Allow me to put my student ministry hat back on, a hat I wore for 28+ years. I want to make an appeal to you: Invest your life in a teenager. One secular study found a common trait among students w…
We all know that good health is essential to a long life. We heard it when we were kids. Eat your vegetables. Go outside and play. Ride your bike. Be active. Even as adults, our doctors tell us the…
Mentoring is a word more associated with the workplace than the church, but I’d like us to consider the significance and impact mentoring can have in the life of the church. If mentoring is one per…
A few months ago, a good friend mentioned a book that he had read years ago that had been quite impactful. My ears perked up because I’m always on a quest for a good read. (Several years ago, I sor…
Situated in Northern Italy, the city of Cremona is approximately 27 square miles with a population of around 72,000 people. While Rome, Florence, and Venice top most people’s Italian destination go…
Despair is running rampant in our society. A feeling of hopelessness grips many, leading to what has been called “an epidemic of self-harm.” There has been a sharp rise in emergency room visits by …
We admit humor can exist in an insult. But something else dwells in the heart of an insult—something detrimental to our spiritual lives: a critical spirit.
This is a personal note to a woman I know who feels she has been a lousy mother. For those times when you feel you blew it with your kids—yelled at them, didn’t listen, accidentally played fa…
What we think is true can be just as powerful as what actually is true. Just ask Hitler. The First US Army Group played a pivotal role in the D-Day Invasion—and it wasn’t even real. The Nazis…
Go ahead and buy your mother (or wife) flowers for Mother’s Day. Help the kids make her breakfast. Give her a gushy card. She deserves it. After all, she’s a great mom who loves her chi…
History can change on the smallest of events. So can our lives. Many historians believe the outcome of the Civil War would have been different if it not been for the smallest of events—an accident.…
SUBMIT! That seems like such a harsh word. It surely is a harsh word for those who’ve been forced to submit in an abusive, forceful, or oppressive way. I grieve for them because submission is actually a beautiful concept when it’s used and followed as God intended.
Satan comes at us with a cheap imitation of the abundance we already have in Christ. All Satan wants us to do is forego all this “dying to self” talk (Luke 9:23-24). Satan wants to offer us a quick and easy way to the good life, but he doesn’t tell us the full price. It’s a cheap imitation, it’s far more costly, and it won’t last.
Most Christians treat Sunday as the day of worship, but the Bible never makes that designation. The Bible calls for a day of rest—a Sabbath rest—a day set aside from work, but we’ve never told to reserve that day for worship. Only rest. There is a day designated for worship and it is called today. Every day. Every moment of every day.
A lot of people—both inside and outside the church—take comfort in knowing they have a guardian angel watching over them. Nice thought, isn’t it—but is it true? Do we each have our own guardian ang…
There’s no denying I have failed. But each one of those failures is also a display of God’s grace. I’ve come to Christ with my sins and failures, sought His forgiveness, and He gladly offered it—purely out of love and grace. So, when Satan tries to be a docent and give me a tour of my failures, I just remind him—and myself—of God’s amazing grace.
News flash: We live in a world of instant gratification. You can place an order with Amazon and have it the next day—and in some cases, the same day. The Disney parks offer the Disney Genie+ progra…
Bigfoot is the silliest idea ever. It boggles my mind that people actually believe in Bigfoot. Some people feel the same way about Jesus. It’s unclear when the idea of Bigfoot really took off in th…
We’ve made a national pastime out of blaming others for our woes. It’s the number one sport in America. Instead of throwing a football or baseball, we’re throwing responsibility for the mess we’re …
I’m thankful for the advances we’ve made in science. I love using a computer with a connection to this whole world-wide-web thingy. I love so much of the progress in technology, but we will never progress past our need for Jesus. And if I want to be more than smart—if I want to be wise—I need to start with Him.