God could never forgive my past and I’m certainly no theologian. Deep down I’m just no good…God can’t use ME. Have you ever had thoughts like those?    I certainly have, and they produced a painful cycle of despair where I felt inadequate in God’s eyes. I felt guilty, too, because I hadn’t prayed. I hadn’t read the Bible. I hadn’t “been good.” Those crazy thoughts led me to figure, “God...

It happened at a barbeque on one of southern California’s magnificent beaches when a dear friend of mine who tells VERY LONG stories launched into another tale. As he started, I said: “Strap on your seatbelts and get ready for a long ride.” Everyone, including my friend, roared in loud and hearty laughter. No problem at this point.    But when he answered a question with one word—“No”—I...

Everyone is chasing SOMETHING. You, me, your pastor, your best friend…everyone. This is not only about chasing money, possessions or success like I did early in my faith walk. Our “chase” in life can be focused on anything that has us choosing the happy path over the holy path.    From the garden forward, we have grappled with what we think is a choice between happy and holy. It’s not that...

I woke up this morning with a deep sense of peace as another day emerged from a charcoal sky still lit by the night’s magnificent super moon. I ambled into my quiet time with an extra bounce and a simple thought: GOD PROTECTS ME. Still unsure why that thought slid into my consciousness, I nonetheless embraced its power to thwart the worry that would surely visit me at some point this day.    When...

Early in my faith walk the VOICE VILLAIN in my ear convinced me that I could never be like the “GOOD CHRISTIANS” perched on a pedestal in my mind. I was comparing myself to a fake standard!    The ONLY outcome from that comparison is to come up SHORT and think…Why would God have a plan to use me with all my weakness and pain? Why would God want to use my failures, imperfections, and inadequacies?    The...

Has your faith tank ever gone empty? Is it empty today? Any chance of it happening in the future? When the needle on my faith tank edges toward empty, I ask for God’s mighty intervention to help me weaken the spiritual opposition in my life. And after nearly 20 years of living with an inactive faith, I finally “got it” by seeking a truth to believe…a prayer to pray…or something to thank God for in...

Staying connected with God creates a spiritual rhythm that gives us his divine direction and establishes momentum for our walk with Christ. The immediate benefit?    We are in a position to respond when God creates opportunities to model Christ for others that walk across the cinema of our mind.     It makes sense. God’s world is naturally rhythmic and driven by cycles in...

As the curtains open to another one of God’s magnificent days on this brisk Southern California dawn, I’m spread out with my laptop perched on two scarred and no longer sturdy knees wondering what happened yesterday when doubt and fear invaded my space and crashed my party. It’s hard to shake the memory of those angst-fueled thoughts bouncing off the walls of my restive mind like an obnoxious machine...

As the curtains open to another one of God’s magnificent days on this brisk Southern California dawn, I’m spread out with my laptop perched on two scarred and no longer sturdy knees wondering what happened yesterday when doubt and fear invaded my space and crashed my party. It’s hard to shake the memory of those angst-fueled thoughts bouncing off the walls of my restive mind like an obnoxious machine...

The despair that comes with comparing almost always goes unnoticed because we have become proficient at covering it up with our faces and facades. Diversions and denials. Strivings and success. People around us don’t know that a volcano is about to encase our soul in its molten coffin. And they certainly don’t know that we have lost touch with God. That was me early in my faith walk hiding behind...