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,...

It was difficult to see God’s hand working to fulfill his purpose in my life when my career as a CEO crashed into the rocks. The pain was excruciating. The humiliation piercing. The depression concussive. But I am certain that he used this trial to rerack my life and bring it into alignment with his purpose. In fact, I now know with 100% certainty that God built me and my life experiences with a purpose...

Hearing that God PROMISES to be with us in our risk-taking is confusing, if not crazy. But taking risks in this context has nothing to do with our man-made calculations on what to do or not do in life. Nothing to do with risky schemes and maneuvers. Here’s the right context:    The risk that God promises to help us with is forging through UNCERTAINTY. God PROMISES to get us through the uncertain...

HOPELESSNESS is a painful pit that can hijack our faith walk and leave us feeling trapped and helpless. Not only have I been in that pit before; I was stumbling around its edges THIS PAST WEEKEND. Perhaps you’ve been there, too.    hope·​less | Having no expectation of good or success; despairing; not susceptible to remedy; incapable of improvement.    The reason I characterize...

Repaying EVIL with GOOD is not a dance—It’s a DISCIPLINE that paints freedom on our soul when we respond with God’s GOODNESS and trust him to do the judging.    “Vengeance is Mine; I will repay, says the Lord.” Deuteronomy 32:35,41    Repaying evil with good is antithetical to the world’s PAYBACK CODE that seeks to avenge evil. But our goal is not to AVENGE evil. Our...