Let me tell you, few things can mess you up as badly as trying to do your best. For the tender heart, the earnest heart, it is so discouraging to give all you have trying to do what you think Jesus would have you do, and find yourself falling...
READ MOREIt's undeniable: the new covenant, accomplished through the work of Christ, means that we have new hearts. Our hearts are good. Or God's a liar. Until we embrace that stunning truth, we will find it really hard to make decisions, because we can't...
READ MOREWe cannot know the plans of God for us beyond His promises that He is working for our good at all times. And often we are far from comfortable as we wait. But, just as David wrote in the psalm, we, too, can remember God’s great love and...
READ MOREHow do you understand your life? Why has it turned out so differently from what you imagined? What do you make of its randomness? The phone rings, and you have no idea what is coming. It could be great news! It could be an old friend getting back...
READ MOREStasi Eldredge's book "Free to Be Me" helps teen girls become the young women God created them to be.
There’s a reason they made a movie with the title Mean Girls. It’s because girls can be vicious. They...
READ MOREGod wants an intimate relationship with us. He is not a God who is far away; he is the God who has made us his dwelling place. We are the temple of the Lord. When by faith, we confess that Jesus is LORD, he comes and makes his home ...
READ MOREAt one point in the long, arduous campaign of delivering to Judah the bad news of coming judgment and futile calls for repentance, Jeremiah explodes with thoughts that have apparently been building in him for a while with regard to God's use of...
READ MOREThe crisis of hope that afflicts the church today is a crisis of imagination. Catholic philosopher Peter Kreeft writes: Medieval imagery (which is almost totally biblical imagery) of light, jewels, stars, candles, trumpets, and angels no...
READ MOREMothers bestow our self-worth, and they have the ability to withhold it. Intentionally, but more often unintentionally. A mother cannot pass on what she does not possess. And neither can we. Mothers have the ability to withhold acceptance, value...
READ MORE Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters ...
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,
and your soul will delight in the richest of fare. (Isa. 55:1– 2)
You have stolen my heart, my sister, my bride...
Suffering will try to separate you from Jesus. You must not let it.
The worst part of suffering is the damage it can do to your view of God, your relationship with him. Feelings of abandonment creep in: Why did he let this...
READ MOREIndeed, part of God's victory over the enemy of our souls, which we will be invited to take part in, will be an open mocking of Satan and his forces in view of all the peoples of the earth along with the angelic hosts. We are given a picture of...
READ MORENow—is Jesus more like Mother Teresa or William Wallace? The answer is ... it depends. If you're a leper, an outcast, a pariah of society whom no one has ever touched, if all you have ever longed for is just one kind word, then Christ is...
READ MOREMost people go through their entire lives without anyone, ever, speaking honest, loving, direct words to the most damaging issues in their lives. Pause for a moment, and count the times this has been done for you. Better, pause and count the...
READ MOREIf for all practical purposes we believe that this life is our best shot at happiness, if this is as good as it gets, we will live as desperate, demanding, and eventually despairing men and women. We will place on this world a burden it was never...
READ MOREBecause Jesus drank from the cup of suffering and wrath, that cup became the cup of salvation. The cup of suffering became the cup of joy. Turns out, it’s the same cup.
Hebrews 12 says that it was for the joy that was set before Him...
We talk, of course, but we’ve found that it’s best for a husband and wife not to take on the role of counselor. (We’ve both been to counseling in the past—once during the early years of our marriage, and then both of us separately around fourteen...
READ MOREPeter was one of Jesus' closest friends, one of only three that were invited into his innermost circle. In Gethsemane, at his hour of greatest need, Jesus again took Peter aside, poured his heart out to him; he looked to Peter for strength. Three...
READ MOREFaith looks back and draws courage; hope looks ahead and keeps desire alive. And meantime? In the meantime we need one more item for our journey. To appreciate what it may be, we have to step back and ask, what is all this for? The resurrection...
READ MORERemain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear...
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