We Christians assume that teaching our children about Jesus and the Bible will prepare them for a Christian life. That’s a great foundation, but we must also teach our teens and young adults how to go about building a deep relationship with God, so that they will walk hand-in-hand with God throughout their lives. Adopting […]

Pride in our church’s beliefs, putting others down because they don’t have the right beliefs, preaching at others’ sins without acknowledging our own and without getting to know who the person really is—these are very human ways of calling attention to ourselves and taking it away from others. They are ego-based actions which elevate us—that […]

  We know what prayer is, right? The Lord’s Prayer. Petitions. The prayer is in the words that we send up to God. Those are prayers, wonderful ones, yes, but only a small part of praying. Praying mostly consists of opening ourselves up—heart, mind, soul and body—to the presence of God. We can access his […]

It is easy in this time of heightened anxiety to succumb to fears for our safety, our lives, fears of people different from us. Since the Paris and the San Bernardino attacks late last year, we don’t know what might occur next and whether it might happen to us. These words of Franklin Delano Roosevelt […]

I am a slow learner. It’s taken me years to undo all that my family and the church(hell-fire-and-damnation) and the culture taught me about being in the world and about God. It’s complicated because I was formed by what I was taught about myself and the world and God and, also, how I took what […]

In December of 2001 my husband’s lymphoma returned with a vengeance, just three short months after his oncologist had declared his CT-scan cancer-free. I think that Hank already knew what the oncologist was affirming; he had been able to sense the changes in his body. As for me I was in complete denial. Hank was […]

I think there are many ways to look at and to experience the spiritual journey. Here is one that I think is quite true to the essence of the journey. In this scenario there are four steps along the way. The first step has to do with acknowledging the yearning within us for more, for […]

  In Galatians Chapter 5 Paul wrote about love being the great agent of expression in following Christ and living by the Spirit. In verse 6 he states that “the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” And then in verse 14: “For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one […]

“I so want this with all my heart amen” wrote one of my readers, SW, in October this year, in a comment on “The Promise of Isaiah.” She was expressing a deep longing for her whole self to be restored to the Lord and for living a purposeful life. Interestingly, that deep longing is the […]

Being a Christian is not about preaching. It’s not about testifying. It’s not about looking good to someone else so we can draw someone to the Lord. First and foremost, it’s about walking the walk; it’s about living the talk, what Jesus taught, in your life. It’s not about putting on some attitude or the […]