Joy does not simply happen to us. We have to choose joy and keep choosing it every day. —Henri J. M. Nouwen
When I was young, I thought that following God and being a Christian would lead to a life that was kind of easy, filled...
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Joy does not simply happen to us. We have to choose joy and keep choosing it every day. —Henri J. M. Nouwen
When I was young, I thought that following God and being a Christian would lead to a life that was kind of easy, filled...
READ MORETo wait is to learn the spiritual grace of detachment, the freedom of desire. Not the absence of desire, but desire at rest. St. John of the Cross lamented that “the desires weary and fatigue the soul; for they are like restless and...
READ MORENow the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?"
The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees...
READ MORELately, the surge is toward “justice Christianity” — intervening to prevent human trafficking or slavery, caring for indigenous cultures or for the planet itself. And it is right and it is wrong. My goodness, yes, of course God cares about...
READ MOREWhy don’t I wake with a joyful heart? Joy was just here. Where did it go?
I began to realize that what I’ve done for most of my life is resign myself to this idea: I’m really not going to have any lasting joy. And from that...
READ MOREWe are not what we were meant to be, and we know it. If, when passing a stranger on the street, we happen to meet eyes, we quickly avert our glance. Cramped into the awkward community of an elevator, we search for something, anything to look at...
READ MOREThe book “Killing Lions” is a conversation between John and Sam Eldredge about the trials young men face.
[Sam] Our adolescent culture really does play into our confusion; with so many answers...
READ MOREI’ve come to the place where I have had to stop telling people, “I’ll pray for you.”
I simply know that despite my good intentions — and these promises are almost always spoken with good intent — I know that nine times out of ten I just...
READ MOREThe only person that can satisfy the aching abyss of the human heart is Jesus Christ.
—Oswald Chambers
I hate Valentines Day. There, I said it.
Most of the guys reading this just thought, Yes! I can’t...
READ MOREJohn Wesley was thirty-five when he experienced the now famous "warming" of his heart — not his mind — toward Christ, and knew in that moment he had become not merely a Christian, but something more — a lover of God. Shortly after, he penned the...
READ MOREThere are three desires that I have found essential to a woman’s heart, which are not entirely different from a man’s and yet they remain distinctly feminine. Not every woman wants a battle to fight, but every woman yearns to be fought for...
READ MOREHis ability to live with all these qualities we’ve seen, in such a way that no one quality dominates—as is so often the case in our personalities—eclipsing the richness of the others. To live in such a way that there is always something of an...
READ MOREThe reason a woman wants a beauty to unveil, the reason she asks, Do you delight in me? is simply that God does as well. God is captivating beauty. As David prays, “One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek: that I may...gaze upon...
READ MOREHallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for true and just are his judgments. (Revelation 19:1–2)
Evil judged and utterly destroyed. Forever and ever. Not just in the fairy tale, but in your story. Satan...
In [Christ] you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ. (Col. 2:11)
It’s not just that the Cross did something for...
READ MOREI always felt it strange that God needed to command us to love him. (It is the first and greatest of all the commandments.) Now I see better. When God calls us to love him as our “first love,” it is not only because he deserves to hold that place...
READ MOREChoosing love will open spaces of immense beauty and joy for you, but you will be hurt. You already know this. You have retreated from love countless times in your life because of it. We all have. We have been and will be hurt by the loss of...
READ MOREWe are now far into this Epic that every great story points to. We have reached the moment where we, too, must find our courage and rise up to recover our hearts and fight for the hearts of others. The hour is late, and much time has been wasted...
READ MORETo live as an authentic, ransomed, and redeemed woman means to be real and present in this moment. If we continue to hide, much will be lost. We cannot have intimacy with God or anyone else if we stay hidden and offer only who we think we ought...
READ MOREWe have no idea who we really are. Whatever glory was bestowed, whatever glory is being restored, we thought this whole Christian thing was about ... something else. Trying not to sin. Going to church. Being nice. Jesus says it is about healing...
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