If you want to help people toe the line, one of the most effective methods is through motivating them via guilt and shame. We see it all the time – “If you don’t do this, you can’t be one of…
Out of Fear, Into Trust
There are different kinds of fear. There’s the kind that is afraid of other people – what they will or will not do. That’s a lack of love. There’s the kind of fear that is afraid that bad things will…
Should We Apologize?
Today, I’d like to tackle a sticky topic that I don’t promise I fully understand. But I’ll try to give you the best revelation of the topic that I have at the moment – maybe they’ll be a follow-up post…
Logic vs. Trust
Fear is the direct result of mistrust. Maybe we don’t trust a person. Maybe we don’t trust ourselves. Maybe we don’t trust that all things really do work together for good. Whatever the reason, the fear comes because we aren’t…
Holiness is Full of Good Things!
Holiness has gotten a bit of a bad rap in the church in recent generations. That’s mostly because it’s been misrepresented. Growing up, whenever someone talked about holiness, they usually meant the “Pentecostal-Holiness” version of the word: In other words,…
Cultivating Incorrigible Hope
“Isabelle would think of me in the present tense [I thought]. She was incorrigible when it came to hope.” It’s a line from the book I’m currently editing (shared with permission). The narrator is “presumed dead,” but she knows her…
Taking Responsibility for God’s Word to Us
If we want to see God come in power, we need to take responsibility. It’s not that God can’t come if we “flunk out” on the responsibility side of things, but taking responsibility for ourselves and our experiences gives us…
The Secret to a Humble Life
Humility is a difficult trait to pin down. Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary defines it as, “freedom from pride or arrogance: the quality or state of being humble.” In some ways, the definition is useful in that it tells us what humility is…
Shine Bright!
There’s a song I’ve enjoyed for a while now. It goes something like, “Gotta shine like stars in the universe, Be a different kind of crazy, a different shade of crazy*.” It’s based on Philippians 2:15: “That you may show…
Can You Relate?
There are some people you just relate to instinctively. Whether it’s because you’ve had similar enough experiences in life, you’re facing similar challenges, or there’s just something similar between the way you both relate to your different experiences in life,…