One morning I awoke at 5:00 am from two upsetting dreams. In both cases the person that I was helping angrily interrupted me to say that I was being unloving. I couldn’t get back to sleep. I remembered the story I heard Dr. Jim Wilder tell the day before at his “Heart and Soul” conference…
Are you like the sinful woman crying at Jesus’s feet, clinging to him for mercy? Am I? Do we know how desperate we are for Jesus? Do we abandon propriety to love our Lord with great affection? Or maybe we’re more like Simon the Pharisee? He was a religious man, very proper and careful to…
“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John 1:14). Last night some dear friends took Kristi and I to a Christmas concert with Michael W. Smith and the Pacific Symphony Orchestra. We were so excited to hear our favorite musician sing! But out of about twenty songs he performed from the piano…
Conflict. It’s inevitable in marriage and our other close relationships. When you love someone you’ll have misunderstandings, disagreements, and hurt feelings in that relationship. This is true for all kinds of people, including pastors and other Christian leaders and caregivers. As it relates to conflict the mistake that we’re most prone to make is to…
Most days we find ourselves up close to someone we’d rather not deal with. (And often it’s a family member or friend!) Perhaps the person is critical of you or angry. Or he or she is in a bad mood and keeps complaining. Or maybe it’s someone who is emotionally needy and seems to suck…
A young man named Johnny had Downs Syndrome and worked as a grocery store bagger. He didn’t feel that he had much to offer other people – till he was inspired to go beyond bagging customer’s groceries. His story shows us the surprising way that the kingdom of God works. Each day Johnny prepared and…
If you were asked, “What is love?” How would you answer? Most people define love by expressions of care or generosity, which are essential to love. Or worse, we define love by having desire or emotion. Very few of us would define love as the Apostle Paul did, beginning by saying: “Love is patient…” (1…
Advent means “come.” At Christmastime we celebrate the miracle birth of “Immanuel,” God come to be with us. Jesus Christ was born to the virgin Mary to show us God in human flesh – this is God’s greatest dream and humankind’s greatest longing! God wants to birth a dream through you too! Mary is our example.…
There are 56 One Anothers in the New Testament of the Bible. Each expresses a different aspect of Jesus’ command to “love one another.” They especially refer to how believers in the Body of Christ are to treat one another, but they also can be applied to other people under the second half of Jesus’…
To meditate on God’s Word is to be like a cow chewing it’s cud. As it lays in the field and as it stands or walks about it chews its cud. The cow savors the grass in its mouth before filling its stomach. Then it sits down in the meadow and quietly regurgitates it, re-working it…