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…
forgiveness
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…
Learning to Love Well in Challenging Relationships
People; love them, perhaps “hate” them. (OK, “hate” is much too strong a word.) Introvert or extrovert, you need people.…
After Betrayal: Forgiveness, Boundaries, Reconciliation, and Trust
People will let you down. It might be an inadvertent misunderstanding, or it might be an intentional and destructive betrayal.…
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…
Imagine the End: Relate Better Today, Regret Less Tomorrow
It’s a principle Jim Collins talked about years ago; begin with the end in mind. It changes what you do…
Messed Up Again? Use Your Slip to Fall Forward
Jesus loves repeat sinners. (Are there any other kind?) It’s not that slips are OK; they’re not. But what do…
Healing After Betrayal: How to Rebuild Your Life and Move Forward
My friend had been betrayed. “It was a sucker punch in my gut.” I’m not sure there’s anything humans can…
How You – and God – can Deal With Painful Regrets
Do you know anyone over 30 who has absolutely no regrets? I don’t. There’s stuff you experienced that you wish…
When God-Talk has Brought Pain to Your Sexuality
Love it or hate it, sex is a big deal. God cares about your sexuality, and the Bible has a…
Does Sexual Sin Make You Disqualified? What’s Next?
The thief is always out to “steal, kill, and destroy,” (John 10:10), and sin is destructive. But sexual sin seems…
Why Healing from Intimacy Gone Wrong Requires Forgiveness
Forgiveness is a big deal. Your head knows Jesus forgives you, but your heart still wonders, especially when you keep…
5 Ways to Pray When You Keep Messing Up
You mess up. You ask God for forgiveness. Thankfully you’re forgiven! Then you mess up again, and the cycle continues.…
Getting Rid of the Trash Your Marriage Has Accumulated
Each week the trash truck hauls off the debris you accumulate in your home and most of us rarely if…
Three Powerful Keys to a Better Marriage in 2021
Last year was so – 2020. A year many people want never to repeat. Most are hoping and praying for…
How to Fight the Sense of Powerlessness in Your Marriage
There’s little that impacts your wellbeing more than the quality of your closest personal relationships. Your marriage in particular, as…
Dealing with Triggers in your Marriage
The only people who don’t get triggered are those who are perfectly healed and completely mature. And neither you nor…
How to Repair Your Relationship After “I’m Sorry”
A good marriage is the union of two good forgivers. But when you’ve hurt your spouse it may take a…
What Forgiveness Does NOT Do for your Marriage
Your spouse is messing up BAD. He/she is having an affair, getting drunk, hiding out-of-control spending, using pornography, or engaging…
Has Lockdown Hurt Your Marriage?
The different world we are living in today places more pressure on everyone, and on your marriage. Like a tube…
12 Things Your Spouse Needs to Hear You Say During This Crisis
Stress can make people prickly. Crisis can uncover both the worst and the best in people. You need some grace,…
How to Confront Your Spouse’s Bad Behavior
Micromanaging, criticizing, and fault-finding are toxic to a relationship. But problems don’t go away by ignoring them. What do you…
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…
Creating a New Marriage
Every marriage experiences mess-ups. It’s easy to get caught up in shame, blame, and misery. But taking the necessary steps…
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 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…
Help! My Spouse is Cheating!
Among the possible sources of pain a spouse’s betrayal ranks as one of the worst. The person you expected to…
5 Things to do After a Fight with your Spouse
Chances are good you and your spouse have had a fight. Perhaps you even had a fight during the just-ended…
Helping Your Spouse Move Past Their Past
Every human being comes into marriage with baggage. You cannot make it through a couple decades or more of life…
Is Your Marriage Beyond Repair?
How bad is bad enough? How long do you need to “put up with” seriously destructive behavior from your spouse?…
Setting Boundaries in your Marriage
Forgiveness is absolutely necessary in a healthy marriage, but by itself it’s not enough. Communication is vital, but it doesn’t…
How to Forgive Your Spouse When It’s Hard
In every marriage people get wounded. Your spouse is a flawed human being, a sinner who causes you pain. (You…
10 Reasons Why Your Spouse Hasn’t Forgiven You Yet
Every marriage is the union of two broken sinful people who, left to their own devices, will destroy each other.…
How Forgiveness Opens the Door to Transformation
If you’re human you’ve been wounded. No one escapes. And when wounded, we do things and make decisions that result…
How to Receive Healing from God
We all need to receive healing from God. (And if you believe you’re the exception, you need an extra special…
Married On Purpose: Intentional Relationship Investments
Too many people slide into marriage without much intentionality. It’s just something you do – “if we feel like it.”…
No Trust in your Marriage: 5 Steps to Care for your Heart
Your spouse cheated – emotionally or physically. You found pornography on their smartphone. Your spouse abuses alcohol or drugs, is…
Your Spouse is Emotionally Cheating: 5 Things to Do
It might seem simpler, though even more devastating, to walk in and find your spouse in bed with someone else.…
7 Things to Know if your Spouse is a Christian and Abusive
God-talk and violence – physical, sexual, mental, or spiritual – have mixed for centuries. Sadly that same mixture shows up…
Forgiveness in Marriage: How to Do it Well
Your spouse has hurt you. Guaranteed. If you haven’t been hurt by your spouse, you either got married five minutes…
When You Can’t Let Go after Your Spouse Leaves
Marriage is supposed to be forever! When you said “I do” you looked forward to joining your lives, building your…
When Good People Do Bad Things
Many in the popular media seem to relish exposing “skeletons in the closet” whenever an individual or a group that…
Christianity in One Word
Denominations. Cultures. Traditional vs. contemporary. Grace vs. good works. Community. Just love everyone. What is Christianity really about anyway? Controversy…
How God Deals with Repeat Sinners
It’s been too long. You’ve smoked too long. You’ve been mean and judgmental too long. You’ve slept with too many…
How to “Make Up” When You’ve Hurt Your Spouse
As uncomfortable as it may be, saying “I’m sorry” for a small thing to someone you may never see again…
How to Say “I’m Sorry”
I’m not proud of it. I gave someone I didn’t know a difficult time, and I had to say “I’m…
How to Bring God Into Your Marriage Bedroom
God invented marriage, God invented sex, and He called them “good”. The logical part of your left brain may believe…
Forgiveness Is Not Enough
The forgiveness step in salvation, as wonderful as it is, is only one small piece. Jesus, Paul, and other New Testament writers present a much more radical picture of what it means to become a follower of Jesus.
He presented an unbelievably high standard of behavior, character, and service. Jesus showed that He is much more interested in your future than your past.
What’s Different After Good Friday?
How well I remember the Good Friday when everything changed for me. I had gone to church all my life, but something was terribly wrong. I knew a lot about God, but I didn’t know HIM. That night it all changed. It happened to be on a Good Friday when I met Jesus. Right then my spirit became alive, and everything else followed.
When It’s OK To Ask God For Things
This morning I asked God for something specific. It’s something big, at least in my eyes. I’m sure in God’s eyes it’s not a big thing at all.
Have you asked God for something specific? Are you still waiting for an answer?
