Gaining a heart of wisdom
The unhappy truth is that most of us doubt our significance. We measure our importance on the wrong scale, compare ourselves to make-believe beauties, and gaze longingly at the well-behaved children, spit-polished kitchen floors, and scintillating careers of all the "successful" women. We do the calculations -- a right muddled math -- and come away feeling less-than. Our… Continue reading Because You Are Worth It
In Ephesians 3, Paul bends over backwards and strains his amazing mental thesaurus to communicate to his readers that God is the very essence of abundance. Given this, what do we do when our hearts need truth in the moment? When all that our eyes can see feels like "not enough"? In days of abundance,… Continue reading Preserved
There is nothing more satisfying to a list-maker than a series of neat, orderly check marks. Every day, I live by “the list,” and this practice has served me well, rescuing me from missed appointments, ensuring that my children show up when and where they are expected, and reminding me of phone calls, ministry responsibilities… Continue reading Thy List Be Done
Archaeologists have unearthed a tale to delight the heart of every conservative in America, and to answer the question posed by Warren Cole Smith and John Stonestreet in Restoring All Things. How can the church act in ways that are restorative and life-giving without being reactionary? The story is set in Ephesus, seat of Artemis… Continue reading Fire Bearers
When I pick up my boys after band, play practice, or 4H, I tend to ask pretty much the same questions on our ride home. Nothing profound, mind you, just, "Who did you see?" and "Anything exciting happen?" kind of questions. It's not that I really need to know that they practiced Smoke on the Water again… Continue reading Enjoying the Truth
I've never read a book quite like A Trip around the Sun. Picture two guys -- good friends on camera and off -- moving with easy, relaxed conversation from one topic to another before an audience in a cozy, intimate studio. That's the atmosphere created by Mark Batterson and Richard Foth, as they weave into their… Continue reading Another Day. Another Adventure.
Questions have a way of getting under our skin. They engage us and stimulate discussion where a statement would simply fall flat. Writer, speaker, and entrepreneur John Busaker has chosen eight questions that came directly from the mind and mouth of Jesus Christ as recorded in the Gospels, and in Dare to Answer, he challenges… Continue reading Eight Penetrating Questions
Seventy years after the end of World War II, The Hiding Place, Corrie ten Boom's record of courage and grace during the darkest days of European history, has been released in a Young Reader's Edition for youth ages 9-12. Authors Elizabeth and John Sherrill actually travelled with Corrie back in the 1960's and have beautifully captured her story and… Continue reading Seventy Years After the Holocaust: The Hiding Place
In her third book, Gloria Furman promises "to drill down to the things that matter," and her busy readers will find that she does, indeed, honor her word. The Pastor's Wife was written in the small spaces between mothering four children and serving alongside her church-planting husband on the Arabian peninsula, so it is more than simply a… Continue reading Digging Into Grace
In a meandering, three-way conversation with far-away friends, we began to ponder the term: just exactly what does it mean to be "reformed"? Without thinking, certainly with no editorial or theological censors in place, I said, "I would, actually, rather say that I'm reforming!" After that conversation, the statement lingered in memory and wafted its way into… Continue reading Just One Thing: Reforming
Living Our Days 