There Will Be Blood Pain is a microphone. And the more it hurts, the louder you get. Suffering isn’t an obstacle to being used by God. It is an opportunity to be used like never before. This truth leaps off the pages of Scripture again and again and again. Joseph suffered for years as a…
Where is Our Fear Taking Us?
Fear Frenzy You’ve probably heard that fear of public speaking is one of the greatest fears in our society. That doesn’t come from some random backwoods survey. It actually originated with Chapman University and their now famous “Survey of American Fears,” which started in 2014. Among others that year were walking alone at night, being…
The Beauty of Baptism
Baptism is a deeply mysterious and beautiful act in which we step into our future and declare we are identifying with Jesus in His death and resurrection. It’s stepping into what God says is true about us. Jesus’ own baptism invoked deeply held stories of the exodus — the Israelites leaving Egypt, trusting God, and…
Should You Give Up on Goal-Setting?
The term goals was virtually nonexistent before 1920. On a graph, looking at any mention of the word in all of literature across the board, it’s pretty much a flat line — until 1920, when it started to uptick and has continued to shoot up and to the right for the past ninety to one…
Brokenness: Taking Off the Mask
I had just moved in with my aunt and uncle while attending community college, and I was sitting on their couch about midday, ugly-face crying. If you’ve done the same, you know what I’m talking about. It’s where a cry session turns the corner and becomes a full-blown weep. I was really struggling at that…
Mr. Rogers’ Quiet Revolution
Editor’s Note: This week marks the release of A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, a film starring Tom Hanks & inspired by the life of the late Fred Rogers, known to many simply as “Mister Rogers” after his long-running children’s TV show Mister Roger’s Neighborhood. Author Jefferson Bethke highlighted Rogers’ life in a portion…
Being Formed in the Way of Jesus
We’re Being Formed, Whether We Like It or Not If a whiteboard were a love language, it would be mine. Who cares about “quality time” or acts of service?1 I just want to brainstorm and scribble about ideas. While I love to use the whiteboard for just about anything, it also shows up in…
Will You Surrender?
Editor’s Note: It’s Sit & Listen Saturday at Devotionals Daily. Enjoy reading as well as listening to this devotion from Jefferson Bethke, from his bestselling book Jesus > Religion. Listen on the blog or on your Alexa device by enabling the skill and then prompting, “Alexa, ask devotionals to read today’s devotion.” Relax; you don’t…
The Church: Strength and Service
A Place of Strength For me, the best part about the Church is that God has uniquely wired it as His vehicle to heal and offer grace to hurting people. The church is a shelter from the storms. There have been times when my sin and guilt and shame have so overtaken me, I felt like I…
Religion Makes Enemies / Jesus Makes Friends
We are trained to make enemies. From birth it’s always “us versus them.” Black vs. whites. Conservatives vs. liberals. Rich vs. poor. Republican vs. Democrat. Americans vs. whoever we’re at war with. Let’s be honest: sometimes Christians are the worst. Calvinists vs. Arminians. Complementarians vs. egalitarians. Charismatics vs. cessationists. Catholics vs. Protestants. As if the world…
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