Recently, while preparing for a Sunday message, I began searching my heart and the Scriptures, listening and looking for direction. It all seemed to be coming to me a little slower than usual. The first hint of direction came shortly before nine o’clock that evening when I sensed the Holy Spirit leading me to pray over every individual that would … Read More
A Life Abiding
I never again want to see the look I saw in the eyes of my precious little girl the night she suddenly came under attack from a sickness that made it difficult for her to breathe. She’d completely lost her voice, too, but she didn’t have to say anything because the panic in her eyes told the whole story. Doing … Read More
Secret Petitions
“This story will make you believe in God.” That is what Jeremy and I tell people who ask us how we first met. It was the summer of 2006. I was twenty-three and living in Branson, Missouri. For some reason, I had the desire to attend a conference that August in Fort Worth, Texas. I had never been and didn’t … Read More
Thanksgiving Therapy
Each time I travel, I can’t help but pick up a phrase or two from the cultures that I visit. My favorite would have to be two plain but incredibly powerful words: THANK YOU. In Mexico, they say, “Gracias.” Some in South Africa say, “Dankie.” In Israel and in Hebrew it’s, “Toda.” In Hawaii, “Mahalo,” and in Australia, simply put, … Read More
The Art Of Contentment
As the summer of 2015 approached, we knew it was going to be one for the family record books. What I didn’t know, however, was how much it would test my character, my contentment, and, on some days even, my Christianity. On June 1, we loaded the last box into the storage container, closed the garage door, and backed the … Read More
Treasure Fields
The Joy of Finding What God Has Been Hiding In July 2012, TIME magazine reported on a man in Defiance, Ohio, named Karl Kissner, who found a green box packed with twine in the attic of his late aunt’s home. Inside the box was a large collection of baseball cards, most probably belonging to the home’s previous owner, his … Read More
The Adventure Club
As a kid I craved adventure. There was nothing more exciting than following a handmade map to find a treasure buried deep in the backyard. My brothers and I spent countless hours exploring the woods that surrounded our house, searching for bugs or rocks or anything exciting that forced us to venture out of the mundane and into the unknown. … Read More
The Weight Of Love
“Life is not measured by how much you own” (Luke 12:15 nlt). These are Jesus’ words in response to a man who was almost certainly expecting to hear something else. Jesus had been preaching a message that was full of life-changing, eternity-altering truth to a large crowd that day. Of course, that could be said of everything Jesus preached, but … Read More
