Here in Seattle we have been hit with a heavy snow fall this week. It resulted in a snow-day for my five kids. They love it. As we struggled to dig a path for our cars to leave the driveway it struck me that trying to get rid of snow is like trying to get rid of our moral shortcomings. You can...
If you want to know what it looks like to parent your children according to God’s word, look to Jesus. He often called his disciples “children” (Mark 10:24, Matthew 9:2). If looked at from this angle, His life gives us many concrete ways we can help our kids “grow...
Pray Without Ceasing This is what we are told to do in Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians. It means that there are at least two types of prayer Retreat Prayer and Regular Prayer. Retreat Prayer is when you set aside large chunks of time to focus solely on prayer. Jesus did this kind of...
The year was 1896 and Charles M. Sheldon decided for his Sunday night church services that he would write a story that continued one chapter per week. The story would be about different people who decided to model their life after Jesus. He was soon preaching to a packed crowd. Eventually the...
“Why do you have so many bumps on your face? It looks bad.” Kids are notorious for saying what comes to their mind. With an undeveloped filter, we can be left humbled by the honesty and bluntness of their words. “Why, yes, sweet child of my womb, that is adult acne on my face...
Because every screenwriter, author, musician and producer is made in the Image of God you can often find inklings of this Christian message in the stories that they write and the art they create. Charles Dickens is no exception. In Dickens' famous novel, A Tale of Two Cities, a masterful work of...
John 12 – Six days before the Passover, Jesus therefore came to Bethany, where Lazarus was from, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. So they gave a dinner for him there. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him at table. Mary therefore took a pound of expensive...
The world was made by God in the same way that a fine wine is made by a winemaker. The winemaker is responsible for its complexity and its existence. But it is not made only for him. The wine is made for others to enjoy. In the same way God made the world for us to enjoy. God was perfectly...
LOVED. To be sent is to be...loved. Just before Jesus turns His disciples loose to carry on His mission to make disciples who make disciples of all nations, He says to them these words. "Peace be with as the you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." John 20:21 It...
I forgot how dependent I was on the web until our power went out for the entire day. Our phones could not get any signal. There was apparently some sort of wind storm and we could not send or receive emails, texts or calls. We could not get on the web either. It was very...