Learning to Grieve Your Losses in Spiritual Formation
What have you lost? Have you learned to grieve your losses? We might not like to think about that. We…
Bible Teaching
The Hunger in the Human Heart: What Do You Want – Really?
We are needy creatures. For all the attempts many of us make to be independent and self-sufficient, it doesn’t work…
The Truth About Feeling Angry with God
We’ve often gotten it wrong in the church when it comes to anger at God. Many have believed feeling angry…
Learning from How Jesus Handled His Need for Intimacy
Jesus is so many things to us. He is our Savior, Redeemer, and King, our Elder Brother, and the Head…
Bringing Every Part of You to Jesus
Oh, to be whole-hearted! To have every aspect of your inner being aligned in one clear direction, with no parts…
Can People Tell You’ve Been with Jesus?
One day shortly after Jesus returned to heaven Peter and John were coming into the temple. Seeing a lame beggar…
Learning Trauma Care from Jesus for Survivor or Helper
Some people who are deeply hurting have found the body of Christ to be a safe haven, a refuge from…
You Can’t Fix Right Brain Problems with Left Brain Tools
I continue to be fascinated with how modern neurobiology shines the light on what God has been working to do…
Faith and Healing After Relational Trauma: How to Move Forward
You have been deeply hurt in relationship. And you will also be healed in relationship. The trauma that comes when…
More Is Available Now—But It Still Never Feels Like Enough
We don’t like to wait. Especially in today’s instant-gratification culture where you can get Amazon Prime delivery in an hour,…
A Holy Week Reflection: Three Aspects of Our Redemption
This week Christians around the world are remembering and celebrating the most momentous event in history – the death and…
Lonely in a Connected World: The Intimacy Your Soul Is Missing
Today’s AI-saturated world has many, especially young people, trying to fill their longing for connection through digital means. Harvard Business…
What’s the Goal of the Christian Life? (It’s Not What You Think)
What goal are you after? And most especially as a Christian, why do you do what you do? What’s the…
When “One Flesh” Tears Apart: The Trauma of Broken Covenant
We don’t use the word covenant much today. But this deeply Biblical concept applies to our lives more than many…
What’s Shaping Your Soul Right Now? How God Transforms You
You are in a process of spiritual formation. The question is not whether you are being spiritually formed, but who…
More Than Forgiveness: God’s Bigger Vision for Salvation
Clean as fresh-fallen snow. The debt you had no hope of ever satisfying – paid in full. Chains that had…
How to Develop a Healthy Internal Picture of God
What do you imagine when you think of God? I don’t mean the facts you intellectually know about Him, but…
The Good News of Christmas
Merry Christmas! As we celebrate this holy day, let me remind you that it’s a day of good news! On…
Favorites for 2025: Books, Podcasts, Organizations
Each year I love sharing with you some of my favorite things – books, podcasts, and organizations I’ve enjoyed reading,…
Three Important Things You Should Pay Attention To
What is occupying your mind right now? What has your attention even this very minute? There are millions of things…
If Your Christian Life Isn’t Working, Here’s What’s Missing
If you’ve been in church for any time at all, you know people who you wouldn’t want to spend an…
Is God Good? Healing your Connection with God
Is God good? Your initial response may be the one you learned in church or Sunday school; “God is good.…
Transformation Starts Here: Following Jesus in Your Actual Life
What would following Jesus right now, today, look like? In the life you actually have. With the history, traumas, strengths,…
Purity: More About the Inside than the Outside
Some words are pregnant with emotional weight. Purity is such a word. At its best, it conveys the idea of…
Healing, Repentance, and Deliverance in Becoming Whole
Feeling stuck in your Christian life? Repeatedly asking for forgiveness only to keep falling into the same sins? Are the…
How to Consecrate Your Sex Life to Jesus Daily
Many people who are seeking to follow Jesus struggle with their sexuality. You might be like Paul, doing what you…
Your Body: Friend or Foe?
Your body can be a touchy subject (no pun intended). Is your body a friend or foe? Many if not…
How to Write Your Story with God as Your Co-Author
You have a story. Perhaps you’ve made partial peace with some of the previous chapters of your story. But what…
Being WITH Jesus in Ways that Bring Transformation
You’re sick and tired of trying harder and failing. It would be so freeing to be more like Jesus without…
How to Avoid Both Cheap Grace and Legalism
Does “Jesus loves you” mean you can get away with stuff? If not, who determines what’s OK and not OK?…
How Does God Feel About You?
With some frequency I ask people, “How do you feel God feels about you?” I’m not looking for an intellectual or…
Don’t Confuse Sex and Intimacy: How They’re Related – and Different
We use euphemisms all the time, especially around sex. I’ll spare you a list. But did you know the Bible…
How to Make Your Time with God Meaningful, Long or Short
Are you satisfied with how your spiritual life is going? Are you more like Jesus than you were a year…
Trying to Stop Your Bad Behavior? Who Has Your Heart?
Ask ten people what sin is and you’re likely to hear about the ten commandments, the words God wrote with…
What Messy Families Tell Us About the Kingdom of God
Family is messy! You don’t get to choose your parents, your siblings, or your extended family. Any parent will tell…
How People Change: Becoming Who You Were Meant to Be
I’m so glad I’m not like I used to be! I was a seriously messed up young woman. But I’m…
From Hurt to Whole: The Power of Making the Choice to Heal
Time alone does not heal all wounds. Healing does not simply happen to you. God rarely “rains” healing down on…
From Temptation to Triumph: Designing Your Personal Escape Plan
Whatever your personal brand of “stuff,” especially sexual “stuff,” you can be sure you will be tempted again. The process…
What’s the State of Your Heart?
Think of someone you love to be around. How would you describe their heart? Chances are their inner being is…
The Difference Between Lust and Healthy Desire
When the enemy can’t get you to fall into the ditch on one side, he’ll work hard to hurdle you…
Addressing Sin Issues in Others with Grace and Truth
We humans easily fall into ditches. Trying to be zealous for God’s way of righteousness, we fall into the truth…
Getting God from your Head to your Heart
Some of us (me included) naturally approach life first from the head. We studied hard in school, and when a…
What’s Unholy About Holy Week?
Don’t get me wrong; I absolutely love Holy Week; I just don’t love “Holy Week.” Perhaps as a shorthand way…
Three Steps to Becoming Whole After Being Sexually Harmed
Nobody wakes up one day and says, “Today I want to mess up.” You have a story. You came to…
Do You Know God in All of These 10 Ways?
What’s your mental picture of God? A.W. Tozer said, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is…
Ditch the Resolutions; Ask These Three Questions Instead
At the start of a new year there’s always talk of resolutions, SMART goals, turning over a new leaf, making…
What to Do About the Three Kinds of Suffering
You are suffering. Surprise! Welcome to the human race. And of course that’s not at all reassuring. Our culture trains…
Three Characteristics of Toxic Religion
Do you ever get a queasy feeling when thinking about your church or ministry experiences? OK, you’re “supposed” to connect…
3 Steps to Loving Others When They Don’t Love You
Every human being needs love. And sometimes we get love from others, and sometimes we don’t. In spite of that,…
When God Feels Distant: Nurturing Faith in the Absence of Answers
This world is messy and often confusing. How do you handle things when life is difficult? Sometimes you’re not seeing…
