It seems at times that God will go to any length to thwart the very thing we most deeply want. We can’t get a job. Our attempt to find a spouse never pans out. The doctors aren’t able to help us with our infertility. Isn’t this precisely the...
READ MOREWe must come to face our style of relating, of course. As men, we look to where we are passive, and where we are domineering or harsh or violent. As women, we face where we are controlling, and where we are desperately clingy. And as God reveals...
READ MOREThe Sermon on the Mount is a revolution in holiness. Jesus takes all the external issues and makes them first and foremost internal. He begins with a few examples of the most egregious sins: murder and adultery. This is a crowd that congratulates...
READ MORENotice that all the great stories pretty much follow the same story line. Things were once good, then something awful happened, and now a great battle must be fought or a journey taken. At just the right moment (which feels like the last possible...
READ MOREGod gives us dozens of encounters every day, opportunities to be honest about what motivates us. What we do with them is up to us.
This is how he honors us. When God created each of us, he gave us a will, and that beautiful and...
READ MOREAgainst the flesh, the traitor within, a warrior uses discipline. We have a two-dimensional version of this now, which we call a "quiet time." But most men have a hard time sustaining any sort of devotional life because it has no vital connection...
READ MOREThen the Kingdom of Heaven will be like ten bridesmaids who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. The five who were foolish didn’t take enough olive oil for their lamps, but the other...
READ MOREI think even a quick read of the Old Testament would be enough to convince you that war is a central theme of God's activity. There is the Exodus, where God goes to war to set his captive people free. Blood. Hail. Locusts. Darkness....
READ MOREYou will appreciate the mastery of Jesus only to the degree that you understand the minefield he walks. He is advancing against the prince of darkness in a bid for the human heart. The whole situation is booby-trapped. Satan already has the upper...
READ MOREMost of us are probably still laboring under the impression that freedom comes first in our circumstances, and then we can experience love, joy, peace, patience, and all the other wonderful fruits of the Spirit. Not so. God usually begins first...
READ MORESome prayers just happen; they are “the Cry of the Heart.” No training is needed when it comes to this kind of prayer. I’ve uttered it thousands of times; I’m confident you have too. Like when the phone rings and the bad news starts to spill and...
READ MOREWe were meant to remember together, in community. We need to tell our stories to others and to hear their stories told. We need to help each other with the interpretation of the Larger Story and our own. Our regular times of coming together to...
READ MOREOf course, small groups have become a part of the programming most churches offer their people. For the most part, they are disappointing and short-lived — by the very admission of those who try them. There are two reasons. One, you can't just...
READ MOREWho then is the one who condemns?
No one. Christ Jesus who died—
more than that, who was raised to life—
is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. (Rom. 8:34)
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READ MORE“Life,” as a popular saying goes, “is not a dress rehearsal. Live it to the fullest.” What a setup for a loss of heart. No one gets all he desires; no one even comes close. If this is it, we are lost. But what if life is a dress rehearsal? What...
READ MOREWhen the curtain goes up on the story of humanity, we see God in a flurry of breathtaking, dramatic actions that we rather blandly call “creation.” Remember, we’re looking for the motives of his heart. Why is he doing all this? We know he already...
READ MOREI am deep in the jungle of the assault, and the only verse I can even remember to hang on to is, “Count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Romans 6:11). I repeat it to myself. Over and over. It gives me strength to fight...
READ MOREI shudder at how easily my heart can be divided. I do love God, I really do. I know you do too. The double-mindedness is revealed when we only sort of want God. Our longing for life to be good again becomes the test we hold up against...
READ MOREThe family is … like a little kingdom, and, like most other little kingdoms, is generally in a state of something resembling anarchy.
Chesterton could have been talking about a little fellowship (our true family, because it is the...
READ MOREAbiding in the love of God is our only hope, the only true home for our hearts. It's not that we mentally acknowledge that God loves us. It's that we let our hearts come home to him, and stay in his love. MacDonald says it this way:
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