Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks!

Try our New Website!
And check out the new book: How to Find Jesus in the Psalms

Cunningham Financial and Jon Cunningham have been an amazing support to my family. I encourage you to call him with any and all financial planning needs!

Call Jon today! 205-913-1720

Forgiveness Is Complicated

Forgiveness sounds simple until we're the ones who have been hurt. What happens when both people are wrong? What if someone hurts us but doesn't believe they've sinned? What if we disagree about what happened? And what if someone refuses to repent?

In this episode, we begin by asking a different question: What do I really want when I ask God to forgive me? His forgiveness involves so much more than escaping punishment. We want mercy, compassion, restored fellowship, and the opportunity to become better people.

But are we willing to extend those same things to others?

We'll explore four complicated situations involving forgiveness, the difference between forgiveness and reconciliation, and why a forgiving heart doesn't necessarily mean restored trust. Most importantly, we'll consider how the mercy we've received from God should transform the way we respond to those who hurt us.

Forgiveness isn't pretending that wrong is right. It's refusing to let wrong have the final word in our hearts.

Key Scriptures: Luke 17:3–4; Luke 6:27–28; Romans 12:17–21; Ephesians 4:31–32.

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks!

Check out our New Website: www.excelstillmore.life. You can read the Bible, read articles, listen to podcasts and sermons, check out new books, and explore 255 Christian businesses!

Please check out our new book: Finding Jesus in the Psalms. This is my first reader-instructional book, and I hope you love the journey.

For any financial needs, reach out to Jon Cunningham.
He continues to help my family, and I know he can help you.

Email: jon@cunninghamfinancialgroup.com

Phone: 205-913-1720

And for home owneship needs, call Tyler Cain, a Senior Loan Officer

Email: Tcain@embracehomeloans.com

Phone: 813-380-8487

A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats

What if the best way to improve your own life is to invest in the people and environments around you?

We've all heard the expression, "A rising tide lifts all boats." But what if we started living like we believed it? Rather than focusing exclusively on our own success, what if we worked to create conditions where everyone had a better opportunity to grow?

In this episode of Excel Still More, we're exploring the power of investing in others and building environments that encourage growth. Whether it's strengthening faith, developing deeper friendships, improving fitness, or making wiser financial decisions, the principle remains the same: When we help raise the tide, we rise with it.

We'll consider practical questions about the environments we're creating, the people we're influencing, and the opportunities we have to make life better for those around us.

You don't have to lift every boat. Sometimes the greatest thing you can do is help raise the water.

Let's Excel Still More, together!

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks!

GENESIS, EXODUS, LEVITICUS, NUMBERS, DEUTERONOMY: JESUS BOOKS (Book on Amazon)

emersonk78@me.com

Excel Still More Journal - Amazon

New GENESIS Daily Bible Devotional!

Daily Bible Devotional Series - Amazon

Sponsor: Jon Cunningham, Cunningham Financial

Email: jon@cunninghamfinancialgroup.com

Phone: 205-913-1720

Sponsor: Tyler Cain, Senior Loan Officer

Email: Tcain@embracehomeloans.com

Phone: 813-380-8487

What if the hardest part of Start, Stop, Continue is simply learning to stop? Not only from sinful or harmful things, but from good, useful, ordinary things that can quietly crowd out what matters most.

In this episode, we begin in Leviticus 23, where God deliberately built Sabbath rest, remembrance, and interruption into Israel’s life. We then move into the New Testament and the example of Jesus, who regularly withdrew from crowds, activity, and demands in order to pray and be with the Father.

From there, we consider insights from Dr. Arthur Brooks on technology, meaning, and the danger of becoming “deskilled in the deepest mysteries of life.” Our phones have nearly eliminated boredom, silence, and reflection. So how do we get some of that back?

The answer may be surprisingly simple: TIME. ZONES. FASTS.

Set times when the phone is off limits. Create places where it does not go. Practice regular periods of separation.

The goal is not to hate technology. It is to refuse to be mastered by it, to make room for faith and relationships, and to recover the ability to be still, think deeply, and know God.

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks!

BRAND NEW - Daily Seek Ye First Journal

Finding Jesus First - OT Bible Series

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Sponsor: Jon Cunningham, Cunningham Financial

Email: jon@cunninghamfinancialgroup.com

Phone: 205-913-1720

Sponsor: Tyler Cain, Senior Loan Officer

Email: Tcain@embracehomeloans.com

Phone: 813-380-8487

A surprising number of the problems we face are preventable. We spend too much time thinking about ourselves, too much energy thinking negatively about other people, and too much of today looking backward at yesterday. Before long, we are discouraged, distracted, frustrated, and stuck.

There is a better way to begin each day: J.O.Y.

Jesus first. Others second. Yourself third.

When you start every morning by putting Jesus first, you remember who you belong to and what matters most. When you turn your attention toward others, you begin looking for ways to encourage, serve, forgive, and help instead of criticizing and comparing. And when you put yourself in the proper place, you discover that humility does not diminish your life. It gives your life direction.

