Why Read the Bible?
Read the Bible with an open mind. Check your presuppositions at the door and let the Bible speak for itself.
Who’s My Neighbor?
I had loved and served those far away, yet I hadn’t even said hello to my actual neighbors.
When Words Hurt
Far too often, however, loving motives are absent in the pain we cause with our words, even in the best of marriages. Almost all marriages experi...
When Trust Is Lost - Hope and Healing from Sexual Abuse
Sexual abuse is much broader than forced, unforced, or simulated intercourse. It includes any physical contact such as touching, rubbing, or patt...
When We Just Can’t Stop - Overcoming Addiction
Why can’t we let our addictions go? In part, it’s because they promise to do things for us—things we’ve come to believe we can’t surviv...
When Power is Misused - Confronting Abuse
Turn on the local news or scroll through your favorite news app on your smart-phone. It doesn’t take long to find examples of masculine power t...
When God Says No: Broken Dreams to New Beginnings
I still remember the day Merryn and I decided to start a family. It was the year 2000. We’d been married for five years, were in a settled plac...
When Forgiveness Seems Impossible
Many people believe that forgiveness requires us to unconditionally release others from past wrongs. They assume that they have to forgive in ord...
Deceived by Disappointment
Over time, we notice that people are disappointed in us too—and we begin to feel disappointed in ourselves as well. We can’t shake that secre...
When a Spouse Is Unfaithful - Exposing and Healing an Affair
When a physical or emotional affair is exposed, both spouses must embark on a perilous journey. Trina’s journey began when she refused to suffe...
What Is Worship? Living in Response to God
Does anybody really know what worship is all about? Let’s explore what the Bible tells us about worship and what kind of worship God expects fr...
The Marks of Real Love
With a bold new look and sound, the Beatles stirred a whole generation to sing “all you need is love.” In a much publicized studio reunion, t...
Walking Free: Overcoming What Keeps Us from Jesus
In the Christian tradition, however, the seven deadly sins have played a more serious and practical role in identifying and warning against destr...
Walk with Me: Traveling with Jesus and Others on Life’s Road
Such experiences typically motivate one of three responses in us. We either avert our gaze from the tragedy; we look on in a prurient, unhealthy ...
A Story of a Life Led by the Spirit
In the days following the promise, everyone was a possible Messiah.
Understanding the Bible: The Wisdom Books
In the Bible, wisdom and righteousness go together. The wise person is a good person; the fool (the opposite of the wise) is an evil person. One ...
Understanding the Bible: The Poetic Books
Skim quickly through the Old Testament. Even without reading a word, you’ll be able to tell the difference between the poems and the stories. T...
Understanding the Bible: Reading the Gospels
We all love getting good news. Sometimes good news comes that only makes a good situation better. Sometimes we get good news that is what we have...
Understanding the Bible: The Letter to the Hebrews
The author writes out of concern that the readers are in danger of rejecting Christianity and returning to Judaism. He warns them of the devastat...
Unknown Caller: Recognizing Jesus and the Kingdom
The absence of predictive writing in the Bible is one of the things that implicitly asserts its unique origins. The style of these books varies d...
Timely Warnings: What Jesus Said About the End Times
Certainly signs that update distances to destinations would be important. Signs that inform you of available restaurant or fuel options would cat...
“This Trinity Thing”
the idea of a Trinity creates a substantial obstacle for the potential faith of others, and we’d really like to help them understand what we be...
The Race
The first year I ran, I hit every hurdle in my lane. It’s a quick way to get disqualified from a race if the judge decides you were trying to g...
The Point of It All – Why We Might Miss Jesus
When Jesus came to Earth the first time in the form of a baby, a lot of the religious experts missed him. These included many of the people who c...
