Daily Reading
August 31, 2026
You are not your sin; sin is no longer the truest thing about the man who has come into union with Jesus. Your heart is good. "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you" (Ezek. 36:26). The Big Lie in the church today is that you are not...
Daily Reading
August 30, 2026
Prayer sets up a terrible dilemma for us. We want to pray; it’s in our nature. We desperately want to believe that God will come through for us. But then ... he doesn’t seem to, and where does that leave us? I believe God is in the dilemma; I belie...
Daily Reading
August 29, 2026
Twice, in the famous chapter of Romans 7, where Paul presents a first-person angst about our battle against sin, he says, "But this is not my true nature. This is not my heart." As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but sin living in me. I k...
Daily Reading
August 28, 2026
Jesus is a fierce, intentional man to be sure. But his passions are neither reckless nor momentary. Could a small, unintimidating figure accomplish such a sustained riot? To pull off driving “all of them out of the temple” would require more than a ...
Daily Reading
August 27, 2026
When Neo is set free from the Matrix, he joins the crew of the Nebuchadnezzar — the little hovercraft that is the headquarters and ship of the small fellowship called to set the captives free. There are nine of them in all, each a character in his ow...
Daily Reading
August 26, 2026
“Love your neighbor as yourself,” Jesus taught (Mark 12:31), implying a direct link between one and the other. Loving our neighbor is clearly an essential to Christian faith; I think we all get that one. But the qualifier “as yourself” is lost upon m...
Daily Reading
August 25, 2026
Every woman is in some way searching for or running from her beauty and every man is looking for or avoiding his strength. Why? In some deep place within, we remember what we were made to be, we carry with us the memory of gods, image-bearers walking...
Daily Reading
August 24, 2026
The longing for things to be good again is one of the deepest yearnings of the human heart. It has slumbered in the depths of our souls ever since we lost our true home. For our hearts remember Eden. Most of the time this beautiful, powerful longing...
Daily Reading
August 23, 2026
The constant push in Western Christianity to “make it practical” betrays our favorite apostasy—it exposes how utterly fixated on the present moment we really are. Yes, we need to embody God’s love in the world today. The human race is not well; thi...
Daily Reading
August 22, 2026
Human beings need oxygen in order to live. Lots of it. So our loving God provided us a world completely engulfed in oxygen; we swim in life-giving air like fish swim in water. Put your arm out — it’s surrounded with oxygen. Look down at your feet — t...
Daily Reading
August 21, 2026
In this world where we find ourselves living, having joy often feels both crazy and out of reach. To have joy in the midst of sorrow — or the current news feed — can seem impossible. And all on our own, it is impossible. But just as the angel Gabri...
Daily Reading
August 20, 2026
On the day Adam and Eve fell from grace, they ran off and hid in the bushes. And God came looking for them. He called to Adam, "Where are you?" (Gen. 3:9). Thus began the long and painful story of God's pursuit of mankind. Though we betrayed him and ...
Daily Reading
August 19, 2026
Yes, dear friends, we are already God's children, and we can't even imagine what we will be like when Christ returns. But we do know that when he comes we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is. (1 John 3:2 NLT) We have an expression ...
Daily Reading
August 18, 2026
But there’s something deeper that calls to me, something richer I have tasted which compels me to let go of the life I keep rebuilding in order to learn how to love. I want God. Can you name a better reason? There is simply no other fountain of l...
Daily Reading
August 17, 2026
One of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, so he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, she brought an alab...
Daily Reading
August 16, 2026
What do all the great stories and myths tell us? What do they have in common? What are they trying to get across? Wherever they may come from, whatever their shape might be, they nearly always speak to us Three Eternal Truths. First, these stories ar...
Daily Reading
August 15, 2026
The book “Killing Lions” is a conversation between John and Sam Eldredge about the trials young men face. [John] You have entered the Warrior Stage of a young man’s life. Young men have been at the center of most of history’s revolutions. Deep ...
Daily Reading
August 14, 2026
The loss of personality confounds our imitation of Christ. What happens is, our particular brand of church seizes upon one or two of his virtues as the essence of Christ for us to follow. Justice. Mercy. Righteousness. Whatever. You cannot live a lif...
Daily Reading
August 13, 2026
There is an overlooked passage late in the New Testament that is going to begin to connect some dots for us in a wild way. It comes from the book of James, and he brings us back around to the old man, Elijah, praying on the mountain: “The prayer of a...
Daily Reading
August 12, 2026
How quickly do betrayal and slavery fall upon Joseph after his father gives him the coat of many colors, the symbol of his delight. We don’t know exactly how much time has passed, but those events are told in the same chapter in Genesis, barely verse...
Daily Reading
August 11, 2026
There is nothing like stepping out your door into a bright and beckoning world. This is why people vacation in beautiful places. It is also the secret to the stories you love — that magical moment when the hero or heroine steps into a "brave new worl...
Daily Reading
August 10, 2026
Let’s name the “levels” of our being: You have fleeting thoughts throughout the day, most of which are insignificant. You also have longings, hopes, and dreams that are far more important. Deep within you, you have experienced the cry for love, hope,...
Daily Reading
August 9, 2026
In order to learn who we really are, we must have a place in our lives where we are removed from the materialism, entertainment, diversion, and busyness that the Vanity Fair of our society and culture immerse us in. The things sold at the booths in t...
Daily Reading
August 8, 2026
Be very careful how you interpret “unanswered prayer.” Our hearts are so vulnerable in these moments. It’s just too easy to lose heart. The conclusions come rushing in — God isn’t listening; he doesn’t care; I’m not faithful enough; prayer doesn’t re...
Daily Reading
August 7, 2026
You shall know them, Jesus said, by their fruit. The principle holds true for anything in life. It is especially helpful in diagnosing what the enemy might be up to. What is the fruit of what you’re experiencing? What is its effect? If it continues...
Daily Reading
August 6, 2026
We’re going to want our souls strong and ready for the days ahead, filled with God, not fried and empty. So we must practice soul care. I’m not suggesting you go on a witch hunt for every neglected place in your soul. There’s way too much loss in the...
Daily Reading
August 5, 2026
It seems that much of what Christians believe they are called to these days is a cluster of activities that include regular church attendance, Bible study, prayer, giving, concern for justice, and attending the annual men or women’s retreat. Now — wh...
Daily Reading
August 4, 2026
If you want to get to know someone, you need to know their story. Their life is a story. It, too, has a past and a future. It, too, unfolds in a series of scenes over the course of time. Why is Grandfather so silent? Why does he drink too much? Well,...
Daily Reading
August 3, 2026
We are now in the late stages of the long and vicious war against the human heart. I know — it sounds overly dramatic. I almost didn't use the term "war" at all, for fear of being dismissed at this point as one more in the group of "Chicken Littles,"...
Daily Reading
August 2, 2026
If the way to avoid the murderous rage and deceptive allures of desire is to kill it, if deadness is next to godliness, then Jesus had to be the deadest person ever. But he is called the living God. "It is a dreadful thing," the writer of Hebrews say...