Many Christians experience a contradiction between what we believe to be true about the Bible and our actual practice of reading the Bible. Often our theology is superior to our habits. We profess that the Bible is infallible, inerrant, authoritative, and sufficient, but we then neglect it in our daily lives. We agree with David…
Motives matter, even (or perhaps especially) when it comes to something as very good as studying the Bible. The best motive for reading the Bible is to be transformed by it. For this to happen, we must approach our reading and studying with both confidence and humility, asking God to transform us through his Word.…
We make a lot of all the distractions that come with life in the modern, always-on, electronic world. And certainly it can be hard to have minds that remain focused for any significant stretch of time before the next beep, the next buzz, the next little burst of dopamine. Yet we do not need to…
A friend and I recently realized that we have not been spending as much time together as we would like. We agreed it is high time to do something about it. But what to do? We put our heads together and determined that we will deliberately build time for one another into our schedules. But…
We have just passed the mid-point of the year and I know of many whose devotional plans for 2021 have either fallen apart or been set aside. Some of these people wish to restart and finish the year strong, but know they have no hope of picking up the pieces and completing their year-long devotional…
We don’t have little kids around here anymore. In fact, most of the time we now just have one kid around here, and she’s well beyond the little years. We’ve moved past parenting tiny children and into parenting young adults. Toilet training, bike-riding, and grade school drama have given way to navigating graduate programs, assessing…
It is surprisingly difficult to turn a good intention into a life-long discipline. That isn’t to say it can’t be done. But it will be hard, there will be setbacks, and it will take both backbone and resilience. Now is probably a good time to remind you of that. If you are like many Christian…
What’s the purpose of family devotions? Probably no habit or discipline is so lauded, recommended, or even commanded among Christian families than this. But what’s the point of it? What is it meant to accomplish? Over many years of leading family devotions, I have been surprised to learn that it’s both more and less than…
I recently wrote about Date Nights & Devotions or what the Lord has taught me about my relationship with him through dating my wife. In that brief article I simply sought to show that the purpose of our personal devotions does not need to be learning about God as much as just spending time with…
I’ve shared here before that I often find it difficult to find real joy and freedom in my personal devotions. At times things go very well, but then inevitably it seems that difficulties creep in and I find that I come to dread my time spent reading and praying. What is at some times delight…
Prayer CrossThis comes from the “truth is stranger than fiction” file. Secret History of AmericaThis sounds like some outrageously revisionist history. “Director Oliver Stone’s upcoming Showtime documentary miniseries ‘Secret History of America” promises to put mass murderers such as Stalin and Hitler ‘in context.’ ‘Stalin, Hitler, Mao, McCarthy — these people have been vilified pretty…
I came across an interesting quote in Joshua Kendall’s book The Man Who Made Lists: Love, Death, Madness, and the Creation of Roget’s Thesaurus. It is a biography of Peter Mark Roget, the man behind the creation of the famous thesaurus that bears his name. In 1824 Roget married Mary Hobson (who, like her husband,…
“I didn’t expect the truth about the Spanish Inquisition.” “NOBODY expects the truth about the Spanish Inquisition! Our chief weapon is dishonesty…dishonesty and revisionism…revisionism and dishonesty…. Our two weapons are dishonesty and revisionism…and your reckless apathy…. Our *three* weapons are dishonesty, revisionism, and your reckless apathy…and an almost fanatical devotion to deception…. Our *four*…no… *Amongst*…
Yesterday I woke up feeling rather depressed. The previous evening I had sat in front of the television and watched Canada elect their fourth consecutive Liberal government. Despite years of gross negligence, waste and scandal Canadians showed their complacency, deciding that the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t. The polls leading…
Here in Canada we are rapidly approaching a federal election. The aptly-named Liberal Party has been in power for the past three terms and has been the predominant party in Canada since the 1960’s. Tired of the terrible corruption and lack of morality in the party, many Canadians seem to be turning on the party…