“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...
The book “Killing Lions” is a conversation between John and Sam Eldredge about the trials young men face.
[Sam] I hate money. But I like to eat. I want a cell phone so people can get in touch with me. I want to...
READ MORECaring for your heart is how you protect your relationship with God.
Now there’s a new thought. But isn’t our heart the new dwelling place of God? It is where we commune with him. It is where we hear his voice. Most of the folks I...
I’ve always wondered why Jesus, having healed someone, would immediately tell them to keep quiet about it. After giving two blind men perfect vision, “Jesus warned them sternly, ‘See that no one knows about this’” (Matt. 9:30). Warned them...
READ MOREWe need Jesus like we need oxygen. Like we need water. Like the branch needs the vine. Jesus is not merely a figure for devotions. He is the missing essence of your existence. Whether we know it or not, we are desperate for Jesus.
...
Our search for the Golden Moment is not a search in vain; not at all. We've only had the timing wrong. We do not know exactly how God will do it, but we do know this: the kingdom of God brings restoration. The only things destroyed are the things...
READ MOREWhat if? What if those deep desires in our hearts are telling us the truth, revealing to us the life we were meant to live? God gave us eyes so that we might see; he gave us ears that we might hear; he gave us wills that we might choose...
READ MOREWhen the young prophet Samuel heard the voice of God calling to him in the night, he had the counsel from his priestly mentor, Eli, to tell him how to respond. Even so, it took them three times to realize it was God calling. Rather than ignoring...
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