The opening lyrics to “Call it Grace” by Unspoken, create a powerful visual of God’s unconditional love for us: “ It’s the light that pierces through you to the darkest hidden place. It knows your deepest secrets, but it never looks away.” It’s hard to imagine having a relationship with someone who loves and accepts …
The famous Japanese proverb “Fall down seven times, get up eight” is nearly identical to a verse in Proverbs 24:16 “for though a righteous man falls seven times, he will rise again…” Both of these are encouraging, but when things in life cause us to fall, we can lose the desire and/or the energy to …
“Because I said so!” Oh how those words bring back childhood memories for many of us. Or if you’re a parent, this response may have leaked out in a moment of frustration in the absence of a better explanation. Typically, the word “because” follows a command of some sort, and serves as the briefest answer …
It can be exhausting watching someone you love make poor choices over and over again. The more time and energy you invest into helping this person, the more frustration and mental fatigue you experience when he/she continues down the path you are certain will lead to destruction. We may feel like we’ve tried EVERYTHING and …
We don’t have to look far to find someone who is suffering. On any given day, someone we know is suffering pain from illness, grief from loss, anxiety from uncertainty…the list of hardships seems endless. Out of compassion, we reach out to offer our support. But what about when “we” are the ones facing hardship? …
The beating heart represents the very essence of our physical life, without it, our physical bodies cease to exist. We live in an age of technology where it’s possible to actually revive a dead heart; to literally bring it back to life again. But what about a heart that is spiritually dead and no longer …
Christians tend to spend a lot of time discussing the inevitability of committing sin, the need for confessing sin, and the forgiveness of sins. This makes sense since the foundation of Christianity rests not on the Bible itself, but on the belief that Jesus lived, was crucified and was resurrected to wipe our scoreboard of …
Even though I enjoyed attending Sunday school as a young child, I remember not wanting to have much to do with the church when I was in high school. I distanced myself from any peers who I believed to be too “churchy.” The truth is I didn’t want anyone telling me what to do; but …
As a child, we learned to ride a bike without training wheels. We didn’t know the physics behind the 2-wheeled creation or the laws of inertia, but we trusted we could do it. Why? For most of us it was because someone told us we could, and we believed. However, as we get older, it …
I’ve heard so many people admit how much easier it is to talk about their faith in safe environments like church or Bible study, but when they’re outside the “Christian Zone” they tend to keep their beliefs to themselves. Some keep quiet because they fear being judged, while others worry what others may think of …