of marriage I’ve learned these three very simple elements that will benefit every marriage, at any stage. Here you go:

Be kind and be gracious with your spouse.
Never stop using words of gratitude and grace. Speaking kindly and use words of affirmation and value. Determine to be more gracious with your spouse than you would any dignitary you were trying to impress at a party. Your spouse knows when you are breaking out your finest fake graciousness. Keep it real and keep it consistent. Here are four phrases that remain powerfully poignant in every marriage.

I love you every single day and cannot wait to see you tonight
I’m so sorry. I would never want to hurt you. Please forgive me.
Thank you. I am so glad we are us.
I prayed for you today. Thank you for being my sweetheart.

Keep talking about the things that matter.
BUT! Keep listening to what is being said as urgently as you speak. Never rob your spouse of their voice. We all need conversation and we all grow together as we chat and converse about what each other thinks about any number of topics. Jenny and I talk about everything and disagree and some things. But she makes me a better thinker. She has made me a better speaker. And, she has made me a better listener.

Allow your spouse to be your number one encourager, critic and accountability partner.
When you build trust in your marriage, you will find that you can encourage each other easily. Use words of truthful affirmation, like; You look great. You do so much for us, thank you. When trust is strengthen you can also encourage your spouse by making them better by speaking truth into their life, like; You are such a wonderful influence on our family, but when you lose it, the kids and I see the less than the wonderful you. And, when you allow your spouse to be your number one accountability partner, trust and contentment are a hand and glove experience. Share every password, every calendar, every account and your every moment with your spouse and truth will not only make your life more peace-filled, but it will literally build a force-field around you that will protect your peace when circumstances want to destroy it.

Thank you for joining me on today’s article. I’d love for you to join me each weekday for five minutes of PEACE, POWER & DIRECTION on my Weekday Meditation. Just five minutes each day and five days each week. A simple, guided, prayerful meditation designed for busy, thoughtful folks, desiring God to show up in their daily lives.

Go in Peace,
AChuck

Saturday Share with AChuckAllen

by

I enjoy sharing an article that brought a teaching or encouragement to my life and thought Saturday might be a good day to share them with you. Today’s article is from one of favorite authors, Dr. Jim Denison.

Here you go:

President Trump told the nation yesterday that no Americans were hurt by Iran’s missile attack in response to the death of Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani. He stated that Iran appears to be “standing down” and indicated that American forces would not respond further.

Unsurprisingly, reaction in America to Soleimani’s death has fallen largely along partisan lines. For example, a Fox News commentator stated that “Soleimani was an unparalleled organizer and a pitiless murderer. His death was richly earned.” A CNN commentator, by contrast, called his killing a “reckless gamble.”

This partisan divide is sadly familiar, of course. But I recently read an explanation for it that was both insightful and relevant to more than our politics.

Four ways to do foreign policy

New York Times columnist Ross Douthat views American foreign policy through a prism developed by scholar Walter Russell Mead, who created this famous typology named for four American presidents:

• Hamiltonian: protection of commerce

• Wilsonian: moral principle

• Jeffersonian: maintenance of a democratic system

• Jacksonian: populist values and military strength.

Douthat describes the Hamiltonians as “business-minded internationalists, cold-eyed and stability-oriented and wary of wars that seem idealistic rather than self-interested.” He describes the Wilsonians as “idealists, whether neoconservative or liberal-humanitarian, who regard the United States military as a force for spreading democracy and protecting human rights.” He claims that most foreign policy leaders in Washington “belong to one of these two groups.”

According to Douthat, however, “far more American voters are either Jacksonians or Jeffersonians.” He describes Jeffersonians as “more common on the left than on the right,” an impulse that “regards global hegemony as a corrupting folly and America’s wars as mostly unwise and unjust.” Their defining attitude is “No blood for oil.”

Douthat locates the “Jacksonian tendency” as “more common on the right than on the left” and describes it a “pugilistic nationalism that’s wary of all international entanglements but ready for war whenever threats arise.” Its essential credo is “More rubble, less trouble.”

