The Lord loves an honest sinner, who now (down here in this life, in the church militant) becomes a sinner/saint. When the Prodigal Son was walking home, rehearsing his lines of repentance, the Exuberant Father was running out to welcome him.   Probably the hardest thing for us fallen sinners to do, is to be... Continue Reading

Wisdom begins when a person learns to pause and ask a better question than the crowd is asking. Instead of asking who should win the fight, the wiser question asks whether the fight should happen at all.   The entire sixth grade heard the announcement before I did. “After lunch tomorrow, James is going to... Continue Reading

If we don’t believe that prayer really matters or that God uses prayers as a means to bring about His purposes, then it’s unlikely we’ll pray. Daniel was a great prophet of God who depended upon prayer. But Jesus, the greater and final prophet, also depended upon prayer throughout His life and ministry.   When... Continue Reading

The Lord does not call you to pretend tomorrow is safe. He calls you to live as though He is faithful in every season of your life.   Coming out of a very painful winter season of unrelenting, intrusive, fearful thoughts, I recently made the mistake of oversharing some of my experience with someone who... Continue Reading

Trees bring life. Trees bring a curse. Trees provide protection and cleansing. Trees are where you meet with God. All of this is picked up in the New Testament assertion that Jesus died on a tree (Galatians 3).   The Bible is dominated by stories and symbols. Those symbols are embedded in story, they don’t... Continue Reading

Jesus, speaking of the rich young ruler to His disciples, tells us that when we care for the world, we won’t get the world. But if we pursue the Kingdom of God, we get the earth, too. Pursue the earth’s riches, and they die with you. Pursue Heaven’s Redeemer, and you get Him who died... Continue Reading

Truth gained by reason provides the substance and limitations for the imagination which works to give meaning to the appearances of life. Imagination’s creativity must give meaning to what is, which is to say, wherever imagination works creatively, it must give public meaning to reality.   Growing up in the 1950s in a rural village... Continue Reading

Jesus expected His followers to care for others, and to do what they could to help them. He did NOT expect them to remain callous, indifferent, and focused solely on themselves. Claiming that ‘I am not on anyone’s side—I am just on God’s side’ [doesn’t] cut it.   If there is one theme that arises... Continue Reading

What is the importance and relevance of blood/genetics in “the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, the house and family of God”—the church? The apostle Paul would say, in relative terms, none at all.…The blood that matters is that of Christ, and the soil that matters is that of the new heavens and the new... Continue Reading

“I’m living at the doorway of heaven….aware that any day could be my last. Joy is all around me. My heart overflows with gratitude for this joy. It has not diminished over time. It grows more radiant each and every day, with the promise of heaven set before me.”—John M. Perkins   I read a... Continue Reading