Prayer is such an intimate act, a place of vulnerability. It is, hopefully, when we are our least guarded, our most honest selves. And this is good, of course; this is as it ought to be. When we come to God, we certainly want to come as honestly...
READ MOREWhen 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...
READ MOREYears 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...
READ MOREOne 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...
READ MOREHow 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...
READ MOREPicture 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...
READ MOREThe 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;...
READ MOREThe 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...
READ MOREJesus 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...
READ MOREJesus 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...
READ MOREYour 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...
READ MORELife is not a list of propositions, it is a series of dramatic scenes. As Eugene Peterson said, “We live in narrative, we live in story. Existence has a story shape to it. We have a beginning and an end, we have a plot, we have characters.” Story...
READ MORERemember, when Jesus boiled his whole mission down to healing the brokenhearted and setting prisoners free from darkness, he was referring to all of us. Our modern, scientific, Enlightenment worldview has simply removed spiritual warfare...
READ MOREStasi Eldredge's book "Free to Be Me" helps teen girls become the young women God created them to be.
Your beauty is under siege. It is being harassed and taunted and mocked because it matters. You matter. The...
READ MOREWhen God begins to shine his light on some issue in my life, be it internal or some issue taking place around me, I often have a hunch where things might be leading. You know what I mean — I see Christians do this all the time. We get a glimpse...
READ MOREOur beloved family dog is dying. But I’m not going to drag you through that tragedy; I want to share something gracious I’m learning through it.
Only yesterday our vet told us that our sweet golden retriever is very ill, and tonight we’re...
READ MOREThink of consecration as “aligning” and “enforcing” — aligning yourself, or the subject in question, with Jesus and all the laws of his kingdom, then enforcing his rule and those laws over the matter in question. The first steps, which...
READ MOREJesus 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: “...
READ MORECompare the shriveled life held up as a model of Christian maturity with the life revealed in the book of Psalms:
You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right...
READ MORESome years into our spiritual journey, after the waves of anticipation that mark the beginning of any pilgrimage have begun to ebb into life's middle years of service and busyness, a voice speaks to us in the midst of all we are doing. There...
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