According to Douthat, President Trump is a Jacksonian working within the Hamiltonian-Wilsonian strategic framework that dominates Washington’s political leadership. As with much of the president’s agenda and actions, the killing of Maj. Gen. Soleimani doesn’t fit within their ideology, which helps explain the polarization and rancor of our political discourse.

Whether you agree or disagree, it’s important to note the formative power of a leader’s worldview in shaping foreign policy in practical ways. How we see the world goes a long way toward determining how we experience it.

Seeing Iran through spiritual eyes

The same is true for us spiritually. For example, a church worker in Iran told CBN News that, forty years after Iran’s Islamic revolution, there’s another spiritual revolution underway in his country.

He states, “More people have come to faith [in Christ] in Iran in the last forty years than in the previous 1,400 years.” Believers there say that persecution in Iran is not hindering the church. In fact, it is growing it.

One missional leader explains: “When the persecution stops, the growth stops. What we want is the Gospel to spread far and wide and deep in Iran.”

Seeing our souls through spiritual eyes

Henri Nouwen made an extended observation that seems especially relevant to this point in history:

“When we lose a family member or friend through death, when we become jobless, when we fail an examination, when we live through a separation or a divorce, when war breaks out, when an earthquake destroys our home or touches us, the question ‘Why?’ spontaneously emerges. ‘Why me?’ ‘Why now?’ ‘Why here?’ It is so arduous to live without an answer to this ‘Why?’ that we are easily seduced into connecting the events over which we have no control with our conscious or unconscious evaluation.

“When we have cursed ourselves or allowed others to curse us, it is very tempting to explain all the brokenness we experience as an expression or confirmation of this curse. Before we fully realize it, we have already said to ourselves, ‘You see, I always thought I was no good. . . . Now I know for sure. The facts of life prove it.’

“The great spiritual call of the Beloved Children of God is to pull their brokenness away from the shadow of the curse and put it under the light of the blessing. This is not as easy as it sounds. The power of the darkness around us is strong, and our world finds it easier to manipulate self-rejecting people than self-accepting people.

“But when we keep listening attentively to the voice calling us the Beloved, it becomes possible to live our brokenness, not as a confirmation of our fear that we are worthless, but as an opportunity to purify and deepen the blessing that rests upon us. Physical, mental, or emotional pain lived under the blessing is experienced in ways radically different from physical, mental, or emotional pain lived under the curse.”

How King David approached conflict

King David was no stranger to war with his enemies and with himself. In a time of intense conflict, he made this simple but profound declaration: “Offer right sacrifices, and put your trust in the Lord” (Psalm 4:5).

As we work, God works. As we face conflict in our nation and in our souls, the key is to do what only we can do and trust God to do what only he can do.

What “sacrifice” will you offer him today?

What challenge will you trust to him today?

___________________________________________

Pretty good, right?

Have a Great Day, AChuck

4forFRIDAY with ACHUCKAllen

by

4forFRIDAY with ACHUCKAllen 01.10.2020

I love to share good reads, learnings, listens and reviews with friends and followers. So, thanks for joining me on my 4forFRIDAY BLOG. Most weeks, the 4forFRIDAY offers recommended Reads, Listens, Learnings and Reviews

A Really Great Read: Life Without Lack by Dallas Willard

Pause for a moment and ask yourself what your life would be like if it were completely without fear? If you did not fear death. If you did not fear life and what it might bring. If you did not fear any man, or woman, or any living creature. Would you live differently?
In Life Without Lack, Dallas Willard revolutionizes our understanding of Psalm 23 by taking this comfortably familiar passage and revealing its extraordinary promises: “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. . . . I will fear no evil.” The psalmist claims to live without any need and without any fear. How is that possible?

A Really Good (short) Read: 13 Things You Should Give Up If You Want to be Successful

Sometimes, to become successful and get closer to the person we can become, we don’t need to add more things — we need to give up on some of them. There are certain things that are universal, which will make you successful if you give up on them, even though each one of us could have a different definition of success.

A Fun Outing Close to Home: Axemasters on PIB

Pure fun and competition! Get a group together or just go chuck a few axes to blow off some frustration. You’ll enjoy this super fun joint on PIB in Sugar Hill!

