Early in my faith walk I was swimming in hubris and self-directed captaincy that commandeered my trust and ran away from God. But I still wanted HIS PROMISES to become manifest in my life. All of them. Promises for protection, forgiveness, help, and wisdom to name but a few. I thought a quick prayer here and there would activate those promises and their many cousins, even though I was trusting ME...

People on every corner of the planet have been hunting forever for inner peace. It has always failed because they were looking for the wrong thing. The futility of this search came alive in the 1970s when the Eagles shared their view of a “peaceful, easy feeling” through this lyric: I got a peaceful easy feeling ‘cause I’m already standin’ on the ground.    Finding GOD’S PEACE...

We live in a world full of CONDITIONS. Relational conditions. Employment conditions. Behavioral conditions. There are conditions built into everything in this life on planet earth that usually take one of two forms: 1) Go ahead, BUT remember that . . . ; and 2) I will do this , IF you . . .    With that pervasive backdrop, it’s no wonder Christians struggle with UNCONDITIONALITY in general...

It’s time to go straight to one of God’s most powerful promises: SAFETY & PROTECTION when we are in trouble and need help; when we are sad and feeling hopeless; and when we are wracked with fear and need assurance that it’s going to be ok.    “For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless.” Psalm...

There are days when I need to be “stopped in my tracks” by God. Days when I need to inhale his love and grace so deeply that the borders of my soul are invaded. Days when I need a PROMISE to hang onto through life’s stubborn slipstream and agonizing anguish. Today is one of those days for me, and my prayer is that God’s PERSONAL promise to ME will be loaded into your life now so it’s ready for the...

Every part of our faith is anchored to Jesus and what he did for us on the Cross. To what he does for us in this life through his love and grace. To all of his PROMISES that ring loudly throughout the Bible. And since we are drilling down into those PROMISES this month, I want to illuminate what I see as the ANCHOR PROMISE (Romans 8:32) that undergirds all others. Doing that will get us moving toward...

Welcome to July and a new theme for the month: “KNOWING WHAT GOD PROMISES.” Studying this topic has made an incredibly strong impact on my faith and continues to animate my walk with Jesus. Like the previous themes we’ve covered so far this year—Release Control; Reject the World; Recognize our Inadequacy; Believe with a CAPITAL B; Doing over Being; and Spiritual Maturity–this one has the “CHANGE-YOUR-LIFE”...

Here we are at the final gate of our month-long trek toward understanding God’s IMPERATIVE for spiritual growth. We’ve noted the critical importance of God’s PRUNING in our level of spiritual maturity and how we can view it as a GIFT that draws us closer to Christ. An appropriate end to that start is considering the role of our CIRCUMSTANCES in the spiritual growth process.    Early in my...

We know that God’s PRUNING is an imperative in our life-long, never-ending journey toward SPIRITUAL MATURITY. But considering it a GIFT is a bit much, don’t you think?    That’s exactly what I thought early in my faith walk when the goal was to avoid God’s pruning at any cost or, if that didn’t work, endure it quickly with the least amount of pain.    But that all changed when...

This truth makes every believer cringe, at least a little: God’s PRUNING is an imperative in our life-long, never-ending journey toward SPIRITUAL MATURITY. Ouch.    “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.”...