That order produces three things we desperately need: humility, hope, and purpose. Humility keeps us from making everything about ourselves. Hope keeps the past from controlling the future. Purpose gives us something meaningful to pursue today.

From there, every day becomes an opportunity to make simple adjustments: start what helps, stop what hurts, and continue what is already working.

You cannot change yesterday, and you cannot control everyone around you. But you can decide how you will begin today. Start with Jesus. Think about others. Put yourself in the right place. Then move forward with humility, hope, and purpose.

Choose J.O.Y. every morning, and give yourself a better chance to live a better day.

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks!

GENESIS, EXODUS, LEVITICUS, NUMBERS, DEUTERONOMY: JESUS BOOKS (Book on Amazon)

emersonk78@me.com

Excel Still More Journal - Amazon

New GENESIS Daily Bible Devotional!

Daily Bible Devotional Series - Amazon

Sponsor: Jon Cunningham, Cunningham Financial

Email: jon@cunninghamfinancialgroup.com

Phone: 205-913-1720

Sponsor: Tyler Cain, Senior Loan Officer

Email: Tcain@embracehomeloans.com

Phone: 813-380-8487

Simon Sinek’s Start With Why challenges us to begin with the deeper purpose behind what we do. That principle has powerful applications for faith and relationships. In the Christian life, the sequence matters: Grace, Faith, Life. We begin with what God has done for us. His grace produces faith, and genuine faith shapes the way we live. Too often, we start with behavior and work backward. But when we understand the “why,” everything changes. In this episode, we explore how starting with grace can deepen our faith, strengthen our relationships, and produce a life that flows naturally from gratitude, purpose, and love.

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks!

GENESIS, EXODUS, LEVITICUS: JESUS BOOKS (Book on Amazon)

emersonk78@me.com

Excel Still More Journal - Amazon

New GENESIS Daily Bible Devotional!

Daily Bible Devotional Series - Amazon

Sponsor: Jon Cunningham, Cunningham Financial

Email: jon@cunninghamfinancialgroup.com

Phone: 205-913-1720

Sponsor: Tyler Cain, Senior Loan Officer

Email: Tcain@embracehomeloans.com

Phone: 813-380-8487

Stages of Growth

What does spiritual maturity actually look like?

In 1 John 2:12–24, John speaks to little children, young men, and fathers—a beautiful picture of stages of growth in the Christian life. We begin as little children, overwhelmed with gratitude that our sins are forgiven and that we belong to God. As we grow, that gratitude develops into the strength of young men—a life of sacrificial service, overcoming the evil one and giving ourselves fully to the work of God.

But maturity takes us even deeper. Like fathers who have “known Him who is from the beginning,” we learn to rest in something greater than what God has done for us or even what we can do for Him: simply knowing God Himself.

We never leave gratitude behind. We never outgrow service. We carry both with us as we mature into a deeper relationship with the eternal God.

Grateful for what He has done.
Committed to what we can do for Him.
Growing to simply know Him.

That is the journey of spiritual growth.

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks!

NEW GENESIS: A JESUS BOOK (Book on Amazon)

emersonk78@me.com

Excel Still More Journal - Amazon

New GENESIS Daily Bible Devotional!

Daily Bible Devotional Series - Amazon

Sponsor: Jon Cunningham, Cunningham Financial

Email: jon@cunninghamfinancialgroup.com

Phone: 205-913-1720

Sponsor: Tyler Cain, Senior Loan Officer

Email: Tcain@embracehomeloans.com

Phone: 813-380-8487

Top 5 Arguments AGAINST Praying to Jesus:
1) Jesus taught His disciples to pray to the Father.

2) Jesus Himself prayed to the Father

3) The apostles normally addressed prayers to God/the Father.

4) Jesus is specifically described as our mediator/intercessor.

5) "In Jesus' Name" naturally suggests praying to God through Jesus.

Top 5 Arguments FOR Praying to Jesus:

1) Stephen directly addressed Jesus while dying.

2) Paul apparently prayed directly to Jesus about the thorn in the flesh.

3) Revelation ends with a direct request to Jesus.

4) Early Christians are described as people who "call upon" Jesus' name.

5) Psalm 45 / Hebrews 1 provides an intriguing example of praising Jesus.

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks!

emersonk78@me.com

Excel Still More Journal - Amazon

New GENESIS Daily Bible Devotional!

Daily Bible Devotional Series - Amazon

Sponsor: Jon Cunningham, Cunningham Financial

Email: jon@cunninghamfinancialgroup.com

Phone: 205-913-1720

Sponsor: Tyler Cain, Senior Loan Officer

Email: Tcain@embracehomeloans.com

Phone: 813-380-8487

Job's Friends Did Some Things Right:

1. They Showed Up

2. They Entered Into His Grief

3. They Sat In Silence

4. They Believed Strongly In God

5. They Spoke What They Believed

Eliphas was influenced by Experience

Bildad by Tradition. Zophar by Certainty.

So, they made some prideful mistakes:

1. They assumed they knew why Job was suffering

2. They turned principles into absolute truths

3. They stopped listening

4. Their accusations became harsher

5. They lacked compassion

6. They spoke for God without understanding God