I recently met a ten-year-old boy by the name of Joshua. His mother explained that Joshua’s father was no longer a part of the boy’s life. I squatted down eye level with Joshua and I asked, “Do you know the story of your namesake?” He nodded. “You will...
15 October, 2019“His powerful Word is sharp as a surgeon’s scalpel, cutting through everything, whether doubt or defense, laying us open to listen and obey. Nothing and no one is impervious to God’s Word. We can’t get away from it—no matter what” (Hebrews 4:12–1...
14 October, 2019Not only did Jesus not make it to the deathbed of Lazarus, he didn’t make it to the burial. He was four days late. Martha was forthright. “Lord, if only you had been here my brother would not have died” (John 11:21). Martha was to Jesus what your hurting fri...
13 October, 2019Brian Reed served in a military unit in Baghdad, Iraq, in the fall of 2003. He and his unit went on regular street patrols to protect neighborhoods and build peace. It was often a thankless, fruitless assignment. Brian said his unit battled low morale daily. An exception came in th...
10 October, 2019The catchphrase “hate the sin and love the sinner” fits nicely on a bumper sticker, but how do we embed the principle in our hearts? Maybe these ideas will help. Reserve judgment. Let every person you meet be a new person in your mind. None of this labeling or preconcei...
09 October, 2019How does Jesus receive us? I know how he treated me. I was a twenty-year-old troublemaker on a downhill path. Though I’d made a commitment to Christ a decade earlier, you wouldn’t have known it by the way I lived. Finally I came to Jesus, and he welcomed me back. ...
08 October, 2019Matthew was an apostle, a gospel writer. But before he was Matthew he was Levi, a Jew who worked for the Roman IRS. As long as Rome got its part, the tax collectors could take as much as they wanted. They got rich by making people poor. One of the most difficult relationship ...
07 October, 2019A gesture of forgiveness. A moment of kindness. The first is stirring hearts. The second is stirring controversy. Amber Guyger had just been convicted of murdering Botham Jean. She shot him on the evening of September 6, 2018. He was in his apartment. She was ending a shift on the Dallas Police forc...
07 October, 2019In the hallway of my memory hangs a photograph. It’s a picture of two people— a man and a woman in the seventh decade of life. The man lies in a hospital bed in the living room, not in a hospital room. His body, for all practical purposes, is useless. Muscles have...
06 October, 2019“And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave— just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:27–28). Jesus came to serve. Suppose you took that role. Be the family member who...
03 October, 2019