in Prayer, Walking With God
Overcome Distractions
“But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you” (Matthew 6:6). Among the...
Pastor Gene
in Prayer, Walking With God
A Closed Mouth and a Silent Heart
“My heart became hot within me. As I mused, the fire burned; then I spoke with my tongue” (Psalm 39:3). Prayer among evangelical Christians is always in danger of degenerating into a glorified gold rush....
in Advent, Encouragement, Hope, Inspiration, Walking With God
Hope is Waiting, Confidently
The Hebrew and Greek words that underlie the English word hope in our Bibles combine two important ideas: waiting and confidence. Biblical hope, as has been said many times, is more than a wish for...
in Advent, Encouragement, Hope, Inspiration, Walking With God
When God Makes Everything Right
Dream with me. Dream of the day when God will make everything right. Isaiah 9 looks forward to the true Christmas day, the day the Savior of the world would be born in Bethlehem. He...
in Advent, Encouragement, Hope, Inspiration, Walking With God
A Lamp Lit
Tertullian was an early Christian apologist who lived in ancient Carthage, what is now Tunisia. Mary and I spent a few weeks in Tunisia a while back taking in the history and beauty of this...
in Advent, Encouragement, Hope, Inspiration, Walking With God
Sisyphus and the One Name
I can think of no darker words than these two: no hope. Craig Biehl called them the two unbearable words. He writes: “Two small words. When heard on the battlefield, in the hospital waiting room,...
in Advent, Encouragement, Inspiration, Peace, Walking With God
Peace & Violence
True peace can never exist where violence is present. Like the word ‘peace’ itself, the word ‘violence’ is also multidimensional. When a nation’s safety is threatened by some rogue regime, it’s often left with no...
in Advent, Encouragement, Inspiration, Peace, Walking With God
Peace Work
Biblical peace is not only the absence of bad; it’s also the presence of good. It means more than just ‘not’ fighting with my neighbor, but its actively working for his good. John the Baptist...
in Advent, Encouragement, Inspiration, Peace, Walking With God
A Mind Stayed – Apprehending the Shalom of God
Peace is, I think, the most elusive of all the things we desire and pursue. Some of the wisest men in the world can’t capture it. The richest among us can’t buy it. The worries...
in Advent, Encouragement, Inspiration, Peace, Walking With God
Approaching Bethlehem, Yawning
In the introduction to his Advent devotional, Come, Let Us Adore Him, Paul David Tripp illustrates how familiarity leaves us underwhelmed by the Christmas story. He asks us to imagine that we’ve moved into a...