The Beatles sang “All you need is love,” but there’s a lot more to it than that. Let’s just say it’s complicated. The problem? The world does not have a shared meaning for love. And since LOVE is the most powerful word in the Bible, that will be the theme for us this month. Come along with me and we’ll drill deep into the complex and captivating world of love—the world’s flawed counterfeit and God’s...

We’ve come to the end of our month-long journey into finding SOLITUDE with God!  And I want to leave you with my customized “QUIET TIME TEMPLATE” developed over the past 20 years while teaching the Spiritual Maturity Class 201 at Saddleback Church in Southern California. What follows is my BEST SUMMARY of the most important elements for a Christian’s daily quiet time with Jesus. WHY The most...

When I woke up this morning to a stunning, 360o view of the mountains just south of Yosemite National Park on America’s west coast, God pushed me to “seek perspective on my faith walk by looking down on your life periodically to see where you are and where I want you to go.”    It makes sense!    Right now I am looking down on a nearby town starting to stir and greet the new day....

I spent a couple of decades OVERTHINKING everything. Overthinking my career. Overthinking my personal life. And, yes, overthinking my faith walk with God. All three had negative consequences. Especially the first two that emerged in my quest for success and wealth. But the third one—overthinking my faith—KILLED the spontaneity in my entire life and erected a barrier between me and God. Put simply,...

God clearly calls Christians to pray over their meals. “When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them.” Luke 24:30 But he wants so much more from us when it comes to PRAYER. He wants us to be praying every day and, eventually, going into deep prayer on a regular basis while in SOLITUDE with him. This has always been a HUGE CHALLENGE for...

This just in from our global online tribe: “I want to spend time in solitude with God but my life has gotten far from him. I just don’t feel spiritually mature enough. And not good enough. What can I do to fix that?”    At one time or another, and to one degree or another, every Christian has this feeling of being separated from God. Of being inadequate. Of being alone.    That...

As a corporate CEO I have heard the expression “THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX” too many times to count. No offense intended here, but I have always thought it was a SILLY APHORISM because nobody really knows what box they occupy. Just ask someone, anyone, and watch them stammer. That’s why my personal approach has always been to create a NEW, FRESH box…FOR EVERYTHING. And that includes my quest to spend time...

Most people, at one time or another, want to snap their fingers and, instantaneously, BE. You know: BE accomplished and successful. BE happy and healthy. BE needed and loved. For Christians, we want to BE a mature and sanctified believer spending time every day in perfect SOLITUDE with God.    Many people long for this kind of bliss to be free from being pestered by the messy parts of life...

We know with 100% certainty that God wants us to spend time in SOLITUDE with him and understand that HE is the only source of our STRENGTH (Psalm 46:1). But doing that is very difficult, especially if we bring Pick-&-Choose Faith into that conversation.    I know this sounds clear on its face. After all, we know that the Bible—every single word and message in it—is inspired, inerrant,...

This morning greeted me with a rush of fresh thinking about something I rarely hear Christians discuss—Making a conscious effort to PROTECT our relationship with Jesus.    Most believers rightly focus on developing an intimate relationship with God. And we’ve been exploring all month how seeking SOLITUDE with God is the only way to fully activate our faith and build intimacy with Jesus....