Daily Reading
April 21, 2024
Peter 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 yea...
Daily Reading
April 20, 2024
Faith 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 of ou...
Daily Reading
April 19, 2024
Before we go any farther in our search, I need to make the offer of Christianity clear: There is a way to be good again. The hope of Christianity is that we get to live life like Jesus. That beautiful goodness can be ours. He can heal what has gone w...
Daily Reading
April 18, 2024
I'm simply sitting on my back porch. Warm summer evening, cool breeze, beautiful sky now turning that deep navy blue just before dark.That's when the carnival started.Some agitated place in me started clamoring for relief. Even though the evening was...
Daily Reading
April 17, 2024
Today's Daily Reading is an excerpt from Morgan Snyder's book Becoming a KingSince the beginning of time, every age has faced unprecedented battles. Today’s Western world lives and breathes a gospel of now. Instant gratification is the way of our cul...
Daily Reading
April 16, 2024
Oh that I once past changing wereFast in thy paradise, where no flower can wither.(George Herbert)I think of the woman I helped in the grocery store last week. She was only in her thirties, I’m guessing, but she was bent over in her wheelchair, tiny ...
Daily Reading
April 14, 2024
Anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! (2 Corinthians 5:17 NLT)We haven’t yet seen anyone in their true glory. Including you. Yes, Mozart wrote symphonies as a child, and Picasso could draw ...
Daily Reading
April 13, 2024
I drove you in disgrace from the mount of God, and I expelled you, O guardian cherub, from among the fiery stones. (Ezekiel 28:16)So evil entered the Story.I am staggered by the level of naïveté that most people live with regarding evil. They don't t...
Daily Reading
April 12, 2024
Jesus’ freedom is a difficult thing to teach on for many reasons; let me name two. First, there are certain types who will hear this and find it an excuse to live as they please. Many characters in our irreverent age “don’t care what others think.” T...
Daily Reading
April 11, 2024
By “mystery” we don’t mean “forever beyond your knowing,” but “something to be explored.”“It is the glory of God to conceal a matter,” says the book of Proverbs, “to search out a matter is the glory of kings” (25:2). God yearns to be known. But he wa...
Daily Reading
April 10, 2024
The new covenant has two parts to it: "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh" (Ezek. 36:26). God removed your old heart when he circumcised your heart; he giv...
Daily Reading
April 9, 2024
The book “Killing Lions” is a conversation between John and Sam Eldredge about the trials young men face. [John] Sam, What have you been learning as you pursue your dreams, especially as it relates to writing this book? Has it gone easily? What ha...
Daily Reading
April 8, 2024
The human heart has an infinite capacity for happiness and an unending need for love, because it is created for an infinite God who is unending love. The desperate turn is when we bring the aching abyss of our hearts to one another with the hope, the...
Daily Reading
April 7, 2024
Maybe it would be better to turn our search to the headwaters, to that mighty root from which these branches grow. Who is this One we allegedly come from, whose image every man bears? What is he like? In a man's search for his strength, telling him t...
Daily Reading
April 6, 2024
God promises every man futility and failure; he guarantees every woman relational heartache and loneliness. We spend most of our waking hours attempting to end-run the curse. We will fight this truth with all we've got. Sure, other people suffer defe...
Daily Reading
April 5, 2024
This motive — reverence for God — is a slippery one. This lets in a great deal of the clutter that gets between us and God, because it seems like the proper thing to do.“Papa, I come to you this morning” has a totally different feel than “Almighty Go...
Daily Reading
April 4, 2024
The point of the story of the prodigal is not primarily about the prodigal. It is about the father's heart. "But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around hi...
Daily Reading
April 3, 2024
O Living Flame of Love...How gently and how lovingly Thou wakest in my bosom, where alone thou secretly dwellest; And in Thy sweet breathing full of grace and glory how tenderly Thou fillest me with Thy love.These words, penned by St. John of the Cro...
Daily Reading
April 2, 2024
"I'm just a sinner, saved by grace." "I'm just clothes for God to put on." "There sure isn't any good thing in me." It's so common this mind-set, this idea that we are no-good wretches, ready to sin at a moment's notice, incapable of goodness, and ce...
Daily Reading
April 1, 2024
A story is only as good as its ending. Without a happy ending that draws us on in eager anticipation, our journey becomes a nightmare of endless struggle. Is this all there is? Is this as good as it gets? On a recent flight I was chatting with one of...
Daily Reading
March 31, 2024
Late resurrection Sunday, the two fellows from the Emmaus road come rushing back to town to tell the others they have seen Jesus alive. Let’s pick up the story there:While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to...
Daily Reading
March 30, 2024
Jesus’ silence before Pilate is stunning. The cynical little martinet dares to ask Jesus, “What is truth?” (John 18:38). Jesus doesn’t even bother answering. He just stares at Pilate, letting him make the next move. You know how the story goes — thou...
Daily Reading
March 28, 2024
There is only the kingdom, friends. Everything else will slip through your fingers, no matter how strong your grasp. Why do we fight this hope, keeping it at arm’s length? We nod in appreciation but ask it to stay outside our yard. It is as though so...
Daily Reading
March 27, 2024
Jesus said we must take up our cross and die to the supremacy of Self every single day, probably many times a day (see Matthew 10:38; 16:24; Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23; 14:27).We must crucify the exalted, offended Self, that’s clear. But what this looks li...
Daily Reading
March 26, 2024
If we choose the way of desire, our greatest enemy on the road ahead is not the Arrows, nor Satan, nor our false lovers. The most crippling thing that besets the pilgrim heart is simply forgetfulness, or more accurately, the failure to remember. You ...
Daily Reading
March 25, 2024
A personal walk with God comes to us through wisdom and revelation. You will soon discover that we need both.For a moment the King's grief and anger were so great that he could not speak. Then he said: "Come, friends. We must go up the river and find...
Daily Reading
March 24, 2024
The Religious Spirit has turned discipleship into a soul-killing exercise of principles. Most folks don’t even know they can walk with God, hear his voice. He’s stigmatized counseling as a profession for sick patients, and so the wounds of our hearts...
Daily Reading
March 23, 2024
The Search is for more of God in our lives as a growing, operational reality. There are a few critical things to believe in order to make this search go well. First off, we must be confident that God wants to give us more of himself. (Do you believe ...
Daily Reading
March 22, 2024
As our soul grows in the love of God and journeys forth toward him, our heart's capacities also grow and expand: "Thou shalt enlarge my heart" (Ps. 119:32 KJV). But the sword cuts both ways. While our heart grows in its capacity for pleasure, it grow...
Daily Reading
March 21, 2024
Because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ. (Ephesians 2:4–5)It’s important to grasp what’s taking place in the world, so you know how to live and how to respond. Hatred has become the new “spirit of the ag...