Mark Affleck

The World Is Dripping In Venom

Trolls are on the prowl. Anarchists are scheming. And meanness has taken over.    We are living existential lives without ballast and without anchors. It is a liquid and languid life. Our world is dripping in mean-spirited and destructive venom. It’s sad. It’s scary. And it’s serious.    Of course hate has been with us since the beginning of time, but it is different today. That...

I Was Living In A Mansion With An Asterisk*

Money!   Success!   Power! Those threads were the pervasive focus of my early days as a Christian as I mounted a relentless chase of prosperity at the exclusion of almost everything else. I was the boss of my life and had not fully surrendered it to Christ. I was living in a mansion with an ASTERISK, and it was horrible.    Years later, after yielding to my life without...

I Told Myself: “C’mon, Get It Together!

Have you ever given yourself this pep talk: Control yourself! C’mon, get it together NOW! You can do it. C’mon, man.    Most of us face this SELF-CONTROL CHALLENGE every day as our earthly desires collide with the Holy Spirit and toss us into perpetual confusion.    No wonder God’s fruit of self-control is so important in our faith walk. Actually, it’s more than important—it’s...

It Took Me 20 Years To Define “CONSIDER”

It’s true. The word consider was just that early in my faith walk—a word. Fast-forwarding my life story ends up with a much different result. I’ll unpack that now, starting with Webster’s definition:    “Think carefully about something, typically before making a decision.”    OK, fair enough. We all do that countless times every day. But for believers, the real definition of CONSIDER...

My Life Was A Roller Coaster And It Went Off The Track

When I lived a fast-paced and stressful existence on life’s roller coaster as a CEO in my mid-thirties, I was constantly battling anxiety, emotional confusion, temptations, and anger. I failed to deal with the issues early before a negative pattern developed. With each new wave of anxiety my mind locked onto the wrong things and I slid a bit farther from God and the truth.    Living on this...

The Pruning Hurt And There Was Much Blood

As a young Christian I could not comprehend that God wanted his light to search my innermost thoughts and actions. To reveal my sin. To set my path straight. But of course it’s true…and I had been terribly mistaken.    I can see now that God wants our lives to be ensconced in clear glass to expose our errant ways and shoot past them. The word sin means “to miss the mark of God.” How much...

I Need To Make A Confession . . .

The combination of four words that name this blog—Love God Fear Nothing—is more than a slogan. More than a message. And even more than a ministry. Indeed, those four words are the catalyst that animates my faith and pumps life into the very essence of who I am.    But I need to make a confession—the fearing nothing part is much more difficult than the loving God part. In fact, it’s really...

Are You Living With An Asterisk?

“I failed, again.” You’ve heard that line whispered in your ear, right? It comes from Satan, aka the “Voice Villain.”    We know that despite our best-laid plans, setbacks are inevitable. But they still produce angst, extreme doubt about our self-worth, and muddle our relationships in life. Yep, fear of failure is not easy to accept, especially when God tells us NOT TO FEAR 365 times in...

What Do Ariana Grande, Coin, Nicki Minaj, George Thorogood, Sha-Na-Na, Run DMC, and the Strokes Have In Common?

They talk too much! This is the SHORT list of artists who have used “You talk too much” as the hook in one of their songs.    It’s a turn-of-phrase that can be directly connected to the line we all know that means we have said something inappropriate and embarrassing: “Open mouth, insert foot.”    You get the idea.  It seems impossible to avoid talking too much, right? I’ll...

My Life Was Just Like Stop-And-Go Traffic

When I lived a fast-paced and stressful existence as a CEO in my mid-thirties, I was constantly battling anxiety, emotional confusion, temptations, and anger. I failed to deal with the issues early before a negative pattern developed. With each new wave of anxiety my mind locked onto the wrong things and I slid a bit farther from God and the truth.    My life was just like stop-and-go traffic...
1 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 105