April 25, 2023
0
0
0

God begins our courtship with a surprise. Taking the blindfold off, he turns us around and reveals his handmade wedding present. “Here,” he says. “It’s yours. Enjoy yourselves. Do you like it? Take it for a spin.” A lavish gift indeed. What’s he...

READ MORE
April 24, 2023
0
0
0

The thought of me being called out of hiding is unnerving. I don’t think I want to be seen. Many years ago, during my life in the theater, I received a standing ovation for anperformance. The audience was literally on its feet, cheering...

READ MORE
April 23, 2023
0
0
0

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons,...

READ MORE
April 22, 2023
0
0
0

I love feeling happy. Absolutely love it. Who doesn't? But my pursuit of it has sometimes gotten me into trouble. I'm pretty sure it's gotten you into trouble too.

Sometimes I wonder if, in our mad pursuit of happiness, we run right past...

READ MORE
April 21, 2023
0
0
0

Our life of faith is uncertain, but we can be expectant of good. Because we belong to God, we can rest in knowing his promises to us are true and he is faithful. It’s not a question of if God is going to show up but how and when. It is not a...

READ MORE
April 19, 2023
0
0
0

As one of my mentors put it, the interpretation you use to understand your reality and your role in it will be the single greatest force in shaping what becomes of your next decade. In the words of Dan Baker in What Happy People Know, “...

READ MORE
April 19, 2023
0
0
0

You were the model of perfection,
 full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.
 You were in Eden,
 the garden of God;
 every precious stone adorned you:
 ruby, topaz and emerald,
 chrysolite, onyx and jasper,
 ...

READ MORE
April 18, 2023
0
0
0

What can this incessant craving, and this impotence of attainment mean, unless there was once a happiness belonging to man, of which only the faintest traces remain, in that void which he attempts to fill with everything within his reach? But it...

READ MORE
April 17, 2023
0
0
0

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 MORE
April 16, 2023
0
0
0

When 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 MORE
April 15, 2023
0
0
0

Years 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 MORE
April 14, 2023
0
0
0

One 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 MORE
April 13, 2023
0
0
0

How 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 MORE
April 12, 2023
0
0
0

Picture 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 MORE
April 11, 2023
0
0
0

The 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 MORE
April 10, 2023
0
0
0

The 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 MORE
April 09, 2023
0
0
0

Jesus 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 MORE
April 08, 2023
0
0
0

Jesus 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 MORE
April 07, 2023
0
0
0

Your 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 MORE
April 06, 2023
0
0
0

Life 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 MORE

Pages

Popular Daily Readings