I bought a YELLOW CHAIR yesterday after pledging for over 30 years to never, ever make that purchase. You are no doubt wondering right now how buying a yellow chair could ever rise to being worthy of a blog? Let me explain.    The chair is for our house. But that’s NOT the story here.    This story is about how early in my faith walk I allowed an ugly YELLOW CHAIR to control my...

Things didn’t go according to plan yesterday and I landed in a deep pool of pain. My initial reaction was, mistakenly, to summon my own horsepower to counter the situation. But then the RIGHT RESPONSE popped up on my mind’s screen: Recognize my INADEQUACY without God and go to him IMMEDIATELY.    OK…so far, so good. But then I wondered: WHAT EXACTLY SHOULD I DO AND THINK?    Since...

Most of our fears are tangible and easily described. You know…heights, disease, oceans, flying, failure, death…to name but a few. But the sneakiest and most dangerous fear of all—for me–is RARELY discussed.    It’s this people-pleasing trap—FEAR OF MAN (FOM).    I wrote about this subject last year, but I did not hit it hard enough. Today, I will because this fear is stalking...

Christians should strive to give and take no offense, right? Of course. After all, we are to love one another (John 13:35). But there will be times—HOPEFULLY VERY FEW–when we must risk offending someone with our words. Wounding words. Hurtful words.    How can a Christian speak hurtful words? That’s wrong, right?    For the answer to that, we look to Jesus. In his last days...

You’ve no doubt experienced the humiliation of catching others trading hurtful glances and whispering something negative about you or someone you love. Uncomfortable at minimum and crushing on the other end, that scenario prompts me to ponder a couple of questions: How much gossiping do you suppose is going on in heaven right now? If gossip is ARROGANT and FOOLISH, why do believers so easily succumb...

This just in from our global online tribe: I thought my faith was strong, but the world seems to be rooting for me to slip or fall down. Am I alone in feeling this?    NO, you are not alone. The world IS rooting for you, me, and all Christians to fall down. It has become SPORT for people to cheer when a holy man or woman falls. They ignore sins of the wicked and, at the same time, magnify...

The globe is painted in the excruciating color of physical PAIN. We cannot miss it splashing and crashing across our TV every day, especially now as the war unleashes its rage and carnage in Ukraine. We see it in various forms on the internet. We see it on the faces of people everywhere as we take our stroll through life. And maybe we see it (and feel it) on and in our own body. I know I do, every...

This message starts by confronting the truth that we would rather not face REALITY. That’s why we are prone to customize our own version of REALITY and feed that back to ourselves through our daily SELF TALK. Our walk with Jesus can be derailed if we don’t interrupt this cycle of deception by REFRAMING our narrative.    I have been FRAMING thoughts for my entire adult life as a CEO, as a...

If you’re living on planet earth, you know about war. Pictures of the devastated landscape arrest your senses. Images of the conflict’s horror cling to the screen of your mind’s cinema. Feelings of unfathomable sadness squeeze your heart into an accelerated beat.    But this war in Ukraine is different, much different, at least for me.    There is a profound and lasting impact...

Watching a war on screens of all sizes is something the world has NEVER seen before and the images rolling out of Eastern Europe are truly horrific. I hate it…and I know you do, too. The atrocities in Ukraine are simply unfathomable and that’s why God has believers from every corner of the planet on their knees in prayer. I know that’s the case for me.    With WAR top of mind and resident...