Matthew 5:43-44 calls us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. This radical teaching of Jesus challenges our natural instincts and invites us to respond with the same self-giving love He has shown us.
Tag Archives: forgiveness
The Author’s Perspective | Before You Transition, Do These Things
Before you transition, stop existing and start living. Tell the people you love that you love them. Watch a sunrise without rushing. Forgive yourself for being human. Fall deeply in love with something. Learn how to let go. Be still. Leave people better than you found them. One day none of us will care about the numbers. We will only care whether we truly lived while we had the chance.
Root Work: The Deliverance Sessions | Session Six – The Spirits of Rage and Entitlement
Session Six confronts the spirits of rage and entitlement that rise when performance and people-pleasing fail. These secondary spirits feed on the original wounds of abandonment and rejection, keeping the heart locked in demand and bitterness. The post examines their biblical confrontation, their operation, and the process of renunciation so that justice and comfort can be received from the Father rather than demanded from others.
Verse & Vision | July 23, 2026
Ephesians 4:32 calls us to be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other just as in Christ God forgave us. This verse challenges us to live out the gospel in our relationships through grace-filled forgiveness and tender care.
Verse & Vision | July 11, 2026
In Isaiah 30:18 we see the heart of God: He longs to be gracious and compassionate toward us, even when we drift away. This verse reminds us that the Lord is a God of justice and mercy who waits for us with open arms, and we are blessed when we wait for Him.
Look Again | The Jesus You May Not Know
The Jesus most people carry in their hearts is not the Jesus who walked Galilee. He is a soft echo, a trimmed down version built for a culture that cannot stomach holiness with teeth. This is the side of Christ the modern church leaves out: angry without sin, confrontational without losing love, forgiving without forgetting. It is time to meet the whole Christ, not the curated one.
Verse & Vision | June 30, 2026
I sat down this morning to write about someone else’s hypocrisy. I’m ending the post writing about my own instead, because Luke 6:27 wouldn’t let me get away with the version I wanted to write. This isn’t a takedown. It’s a mirror.
Verse & Vision | June 23, 2026
Ektenē — the Greek word for “deeply” in 1 Peter 4:8 — means stretched to full extension, a muscle held at capacity. And kalyptei — covers — is present tense. Ongoing. Not a one-time pardon but a continuing choice. Peter isn’t describing polite tolerance or the suppression of truth. He’s describing love that absorbs damage rather than amplifying it, that refuses to make a wound larger than it already is. Above all, he says. Before anything else on the list. Get this one right.
Verse & Vision | June 19, 2026
Confession in Greek is homologōmen — to say the same word, to agree with God about what is true. Not a performance of remorse. Not a negotiation. Just honesty. John’s surprising pairing is pistos kai dikaios — God is faithful AND just to forgive. The cross is why those two things aren’t in tension. He can be completely just and completely forgiving at once. What you bring is the honest word. What He brings is everything else.
Verse & Vision | June 12, 2026
We have made 1 Corinthians 13 into a wedding reading. Paul wrote it to people in a church fight. Not people in love — people in conflict, jockeying for status, eating communion bread while others went hungry. Every descriptor in verse 4 is a behavior, not a feeling. Patient. Kind. Not envious. Not boastful. Not proud. Five choices. None of them romantic. All of them available to you today, in the next conversation you have, with the next person who tests you. This is what love looks like when Christ is the source of it.
Verse and Vision | May 12, 2026
Verse and Vision is a daily series exploring the verse of the day — not just what it says, but what it means. Each post unpacks the biblical context, digs into the original language, and traces the historical and philosophical world behind the text. Where the Word echoes across history, we follow it. Where it lands in the present, we don’t look away.
Sunday Sessions | Grace
Dr. Frank Turek asked on X yesterday, “how would you describe grace to someone?” I couldn’t help but write I a long-winded reply to that post, because I learned loved grace the hard way, and I feel so humbled when I am reminded of the cost of it. Today’s Sunday Session is how I would describe grace.
The Shape of Escape: A Testimony of Climbing Out of What Almost Kept Me
There’s a term from developmental biology that stuck with me the first time I heard it: chreode. It describes a kind of groove—a well-worn path of least resistance that cells tend to follow during development. Once they start down that track, the path becomes harder to exit. It shapes them. Defines them. Holds them inContinueContinue reading “The Shape of Escape: A Testimony of Climbing Out of What Almost Kept Me”
A Supportive Message to the Ones Rebuilding Faith Outside the Walls
A message to the ones who stayed longer than they could explain— The messages in this post are often ones we see geared toward those struggling after breakups with partners or strife in their families. While these messages may absolutely fit those situations, this post is not about personal relationships. This post is about systems.ContinueContinue reading “A Supportive Message to the Ones Rebuilding Faith Outside the Walls”
The Two Graves: When Grace Is Misjudged as Weakness
“Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves.” I came across this quote recently in response to the tragic death of Austin Metcalf—and the quiet, grace-filled response of his father, Justin Metcalf. In the face of unimaginable loss, this man has become the target of criticism—not for what he’s done, but forContinueContinue reading “The Two Graves: When Grace Is Misjudged as Weakness”
The Weight of an Apology: Why Words Alone Aren’t Enough
Can an Apology Fix What is Broken? This is a question that many of us have asked ourselves at some point in our lives—whether in relationships, friendships, family conflicts, or professional settings. Can an apology alone truly fix what has been broken? The short answer is no. An apology in itself is not a magicalContinueContinue reading “The Weight of an Apology: Why Words Alone Aren’t Enough”