Hope
“The second category, hope, occurs when life becomes more troublesome. When things are more difficult and confusing, we may feel an uncertainty about where God is in the mix. We hope the Gospel is true though circumstances may cause us to doubt a little and feel uncertain about what God is doing or if God is really there. We experience the ambiguities of life which cause ambivalence in our hearts and minds. Perhaps we imagine the world should be better than it is if God is th
Uncertainty
“…when you have fear and uncertainty and you want to calculate, define, and control everything, then you’re not living in reality. You become a neurotic and cowardly person. Remember the Parable of the Talents. The man who hid his talent, who hid his charisma, hid from life—he was afraid to live. What do we do? We fear living. We’re afraid to be. We’re afraid of everything. And so, we don’t live, we don’t exist. This fear of not losing anything will not give you a peaceful li
Passing Judgment
“…we often lightly pronounce sentence and form an idea about someone based upon… not even the knowledge of different facts of his biography, but much more often upon hearsay, conjecture, and our own opinions supported by nothing, yet influencing us so powerfully that we consider our opinions the sole and precise truth about one or another person. But this is not at all correct—not in 99 cases out of 100, but in all 100 cases. Therefore, if we speak about a negative, disagreea
Good and Evil
“An evil person is not someone who is nothing but evil, someone with no redeeming features or virtues whatsoever. An evil person is not a...
Spiritual Blindness and Deafness
“He [Gadarene Demoniac – Luke 16:19-31] is an icon of our brokenness and represents us all in many ways. He did not ask Christ to deliver...
Compassion
“It is of note to me that there is a great darkness associated with God in some presentations of the Christian faith, enough to drive...
Temptation
“One who determines to serve the Lord will be tested and face temptation (see 1Co 10:13). Thus, we prepare our soul for this challenge to...
Anger
“If a man were to see himself in a mirror in a fit of anger, of rage, he’d be horrified and wouldn’t recognize himself with such a...
Secularism
“The great tragedy of secularism is its reduction of all things to mere things. We are created to have right relationships with all...
Life (Worthy Life)
“A story is told of the final temptation of Christ. Satan had been trying to tempt Jesus to sin, to compromise, to abandon His divine...