Warfare prayer is not a “back-up” category when all else fails. It is not a specialty form of prayer for the uniquely called or gifted. Yes — there are some who become “experts” in this field, just as there are some who become especially trained...
READ MOREIn this desperate hour we have a crucial role to play. Of all the Eternal Truths we don't believe, this is the one we doubt most of all. Our days are not extraordinary. They are filled with the mundane, with hassles mostly. And we? We...
READ MOREWhat Jesus primarily models for us is how to draw our life from the Father. This passage from Philippians — one of the earliest hymns of the faith — says that Jesus more than humbled himself when he came to earth. He emptied himself:
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READ MOREI will find you. No matter how long it takes, no matter how far – I will find you. —Nathaniel to Cora in The Last of the Mohicans
One of my favorite games growing up was "kidnapped and rescued." I know many little...
Mary broke the neck of the jar open and slowly poured some of the perfume on Jesus’s head and then poured the rest on his feet. Then she did something extremely intimate and scandalous. She unbound her hair and wiped his feet with it, even though...
READ MOREThat strength so essential to men is also what makes them heroes. If a neighborhood is safe, it's because of the strength of men. Slavery was stopped by the strength of men, at a terrible price to them and their families. The Nazis were...
READ MOREEverything in you may be saying, “But you don’t understand. I want to eat that whole box of chocolates (or sleep with my boyfriend, or let my anger really fly). That’s what really seems like life to me right now.” God says, “I know you...
READ MORE“I tell you the truth, the man who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep. The watchman opens the gate for him, and the...
READ MORELet me take you back now to the last cup of tea, Luke’s parting, and the ending of our family’s childhood era. It was the Saturday of his high school graduation. We had been through two others before and knew the ritual well. I believe in rituals...
READ MOREThe Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way. (J. R. R. Tolkien)...
The book “Killing Lions” is a conversation between John and Sam Eldredge about the trials young men face.
[Sam] One of the best feelings I had as a young man was cutting the ties I had to you and Mom financially. I mean, I...
Look 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 time in their lives...
READ MOREFlames are licking all around us, aren’t they? All the time. Saint Peter describes our life here on this earth as a “fiery ordeal” (1 Peter 4:12). Tragedies and heartache and pressures and illnesses and irritations grand and small show up...
READ MOREThe secret of happiness is this: God is the love you are longing for.
We live in a love story. We are created for romance and we have an insatiable capacity for it. Now, God gave us such a heart; it was one of his first gifts to...
READ MOREJesus kept coming back to this central issue, over and over, driving at it in his teachings, his parables, his penetrating questions. If you look again, through the lens that most of us feel fundamentally fatherless, I think you’ll find it very...
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...
Worthy is the Lamb who was slaughtered — to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing. (Revelation 5:12 NLT)
Pilate dares to ask Jesus, “What is truth?” Jesus doesn’t even bother...
Well, he created laughter. And think of the crowd he dined with. These rabble-rousers quickly earned Jesus a reputation as a drunkard and a glutton, and it wasn’t because they served water and crackers. This was a wild group, and surely such a...
READ MOREWe hold on to hope, and belief, by remembering what is true and setting our hopes on a Person — on the utter goodness and reliability of our God who intervened in Bethlehem, when all was hopeless. And who has promised to intervene again, in an...
READ MOREWe need what Beauty speaks. What it says is hard to put into words. But part of its message is, all is well. All will be well.
Beauty invites. Recall what it is like to hear a truly beautiful piece of music. It...