Daily Readings by Wild at Heart

Rescuing the human heart is the hardest mission in the world.The dilemma of the Story is this: we don't know if we want to be rescued. We are so enamored with our small stories and our false gods, we are so bound up in our addictions and our self-centeredness and take-it-for-granted unbelief that we don't even know how to cry out for help. And the Evil One has no intention of letting his captives walk away scot-free. He seduces us, deceives us, assaults us—whatever it takes to keep us in darkness.Like a woman bound to an affair from which she cannot get free, like a man so corrupted he no longer knows his own name, the human race is captive in the worst way possible — we are captives of the heart.Their hearts are always going astray. (Hebrews 3:10)God is filled with the jealousy of a wounded lover. He has been betrayed time and again.The challenge God faces is rescuing a people who have no idea how captive they are; no real idea how desperate they are. We know we long for Eden, but we hesitate to give ourselves back to God in abandoned trust. We are captivated by the lies of our Enemy.But God has something up his sleeve. Want more? Order your copy of Epic today

Each person knows that now his body is the temple of God: "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?" (1 Cor. 6:19). Indeed it is. "Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you?" (1 Cor. 3:16). Okay — each of us is now the temple of God. So where, then, is the Holy of Holies? Your heart.That's right — your heart. Paul teaches us in Ephesians that "Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith" (3:17). God comes down to dwell in us, in our hearts. Now, we know this: God cannot dwell where there is evil. "You are not a God who takes pleasure in evil; with you the wicked cannot dwell" (Ps. 5:4). Something pretty dramatic must have happened in our hearts, then, to make them fit to be the dwelling place of a holy God.Of course, none of this can happen for us until we give our lives back to God. We cannot know the joy or the life or the freedom of heart I've described here until we surrender our lives to Jesus and surrender them totally. Renouncing all the ways we have turned from God in our hearts, we forsake the idols we have worshiped and given our hearts over to. We turn, and give ourselves body, soul, and spirit back to God, asking him to cleanse our hearts and make them new. Want more? Order your copy of Waking the Dead today

Most people go through their entire lives without anyone, ever, speaking honest, loving, direct words to the most damaging issues in their lives. Pause for a moment, and count the times this has been done for you. Better, pause and count the times you have offered this to someone you love. Let’s be honest — why aren’t we more honest with each other? Because it will cost us. Socrates didn’t exactly get a warm reception for telling the truth. John the Baptist got his head handed to him on a platter for telling it like it is. Kill the messenger. We don’t want to pay that bill. If we speak as honestly as Jesus does, if we even venture into the hallowed sanctuary of someone else’s precious sin, it is going to make the relationship messy to say the least. Why won’t you tell your mother-in-law that she is a fearful, controlling woman? Why won’t you tell your pastor that his children hate him, hate his sanctified hypocrisy? Why won’t you tell your best friend that most of the time they are selfish and self-centered, and you carry all the burden of maintaining the relationship? We’re cowards, that’s why. As I push a little more deeply into my own motives, I realize I just don’t care enough. I know what it’s like to be with so-and-so. I see their effect on others. But I pretend I don’t see; I turn a blind eye. I probably make a dozen choices a day not to see what I see. We all do. And why is that, really? Because to risk speaking as Jesus does takes time, because then I’m involved, because who knows what their reaction will be, because, because, because. What I’m saying is I don’t really care enough to risk the tension, backlash, penalties, or rejection. And so our collective silence — carefully justified as being polite or not wanting to be judgmental or whatever — our silence dooms each of us to remaining that hardened Pharisee or controlling Martha for the rest of our lives. Jesus is the boy in the tale of “The Emperor’s New Clothes” — while everyone else fawns and feigns, pretending, looking the other way, he says, “Excuse me, but did you know that you are buck naked?” I’m not stunned by Jesus’ words to either of his hosts. I’m stunned by the courage and love this takes. The man shoots straight. Sometimes he’s playful; sometimes he’s fierce; the next moment he’s generous. This is the beauty of his disruptive honesty — you can count on Jesus to tell you the truth in the best possible way for you to hear it.Want more? Order your copy of Beautiful Outlaw today

You have a heart for redemption. Your kingdom heart longs for restoration and reconciliation, for justice, for the recovery of all that has been lost. What is the redemption that your heart longs for on a global level? What passions arouse your heart? Is your heart for a people group? A community or nation? For the arts or sciences? You have very particular passions for justice and redemption, and they will be realized. Your heart needs to know this—they will be realized. And what is the redemption your heart aches for on a personal level—for your family, your friends? What cries fill your prayers in the night? Oh, to see the day that alcohol no longer holds a family line in its grips; when abuse no longer tears a family apart. Nor poverty, or shame, or mental illness. You have very special and particular longings for redemption for those you love. And, my dear friends—those longings were given to you by the God who shares them, and they, too, will be fulfilled. Can plunder be taken from warriors,or captives be rescued from the fierce? But this is what the LORD says: “Yes, captives will be taken from warriors, and plunder retrieved from the fierce; I will contend with those who contend with you, and your children I will save.I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh; they will be drunk on their own blood, as with wine. Then all mankind will knowthat I, the LORD, am your Savior, your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.” (Isaiah 49:24–26) The promise of justice fulfilled is one of the great hopes of the coming kingdom. Want more? Order your copy of All Things New today

