God Can Turn Your Rocky Heart into Springs of Water
Do you ever feel spiritually dry? Does your soul ever seem to be hard as a rock? Do you ever worry about whether you will ever again be tender and open toward the Lord? … Most Christians do experience times in which our souls are so dry that they seem hard as a rock. We know we should spend devotional time with God, but the fact is we don’t want to… We still believe all the things we used to believe about God. But our desire for him has disappeared, and we’re left with stony souls.
Read Article
Discovering God With Us
As God is prone to do, God was teaching me something in the midst of an ordinary, human moment… When we grieve the news of war and famine, of families being torn apart, of people losing their lives, of injustice, poverty, sickness, and death, God grieves with us. God enters into the weight of darkness with us. God does not shy away, or point a finger, or scold, or blame. God comes near to us, presses in with us, bears the weight of sadness with us. Thanks be to God.
Read Article
God Condescends to You
God’s gracious condescension is celebrated in Psalm 113. The Lord who is enthroned on high nevertheless stoops to look down upon us. Yet he is not, as the pop song proclaims, just “watching us from a distance.” Rather God “stoops down” to be near us (113:6). He “raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap” (113:7). What an amazing picture of God’s condescension!
Read Article
In Plain Sight
The truth is that there are just as many strong servants of Jesus Christ who struggle with feelings of turmoil, bondage, and isolation that characterize depression… Consider Elijah showing courage and conviction, working powerful miracles one day, and then barely holding on to his sanity and will to live the day after. I know this place all too well. There was a time when I was a leader hurting in plain sight. I allowed depression to control my life for years until not too long ago.
Read Article
A Psalm for Pollyanna?
Psalm 112 is not meant to be the last and only word on the earthly rewards for those who fear the Lord. It is one word among many in the Psalms. And it is a word we do need to hear. This psalm reminds us that earthly rewards often follow from right living. When we seek to do God’s will, when we live according to his commands, we will experience goodness in this life, even as we look forward to the life of the future. Yes, we will also know sorrow. But the joys and rewards of seeking the Lord and his ways will sustain us.
Read Article
Study This If You Want Good Work
“GOD’s works are so great, worth a lifetime of study—endless enjoyment!” God’s works are indeed worth a lifetime of study. This endeavor will certainly enrich our understanding of God and add to our joy. But it will also help us know how we can work better, how we can work with more meaning. If you want good work, why not study the work of the greatest Worker of all? You don’t even have to apply for admission to God’s school. His work is before you each day.
Read Article
Mysterious Melchizedek
As you might well imagine, the mystery of Melchizedek has spawned reams of speculation about his identity and purposes. I won’t even try to enter into that conversation here. Rather, I want to underscore two basic truths of our faith. First, God and his ways will always exceed our understanding. The mysterious Melchizedek reminds us that there is so much that we cannot understand, at least not this side of Heaven.
Read Article
What Should You Do When People Trash You?
What should we do when people accuse us falsely? How should we act when we are victims of mean-spirited gossip? In such a situation, it’s awfully tempting to give it right back to those who have slandered us. This is especially true in a time when Twitter allows us to instantly trash anyone to get our sweet revenge. But Psalm 109 reminds us that our first response when we are victims of injustice should be to turn to God.
Read Article
Are You Established in God?
We live in a day when the ground beneath us is shifting… literally, in many parts of the world. But even if we aren’t experiencing literal earthquakes, we can experience the instability of the foundations of our lives. Investments plummet; loved ones die; jobs are lost; culture is continually changing; leaders fail at an alarming rate. How much we need to be established in God, the only certain ground of our being.
Read Article
Leadership Vows: An Introduction
In Christian circles, there are a lot of conversations about holding each other accountable. But, as my friend Walter Wright, former Executive Director of the De Pree Center, has said, you can only hold people accountable if they desire it, and if they are willing to articulate that for which they want to be held accountable. Vows are the ultimate biblical means for formalizing that process.
Read Article
Encouragement to Give Thanks to God
Psalm 107 reminds us to “Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good” (107:1). The bulk of the psalm consists of four vignettes that illustrate God’s saving grace. Each one calls for our response of thanks and praise. Whether people were lost and hungry, chained in gloom, suffering from sin-induced illness, or tossed about in a stormy sea, the Lord demonstrated his “unfailing love” by delivering them.
Read Article
The God of “Yet”
Psalm 106 begins on a joyful note: “Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever” (106:1). But by verse 6 the mood changes dramatically: “We have sinned, even as our ancestors did; we have done wrong and acted wickedly…” How did God respond to the wickedness of his people and to their failure to remember him? The answer comes in verse 8, “Yet he saved them for his name’s sake, to make his mighty power known.”
Read Article
Becoming Lead Servants: Farsightedness
As the story of Joseph remarkably demonstrates, farsightedness is a core gift of leadership. Joseph’s ability to see and understand what others do not opens the doors for his work as lead servant of Egypt. He sees the implications of Pharaoh’s dreams… And he simultaneously sees what should be done… Leadership requires both insight into the fundamental problems facing an organization and insight into the trajectory of their resolution.
Read Article
Seeking God Always
How do we seek the Lord? What does this mean for those of us who are already in covenant relationship with him? In part, seeking God is a matter of paying attention… We pay attention to him from the moment we wake to the moment we close our eyes at night. We don’t look for God only in so-called “sacred” spaces, but equally in so-called “secular” places. God is present and active everywhere. We are invited to discern his presence and activity wherever we are.
Read Article
The God of Play
He created us in his image, calling us to be fruitful and multiply, to work so that the world might be filled… But God also created play. He made us with the capacity to jest, to dance, to laugh. The example of Leviathan encourages us to enjoy life, to do things that are not necessarily productive in the ordinary sense, though they are productive of delight, health, and community. Our playfulness reflects the creative intentions of our playful God.
Read Article