For anyone wanting to love well, learning to say ‘no’ to sexual urges is a must. Just as important, though, is learning to say ‘yes’. If you were to poll random people on the street what they think Christians believe about sex, I’d wager most people would begin with what they understand Christians are against. They’d bring up Christianity’s prohibition against sex before marriage, homosexual sex...
Are You Listening to Yourself?
You cannot be relationally healthy if you cannot listen. Where there is no listening, there is only isolation. This includes listening to ourselves. Where we cannot or do not listen to ourselves, we will not be able to bring ourselves to God or others for relationship. At best, we’ll only be able to bring a fraction of ourselves. Listening well to ourselves means first giving ourselves freedom to...
Graciously Real
Imagine you’re living in a town of people losing touch with reality. At first, someone calls you by the wrong name, but you think he may just be distracted. But then a neighbor begins calling herself and her kids by the wrong names. Another neighbor begins walking (with great difficulty) everywhere on his hands. And another begins speaking to everyone in a language that doesn’t exist. Reality is...
Thieves, a Review
This thought-provoking and powerful blog was posted a year ago today. To view the original post, and read the comments, click here. God knows life hurts sometimes. This is reality in a world that’s fallen. Jesus’ forewarning that “in this life you will have trouble” (John 16:33) was certainly about more than traffic jams and tax increases. It hurts when your marriage isn’t holding together, when...
When God is Silent, a Review
This thought-provoking and powerful blog was posted a year ago today. To view the original post, and read the comments, click here. Question for you: has your opinion of silence changed in this last year? One of the most difficult things for me in walking with God is His silence. I want to hear from Him more than I do. I want Him to speak into my loneliness, to reveal how best to parent through...
Temptation and Soul-Care, a Review
This thought-provoking and powerful blog was posted a year ago today. To view the original post, and read the comments, click here. Question for you: how are you caring for your soul these days? Underneath whatever persistent temptations you’re experiencing you have a God-given need for something—something good, clean, and life-giving. A friend of mine recently visited Haiti. One morning, he saw...