Question: Last month, I thought I was having a heart attack. My pulse was racing, my palms were sweating, and I started breathing heavily, as if I were going to pass out. I went to the hospital, and they said my heart was fine—what I had experienced was a panic attack. Now I have anxiety […]
Read MoreTag Archives: Second Corinthians
Does God Care about Our Suffering?
Agonizing in prayer over a difficult leader who was causing conflict in my church, I asked God to remove him and to protect my family and me. As senior pastor, I became the target for a few disgruntled people that this man had secretly poisoned against me. Eventually they demanded my resignation, threatening to disrupt […]
Read MoreStill Living: Grieving after Suicide
Disclaimer: If you are thinking about hurting yourself or believe someone you know may be, call the Samaritans on 1800-599-0019 now. When I was a teenager, one of my youth group peers committed suicide. He was about 18 years old. Later, I served in a church where two youths killed themselves. In that same church, […]
Read MoreWhy God Shakes Your Spiritual Tightrope
I can already tell the year 2014 will require me to have the skill of a tightrope walker to stay balanced. If you’re like me, sometimes it seems we barely keep steady on our spiritual tightrope . . . and then something—or someone—shakes the rope! Believe it or not, that someone shaking our rope is […]
Read MoreStrangely Wrapped, Silently Delivered
Ever since the first Christmas celebration, I think one word has fallen from everyone’s lips more than any other. It isn’t the word joy or carol or tree or food. It’s the word gift. Gifts are so inseparably linked and interwoven with Christmas that we can hardly think of one without the other. However, we […]
Read MoreFaith in the Workplace
You invest more than one-third of your life at work. Punch the clock, turn on the computer, start your engines at 8 a.m., rest a few minutes at noon, but keep your mind and body in gear till the sun has set. Then tomorrow—repeat. Sound familiar? So how can your relationship with God grow in […]
Read MoreRomans: Cornerstone of Christian Truth
The editors of the New Geneva Study Bible describe the book of Romans as Paul’s fullest, grandest, most comprehensive statement of the gospel. Its compressed declarations of vast truths are like coiled springs—once loosed, they leap through mind and heart to fill one’s horizon and shape one’s life. John Chrysostom, the fifth century’s greatest preacher, […]
Read MoreFakes
2 Corinthians 11:13-15; Revelation 17-18 A friend of mine ate dog food one evening. No, he wasn’t at a fraternity initiation nor a hobo party . . . he was actually at an elegant student reception in a physician’s home near Miami. The dog food was served on delicate little crackers with a wedge of […]
Read MoreGiving with Gusto
“When the heart is right, the feet are swift.” That’s the way Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States put it many years ago. There are other ways to say the same thing. A happy spirit takes the grind out of giving. A positive attitude makes sacrifice a pleasure. When the morale is […]
Read MoreSurviving “Survival Mode”
The book Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst is a humorous children’s story about a boy named Alexander who has “one of those days.” Nothing, I mean nothing, goes right for him. From the time he pops out of bed in the morning until he crawls back into […]
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