Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed–not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence–continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. (Phil. 2:13-14 NIV) We all probably…
“Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but deceitful are the kisses of an enemy.” (Prov. 27:6 NASB) If you’ve lived long enough, you’ve more than likely been betrayed by someone close to you. Nothing hurts more than a hurt that you never see coming. Many people refer to this kind of betrayal as being…
When I was fifteen years old, my sister birthed her first baby boy before she even graduated high school, which coincided with our parents’ divorce, moving to a different town, and a remarriage. Life was inside out and upside down. My grief masqueraded as anger, and I blamed my sister for almost everything that was…
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.” (2 Cor. 1:3-4 NIV) It happened again. I’d raised…
We all know that 2020 has been a dumpster fire so far. One thing has become clear to me during all of the upheaval: it is exceedingly difficult for people to exit their echo chambers and try out empathy for a change. I get it. Empathy comes unnaturally to me. I favor the sweet logic…
If you’ve been a churchgoing evangelical Christian for any length of time, you’ve probably heard a sermon on Matthew 18:21-35. This is one of the passages I’ve come to think of as part of the “Evangelical ABCs” that pastors return to again and again. You can’t sit in a pew for too long without hearing…