Daily Reading
July 27, 2026
Jesus’ movement will disrupt the Jewish system very, very profoundly. He is going to turn things upside down and inside out. The world will never be the same. Literally. But there is a precision to his every move.He will not be baited into their trap...
Daily Reading
July 26, 2026
The longing for things to be good again is making us vulnerable to all sorts of compromises. I can help you with this.First, let’s remove the shock and shame of those moments when hard-pressed you suddenly rages, binges, goes faithless, or simply sho...
Daily Reading
July 25, 2026
Sunlight on water.Songbirds in a forest.Desert sands under moonlight.Vineyards just before harvest. These all share something in common — they reflect the heart of a particular artist. They are his masterpieces, his expression and his gift to us. The...
Daily Reading
July 24, 2026
The fire will test the quality of each person’s work. If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. (1 Corinthians 3:13–14)You know your every sin is forgiven. So if you can remove all fear of exposure from your heart, and set i...
Daily Reading
July 23, 2026
We have lived for so long with a "propositional" approach to Christianity, we have nearly lost its true meaning. As Mary Stewart Van Leeuwen says, "Much of it hinges on your view of scripture. Are you playing proof-text poker with Genesis plus the Go...
Daily Reading
July 22, 2026
Whatever else it means to be human, we know beyond doubt that it means to be relational. Aren’t the greatest joys and memories of your life associated with family, friendship, or falling in love? Aren’t your deepest wounds somehow connected to someon...
Daily Reading
July 21, 2026
Dare we forget King David? Yes, his passions got him in a heap of trouble—and gave us our book of worship, the Psalms. Sure, Peter was a hotheaded disciple always quick with a reply. Remember in the Garden of Gethsemane—he's the one who lopped off th...
Daily Reading
July 20, 2026
Worry is only one of a hundred things that burden our souls. Genuine concern is just as dangerous, maybe more so because it’s grounded in something noble — your concerns for your aging parents, a sick friend, a people group, a cause crying out for ju...
Daily Reading
July 19, 2026
The poet Yeats wrote,If I make the lashes dark And the eyes more bright And the lips more scarlet, Or ask if all be right From mirror after mirror No vanity's displayed: I'm looking for the face I had Before the world was made. ("Before the World Was...
Daily Reading
July 18, 2026
God drops things in our laps at just the right time. He puts barriers in our paths that look like roadblocks but are really gifts in disguise, beckoning us to take a closer look at what’s going on inside of us. We can either step over them or choose ...
Daily Reading
July 17, 2026
For this people's heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them. (Matt. 13:1...
Daily Reading
July 16, 2026
One of the most crippling convictions held by believers today is the idea that everything that happens is the will of God. It is a poisonous belief that will destroy your confidence in God; you will end up believing terrible things about him. The new...
Daily Reading
July 15, 2026
"Don't be afraid of embracing the disappointment you feel, old or new. Don't be scared of the unreasonable joy either. They're the highway markers home."We snort with disdain at such quaint sentiments, and our choice made, strike off down the straigh...
Daily Reading
July 14, 2026
Something is happening to the human heart. You need to understand what it is if you would make sense of any of this. Human beings are by nature ravenous creatures; a famished craving haunts every one of us. We were created for utter happiness, joy, ...
Daily Reading
July 13, 2026
There is the joy of having someone save a place for us. We walk into a crowded room at church or at a dinner party and someone across the way waves us over, pointing to a chair he's held on to especially for us. For a moment we feel a sense of relief...
Daily Reading
July 12, 2026
Now — what is your part? What is your role in the Story? In truth, the only one who can tell you that is the Author. To find our lives, we must turn to Jesus. We must yield our all to him and ask him to restore us as his own. We ask his forgiveness f...
Daily Reading
July 11, 2026
The devil has more temptations than an actor has costumes for the stage. And one of his all-time favorite disguises is that of a lying spirit, to abuse your tender heart with the worst news he can deliver — that you do not really love Jesus Christ an...
Daily Reading
July 10, 2026
Aren't there times in your life that if you could, you would love to return to? I grew up in Los Angeles but spent my boyhood summers in Oregon where both my mother and father's parents lived. There was a beauty and innocence and excitement to those ...
Daily Reading
July 9, 2026
We human beings are made up of three interwoven parts. As Paul says, “May God himself ... sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess. 5:23). We are body, s...
Daily Reading
July 8, 2026
The book “Killing Lions” is a conversation between John and Sam Eldredge about the trials young men face. [John] The more you know yourself, the more this will prove an immensely helpful category. (And please, as Socrates urged, do not live an une...
Daily Reading
July 7, 2026
Athletes will tell you that working out is not the most important part of training. Recovery is. The number one cause of athletic injuries is the lack of recovery time between training sessions.Let me repeat this because it’s so counterintuitive — re...
Daily Reading
July 6, 2026
Watch Jesus with "the rich young ruler":"One thing you lack," he said. "Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." At this the man's face fell. He went away sad, because he had grea...
Daily Reading
July 5, 2026
Oh! Ephraim is my dear, dear son, my child in whom I take pleasure!Every time I mention his name,my heart bursts with longing for him!Everything in me cries out for him.Softly and tenderly I wait for him. (Jer. 31:20 The Message) Put your own name in...
Daily Reading
July 4, 2026
But far and above the most revealing aspect of anyone’s character is how he handles people. Friends, I hope you understand this — the way a person handles others is the acid test of his true nature. How is Jesus with people? What’s he like to be arou...
Daily Reading
July 3, 2026
We want to be as clear as possible what we mean by an “agreement.” Satan is a liar, “the father of lies” (John 8:44), so utterly convincing he deceived a glorious man and woman to betray God, whom they walked with every day. I think we tend to dismi...
Daily Reading
July 2, 2026
How have we learned Christ? It ought to be a startling thought, that we may have learned him wrong. That must be far worse than not to have learned him at all: his place is occupied by a false Christ, hard to exorcise! The point is, whether we have l...
Daily Reading
July 1, 2026
Adventure, with all its requisite danger and wildness, is a deeply spiritual longing written into the soul of man. The masculine heart needs a place where nothing is prefabricated, modular, nonfat, ziplock, franchised, on-line, microwavable. Where th...
Daily Reading
June 30, 2026
Until we come to terms with war as the context of our days, we will not understand life. We will misinterpret 90 percent of what is happening around us and to us. It will be very hard to believe that God’s intentions toward us are life abundant; it w...
Daily Reading
June 29, 2026
Something has crept into our assumptions about Jesus that makes it almost impossible to relate to him, not to mention love him. I say "crept" because it has not been a conscious decision; few of the things that shape our actual convictions are. I thi...
Daily Reading
June 28, 2026
Jesus says that as our Good Shepherd, he is leading us. What an encouraging thought. Jesus is leading you, and he is leading me. He is shepherding us. I can feel something in my heart loosening even now as I consider this. Okay. I don’t have to make ...