When we encounter painful circumstances, we seldom stop to ask how we’re contributing to the pain. We stay in that pain unchanged, or we leave, taking our brokenness into the next relationship or job or home. But God offers us something better than...

We imagine that to find God, we have to leave our everyday lives – carve out special time or make it to church on Sundays. God, it seems, can only be found outside our lives. But in Jesus, God reveals himself to be the God of the everyday. The God...

When confronted with the possibility that God is speaking to us, many of us are afraid. We’re convinced God’s call on our life is at odds with what we want for ourselves. Others are apathetic – we’re not convinced God is able to achieve the...

Many of us assume that God can’t talk to us – that because God is the all-powerful creator of the universe, we are incapable of understanding anything God would say to us. But because God has come to us in the person of Jesus, we can be confident...

Most of us assume God doesn’t speak to us. But what if God is speaking to us? What if we can learn to hear God’s voice in the middle of our everyday lives? The stories of Samuel and Nathanael teach us that learning to discern God’s voice in our...

So many well meaning people have the idea that when good things happen in their lives it means God is near them. And they also subscribe to the opposite notion that when bad things happen in their lives, when their lives are chaotic, it means that...

Christianity has become known as a religion full of rules – these “dos” and “don’ts” have become fences that keep Christians in line, corralling us like spiritual cattle. But according to Paul, now that Jesus has come, God has torn all...

In the endless press of the Christmas season, we often get distracted from the reason we’re celebrating. We reduce Christmas to presents and toys and parties – or, as Dr. Seuss says, we think Christmas “comes from a store.” But Paul’s...

Last week, Peter told us to “live holy and godly lives” as we wait for the End. But what does that look like? Christians often turn to spiritual practices like reading scripture or prayer, but just as often, those practices leave us feeling...

Our culture is pessimistic about where the world is going. And you’d think Christians are just as bad, what with our fire-and-brimstone apocalypse. But the earliest followers of Jesus looked forward to the End. For them, it wasn’t the end of...