I was quick to pounce on his moral flaws and slow to recognize my own blind sin. But because he stayed faithful, by offering his body as a target but never as a weapon, he broke through my moral callu...
I have written about the toxic church I grew up in: a legalistic, angry, racist church in the South. I joke about being in recovery from that church, learning along the way that much presented as abso...
God welcomes home anyone who will have him and, in fact, has made the first move already.
God does not keep his people. He loves us, gives himself to us, and eagerly awaits our free response. God wants us to choose to love him freely, even when that choice involves pain, because we are com...
Don’t judge Christ by those of us who imperfectly bear his name.
Do you know the difference between an optimist and a pessimist? A pessimist says, ‘Oh dear, things can’t possibly get any worse.’ An optimist says, ‘Don’t be so sad. Things can always get worse.
Because of Jesus, I can never say about a person, She must be suffering because of some sin she committed; Jesus, who did not sin, also felt pain.
What a nation needs more than anything else is not a Christian ruler in the palace but a Christian prophet within earshot.
When we make condescending judgments, or proclaim lofty words that don’t translate into action, or simply speak without first listening, we fail to love — and thus deter a thirsty world from Living W...
To pray is to walk in the full light of God, and to say simply, without holding back, ‘I am human and you are God.
To judge God solely by the present world would be a tragic mistake. At one time, it may have been the best of all possible worlds, but surely it is not now. The Bible communicates no message with more...
The uncommitted share many of our core values, but if we do not live out those values in a compelling way, we will not awaken a thirst for their ultimate Source.
The redemptive way goes through pain, not around it.
The only hope for any of us, regardless of our particular sins, lies in a ruthless trust in a God who inexplicably loves sinners, including those who sin differently than we do.
The main purpose of prayer is not to make life easier, nor to gain magical powers, but to know God.
The atheistic philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche was once asked what made him so negative toward Christians. He replied, I would believe in their salvation if they looked a little more like people who ha...
Suffering can never ultimately be meaningless, because God has shared it.
Some people find no comfort in the prophets’ vision of a future world. The church has used that line for centuries to justify slavery, oppression, and all manner of injustice, they say. The criticism...
Pain allows us, the fortunate ones at least, to lead free and active lives. If you ever doubt that, visit a leprosarium and observe for yourself a world without pain.
Often a work of God comes with two edges, great joy and great pain, and in that matter-of-fact response Mary embraced both. She was the first person to accept Jesus on His own terms, regardless of the...