Waiting for Christmas – and Eternity
If you have a child or grandchild, you’re watching them count the days until Christmas with great excitement and anticipation.…
Christian Life
Broken Creche, Broken Heart at Christmas
The little olivewood creche was special to me ever since I had purchased it at a little tourist shop in…
Can Spiritual Warfare Be Healthy?
Bring up the topic of spiritual warfare and some people shout Hallelujah and begin praising God. Other people respond to…
How the Holy Spirit Changes You
When did you first say Yes to Jesus? Last weekend in church? Years ago, when you were a child? When…
How to Keep Your Faith When Things are Bad
Jesus promised His followers two things: trouble – and peace. “I have said these things to you, that in me…
How to Become Useful in God’s Kingdom
When you lay awake at night, do you ever wonder why you’re here? What’s the point of all this, anyway?…
How Family and Friends Impact Your Marriage
Most weddings are a celebration. Love is in the air. Family and friends show up for the party bringing bitter-sweet…
How Darkness Might Help You See Farther
How long has it been since you walked outside at night in a dark place, and really looked up at…
Is My Marriage Toxic?
How bad is bad enough? When you are unhappily married that can be a difficult question. If you’re serious about…
Five Ways to Help Someone who is Depressed or Anxious
If the statistic is even somewhat true that one in four of us struggles with a mental health challenge, you…
When Your Spouse Hurts You
You will be wounded in your marriage. It’s not a question of if, but when your spouse hurts you. But…
A Response to Suicide Prevention Day
What does it look like to heal from being broken-hearted? Is it possible? Last week, September 10, the world honored…
Are Your Prayers Too Small?
If it seems as though God is not answering your prayers, it’s probably not because your prayers are too big.…
What Restoration Actually Looks Like
A marriage that’s damaged through infidelity. A public figure who betrays the trust of those they lead. A pastor caught…
Why Should You Care About Your Body as a Christian?
Almost every believer would say that God cares about your physical body. But why? Isn’t your body going to die?…
When You Feel Distant from God
God created you and me for intimacy with Himself. Intimacy with God is possible! But that feeling of being close…
Three Things to Do if you’re Struggling with Sexual Stuff
It’s a problem. And maybe it’s a problem for you. Struggling with sexual stuff is hard. This topic cuts so…
How to Experience Intimacy with God
Some people are hyper-religious and super-spiritual – and obnoxious. If that’s what “intimacy with God” produces, who wants it? Others…
Why God Invented Sex
How is intimacy going for you? It is good, healthy, nourishing? Or have your attempts at intimacy resulted in only…
What Intimacy with God Means
You’ve heard people talk about it. Perhaps it sounds a little weird, and at the same time something in your…
25 Good Things to Think About
Thoughts control actions. Thoughts come before emotions. Thoughts impact how other people see you, and how you react to every situation you come across. Choosing what thoughts to think can go a long way toward making you well or sick, happy or sad, lonely or connected, desperate or satisfied.
If you feel challenged to know what to think about, here’s a list to get you started. When you find yourself rolling negative things around in your mind, choose one of these items instead. You can think about:
Is your Digital Diet Causing Anxiety?
Feeling overwhelmed with life. Distracted without a sense of purpose. Overstressed and overanxious. Lonely, without close relationships. Unable to focus,…
When People Disappoint You
Did you know that happiness research is a “thing?” For the past few decades researchers have looked at what determines…
How to Handle Suffering You Cannot Avoid
Some suffering is unnecessary. Suffering that we bring on ourselves through our sin and brokenness means that if our actions…
Connecting with Others when you’re Single
Feeling isolated, alone, or lonely is a common struggle for singles. And you may imagine that finding a boyfriend/girlfriend and…
How to Escape Unnecessary Suffering
No human being escapes all suffering. While perhaps unkind, it would have been true for me to say over the…
5 Steps to Take if you Messed Up in your Marriage
Marriage is the union of two sinners. You can be sure your spouse will mess up; that’s what sinners do.…
What Would It Mean to be Like Jesus?
What would it mean to be like Jesus? That is what He promised, after all. That’s the point. The whole…
5 Questions Every Married Person Should Ask
Ask the wrong questions, and you’ll get answers that are misleading at best and possibly harmful. Ask better questions, and…
The Christian’s Journey Through Grief
** My new book The Christian’s Journey Through Grief is to be released next week, May 7, 2019, and it’s…
The Antidote to Self-Doubt
What does the self-talk in your head sound like? What do you tell yourself? Perhaps like so many people you…
Three Things to Focus On When Your Spouse is Not a Believer
You may have married before you became a Christian, and now feel the growing disconnect between your newer relationship with…
What Kind of God Do You Serve?
You are a theologian whether you realize it or not. Theology is nothing more than what you believe about God.…
When you should NOT be Kind to Your Spouse
Truthfully you should always be kind to your spouse. The problem comes when you confuse kind with nice. And accepting…
Is Your Marriage an Idol?
God gave marriage to humankind as a good gift. But just like food, rest, pleasure, money, authority, or any other…
How to Know if This Is “The One”
So you’re looking for and praying for Mr. or Mrs. Right, your soulmate, the person God has uniquely created who…
Taking Your Marriage from Good to Great
If your marriage is good, be grateful! Those struggling in a bad marriage can learn a lot from you. But…
3 Things You CAN Do in a Bad Marriage
Some marriages are just plain bad. Words like sharp knives pierce tender hearts. Affection and sex are demanded, withheld, or…
How to Move Closer to your Spouse
Knowing about God’s design for intimacy in marriage is great. But that goal can seem so impossible to approach. What…
3 Steps to Fulfilling what God Created You to Do
Why are you here? What is the reason God placed you on this earth? Many people struggle with that question.…
It All Belongs to God Anyway
God’s in charge, right? Then why do bad things happen? We can’t fix things ourselves! But God has given humankind…
What I’ve Learned from Being Single – Again
Being single again often seems harder. As difficult as navigating singleness as a never-married young (or not-so-young) person can be,…
When God Calls You to Stay in a Bad Marriage
Every marriage will have periods of challenge, times when “till death do us part” seems beyond your ability to handle.…
What Forgiveness IS and ISN’T
At some point you will have to deal with the matter of forgiveness. For people who are Christians or who…
How to Know if you are Released from your Marriage
Jesus said that even though it was not God’s original design for marriage, divorce is “allowed” in some circumstances “because…
What Are We Supposed To Do About “Church”?
It is tragic but too often true; if you want to start a fight among Christians, just start talking about…
What Does Taking the Next Step Look Like?
The right first step in every situation is to pray, “God, help me! Jesus, come!” Inviting Him to be With…
Take Jesus There With You
God doesn’t simply rain down healing or transformation from “on high.” Instead, He came to be with us. And in…
The Two-Part Prayer for Almost Any Problem
You face a problem. How do you bring your faith into play when that happens? The way in which you…
What’s Your Mission in Marriage?
Why did you get married? Are those reasons still applicable today? Do you and your spouse agree on the WHY…
