Wednesday's Word

Last week I wrote how many of us will feel confused and powerless for periods of our life. It’s the reality of living in a fallen world with broken people. These moments are painful, yet necessary and helpful. They expose our functional level of faith in God - our capacity to truly leave things up to him - and they provide us with an opportunity to mature in our faith. If we respond biblically during seasons when life makes little or no sense, we can experience spiritual blessing in... Read More

Are you living through a period of life when you don't understand what God is doing, and you can't seem to improve your situation, location, or relationships? Maybe you don't feel utterly helpless, but you feel something like this: Wanting to honor the Lord and do what he says is right, despite others doing what is wrong and thriving. Frustrated that life isn't going your way, and that what you desire is often a dream and rarely a reality. Confused at why God has... Read More

When you woke up this morning, what gave you hope? Maybe a better way of asking the same question is: When you woke up this morning, where did you look for security? For many well-intentioned followers of Jesus, we have mistakenly built our houses of hope on sinking sand. Without even knowing it, we load all our hope for life onto our spouse, children, career, house, retirement account, social status, or ministry calling. Now, there is nothing inherently wrong with appreciating people,... Read More

There are some blunt, tell-it-like-it-is passages in the Bible. One that comes to mind is 1 John 2:19 - "They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us." (ESV) This is not merely a historical recounting by John, but a warning for us today: We must resist defining Christianity as anything other than a deep devotion to Christ, the fruit of which is a lifestyle of daily worship of him and active service in his kingdom. We must... Read More

When was the last time you needed to use a flashlight? I'm guessing your answer will include some variation of "dark" or "darkness". As a sinner living with other sinners in a fallen world, you encounter darkness every day. While you may experience Instagram-worthy, sunny day picnic lunches, the reality is that life is more of a midnight walk through the woods. On any given day, you probably encounter more darkness than you do truth - both internally, and... Read More