Evident Church

How and Why Should I Pray for Leaders? Jessica Van Roekel Crosswalk.com Contributing Writer 2019 18 Dec COMMENTS 0 We find leaders in our churches, schools, workplaces, and homes, and our local, state and national governments. Leaders carry vision and bear great responsibility. They are vision-casters and vision-fulfillers. They lead, guide, and make tough decisions every day.  We need to pray for our leaders because clamoring voices and opinions fill their minds and pull them in opposing directions. They need prayer to help them bear the burden of authority as well as decipher the right decision that serves the vision and purpose of their office.  God calls us to pray for our leaders because he knows that prayer is what moves hearts towards him and softens our hearts towards others. It’s easy to pray for the leader you like, whether it’s a pastor, a boss, or a city councilman. But when it’s someone you don’t like, whose ideology may be different than yours.....

4 Sure Ways to Spot a Bitter Root in Your Heart Erin Davis erindavis.org 2018 19 Sep Every good gardener knows that you can't chop weeds. Try to go after those buggers with a weed eater, and you'll get nowhere in a hurry. You've got to rip weeds up by the roots. Otherwise, they will just keep coming back, and when they do, they're bound to bring more and more of their weedy friends. It's no accident that God uses the image of a weed to describe a particular sin that has a way of creeping into all of our hearts . . . bitterness. See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled ( Heb. 12:15 ). Photo Credit: ©Unsplash/mark- adriane We need to take bitterness seriously. Bitterness isn't one of those big, flashy sins that you can see growing above the surface of our hearts. It may not show off like anger or produce big ol’ hun...

Addiction doc says: It’s not the drugs. It’s the ACEs…adverse childhood experiences.   Jane Ellen Stevens 3 years ago He says: Addiction shouldn’t be called “addiction”. It should be called “ritualized compulsive comfort-seeking”. He says: Ritualized compulsive comfort-seeking (what traditionalists call addiction) is a  normal  response to the adversity experienced in childhood, just like bleeding is a normal response to being stabbed. He says: The solution to changing the illegal or unhealthy ritualized compulsive comfort-seeking behavior of opioid addiction is to address a person’s adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) individually and in group therapy; treat people with respect; provide medication assistance in the form of buprenorphine, an opioid used to treat opioid addiction; and help them find a ritualized compulsive comfort-seeking behavior that won’t kill them or put them in jail. This “he” isn’t some hippy-dippy new age dreamer. He is Dr. Daniel ...