Daily Reading
December 5, 2023
Today’s Daily Reading is an excerpt from Morgan Snyder's book “Becoming a King” The narrow way is filled with story after story of God unearthing a man’s desire — and then hiding him. David was told he’d be king, then spent the next fourteen years h...
Daily Reading
December 4, 2023
The book “Killing Lions” is a conversation between John and Sam Eldredge about the trials young men face. [John] There are two basic approaches to college education. Plan A is merely “career grooming.” Choose the professional trajectory your li...
Daily Reading
December 3, 2023
Christ did not die for an idea. He died for a person, and that person is you. But there again, we have been led astray. Ask any number of people why Christ came, and you'll receive any number of answers, but rarely the real one. "He came to bring wor...
Daily Reading
December 2, 2023
"Somehow," notes Os Guinness, "we human beings are never happier than when we are expressing the deepest gifts that are truly us." Now, some children are gifted toward science, and others are born athletes. But whatever their specialty, all children...
Daily Reading
December 1, 2023
The coronation of Jesus. Perhaps the most joyful, certainly the most triumphant moment in history, second only to the resurrection. For now the glorious kingdom will come, the eternal summer romp of men and angels. His crowning ensures the triumph of...
Daily Reading
November 30, 2023
Rescuing the human heart is the hardest mission in the world. The dilemma of the Story is this: we don't know if we want to be rescued. We are so enamored with our small stories and our false gods, we are so bound up in our addictions and our self-c...
Daily Reading
November 28, 2023
Each person knows that now his body is the temple of God: "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?" (1 Cor. 6:19). Indeed it is. "Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temp...
Daily Reading
November 27, 2023
Most 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 times yo...
Daily Reading
November 26, 2023
You have a heart for redemption. Your kingdom heart longs for restoration and reconciliation, for justice, for the recovery of all that has been lost. What is the redemption that your heart longs for on a global level? What passions arouse your heart...
Daily Reading
November 25, 2023
Caring for our own hearts isn’t selfishness; it’s how we begin to love. Yes, we care for our hearts for the sake of others. Does that sound like a contradiction? Not at all. What will you bring to others if your heart is empty, dried up, pinned down...
Daily Reading
November 24, 2023
We need God to help us understand his Word. We can’t separate a walk with God from our reading of Scripture. The two go hand in hand. Like having a tour guide as you wander the halls of the Louvre. “If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I...
Daily Reading
November 23, 2023
I bought a new journal this week because my old one had filled up, and I had more time this morning than usual to linger with God before heading into the day. So I pour myself a cup of coffee, sit down on the couch, and pull out the journal. I always...
Daily Reading
November 22, 2023
In Romans 8, Paul says something outrageous. He says that all our sufferings are "not worth comparing" with the glory that will be revealed in us. The human race has seen an unspeakable amount of suffering. What can possibly make that seem like nothi...
Daily Reading
November 21, 2023
Now, rest is just one of the ways we receive the life of God. We stop, set all of our busyness down, and allow ourselves to be replenished. This is supposed to happen regularly. The original prescription was weekly. So why does rest feel like a luxur...
Daily Reading
November 20, 2023
The question lodged deep in our hearts, hidden from our conscious minds, is: "Do you care for me, God?" What's under that question? Blaise Pascal, in his Pensées, says, "The heart has its reasons which reason knows nothing of." What's under that qu...
Daily Reading
November 19, 2023
Our experience of Jesus is limited most often by the limits we put on him! A painful truth, but also a hopeful one. Perhaps we can take down some of those barriers. Most of the limits we put on Jesus happen unconsciously. Sometimes we place the lim...
Daily Reading
November 18, 2023
If we forget — no, when we forget — who God is, what He has done, and who we are in Him and to Him, we put ourselves in great peril. We cannot live well nor arrive at the end of our journey triumphant unless we remember. Yes, there are many things ...
Daily Reading
November 17, 2023
Life is now a battle and a journey. As Eugene Peterson reminds us, “We must fight the forces that oppose our becoming whole; we must find our way through difficult and unfamiliar territory to our true home.” It’s not that there aren’t joy and beauty,...
Daily Reading
November 16, 2023
When we forget (and oh, how we forget), our senses can trigger an awakening of remembrance and place, and suddenly we are back as though it were yesterday. Sense-memory is such an exquisite gift from God, especially our sense of smell; the olfactory ...
Daily Reading
November 15, 2023
Walking with God leads to receiving his intimate counsel, and counseling leads to deep restoration. As we learn to walk with God and hear his voice, he is able to bring up issues in our hearts that need speaking to. Some of those wounds were enough t...
Daily Reading
November 14, 2023
Today’s Daily Reading is an excerpt from Morgan Snyder's book “Becoming a King” For many years, we were like just about everybody else: unconsciously forsaking honest soul rest, always going, with overfilled calendars and little to show in the categ...
Daily Reading
November 13, 2023
Every era has its problems when it comes to knowing Jesus. One of ours is this: Having lost all confidence in the noble, the heroic, even the consistently good, we have come to celebrate the neurotic. Really. The heroes of our novels and movies are a...
Daily Reading
November 12, 2023
Your wounds brought messages with them. Lots of messages. Somehow they all usually land in the same place. They had a similar theme. “You’re worthless.” “You’re not a woman.” “You’re too much ... and not enough.” “You’re a disappointment.” “You are r...
Daily Reading
November 11, 2023
This stream of Counseling doesn't just flow to us directly from Christ, only from him; it flows through his people as well. We need others—and need them deeply. Yes, the Spirit was sent to be our Counselor. Yes, Jesus speaks to us personally. But oft...
Daily Reading
November 10, 2023
Remain 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 much fr...
Daily Reading
November 9, 2023
Who among us has not suffered betrayal at the hands of a trusted friend? Who among us has not shrunk away in response to being hurt? Which one of us has not been responsible for wounding another? We all have. We all have. We need Jesus. We need mer...
Daily Reading
November 8, 2023
If you have any doubts as to whether or not God loves wildness, spend a night in the woods ... alone. Take a walk out in a thunderstorm. Go for a swim with a pod of killer whales. Get a bull moose mad at you. Whose idea was this, anyway? The Great Ba...
Daily Reading
November 7, 2023
A Story. An Epic. Something hidden in the ancient past. Something dangerous now unfolding. Something waiting in the future for us to discover. Some crucial role for us to play. Christianity, in its true form, tells us that there is an Author and tha...
Daily Reading
November 6, 2023
What does it mean to be defiantly joyful in this moment when I am dwelling on the ancient path of shame and disappointment in myself? Those paths are made of quicksand. I need a Savior. I have one. My friend Lisa Beck says that God planned our...
Daily Reading
November 5, 2023
Now, I know my fellow evangelicals will rush to protest that it is the cross of Jesus Christ alone that opens the way to heaven for any person. No amount of personal righteousness could ever suffice. I believe this. It is grace alone — the unmerited ...