Words of Life

“How,” you might ask, “can you rejoice when your heart is broken and you’re hurting?” When I learned that my baby had died, there was no escaping the pain – you can’t stop the sorrow you feel. But feeling your disappointment and staying stuck in it are two different things.…

We tend to forget that crucifixion was the ultimate form of torture. The science of exquisite torture has never been equaled, much less exceeded, than in crucifixion. The crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth was no exception. Crucifixion was more than an ugliness blotted out by Easter, more than a speed…

All of us have standards. We don’t always live up to them, but we at least try. For Christians, the Bible sets the standard, even with the variations in interpretation. Others set the standard according to their individual ideas or “inner compass.” For all of us, federal and local governments…

The pharisaical approach is the epitome of legalism. It occurs when we obey God's Moral Law to earn God's love and attain God's righteousness. Key symptoms may include: Striving A lack of the fruit of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) A consistent lack of motivation for things like prayer or…

The Rocky Mountains are my favorite vacation destination. I live in a flat, hot, crowded part of Texas, but my heart is at 10,000 feet. Winter or summer, I’d rather be in Colorado. If I take the scenic route, the Royal Gorge is on the way. Over 1,000 feet above…

The message of "the Kingdom of God" is the constant theme of the message Jesus preached and the lessons He taught. He came proclaiming the power and presence of the Kingdom as the "entry" of God's will and rule, here to impact every situation. He applied kingdom grace and power…

Not long ago, I accompanied a friend to the hospital for surgery. After she was wheeled away, I began talking with one of the nurses. Somehow the conversation came around the nurse's brother, who had been killed in an accident three years earlier. Like most untimely losses, the brother's death…

The magnitude of Christ Jesus is something we desperately need to understand better. We need it because seeing him for all that he is will ultimately be the only way we can overcome our temptations to idolatry.  In Desiring God, John Piper writes, “I know of no other way to…

What started as a band of 120 followers of Jesus grew to thousands within weeks. The message of Jesus spread beyond Jerusalem like wildfire. Each new believer became a living witness of what God could do in a person’s life. It was happening exactly as Jesus had said it would.…

One of the defining images of my life first announced itself when I was twenty-two.  At the time I was the director of a dormitory at a major university in the Midwest.  My job was to tend the dorm life of several hundred men and to scurry about the campus…