There is a certain kind of sober-mindedness that seems to come over Christians as they age. It can flow from many sources, I’m sure, but I think it often arises from a kind of fear—a fear that they may not finish their race without some kind of a major stumble. After living the Christian life…
It can be both a joy and a trial to witness another person’s Christian life. It can be a joy when you learn that they long for holiness and that they long to strive toward what is theirs in Christ. It can be a trial when you learn that they appear to have little longing…
We stood together on the crest of a hill, a gentle breeze rustling the meadow around our feet. The fields ran gently downward until they met a creek that gurgled happily in its course. A few years prior, an acorn had somehow made its way to the highest point of this hill, carelessly dropped there…
When I was young, my family owned a cottage on a lake. From a young age, I loved to head out in our little motorboat so I could explore that lake and the others that were connected to it. I could easily make a day out of slipping into little inlets to see where they…
Every Christian is a work in progress. Every Christian is striving for holiness, laboring to put off the old man and put on the new. Though none of us is as holy as we will be in heaven, I trust that each of us is holier now than when we first came to Christ. And…
I used to be a dreamer. I used to lie awake at night thinking of the great man I might be, the great awards I might win, the great deeds I might accomplish for the Lord. I would eventually drift to sleep convinced of my own potential and glimpsing visions of my own grandeur. As…
It takes a long time for sinful instincts to become pure, for tendencies toward what is evil to be transformed into tendencies toward what is good, lovely, and pleasing to God. The man who quits drugs will still react when he catches a whiff and the woman who gave up alcoholism will still struggle when…
There is little we are called to in life that is purely intuitive. There is little that truly matters to our lives, yet comes to us innately. To the contrary, almost everything that is important and almost everything that matters requires practice. What matters most in life is love. We are called to love the…
When it comes to our growth as Christians, there are two related truths we need to understand and keep constantly in mind: Advance in the Christian life, which is to say advance in our relationship with God and advance in being like God, comes by a combination of God’s work and our work.
It is one of those biblical commands that has always perplexed me. If it appeared just one time in Scripture I might be tempted to pass it by. But it appears no less than three times, in Exodus 23:19, Exodus 34:26, and Deuteronomy 14:21. The repetition tells me that God is quite concerned that his…
We are probably so accustomed to seeing bonsai trees that we don’t think much about them. But have you ever paused to consider how strange and freakish they really are?
I once heard of a ship that was crossing the Atlantic from Europe to South America, and as it neared the end of its crossing, it escaped a close call that would have sent it to the depths and would have taken the lives of many of its passengers. After departing Dover, the ship had…
There are many different ways to chart the journey through life. We can do it in life stages, like childhood to adulthood to middle age to old age. We can do it in decades, like teens to twenties to thirties and so on. But lately I’ve been pondering the passing of the generations, how when…
There are a few little phrases I think about and repeat to myself on a regular basis. One of the simplest but most frequent is this: You will never regret the sins you do not commit. It’s basic. It’s easy. It’s obvious. But I need to hear it again and again. Like you, I know…
I have long observed a fascinating but concerning tendency when I read one of the Bible’s clear commands. I have observed it in myself and I have observed it in others. It’s the tendency to turn quickly from what the Bible does command to what it does not, from the plainest sense of one of…
Have you ever seen someone get married and you are absolutely certain that it’s not out of love for the other person? Maybe the woman wants access to her husband’s wealth or lifestyle and marriage is the way she can get it. Or maybe the man wants access to his wife’s fame or reputation and…
Let’s suppose that for just one day the Lord chose to make a documentary about you—“A Day in the Life of an Ordinary Christian.” For a single day your every move was recorded and your every word transcribed. For a single day even your thoughts were externalized and written down. A camera crew was beside…
“I offer two pieces of wisdom,” he told me, “two commitments you can make: Never be discouraged and never be a discourager.” I have thought deeply about this counsel and have decided it is good—mostly good. I say “mostly good” because there are times when we cannot help but be discouraged, times when we are…
The young woman entered her parent’s home for what she understood would be the final time. The funeral had been solemn but still sweet, for she knew that her father had at last joined her mother. It had been a good many years since death had parted them, but now they were together in the…
My annual journey through Scripture has once again taken me to the early books of the Old Testament and those long passages in which God lays out the laws that are meant to govern his covenant people as they come into their promised land. Among the laws are a whole host that describe the system…