Therapeutic forgiveness is more the feeling of forgiving someone. You forgive them in your heart or in your mind. It becomes “an emotion rather than a transaction or commitment between two parties.” For me, I don’t believe the therapeutic forgiveness is absolutely wrong. I just believe it is incomplete. But when it becomes what we primarily mean... Continue Reading

The United States is not the Roman Empire. The lives of Christians in the United States are vastly different than those of Christians in the Roman world. There is, however, something we can learn from these forebears in the faith: our government is not our God. Don’t forget this on Wednesday. Don’t be too elated... Continue Reading

Let’s ask ourselves then, am I meaningfully involved in my church community? Or have I replaced actual community with the false sense of community that I’ve found elsewhere. There are plenty of helpful things being said online, but the church is where the living and loving is actually happening. Get in there and love the... Continue Reading

“It’s difficult to imagine the loss of what we cannot see. Abortion silently, persistently, unrelentingly, continues to take away generations from all of us. There simply aren’t tears enough to satisfy the mourning that would take place if we had eyes to see those who are missing from our lives.”   In 1947, on a... Continue Reading

“True love waits? Ok. But more than that, true love serves (1 John 4:10-11; Luke 10:27). Sexual sin uses others. So instead of asking students to delay gratification until a far-off wedding day, which may or may not be in the cosmic cards, why don’t we help them discover how to counteract the inward, self-exalting... Continue Reading

So what do you do when you find yourself in a place you don’t love? I have this conversation a lot with people in my church that come here through the military, or through federal jobs, or for med school. Maybe you live where you live not because you chose it but because your job... Continue Reading

If you’re anything like me, though, repenting is the LAST thing you want to do. Not only is it embarrassing when you act like a spoiled child TO your spoiled child, but usually, said child is in the middle of sinning against you when you sin against him/her. So even if you feel a little... Continue Reading

I still have a heart for those who hold down two jobs – sometimes both of them approaching full-time. Additionally, I think more pastors are going to have to consider bi-vocational ministry in the years ahead as economies change and the level of committed givers in the local church. (A great book on this change... Continue Reading

Somewhere along this year I’ve had my head down so far I could only see the strewn failures behind me, there is nothing I can do to make any of this year make sense or be made right. I feel shame about marriage, my body, my fear of violence, our loss of financial security, our... Continue Reading

To the extent that Hatmaker has helped promote and grow this sort of syncretist Christianity she should be criticized, but this problem is far older than Hatmaker and is something that Hatmaker inherited from other older Christians. So criticism that singles out Hatmaker is misguided; Hatmaker is one part of a much larger sub-culture of... Continue Reading