A definition that is too narrow can cause some victims of assault and those who should be supporting them to downplay the experience. Our definition of sexual assault is any type of sexual behavior or contact where consent is not freely given or obtained and is accomplished through force, intimidation, violence, coercion, manipulation, threat, deception, […]
Thoughts on Death
The following is part of a letter I wrote to a friend who was concerned about death, but didn’t want to talk with me about it. That death thing can certainly bring thoughts about eternal things into much clearer focus, can’t they? We have a church of over 800 people now and a sister church […]
Specific Strategies to Try Pt. 2
11. Since the label “depression” cannot capture the complexity of your experience, what other words (especially words that can be keyed to Scripture) more concretely capture what is going on in your heart? 12. Get help. Ask a few people to pray for you and speak the truth to you. When you ask for prayer, […]
Faith Looks Out
Faith is not in itself a meritorious act; the merit is in the One toward Whom it is directed. Faith is a redirecting of our sight, a getting out of the focus of our own vision and getting God into focus. Sin has twisted our vision inward and made it self-regarding. Unbelief has put self […]
Headed in the Right Direction
The Struggles and Hopes of a Disabled Dad
We would draw near
”Lord, how excellent are Thy ways, and how devious and dark are the ways of man. Show us how to die, that we may rise again to newness of life. Rend the veil of our self-life from the top down as Thou didst rend the veil of the Temple. We would draw near in full […]
There is celebration in the forgiveness
“’Confession begins in sorrow,’ writes Richard Foster, ‘but it ends in joy. There is celebration in the forgiveness of sins because it results in a genuinely changed life.’ Not only will you receive God’s grace as you confess sin, but the whole group will be provoked.” (Greg Somerville in C.J. Mahaney Ed., Why Small Groups?, […]
as the bugs and fungi were burned away
“The world is perishing for lack of the knowledge of God and the Church is famishing for want of His Presence. The instant cure of most of our religious ills would be to enter the Presence in spiritual experience, to become suddenly aware that we are in God and that God is in us. This […]
Give Up Our Heart’s Toys
“Father, I want to know Thee, but my coward heart fears to give up its toys. I cannot part with them without inward bleeding, and I do not try to hide from Thee the terror of the parting. I come trembling, but I do come. Please root from my heart all Those things which I […]