It was so embarrassing. I had a PhD in psychology but I was working as a security guard! While I was completing my degree, I had been building my psychotherapy practice, but when I was done with my schooling my client load dropped from fifteen clients a week down to three and new referrals were not coming…
As I prayed and pondered the beautiful life growing in my daughter’s womb so much began to well up in me! So many things I wanted to share about my Abba and his care for her! So I began to write Letters From Papa. The nurture and love of both of our parents set the…
What do you hate the most about yourself? What is the thing about you that most frustrates and embarrasses you? The thing you wish you could change but can’t? At Soul Shepherding we care for pastors and recently they’ve confessed: “My ambition is causing me to neglect my wife.” “We keep pumping up our successes…
Your fingerprint is unique to you — it’s a physical mark of your identity. What about your personal identity? What defines who you are? Imagine if the cross of Jesus Christ was the most dominant marking of your self-image? You’d know that you are so loved! You’d be so stable and confident! I show you…
The Psalmist prophesied, “[The Lord] raised up for his people a horn [the Christ], the praise of… the people close to his heart” (Psalm 148:14, NIV84). I read this and my heart melts within me… “The people close to his heart.” I am close to the Lord’s heart! In Christ God draws close to me,…
I often talk with pastors and other servants of the Lord who judge themselves harshly. I tell them, “Don’t feel bad. Feel sad.” God never wants you to linger with bad feelings about yourself — even if you sin. This may be a new thought for you. It may sound like I’m contradicting the teaching…
This Christmas season maybe you need to appreciate that God bestows his favor on you personally? Maybe you’ve been feeling discouraged or insignificant and need to lift up your head to Christ? I did. So God led me to meditate on the shepherd’s place in the Christmas story as it’s recorded in the Bible (Luke 2:8-20).…
In the darkness and torture of Good Friday’s crucifixion, if we look carefully we see the light of Jesus dying so gracefully. Jesus’ invisible source of love and life that overflowed to all, even his enemies, came from his being with the Father in the kingdom of God even as he hung on the cross.…
Some years ago Kristi and I walked the streets of ancient Ephesus in modern day Turkey. In the ancient past, people came from miles in all directions to bring offerings of worship to the temple of Artemis, a false god. (The temple is pictured above.) Others in Ephesus worshiped the emperor Nero. Many, like Demetrius…
Your identity, worth, meaning, and joy are in Christ alone – not in your performance or what people think of you. This is why the Apostle Paul urges us to place ourselves “in Christ” 110 times in his New Testament letters. In Christ. What does it mean to be in Christ? Simply put, it is to enter…