Daily Reading
May 5, 2025
I can be a very driven man; I set very high standards; I push myself hard. There are certain “rewards” that come along with this way of living: I get a lot done; I can be successful. But that drivenness that the world so often rewards is really quite...
Daily Reading
May 4, 2025
A judge in his sixties, a real southern gentleman with a pinstriped suit and an elegant manner of speech, pulled me aside during a conference. Quietly, almost apologetically, he spoke of his love for sailing, for the open sea, and how he and a buddy ...
Daily Reading
May 3, 2025
Reserves are replenished when there’s more coming in than there is going out.That’s how it works. That’s why people come back from their vacations feeling better, and why folks who have taken real time off, like a sabbatical, come back almost differe...
Daily Reading
May 2, 2025
Playful, cunning, generous, fierce — not one moment of it is contrived. Jesus never plays to the audience, never kowtows to the opposition, never takes his cues from the circus around him. He is simply being himself.The diversity of Jesus’ actions, t...
Daily Reading
May 1, 2025
I think it was Archibald Hart who pointed out that because we are so accustomed to moving pedal to the metal in our own world, the thing we overlook in the Gospels are all of the in-between times when Christ and his followers were walking from one to...
Daily Reading
April 30, 2025
How to pray for guidance. First off, do whatever you can to reduce the pressure. Pressure is a killer; it nearly always gets in the way of hearing from God. As best you can, lay down the pressure as you seek guidance. Drama never helps; stress never ...
Daily Reading
April 29, 2025
I love watching a herd of horses grazing in an open pasture, or running free across the wide, sage-covered plateaus in Montana. I love hiking in the high country when the wildflowers are blooming—the purple lupine and the Indian paintbrush when it’s ...
Daily Reading
April 28, 2025
Love God in your suffering. Stay with me now. Your heart is the greatest treasure you have. Without a heart it’s impossible to love, or receive love. Without a heart you can’t possibly dream, hope, laugh, find courage. Without a heart you will never ...
Daily Reading
April 27, 2025
However strong a castle may be, if a treacherous party resides inside (ready to betray at the first opportunity possible), the castle cannot be kept safe from the enemy. Traitors occupy our own hearts, ready to side with every temptation and to surre...
Daily Reading
April 26, 2025
But we are not like those who turn away from God to their own destruction. We are the faithful ones, whose souls will be saved. (Hebrews 10:39)I wonder—could our heightened state of longing for things to be good again be far more than a response to t...
Daily Reading
April 25, 2025
How would you score your soul these days:Are you happy most of the time? How often do you feel lighthearted? Are you excited about your future? Do you feel deeply loved? When was the last time you felt carefree?I know, it’s not even fair to ask. Our ...
Daily Reading
April 24, 2025
The thought of me being called out of hiding is unnerving. I don’t think I want to be seen. Many years ago, during my life in the theater, I received a standing ovation for anperformance. The audience was literally on its feet, cheering. What actor d...
Daily Reading
April 23, 2025
We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redem...
Daily Reading
April 22, 2025
I love feeling happy. Absolutely love it. Who doesn't? But my pursuit of it has sometimes gotten me into trouble. I'm pretty sure it's gotten you into trouble too.Sometimes I wonder if, in our mad pursuit of happiness, we run right past the joy that ...
Daily Reading
April 21, 2025
Our life of faith is uncertain, but we can be expectant of good. Because we belong to God, we can rest in knowing his promises to us are true and he is faithful. It’s not a question of if God is going to show up but how and when. It is not a question...
Daily Reading
April 20, 2025
Jesus Christ is the forerunner for the Great Renewal, “the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead” (Colossians 1:18). He died, as everyone has and will. But on the third day he was raised to life, leaving his grave clothes folded neatly in t...
Daily Reading
April 19, 2025
You were the model of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone adorned you: ruby, topaz and emerald, chrysolite, onyx and jasper, sapphire, turquoise and beryl. Your settings and moun...
Daily Reading
April 18, 2025
What can this incessant craving, and this impotence of attainment mean, unless there was once a happiness belonging to man, of which only the faintest traces remain, in that void which he attempts to fill with everything within his reach? But it is i...
Daily Reading
April 18, 2025
Most people assume that the Cross is the total work of Christ. The two go hand in hand in our minds — Jesus Christ and the Cross; the Cross and Jesus Christ. The Resurrection is impressive, but kind of ... an afterthought. It was needed, of course, t...
Daily Reading
April 17, 2025
Jesus enjoyed people. Not everyone does, you know. Many stories find him feasting with a rowdy crowd. He invited twelve men to spend day and night with him for three years. His longing for companionship intensifies to a crescendo in Gethsemane: “He t...
Daily Reading
April 16, 2025
When God creates Eve, he calls her an ezer kenegdo. “It is not good for the man to be alone, I shall make him [an ezer kenegdo]” (Genesis 2:18 Alter). Hebrew scholar Robert Alter, who has spent years translating the book of Genesis, says that this ph...
Daily Reading
April 15, 2025
Years in the Comfort Culture made us emotionally soft.If we don’t feel like doing something, we don’t do it.If we don’t feel like believing something, we don’t believe it.Folks like to call this authenticity, but it’s really just adolescence. Like a ...
Daily Reading
April 14, 2025
One last thought as we sweep away some of the clutter about holiness.I don’t remember the issue my friend and I were talking about — it had something to do with Christianity — but I do remember my friend’s response: “Gosh, I’m not really sure,” he sa...
Daily Reading
April 13, 2025
How does God shape our character? We hate the answer but we know it to be true: affliction. If you say that God does not intend to use affliction, then what in your mind does he then use? Joy does wonderful things for our souls—it soothes, and stren...
Daily Reading
April 12, 2025
Picture in your mind’s eye an image of a great warrior, a renowned champion, returning home from far-off lands. His fame has long preceded him, and now the reports of his feats are confirmed by the scars he bears, the remembrance of wounds more noble...
Daily Reading
April 11, 2025
The child-heart wants to know, “Will there be animals in heaven?” and the calloused grown-up heart dismisses the question as theologically unworthy. May I point out that the whole debate ends when you realize that heaven comes to earth; our home is r...
Daily Reading
April 10, 2025
The most dangerous man on earth is the man who has reckoned with his own death. "All men die; few men ever really live." Sure, you can create a safe life for yourself ... and end your days in a rest home babbling on about some forgotten misfortune. I...
Daily Reading
April 8, 2025
Jesus of Nazareth was sentenced to death by a vain puppet of the Roman government acting as district governor of Jerusalem. He was nailed to a cross by a handful of Roman soldiers who happened to be on duty, and left there to die. He died sometime ar...
Daily Reading
April 7, 2025
Your suffering is neither pointless nor isolated. Somehow, Jesus’ sufferings overflow into our lives; somehow ours are linked to his. This is a great honor. It grants our sorrows an incredible dignity; it invites us to know an intimacy and connection...
Daily Reading
April 6, 2025
Ignoring reality does not breed joy. Pretending that what is true does not exist is not holy defiance. The seeds of joy can only be firmly planted in the pungent soil of the here and now while at the same time being tethered to eternity. Joy is fully...