Because Jesus drank from the cup of suffering and wrath, that cup became the cup of salvation. The cup of suffering became the cup of joy. Turns out, it’s the same cup.
Hebrews 12 says that it was for the joy that was set before Him that...
READ MOREOnce upon a time the earth was whole and beautiful, shimmering like an emerald, filled with glory, bursting with anticipation. Such wonders waiting to be unveiled, such adventures waiting to be ours. Creation was like a fairy tale, a...
READ MOREPeter was one of Jesus' closest friends, one of only three that were invited into his innermost circle. In Gethsemane, at his hour of greatest need, Jesus again took Peter aside, poured his heart out to him; he looked to Peter for strength. Three...
READ MOREFaith looks back and draws courage; hope looks ahead and keeps desire alive. And meantime? In the meantime we need one more item for our journey. To appreciate what it may be, we have to step back and ask, what is all this for? The resurrection...
READ MOREBefore we go any farther in our search, I need to make the offer of Christianity clear: There is a way to be good again. The hope of Christianity is that we get to live life like Jesus. That beautiful goodness can be ours. He can heal what has...
READ MOREI'm simply sitting on my back porch. Warm summer evening, cool breeze, beautiful sky now turning that deep navy blue just before dark.
That's when the carnival started.
Some agitated place in me started clamoring for relief. Even...
READ MOREToday's Daily Reading is an excerpt from Morgan Snyder's book Becoming a King
Since the beginning of time, every age has faced unprecedented battles. Today’s Western world lives and breathes a gospel of now. Instant...
READ MOREOh that I once past changing were
Fast in thy paradise, where no flower can wither.
(George Herbert)
I think of the woman I helped in the grocery store last week. She was only in her thirties, I’m guessing,...
READ MOREAfter Jesus and his disciples arrived in Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma tax came to Peter and asked, “Doesn’t your teacher pay the temple tax?” “Yes, he does,” he replied. When Peter came into the house, Jesus was the first to speak...
READ MOREAnyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! (2 Corinthians 5:17 NLT)
We haven’t yet seen anyone in their true glory. Including you. Yes, Mozart wrote symphonies as a...
I drove you in disgrace from the mount of God,
and I expelled you, O guardian cherub,
from among the fiery stones. (Ezekiel 28:16)
So evil entered the Story.
I am staggered by the level of naïveté that most...
READ MOREJesus’ freedom is a difficult thing to teach on for many reasons; let me name two. First, there are certain types who will hear this and find it an excuse to live as they please. Many characters in our irreverent age “don’t care what others think...
READ MOREBy “mystery” we don’t mean “forever beyond your knowing,” but “something to be explored.”
“It is the glory of God to conceal a matter,” says the book of Proverbs, “to search out a matter is the glory of kings” (25:2). God yearns to be...
READ MOREThe new covenant has two parts to it: "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh" (Ezek. 36:26). God removed your old heart when he circumcised your heart; he...
READ MOREThe book “Killing Lions” is a conversation between John and Sam Eldredge about the trials young men face.
[John] Sam, What have you been learning as you pursue your dreams, especially as it relates to...
READ MOREThe human heart has an infinite capacity for happiness and an unending need for love, because it is created for an infinite God who is unending love. The desperate turn is when we bring the aching abyss of our hearts to one another with the hope...
READ MOREMaybe it would be better to turn our search to the headwaters, to that mighty root from which these branches grow. Who is this One we allegedly come from, whose image every man bears? What is he like? In a man's search for his strength, telling...
READ MOREGod promises every man futility and failure; he guarantees every woman relational heartache and loneliness. We spend most of our waking hours attempting to end-run the curse. We will fight this truth with all we've got. Sure,...
READ MOREThis motive — reverence for God — is a slippery one. This lets in a great deal of the clutter that gets between us and God, because it seems like the proper thing to do.
“Papa, I come to you this morning” has a totally different feel than...
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