A Holy Cow – That’s a Good Cookie Place: TIFF’s Treats

When Jenny ordered these bad boys I thought we would be disappointed, but WOW! The Salted Caramel Blondie and the warm delivered cookies were ridiculously good. My favorite? Warm, Oatmeal Raisin. Bless the Cookie Baker!

All Four of my Power Routines Spiritual Journal are available on Amazon.


Instigating the habits of Gratitude, Scripture Reading, Journaling and Guided Prayer is a powerful way to CHANGE THE TRAJECTORY OF YOUR LIFE! Pick up your copies of POWER ROUTINES I, II, III and IV at Sugar Hill Church! OR on Amazon HERE.

A Quote from Benjamin Franklin

“He that would live in peace & at ease, Must not speak all he knows or judge all he sees.”

The Weekday Podcast and the Weekday Meditation

The Podcast is a 5 minute/day, 5 day/week Cup of Encouragement, straight from the Scriptures. The Meditation is about 6 minutes/day, 5/day/week and is designed to give you a combined and guided prayer/meditation experience.

Both of these resources are available on the Sugar Hill Church APP or WeekdayPodcast.com & WeekdayMeditation.com

Go in Peace, 
AChuck

The Fight Inside the Fight

by

The Fight Inside the Fight by AChuckAllen

I’ve been keeping up with the ongoing congressional battle regarding the attack that President Trump authorized to eliminate Qasem Soleimani. I’ve heard the ongoing chatter from those that oppose this action and from those that are touting it as a great win. Regardless of your personal thoughts on this military action, I think that we would all agree that we do not know what the military intelligence was, or what all of the details were that spurred the President to authorize this attack. We each base our opinions on one or more of these thoughts; What we think about Donald J. Trump, what we believe about the American intelligence community, what we feel about military action in the Middle East or how we feel about targeting individual terrorist leaders.

As for me, based on what little I know, the world is a far safer place without Qasem Soleimani. I do not have any access to the intel, or the logic included in making this decision…BUT, this country elected President Trump to make those decisions. Given the status of the American political landscape, everything done by one side of the aisle is overly criticized and crtiqued by the other. Think about that last sentence. Even in the effort to eliminate a crazed, murderous psychopath, both sides are so busy battling each other, the elimination of Soleimani is buried beneath the infighting of Washington as the lead story!

To all of that, I say, C’MON MAN! We have become a country being led by a bunch of whiners and tattletails. I’m so weary of the jabs and quips from congressional and political leaders that have no other purpose than to either secure their seats or exit someone else’s seat. Again, C’MON MAN!

I know that we have, as a republic, for decades, had political battles regarding the placement of presidents, congressional leaders, senatorial seats and all of the roles that make up the branches of government, but seriously? Could we please find a voice of reason and a voice that allows for political enemies to adopt President and General Dwight Eiesenhour’s mantra, “Extremes to the right and to the left of any political dispute are always wrong.”

Could we not find common ground without the bully stump blusters? Especially when it involves an enemy of our great country and when the topics include our brave men and women serving in military hot spots around the globe, or people in poverty in our country and our communities?

If you think that this is written from a position of either conservative or liberal, you’d be wrong. I write this as a pastor, an American and a concerned grandfather. I long for our leaders to lay down their petty verbal attacks on each other and collaboratively work for the common good of our American people and the threats to democracy across the globe.

In regard to what our part, as citizens and as believers, I would like to see we Christians lay down the pitchforks. In spite of our many political and social disagreements, we are causing great divide in our churches, our faith system and the ability to remain a place of safety, acceptance and hope. Let us lose the rancor and foolish banter that doesn’t bring honor to our Creator. I do not think there is any way that the Lord looks upon our bickering and feels honored and loved by His children. This isn’t limited to political battles, but also to the bickering and foolish tirades from spiritual leaders as well. Let us stop the social media rants about how we believe and find the collective greatness of serving and leading more like Jesus, Himself.

What now shall we do? Speak with grace. Speak only what we know to be true, not what pundits offer for us to think. Let us seek truth in prayer. Let us seek wisdom from on high. Let us ask the Lord for understanding. And, let us find a voice that is pleasing to the Divine.

Go in Peace, AChuck

%d bloggers like this: