Advent is over, the long-awaited Christmas day here. This waiting, hoping, anticipating has been not for an event or celebration — but a person. For the glory of Christmas is Christ.  And just like it’s easy to miss the baby in the manger amid the gifts, lights, and celebration, so it’s often easy to miss that…

Is your heart joyful this Christmas Eve? Then there is no better tune to sing to than the beautiful melody of the gospel. As we’ve journeyed the many beautiful applications the truth of Christ’s exhaustive, redemptive work has on our lives this advent, I pray that the gospel has indeed made you joyful. The truth…

Have you ever been struck by the nondescript, matter-of-fact telling of the Christmas story in Matthew 1? I could only imagine my response if one of my students handed in story with similar lines: “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ.” “Now the birth of Jesus came about in this way.” “And they returned…

I was astounded. Maybe it was obvious to most people, but I had never thought of it before. I still vividly remember painting the hallway in my family’s house three or four years ago and listening to an “Ask Pastor John” podcast that rocked my world.  Somehow, I had carried around the idea that even…

I need the gospel most when I am feeling best about myself. Ironically, that’s the least likely moment for me to think about it! A thousand times a day, I experience firsthand the reality that “the heart is deceitful above all things” (Jer. 17:9), as I depend on my own confidence or abilities to survive…

Christmas is a painful season for many, for the more family and home and love are celebrated, the more we feel our lack. Whether you’re feeling the loss of a loved one, the straining of a broken relationship, or a thousand other reasons for loneliness and pain, Christmas can indeed be hard. There’s something about…

Angst describes our world – and too often our own hearts — so well: a deep feeling of unsettledness, discontent, or brokenness. It’s often difficult to identify the cause, but whether we let it out (“I’m crying and have no idea why!”) or hold it inside, the problem doesn’t solve itself.  Why am I bringing…

As I write this, my home state is in an uproar about a recent shooting at a night club, followed by widespread demonstrations of support for “diversity,” and the vandalism of a well-known Christian ministry for their supposed hate of non-traditional identities. The whole event is tragic on many levels, including the hurling of five…

“What you’re feeling isn’t true,” I reminded one young lady after she shared with me how a particular hurt in her past made her feel unrelenting shame for something she wasn’t responsible for. It’s easy for an observer, like I was, to point that out, plain and simple. Sometimes, that’s what we need — someone…

Only the knowledge of unconditional love can motivate lasting, inward change. I’ve seen this reality in a new light in the last six months of marriage. I never realized I could feel so safe, so loved, so secure in a relationship. Yet, far from that sense of security making me careless about my actions, knowing…