It is impossible to count the massive number of Christian messages built around the “CALM SEAS OF CHRIST” metaphor. And for good reason. It is a powerhouse life preserver for believers swimming against the current of life and battling the tide’s powerful undertow. Consider your trips across life’s calm, glass-like waters that were hijacked by a sudden storm. A storm joined by its thunder and lightning...

Would it surprise you to learn that a bloke named William Ockham of Surry England figured out in the 13th Century why Christians in the 21st Century would have trouble activating their faith? It’s true. Ockham developed a theory that would endure millennia.    Though the theory’s name has morphed through the years, it stands sturdy and strong today as OCCAM’S RAZOR: When you have two COMPETING...

We are living in a POST-CIVIL era. A time of tension and turmoil.  A time which defaults to conflict and confusion. A time where civility is gasping for air to stay alive. It is against that backdrop that we are watching the world grow more CYNICAL every day. Men and women. Old and young. Christians and non-believers.    cyn·i·cism:  an inclination to believe that people are motivated...

This just in from our global online tribe of 700,000 followers: You write a lot about activating my faith but why is it that no matter how hard I try nothing changes in how I feel and act? I think about this piercing and critically important question every day. Why, indeed, are millions of Christians around the world having trouble fully activating their faith?    If you are expecting a...

Very early in my faith walk I thought the TOWER OF BABEL was nothing more than a tale from long ago that was part of God’s grand introduction of the Old Testament in Genesis (11:1-9). Later I realized that the TOWER OF BABEL was a real story set in modern-day Iraq under Nebuchadnezzar’s rule. Rising out of the heart of Babylon, it would become the focus of God’s wrath and birth the world’s many languages....

America is about to celebrate its FREEDOM that we are certainly blessed to live out. That is the EXTERNAL version of life’s freedom and it is very important, of course. But it PALES IN COMPARISON to its much-less-known cousin–God’s INTERNAL freedom. There are millions of Christians around the world who know they have FREEDOM in Christ but leave most of it in the UNUSED section of their life....

I woke up this morning thinking about LOVE in a world that seems to be making a hard turn toward HATE. Without love and stirred to hate now more than ever before, the world has responded by “CHASING COMFORT” to escape life’s pain. Try to guess the top three items sold in American supermarkets during the peak pandemic weeks and then later during the world’s outcry after the senseless murder of George...

Have YOU ever hit ROCK BOTTOM? You know…the point where life cannot get worse. Nothing good left to lose. No depth lower to fall. Hitting ROCK BOTTOM is a wake-up call and strength-summoning moment to interrupt our life’s journey. An option to travel on a new road without the possibility of going back.    ROCK BOTTOM does not have to be a dramatic story of addiction, sex, drugs, rock-n-roll,...

This just in from our global online tribe: My prayers feel weak and it’s like God is not listening and that makes me pray less. Can you help me? Welcome!    You are now an official member of the prayer-is-tough club. All Christians pass through our group at one point or another. The good news is that most of them understand what makes prayer difficult and eventually learn how to get past...

My favorite version of the ROCK SOUP fable centers on a time when there was a great famine and a stranger came through a village looking for room and board. He was told about the famine and encouraged to keep moving. But he pushed back, saying, “I have everything to make ROCK SOUP for everyone.”    Wrestling a grit-encrusted black pot from his wagon, he quickly built a fire and started to...