My end-of-year review hunkered down pretty deep over the last few days as I pondered that nettlesome but critically-important question “what have you done with your salvation, Mark?” I ask this question a lot throughout the year, but camp out on it in December with an extra level of scrutiny. It’s a self-challenging process that starts at the very beginning with recognition that I have come to faith...

Early in my faith walk I wanted to visit Bali or Fiji or Tahiti and stay in one of those bungalows hovering above the ocean’s cobalt ink. I wanted to rest peacefully under the sparking glints of sunlight that would later be punctuated by a silver moon dangling from a string so close you could touch its rough skin. Okay, fair enough. But there was more to that picture than those alluring components.    The...

I was frozen in place with too many options. Too many unknowns. Too many chances to do nothing. It was earlier in my faith walk when I thought options and choices equaled FREEDOM. My calculus was simple: God allows multiple options in a believer’s life, right? Yes. Ok, so options must be good.    A few years down life’s road I realized that God often gives us a multiplicity of choices that...

Starting today Americans began reaching for their wallet to spend money on Christmas. By the end December, that spending will reach nearly ONE HALF TRILLION DOLLARS! And that’s just one part of what can only be described as a frenetic, 40-DAY NOISE WAR. But I do not want to argue any of that today. My goal here is to address the CANNIBALIZATION of our mind-share and heart-share that takes place between...

It is impossible for me to fully articulate the depth of my thankfulness today. But there is ONE THING that stands out beyond the TANGIBLE and deeply appreciated provisions I have received from God—and that is the bundle of less-visible INTANGIBLES. Like the way God lifted a bulging burden…soothed a pulsating pain…and healed a reeling relationship. Like the way he brought a man into my life who,...

It has been excruciating to watch the “Camp Fire” march through and consume the quaint mountain town of Paradise, California. That pain is palpable for me because the incredible beauty of Paradise was what enticed my wife Cindy and me to escape periodically from our college stress 25 minutes away in Chico. The horrific images passing in front of my eyes over the past couple of weeks have prompted...

Our lives are a composite picture of our decisions and choices—over 35,000 every day. In the next 20 years we will make over 2 MILLION of them! Many of these choices are INCONSEQUENTIAL. When to eat. What to watch. How to act. When to sleep. What to click.    But along the way we will make CONSEQUENTIAL decisions that anchor our life mosaic. Some will be life-changing in exhilaratingly positive...

Christians have been debating for a long time whether having a GOAL-DRIVEN PLAN is good or bad, right or wrong. On one side…    Those who argue that believers who have goals and plans are WRONG because it demonstrates a lack of trust in God and ignores the need to “wait on God.”    On the other side…    Those who insist that God WANTS us to set goals and establish plans....

Our culture today considers Godly KINDNESS to be synonymous with the world’s definition of being NICE. But that is, simply and soundly, WRONG. Believers who fall for this head fake are sure to compromise their faith. Godly kindness and being nice could not be more different. Biblical kindness supernaturally changes our hearts to express Christ-like love to others even if they don’t deserve that treatment.    One...

After all, being indifferent is showing a lack of interest or concern and looking at things as irrelevant through an apathetic lens, RIGHT? Yes, that is exactly what the dictionary will tell you. But there is an important, life-changing twist to this story…praying for spiritual indifference is ANOTHER MATTER!    Godly indifference is focused solely on being OPEN to God’s Will in a...