God requires obedience, including integrity, purity, compassion, faithfulness, and hospitality. But our obedience never requires God to give us what we expect or demand of him. God alone is God. He keeps his promises to us, but he owes us nothing....

The most precious possession on earth is wisdom--the ability to make good decisions and nurture healthy relationships. Real wisdom is elusive, unless we learn to obey Jesus.

God doesn’t always rescue the innocent from suffering. That’s a fact. It isn’t fair and makes zero sense. But it isn’t the whole story, either. God loves us dearly and works behind the scenes to care for those he loves. We cannot judge God...

Justice is sometimes served here, but ultimate justice awaits. The righteous and wicked often receive what the other deserves this side of heaven. So our incentive for following Jesus cannot be material reward (or we’ll fall away), but the...

1 John 1: Confession: Agreeing with God

We assume that if we do what’s right, life will work, but that’s a myth. God is just, but he doesn’t guarantee our lives will work if we follow Jesus. We suffer because we live in a fallen world where we suffer sometimes for no obvious reason....

Elijah Wounded

We live because of God's mercy and power. Apart from God, we would perish at the hands of our Enemy. But God provides boundaries evil cannot cross. God sustains us until he brings us safely home. We may experience evil, but even then God will never...

God delights in our desire to please him. Our obedience is uneven and broken, but God takes pleasure in our longing to obey him, even as we fail. When we respond to hardship and suffering by grieving with God --even in anger-- God enjoys us. But we...

We prepare our children for adulthood by recognizing our responsibility to provide appropriate consequences. Therefore, the purpose of discipline is to save lives by training our kids' hearts to choose God's path. If we do it well, we transfer...