People all over the world are on a frantic search for some “ALONE TIME” with themselves. They want to find a happiness lane that muffles the unwelcome noise ringing in their head and messing with their heart. They want to tame the tension that slices through their relationships like a chainsaw eating a tree. They want to escape the challenges (and pain) produced by those pesky “demons” called reality...

Seeking SOLITUDE with God is a spiritual imperative, right? Yep. But recognizing that truth is the easy part. Actually pulling it off is extremely difficult while we all swim in the world’s slipstream. So let’s bust through one of the biggest barriers between many Christians and finding SOLITUDE with God:    Looking at SOLITUDE with God as a destination in and of itself; instead of realizing...

The hot wind of July has flipped the calendar’s page to August and brought us a new topic to explore–SEEKING SOLITUDE WITH GOD. I begin this journey with much anticipation and high expectations for what God can do in our lives. IF, that is, we are not too DISTRACTED.    “And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and...

Everyone wants to experience the spine-tingling and euphoric RAIN OF JOY in their life. Sounds easy, right? So what’s the problem? Why does the world seem, largely, joyless and incapable of finding its elusive destination? And why in the world do so many Christians struggle mightily to understand the meaning of joy and search unsuccessfully for the pathway to its well of wonder?    The answers...

We’re about to wrap this month’s dig into GOD’S PROMISES and I want to include a message that has a profound and deeply emotional meaning to ME personally. It’s God’s FREEDOM PROMISE and it dramatically and forever changed my faith walk. Re-racked my identity in Christ. Transformed my life on earth. And yes, it ended with a tattoo.    It all started when I was in the throes of a personal...

This just in from our global tribe of 1.4 Million online followers: I am confused by the “payment to God” we are to make in Psalm 116. I thought Christ died for our sins and we can never repay that debt.    The writer of Psalms 116 does ask the question of repayment:    “What shall I return to the Lord for all his goodness to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on...

I woke up today with a piercing pain that rattled my bones and disturbed the beat of my heart. It sent my whirling thoughts on a frantic ride searching for a way to address the agony. It sent me scurrying to find relief for the agonizing realization that there are millions of Christians on this planet who have heard and believed this LIE: “God would NEVER listen to MY prayers.”    Most of...

Early in my faith walk I was driving in Northern California’s beautiful mountain country alongside a roaring and magnificent river that had towering trees hugging the river’s edge and shooting toward the heavens. They were lush, verdant, and shimmering with each glint of sunlight that landed on their broad shoulders. As the road began to veer away from the life-giving water, the landscape began a...

There is a PROMISE from God that, early in my own faith walk, I flat-out IGNORED. It is a PROMISE unlike any other because its DEEP CANYON creates a forever-endless and always-beckoning heaven, EVERYWHERE…for you and me and all believers.  Here it is:    “I will be their God.” Jeremiah 32:38    No matter what happens in our life, we will NEVER, EVER reach the bottom...

An electrified current of tension can be seen from any vantage point on planet earth—any day, any time. That tension is the world’s backdrop and its soundtrack for the ebbing and flowing rhythms of life. Birth and death and everything in between.    Not realizing that we DO have a say on how much tension we allow into our life will, over time, DESENSITIZE us to its presence. If that happens,...