I’ll never forget being in Israel and getting up before dawn one morning to sit on a rock beside the Sea of Galilee. As the waves gently lap at my feet I imagine Jesus calling the fishermen Peter, Andrew, James, and John at that very spot. “Come, follow me,” Jesus says, “and I will make you fishers of men…
Some Christians are afraid of seeking to use their imagination for personal or spiritual help because they associate it with Eastern religions, secular psychology, hypnosis, or “New Age” philosophy. But there is a Biblical meditation. God has created human beings with the ability to imagine and the Bible is full of positive images and pictures…
“I grew with parents who considered themselves too intellectual for Christianity,” Vicki Paxton shared with our Soul Shepherding TLC community of pastors and leaders. “They told me the Bible was outdated and irrelevant. It was full of silly stories about an angry god that wanted people to praise him all the time.” But everything changed…
When I knew Robert H. Schuller from afar I judged him negatively. I was writing a thesis paper on integrating Christian spirituality and psychology and I criticized the “Self-Esteem Theology” of the famous television preacher and author. A few months before I finished that paper and graduated from college I was shocked to learn on my…
Holy Week is a special opportunity to draw on Jesus’ empathy in new ways. You know that the last seven days of Christ’s life changed the world, but you may not have thought of them as filled with empathy for your pain and brokenness. Empathy is tuning into what someone else feels, validating the bigness of it,…
When you’re discouraged about your faults it can lead to shame. Instead look to Jesus’ hand of mercy. This excerpt from Francois Fenelon shows the way.
When I made a minor alteration on a marriage license I had to pay the price for second chances, but I didn’t let this judgment dampen the joy of our son’s wedding. Instead, I thanked God that Jesus paid he price for our sins!
I often write about devotion to God, not because I’m devoted to God, but because I desire to be more so! I long to long for God more than I do. And I want this for you too. Yearning for God is how we grow spiritually. Of course, our desire for God doesn’t start with…
One of the most important spiritual exercises we can do is confessing our sins to God. To confess sin is to speak the truth to God and others that we have missed the mark of loving God and our neighbor in particular instances and that this tendency lives in us. Sins like unkindness, selfish ambition,…
Yesterday on my Sabbath day I read a little book by the early 19th Century Scottish preacher Robert Murray McCheyne, The Deeper Life. He died at the young age of 29, but he brought many souls to Christ in his short life and his words continue do so nearly two centuries later. His simple reading…