Articles
Love Languages Strengthen Relationships
Love Languages Go Beyond a Single Expression of Love The 5 Love Languages explains how everyone has a primary love language, one that resonates most deeply. But it’s rarely the only way that person feels loved. A secondary love language can be incredibly important,...
God’s Impartial Love Reveals Our True Identity
Impartial Love Shapes How We See Humanity From the start, God welcomed humanity . . . This is life in the ancient Near East: Families rise in their stone homes, greeted by the melodic chanting of voices as the light of dawn breaks over the horizon. Grand temples and...
Unshakable Faith in a Culture of Compromise
When Truth Gets Twisted: How Secular Culture Is Rewriting Christianity from Within “My dear Wormwood, I note with grave displeasure that your patient has become a Christian . . . There is no need to despair; hundreds of these adult converts have been reclaimed after a...
Deep Conversations Build Meaningful Relationships
Deep Conversations Create Authentic Connection “Friends, do I have permission to go deep with you?” This is how I start many of my keynote talks, because I’ve learned over time that if you give people a choice to go somewhere meaningful with you, most will. Most...
Why Every Christian Needs a Rule of Life
A Rule of Life Helps Christians Grow Intentionally Last spring, my kids and I planted a garden. We’re novice gardeners, but we like getting our hands dirty and we aspire to eat more vegetables. So, in great hope, we planted lettuce, kale, squash, and a variety of...
Let Go of Control and Trust God’s Timing
Why Christians Must Let Go of Control The stars are always brighter when you drive up into the Rocky Mountains. But one night during the first week of my final year in college, I didn’t make the drive joyfully. I was frustrated. I was an intern at a ministry called...
Songs of Exodus and the Christian Pilgrimage
Songs of Exodus Remind Us We Are Pilgrims Seventh grade is rough. If you know someone who absolutely loved seventh grade, you also know a lot of people who don’t like that person. You are fully aware of yourself and your place in the social order. You know exactly...
Mature Leaders Are Disciples First
Leadership Requires Maturity in Christian Leadership We are in desperate need of leaders who are maturing. We are in desperate need of leaders who are even more fruitful. But what does being fruitful as a leader mean? Leadership Requires Maturity Beyond Church Growth...
Christian Hospitality Matters in Everyday Life
Christian Hospitality Means Welcoming People Into Real Life There’s a scene at the beginning of The Hobbit where a group of dwarves overruns the home of the protagonist hobbit, Bilbo Baggins. Bilbo had sort of reluctantly—and mistakenly—invited the wizard, Gandalf, to...
Studying Scripture Together
Studying Scripture Together Through Biblical Culture Biblical Culture Shock and the Importance of Studying Scripture in Community (1232 words) When I attended seminary, I was given a wonderful opportunity to visit Israel. This life-changing experience impacted me on...
Understanding Church Unity in Christ Through Creation
If you’ve observed a tight-knit flock of birds racing overhead and asked yourself, “How come they don’t hit each other?” or “Which one’s in charge anyway?” you’re not alone in your questions. How do birds coordinate themselves into a united, tightly choreographed...
Understanding Your Child of God Identity
See what great love the Father has given us that we should be called God’s children—and we are! 1 John 3:1, csb I Am Actually His Child I want you to respond to some questions today’s verse that I think will help you understand who God is and who you are. Go ahead and...
Dream Again in Faith Even in Difficult Seasons
No matter how bad things get, you’ve got to keep dreaming. There’s something powerful about writing goals down. It makes them feel permanent, which can be a little scary— but I think that’s the point. Writing it down means you have to hold yourself accountable to...
Heal Spiritual Trauma and Begin Restoring Faith
Beginning to Heal after Spiritual Trauma Ella quit praying and reading her Bible. She’d lost her sense of having a deep and personal relationship with God, and terms such as submission, godly wife, and duties left her feeling bitter toward the church. For years, her...
Biblical View of Work and Our Identity as Royalty
Kings and Queens From the beginning of the story, God has been looking for partners. The imagery of humanity’s relationship to God is not of puppets on a string, with God up in heaven playing around. Rather, it’s of partners, God’s representatives on earth, kings and...
Easy Bible Study Method for Overwhelmed Believers
Have you ever felt so overwhelmed and exhausted that you couldn’t catch your breath? That was me in college. I was knee-deep academically, working toward my undergrad degree in biblical studies at the Moody Bible Institute in downtown Chicago. I was also on a “hamster...
Biblical Knowledge Attention Spans
Biblical Knowledge Attention Spans in a Distracted Age I was a pastor for a long time. Every week I went through the same cycle: Prep eagerly and earnestly, do my best in the pulpit, greet everyone after church, nap, and then immediately start thinking about next...
Living Lasts a Lifetime
I sat across from a young mom in a hipster coffee shop, the kind that serves deconstructed breakfast sandwiches in a bowl for around the price of the down payment of a tiny house. We went to the same church, and although we had known of each other for quite some time,...
Words Create Worlds
How Words Create Worlds Through God’s Design Words Create Worlds God spoke this world into existence. That’s how the Bible begins. God said, “Let there be light,” and BOOM! There was light, then water, land, animals, plants, and solar systems. From the sub-atomic to...
Your Life Is a Good News Story
Living as a Good News Story in God’s Narrative If we want to become more of who God made us to be—both individually and collectively—we don’t need another new strategy for discipleship, we need a whole new narrative. Or rather, we need to return to the Good News...
