Daily Reading
February 26, 2023
Another way to begin to seize hope with a good, firm grip is to ask yourself, What have I done with my kingdom heart? Where am I currently taking it? You have a heart for joy — where is your hope for joy set right now? You have a heart for redemption...
Daily Reading
February 25, 2023
When our hopes are in their proper places, attached to the right things, not only do we flourish better as human beings, but we are rescued from a thousand heartbreaks. For not all hopes are created equal; there are casual hopes, precious hopes, and ...
Daily Reading
February 24, 2023
This may come as a surprise to you: Christianity is not an invitation to become a moral person. It is not a program for getting us in line or for reforming society. It has a powerful effect upon our lives, but when transformation comes, it is always ...
Daily Reading
February 23, 2023
Several years ago I went through one of the most painful trials of my professional life. The story involves a colleague whom I will call Dave, a man I hired and with whom I had labored several years in ministry. We spent many hours on the road togeth...
Daily Reading
February 21, 2023
The book "Killing Lions" is a conversation between John and Sam Eldredge about the trials young men face.[John] I was watching a remarkable documentary on the Dorobo hunters in southern Kenya. Their bows simply aren’t strong enough to bring down bi...
Daily Reading
February 20, 2023
The mind takes in and processes information. But it remains, for the most part, indifferent. It is your mind that tells you it is now 2:00 A.M. and your daughter has not returned, for the car is not in the driveway. Your heart wrestles with whether o...
Daily Reading
February 19, 2023
Talking about the Self Life is a difficult thing to do, because there are teachings that sound very righteous and holy, which basically say that anything connected to your humanity is the Self Life and must be crucified. Any desire, any dream, even y...
Daily Reading
February 18, 2023
And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they...
Daily Reading
February 17, 2023
Christ is not joking when he says that we shall inherit the kingdom prepared for us and we shall reign with him forever. We will take the position for which we have been uniquely made and will rule as he does — meaning, with creativity and power.The ...
Daily Reading
February 16, 2023
But doesn't Christianity condemn desire — the Puritans and all that? Not at all. Quite the contrary. Christianity takes desire seriously — far more seriously than the stoic or the mere hedonist. Christianity refuses to budge from the fact that man wa...
Daily Reading
February 14, 2023
It all begins with a couple. Not some hero standing alone against the rising tide of the world. A marriage. A man and a woman, given to one another at the dawn of time. The human race is about to enter into its great adventure and its great struggle....
Daily Reading
February 11, 2023
God is the source of all masculine power; God is also the fountain of all feminine allure. Come to think of it, he is the wellspring of everything that has ever romanced your heart. The thundering strength of a waterfall, the delicacy of a flower, th...
Daily Reading
February 10, 2023
Most Christians desire very deeply to be known as gracious, kind, patient, and forgiving. We feel we “owe” it to Jesus to be seen on our best behavior. This is even truer for those of us in “the ministry,” whose lives are publicly attached to Jesus. ...
Daily Reading
February 9, 2023
Too many men hide behind reason and logic. A man must grow beyond mere reason, or he will be stunted as a man, certainly as a lover. No woman wants to be analyzed, and many marriages fail because the man insists on treating her as a problem to be sol...
Daily Reading
February 8, 2023
I’m thinking about love this morning.I’ve been noticing that most mornings I don’t wake up super happy, and I’m not sure why. I’ve also been noticing for some time now that when I first wake up, I find myself racing through the coming day in my mind,...
Daily Reading
February 7, 2023
As we seek to convert our unconverted places, and take hold of the strength that prevails, we need to bodyguard our faith and our Eden hearts back to Jesus. We turn from all other comforters — even benign things like remodeling projects and vacations...
Daily Reading
February 6, 2023
This is why we accept the false reverence — it’s like having a relationship with someone out of state. It doesn’t intrude into your life like a spouse or a good friend does. There is safety in the distance. We secure ourselves against a fuller experi...
Daily Reading
February 5, 2023
There is something mythic in the way a man is with a woman. Our sexuality offers a parable of amazing depth when it comes to being masculine and feminine. The man comes to offer his strength and the woman invites the man into herself, an act that req...
Daily Reading
February 4, 2023
Then from on high — somewhere in the distance there's a voice that calls — remember who you are. If you lose yourself — your courage soon will follow. (Gavin Greenaway and Trevor Horn, Sound the Bugle)You are going to need your whole heart in all its...
Daily Reading
February 3, 2023
Allow me, then, to review what we have encountered. First, our lives are not a random series of events; they tell a Story that has meaning. We aren't in a movie we've arrived at twenty minutes late; we are in a Sacred Romance. There really is somethi...
Daily Reading
February 2, 2023
I don’t think we’ve admitted to ourselves just how much belief is a choice.Some mornings you wake and feel God is near; the day looks hopeful. Next morning God seems far; the day has no color to it. For years I wrote this experience off to the ins an...
Daily Reading
December 14, 2022
The right words at the right time can prove a valuable lifeline. We thought it would be helpful to spotlight some key conversations we've had on the Wild at Heart podcast. Whether for the first time or a second pass, we hope you savor these stories a...
Daily Reading
October 2, 2022
This is the point of encountering those things in your life you cannot handle — you are forced to turn to Christ. Did you really think you could be kind for the rest of your life without the inner help of Jesus? One day of kindness is a miracle. What...
Daily Reading
October 1, 2022
As I was praying about my disappointments the other day, I noticed something lingering beneath the surface. I realized that somewhere along the way, I’d come to an agreement of sorts — I need this. Not that I want it, and very much. But that I need i...
Daily Reading
September 30, 2022
The book of Hebrews describes the prayer life of Jesus in the following way: “While Jesus was here on earth, he offered prayers and pleadings, with a loud cry and tears, to the one who could deliver him” (5:7 NLT). That doesn’t sound like the way pra...
Daily Reading
September 29, 2022
I (John) just let out a deep sigh. That we even need to explain how beauty is so absolutely essential to God only shows how dull we have grown to him, to the world in which we live, and to Eve. Far too many years of our own spiritual lives were lived...
Daily Reading
September 28, 2022
Our false self demands a formula before he'll engage; he wants a guarantee of success; and mister, you aren't going to get one. So there comes a time in a man's life when he's got to break away from all that and head off into the unknown with God. Th...
Daily Reading
September 27, 2022
The religious technocrats of Jesus' day confronted him with what they believed were the standards of a life pleasing to God. The external life, they argued, the life of ought and duty and service, was what mattered. "You're dead wrong," Jesus said. "...
Daily Reading
September 26, 2022
Let's come back for a moment to original glory, the glory of God given to us when we were created in his image. So much light could be shed on our lives if we would explore what we were meant to be before things started going wrong. What was it that ...
Daily Reading
September 25, 2022
When Jesus had finished speaking, a Pharisee invited him to eat with him; so he went in and reclined at the table. But the Pharisee, noticing that Jesus did not first wash before the meal, was surprised. Then the Lord said to him, “Now then, you Phar...