Waiting is a ferocious foe that induces fear. Waiting patiently is a herculean challenge that feeds fear. And waiting without being full of fear is impossible without God. Fear is a liar that empowers our enemy and wants to steal our ability to wait on God.    Realizing that we will never understand everything should bring us patience knowing that God will deal with the unknown and EVENTUALLY...

I love watching adventure documentaries on Netflix! The more risk and suspense, the better. I’m looking for energy. I’m looking for excitement. And, most of all, I’m looking for ADRENALINE and its immediate rush of spine-tingling exhilaration! But that is only part of the adrenaline story because in an instant, it scoots out of frame and is gone. Left behind is a gaping void where our insatiable appetite...

Early in my faith walk I had no idea there was danger lurking in MY mind. For me, danger was running across the street without looking both ways. Danger was touching raw chicken. Danger was going overboard into the stormy sea on a Caribbean cruise. Danger in my mind? That’s just silly.    I WAS WRONG.    Everything we allow into our life impacts how much we grow spiritually....

We can be deceived by the strong temptation to marry a small amount of God’s Word with our own understanding that “makes sense” (to us, at least.) That approach may technically sneak past being considered a denial of God, but it cannot escape being an unvarnished rejection of what God proclaimed and Jesus taught. When we lean on our own understanding, we are calling God a liar.    Living...

Our faith walk is much less demanding when we are living it out in front of others to see. Much less stressful when we join others at church on Sunday. And much less work when we are serving God’s Kingdom in front of a crowd. Those provocative thoughts ran through my mind like a flash flood last week when a friend was talking about his faith as if his “seen” behavior was somehow different than his...

There is so much pain in our world today that many people see no other option but to collect it like sports memorabilia or vintage Barbie dolls. The purpose of their pain-collecting hobby? ASSIGN BLAME! Here’s how it plays out… Pain collectors develop an internal narrative that plays continuously in the cinema of their mind. The script is predictable. Take a look at a few cuts: “Focus on how you...

The “truth is relative” aphorism is getting used so much today that people are starting to believe the lie. And that is very sad. Suffering from careless overuse, the term looks like stadium turf crying in pain after 50,000 raucous celebrants have danced to the ChainSmokers.    I know, it sounds hip to accept “relative truth” and announce to the politically-correct politburo that we are...

It was during my years as a striving-and-stressed CEO that the FEAR of keeping it all together—making payments on a mansion and sports car while fulfilling my role as husband and father—hit the critical danger level. If it was a James Bond movie the red lights on the control panel would be freaking out. It was then that I allowed God to break through and help me build a new attitude about fear.    The...

Tired and spent, 2018 just left town and paved the way for 2019 to appear on the scene with its fresh face. The time for reflecting on the past 12 months has vanished like a child’s balloon escaping into the hungry sky. With that, we can start considering what’s next for us on God’s road. You know by now I am not a fan of new year resolutions. The biggest stumbling block for me is how most of the...

As 2018 begins walking off stage, I am mindful of the fresh canvas God gives us for a new year brimming with its inspirational promises and powerful rush of glorious hope. That fresh canvas, peeking over the horizon right now, is the same offer of forgiveness and grace that God gives us every day. It’s God’s fresh canvas to be forgiven and look forward with bold, Christ-like confidence. It’s God’s...