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9 Common Lies Christians Believe
With Author Shane Pruitt

Shane Pruitt and his wife, Kasi, live near Dallas, Texas, with their five children. He been in ministry for more than 17 years as a denominational leader, church planter, and traveling communicator. He holds a B.S. in biblical studies and a PhD in Christian counseling. Shane serves as Director of Evangelism for the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention. A popular blogger, Pruitt has written for Relevant, Christianity Today, the Christian Post, ChurchLeaders.com and other online journals. A video showing their children celebrating the surprise arrival of one of their adopted siblings went viral and the story was covered on ABC News and Inside Edition, as well as many other media outlets.

Places to purchase Shane’s book:

Christian Books

Amazon.com

Audible.com

God Won’t Give You More Than You Can Handle 

“God won’t give you more than you can handle,” really what we’re saying is that we don’t want more than what we believe we can handle. If we’re honest, we make plans for ourselves that keep us comfortable, and we want God to bless those plans and stay inside those boundaries. However, God hardly ever operates that way. He almost always gives us more than we can handle on our own so that we’ll seek Him for help and guidance.

Pruitt, Shane. 9 Common Lies Christians Believe (pp. 22-23). The Crown Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

A story you tell in the book is about an amazing family, Jay and Suzanne Faske.

I think the other thing we like to do once we have come to grips with the “can’t handle” path that we are on is to romanticize about the inevitable miraculous event that is just ahead.

We want the earthquake, lightning bolt miracle but most of the time it’s the journey itself that’s the miracle.

Don’t we often think we have to defend God’s actions?.

There correct belief.  “God won’t give us more that He can handle through us”.

I Could Never Forgive That Person

Forgiveness is such a critical theme of the Bible and if you get it wrong you can really struggle for a lifetime and can even spill over into the next generation.  I love Phil Yancey’s book, “What’s So Amazing About Grace”.

Ozzie’s story in this chapter just immediately captivates you and inspires you.  How many times do we have some preconceived notion of what someone’s story is and then our minds our blown?  On the show we often our reminded that behind every set of eyes is a story so be careful how you respond.

One of the scariest verses in all of Scripture has to be Matthew 6: 14– 15, where Jesus said, “If you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” This is one of those verses that you’ll never see on a Christian T-shirt, coffee mug, or desktop screen saver with roses in the background. The reason this is not a popular verse is that it digs deep into the uncomfortable areas of our lives and deals with some difficult actions on our part. It teaches us that if we’re going to be recipients of God’s grace, then we must give grace to others. Jesus gives the challenge that if we don’t forgive others, it may be proof that we’ve never truly received God’s forgiveness ourselves. Or, in a positively glorious implication, He is teaching us that the most practical way to show the world that we understand forgiveness in our own lives is by showing that we know how to forgive.

Pruitt, Shane. 9 Common Lies Christians Believe (p. 111). The Crown Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

 

Believe In Yourself
“Time do down a few raw eggs”

This chapter and chapter one are really connected in so many ways.

There is something here that is so relevant to today’s Christian and to some of our public figures (authors, pastors, and worship leaders) who are walking away from the faith.

“Believe in yourself!” How many times have we been given this line as a pep talk? I really believe this is shared with the best of intentions. It is a banner statement in our new tradition of building up the self-esteem of a new generation. For nearly thirty years now, it has been an accepted fact in psychology that low self-esteem is the root of many social and personal problems, particularly among young people. Low self-esteem is to blame for everything, from the high school drop-out rate to teenage pregnancy, from overflowing prisons to suicides, from drug abuse to hate crimes. If we can change how people view themselves, we can help change

Pruitt, Shane. 9 Common Lies Christians Believe (p. 212). The Crown Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Tim Keller has a great little book, The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness and in it he sites a New York Times magazine article titled “The Trouble With Self-Esteem.”  Psychologist Lauren Slater quotes from three notable studies concluding that people with high self-esteem pose a much greater threat to society that people with low self-esteems.

Tim Keller says, the thing about the ‘low self-esteem theory of misbehavior’ is that it is very attractive.  You do not have to make any moral judgements in order to deal with society’s problems.  All you have to do is support people and build them up.

Blaise Pascal — “People almost invariably arrive at their beliefs not on the basis of proof but on the basis of what they find attractive.”