Daily Reading
August 8, 2025
Be very careful how you interpret “unanswered prayer.” Our hearts are so vulnerable in these moments. It’s just too easy to lose heart. The conclusions come rushing in — God isn’t listening; he doesn’t care; I’m not faithful enough; prayer doesn’t re...
Daily Reading
August 7, 2025
You shall know them, Jesus said, by their fruit. The principle holds true for anything in life. It is especially helpful in diagnosing what the enemy might be up to. What is the fruit of what you’re experiencing? What is its effect? If it continues, ...
Daily Reading
August 6, 2025
We’re going to want our souls strong and ready for the days ahead, filled with God, not fried and empty. So we must practice soul care.I’m not suggesting you go on a witch hunt for every neglected place in your soul. There’s way too much loss in ther...
Daily Reading
August 5, 2025
It seems that much of what Christians believe they are called to these days is a cluster of activities that include regular church attendance, Bible study, prayer, giving, concern for justice, and attending the annual men or women’s retreat. Now — wh...
Daily Reading
August 4, 2025
If you want to get to know someone, you need to know their story. Their life is a story. It, too, has a past and a future. It, too, unfolds in a series of scenes over the course of time. Why is Grandfather so silent? Why does he drink too much? Well,...
Daily Reading
August 3, 2025
We are now in the late stages of the long and vicious war against the human heart. I know — it sounds overly dramatic. I almost didn't use the term "war" at all, for fear of being dismissed at this point as one more in the group of "Chicken Littles,"...
Daily Reading
August 2, 2025
If the way to avoid the murderous rage and deceptive allures of desire is to kill it, if deadness is next to godliness, then Jesus had to be the deadest person ever. But he is called the living God. "It is a dreadful thing," the writer of Hebrews say...
Daily Reading
August 1, 2025
We come into the world with a longing to be known and a deep-seated fear that we aren't what we should be. We are set up for a crisis of identity.And then, says Frederick Buechner, the world goes to work: Starting with the rather too pretty young wom...
Daily Reading
July 31, 2025
Mental resilience begins when we decide to take hold of our thought life. Navy SEAL training includes teaching the recruits positive self-talk. Apparently we say something like three hundred to one thousand words to ourselves every minute. You know f...
Daily Reading
July 30, 2025
What makes the Day of Judgment so unnerving is that all our posing and all our charades will be pulled back, all secrets will be made known, and our Lord will "expose the motives of men's hearts" (1 Cor. 4:5, emphasis added).This is the point of the ...
Daily Reading
July 29, 2025
It’s human nature to want our problems to simply go away. Be honest now — how many of us have heard a troubling tick, tick, tick or thump, thump, thump coming from the general direction of our car’s engine or transmission and not done a thing about i...
Daily Reading
July 28, 2025
Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their forefathers to give them. Be strong and very courageous ... Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discourag...
Daily Reading
July 27, 2025
Jesus’ movement will disrupt the Jewish system very, very profoundly. He is going to turn things upside down and inside out. The world will never be the same. Literally. But there is a precision to his every move.He will not be baited into their trap...
Daily Reading
July 26, 2025
The longing for things to be good again is making us vulnerable to all sorts of compromises. I can help you with this.First, let’s remove the shock and shame of those moments when hard-pressed you suddenly rages, binges, goes faithless, or simply sho...
Daily Reading
July 25, 2025
Sunlight on water.Songbirds in a forest.Desert sands under moonlight.Vineyards just before harvest. These all share something in common — they reflect the heart of a particular artist. They are his masterpieces, his expression and his gift to us. The...
Daily Reading
July 24, 2025
The fire will test the quality of each person’s work. If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. (1 Corinthians 3:13–14)You know your every sin is forgiven. So if you can remove all fear of exposure from your heart, and set i...
Daily Reading
July 23, 2025
We have lived for so long with a "propositional" approach to Christianity, we have nearly lost its true meaning. As Mary Stewart Van Leeuwen says, "Much of it hinges on your view of scripture. Are you playing proof-text poker with Genesis plus the Go...
Daily Reading
July 22, 2025
Whatever else it means to be human, we know beyond doubt that it means to be relational. Aren’t the greatest joys and memories of your life associated with family, friendship, or falling in love? Aren’t your deepest wounds somehow connected to someon...
Daily Reading
July 21, 2025
Dare we forget King David? Yes, his passions got him in a heap of trouble—and gave us our book of worship, the Psalms. Sure, Peter was a hotheaded disciple always quick with a reply. Remember in the Garden of Gethsemane—he's the one who lopped off th...
Daily Reading
July 20, 2025
Worry is only one of a hundred things that burden our souls. Genuine concern is just as dangerous, maybe more so because it’s grounded in something noble — your concerns for your aging parents, a sick friend, a people group, a cause crying out for ju...
Daily Reading
July 19, 2025
The poet Yeats wrote,If I make the lashes dark And the eyes more bright And the lips more scarlet, Or ask if all be right From mirror after mirror No vanity's displayed: I'm looking for the face I had Before the world was made. ("Before the World Was...
Daily Reading
July 18, 2025
God drops things in our laps at just the right time. He puts barriers in our paths that look like roadblocks but are really gifts in disguise, beckoning us to take a closer look at what’s going on inside of us. We can either step over them or choose ...
Daily Reading
July 17, 2025
For this people's heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them. (Matt. 13:1...
Daily Reading
July 16, 2025
One of the most crippling convictions held by believers today is the idea that everything that happens is the will of God. It is a poisonous belief that will destroy your confidence in God; you will end up believing terrible things about him. The new...
Daily Reading
July 15, 2025
"Don't be afraid of embracing the disappointment you feel, old or new. Don't be scared of the unreasonable joy either. They're the highway markers home."We snort with disdain at such quaint sentiments, and our choice made, strike off down the straigh...
Daily Reading
July 14, 2025
Something is happening to the human heart. You need to understand what it is if you would make sense of any of this. Human beings are by nature ravenous creatures; a famished craving haunts every one of us. We were created for utter happiness, joy, ...
Daily Reading
July 13, 2025
There is the joy of having someone save a place for us. We walk into a crowded room at church or at a dinner party and someone across the way waves us over, pointing to a chair he's held on to especially for us. For a moment we feel a sense of relief...
Daily Reading
July 12, 2025
Now — what is your part? What is your role in the Story? In truth, the only one who can tell you that is the Author. To find our lives, we must turn to Jesus. We must yield our all to him and ask him to restore us as his own. We ask his forgiveness f...
Daily Reading
July 11, 2025
The devil has more temptations than an actor has costumes for the stage. And one of his all-time favorite disguises is that of a lying spirit, to abuse your tender heart with the worst news he can deliver — that you do not really love Jesus Christ an...
Daily Reading
July 10, 2025
Aren't there times in your life that if you could, you would love to return to? I grew up in Los Angeles but spent my boyhood summers in Oregon where both my mother and father's parents lived. There was a beauty and innocence and excitement to those ...