Tag Archives: faith

Sunday Sessions | Mothers

God reaches for motherhood to describe the most tender dimension of His own love toward us. That is not accidental. And yet we live in a time when the nurturing instinct has been systematically taught out of women, traded for hardness and called liberation. What was lost in that exchange is something the world cannot name but feels the absence of everywhere it looks.

The Wrong Tragedy | A Newsletter Editorial

Ruby and Laura died in their 80s on a mission trip. The article called it a tragedy. It wasn’t. I’ll tell you what a tragedy actually looks like.

The Survival Manual I Almost Overlooked | The Author’s Perspective

I’ve been failing the test lately, with the weight of the world pressing down until it felt like water closing over my head. But God was determined to remind me of the survival manual He left us for times exactly like these. Through a stranger’s words on X, my mother’s “ghost,” and a chain of events that only make sense if He lined every single one up, God showed me how to stop carrying the wrong weight… and how to shift into the one posture that actually changes everything: counting it all joy.

It’s All Nonsense, Except Soul | Daily Bread

The people who are willing to honestly acknowledge when something feels deeply wrong are often the ones closest to real clarity. Not because discomfort or suffering is somehow noble in itself, but because the courage to sit with that unease, to follow the questions all the way down instead of numbing them or pushing them away, is exactly how truth begins to find us.

What Hard Seasons and Scripture Taught Me About Feelings | Daily Bread

Your brain is constantly scanning, analyzing, and assigning meaning to your circumstances, and then producing a feeling based on that interpretation. The feeling is real, but the interpretation is not always accurate. In short, our brains often lie to us. Feelings are data, but they are not always reliable data. This is not just theology. It is neuroscience. And it matters enormously for the Christian.

Sunday Sessions | The Book, the Cocoon, and Learning to Hold Intensity Without the Edge (A Personal Sunday Reckoning)

Yesterday morning – again – I read an argument on X before coffee. We know better, but we don’t always do better. In it, two people certain they were the villain-identifiers of history. Both missed the point entirely. I thought about how Scripture named what I was looking at a long time ago, and, inspired, I closed the app, chuckled, and proceeded to gut and rearrange my entire bedroom. What I built instead reminded of something, and changed something. This is that story.

The Battle Within, The Rest Beyond | Spiritual Foundations for Healing

Healing is hard because it is a constant battle between your inner child, who is scared and just wants safety; your inner teenager, who is angry and just wants justice; and your current self, who is tired and just wants peace. In my experience, the only true solution to that battle is to surrender it to God and allow Him to work in your life, on His terms and in His time.

Jesus, Satan, and the Last Supper | Daily Bread

There is a moment in John 13 that most people read right past.

After Satan entered Judas, Jesus looked at him and said, “What you are about to do, do quickly.”

Jesus wasn’t speaking to Judas. Judas had already betrayed Him. Judas’ deal was already done. In that moment, Jesus was speaking directly to Satan, giving him permission to proceed. Satan was the one waiting for the word.

The enemy thought he was winning, but he was only ever doing what he was told. That understanding changes everything about how you read the cross… and if this hits you the way it hits me, it morphs your love, your respect, and the whole depth of your devotion to Him to levels you never imagined existed, and changes everything about how you praise Him.

Three Habits That Block God’s Voice | Daily Bread

There’s a particular kind of ache that comes when you feel like your prayers are hitting the ceiling. You’re not walking away from God. You’re calling out, but you can’t seem to hear Him.

The Bible doesn’t leave us without an answer to this experience. It tells us how to position ourselves to hear God, and if the problem is positioning, then the positioning can change.

In That Day: Zechariah, Psalms 83, and the Prophetic Picture Nobody Is Discussing

The ceasefire expired today. The USS George H.W. Bush is in the region. Iran is filling its oil tanks and its lawmakers are openly floating a preemptive strike. And underneath all of it, four prophetic passages — Zechariah 12, Psalms 83, Isaiah 17, and Jeremiah 49 — may not be a sequence of future events at all, but a single moment already taking shape. In this post I walk through the biblical framework, what is happening on the ground, the spiritual architecture of the strong delusion, and what it means to live ready. These are not my conclusions. They are an invitation to yours.

The Double Portion: What Shame Is Really Pointing You Toward | Daily Bread

This morning someone very close to me said something that stopped me mid-morning and opened a conversation about one of the most misunderstood experiences in both human psychology and the Christian faith: shame. I considered what shame actually is, what it’s actually for, and why God never intended for us to make it our home.

If you are dealing with shame over your past behavior or choices, make no mistake. Shame is not meant to be wallowed in. It is meant to point us toward conviction and guide us forward into righteousness. It is a signal, not a sentence. A starting line, not a finish line.

God wants to restore you, just as He promises to do for Israel. The question is not whether He is willing. The question is whether you will allow Him to work in your life, or whether you will let shame block the blessing He is already holding out to you.

The Image of the Cross: Curse or Blessing, and What Are You Living? | Daily Bread

Someone told me recently that wearing a cross is a sin. “It’s a graven image, a violation of God’s law.” But a careful study of Scripture tells a very different story.

The second commandment was never a prohibition against every image or symbol. It was a command against worshiping created things as gods. God himself commanded images to be made, each one pointing toward His glory, His presence, and His provision… and ultimately toward the cross.

Christ broke every curse the law carried through His sacrifice, fulfilling what none of us ever could. The cross around the neck of a humble, spirit-filled believer is not an idol. It is a symbol of redemption, freedom, and the good news of salvation. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, and we are commanded to carry that truth into the world.

Speaking Truth Is Not the Same as Judging | Daily Bread

To say “don’t judge” sounds humble. It sounds gracious. But underneath it is a confusion that quietly does harm to the very people it wants to protect. Speaking truth is not, in and of itself, judgment. And the kindest thing anyone can do for someone caught in sin is not to make them comfortable in it — it is to point them toward the One who can wash it clean.

Sunday Sessions | One Gospel, Two Roads (Or, The Argument I Once Used Against My Own Faith)

Many years ago, I tried to use this exact argument to prove my father’s faith was built on sand. I was wrong. Thirty years later someone posted it online and asked anyone to disprove it with scripture. I hope this answers their invitation well, and helps whoever reads it.

When Your Faith Shakes | Daily Bread

This is not a polished testimony with a tidy ending. This is what it actually looks like when the shaking is happening — in real time, in a real life, with a real God who is not confused even when I am. I had thought my faith was at the strongest it had ever been. And then the month I’m about to describe happened. This is what I found when I got quiet enough.