It is a matter of the heart, my brothers. There are many offices a man might fulfill as a king—father of a household, manager of a department, pastor of a church, coach of a team, prime minister of a nation—but the heart...
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So much of the journey forward involves a letting go of all that once brought us life. We turn away from the familiar abiding places of the heart, the false selves we have lived out, the strengths we have used to make a place for ourselves and...
READ MORELook at the life of Jesus. Notice what he did. When Jesus touched the blind, they could see; all the beauty of the world opened before them. When he touched the deaf, they were able to hear; for the first...
When he left Rivendell, Frodo didn't head out with a thousand Elves. He had eight companions. Jesus didn't march around backed by legions of angels, either. He had twelve men—knuckleheads, every last one of them, but they were a band of brothers...
READ MOREThe time has come for us to quit playing chess with God over our lives. We cannot win, but we can delay the victory, dragging on the pain of grasping and the poison of possessing. You see, there are two kinds of losses in life. The first is...
READ MOREJoy does not simply happen to us. We have to choose joy and keep choosing it every day. —Henri J. M. Nouwen
When I was young, I thought that following God and being a Christian would lead to a life that was kind of easy, filled only with...
READ MOREI cannot say this more emphatically—life affected Jesus. “We have spread so many ashes over the historical Jesus that we scarcely feel the glow of His presence anymore,” lamented Brennan Manning. “He is a man in a way that we have forgotten men...
READ MORELest we overlook the obvious, let me take a moment’s pause here to suggest that in your search for more of God, do remember to ask for it.
Such a simple thought, but so helpful. Sometimes we get so caught up in the process we forget to ask...
READ MOREFear causes us to make agreements like, “I cannot trust you will stay, so I will do everything in my power to make you stay.” Or “I cannot trust that I will not be hurt, so I will keep my distance from everyone.” Or “I cannot...
READ MORE“What people think of me” is a very powerful motivator. It is still shaping us more than we’d like to admit. It shapes our theology, our politics, our values.
Do any of us go through one entire day being utterly true no matter how many...
READ MOREI think if we could recover a vision of what holiness actually is, we would be absolutely captured by it. I think we would see it as not only completely desirable, but attainable as well. King David was a man who knew well his character flaws,...
READ MOREAfter creating this stunning portrait of a total union, the man and woman becoming one, God turns the universe on its head when he tells us that this is what he is seeking with us. In fact, Paul says it is...
There is something mythic in the way a man is with a woman. Our sexuality offers a parable of amazing depth when it comes to being masculine and feminine. The man comes to offer his strength and the woman invites the man into herself, an act that...
READ MOREAnd here's where we run into a problem.
For most of us, life feels like a movie we've arrived at forty-five minutes late.
Something important seems to be going on ... maybe. I mean, good things do happen, sometimes beautiful things...
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