Caring for our own hearts isn’t selfishness; it’s how we begin to love.Yes, we care for our hearts for the sake of others. Does that sound like a contradiction? Not at all. What will you bring to others if your heart is empty, dried up, pinned down? Love is the point. And you can’t love without your heart, and you can’t love well unless your heart is well.When it comes to the whole subject of loving others, you must know this: how you handle your own heart is how you will handle theirs. This is the wisdom behind Jesus’ urging us to love others as we love ourselves (Mark 12:31). “A horrible command,” as C. S. Lewis points out, “if the self were simply to be hated.” If you dismiss your heart, you will end up dismissing theirs. If you expect perfection of your heart, you will raise that same standard for them. If you manage your heart for efficiency and performance, that is what you’ll pressure them to be.“But,” you protest, “I have lots of grace for other people. I’m just hard on myself.” I tried the same excuse for years. It doesn’t work. Even though we may try to be merciful toward others while we neglect or beat up ourselves, they can see how we treat our own hearts, and they will always feel the treatment will be the same for them. They are right. Eventually, inevitably, we will treat them poorly too. Want more? Order your copy of Waking the Dead today

We need God to help us understand his Word. We can’t separate a walk with God from our reading of Scripture. The two go hand in hand. Like having a tour guide as you wander the halls of the Louvre. “If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever — the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you” (John 14:15–17). Too many people approach Scripture without an intimacy with God, and they either end up frustrated because they’ve gotten so little out of it or, far worse, amass an intellectual understanding quite apart from any real communion with God. It usually results in religious pride. The Bible is meant to be read in fellowship with God. Things can get really weird if we don’t. Having offered that caveat, let me say that the more we know the Scriptures and, the more they become a part of us, the more we’ll find that we can walk with God. Having spent a good deal of time in the Word of God, you’ll give the Holy Spirit a library within you to draw upon. Want more? Order your copy of Walking With God today

I bought a new journal this week because my old one had filled up, and I had more time this morning than usual to linger with God before heading into the day. So I pour myself a cup of coffee, sit down on the couch, and pull out the journal. I always feel strange about writing on the first page of a new journal—all those clean, white pages, nothing yet having been set down. It feels momentous. Kind of like a new beginning. Or at least a new era. What will unfold? And what should I put on the first page? I always have this feeling that it needs to be significant. After all, this is the opening page of a new book in my life, the next chapter with God. It seems to deserve something weighty. Something transcendent. Looking down at the blank page, I quietly ask God in my heart, What needs to go here? You know what he said. My love. So that is what I write down. That is all I write on that opening page. Two words. “My love.” It is more than enough. Whatever else gets written in this journal, whatever stories told, whatever prayers, all the processing of life, let it all come under this. Let it be a continuation of this. His love. I sit there and look at it—let it sink in. I am turning my heart toward his love. Letting it be true. Letting it be life to me. What else, Lord? Believe my love. Yes, I do. I believe your love. And something in me is shifting. I am coming to believe it more than I ever have. It is changing me. I feel less driven. Less compulsive. Less grasping. And less empty. I feel like I want to stay here. To live in his love. Want more? Order your copy of Walking With God today

In Romans 8, Paul says something outrageous. He says that all our sufferings are "not worth comparing" with the glory that will be revealed in us. The human race has seen an unspeakable amount of suffering. What can possibly make that seem like nothing? "The glory that will be revealed in us" (8:18). The Great Restoration. Paul then goes on to say, "The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed" (v. 19). The release of a fully restored creation is being more or less held back, waiting upon our restoration. Only when we have been restored can we take our place again as the kings and queens of creation. Or did you not know? The day is coming when Christ will appoint you as one of his regents over his great and beautiful universe. This has been his plan all along.When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. Then the King will say to those on his right, "Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world." (Matt. 25:31-34, emphasis added)Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time? It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns. I tell you the truth, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. (Matt. 24:45-47, emphasis added)And they will reign for ever and ever. (Rev. 22:5, emphasis added) Want more? Order your copy of The Journey of Desire today

Now, rest is just one of the ways we receive the life of God. We stop, set all of our busyness down, and allow ourselves to be replenished. This is supposed to happen regularly. The original prescription was weekly. So why does rest feel like a luxury? Seriously, it feels irresponsible. We think we can drive ourselves like oxen fifty weeks a year, resurrect in a two-week vacation, then go back and do it all again. That is madness. My pushing and striving cut me off from the life I so desperately need. I don’t even think to stop and ask, Is this what you’d have me do, Lord? Do you want me to paint the bathroom? Volunteer at church? Stay late at work? So God sends this downpour to keep me from squandering my vacation by running like a greyhound. He loves me too much to leave me to my own devices. I’m back to the shepherd and the sheep. When the sheep follow the shepherd, they find pasture. They find life. Life doesn’t just magically come to us. We have to make ourselves available to it. There is a lifestyle that allows us to receive the life of God. I know that if I will live more intimately with Jesus and follow his voice, I will have a much better chance of finding the life I long for. I know it. If I will listen to his voice and let him set the pace, if I will cooperate in my transformation, I will be a much happier man. And so a new prayer has begun to rise within me. I am asking God, What is the life you want me to live? If we can get an answer to that question, it will change everything. Want more? Order your copy of Walking With God today

The question lodged deep in our hearts, hidden from our conscious minds, is: "Do you care for me, God?"What's under that question?Blaise Pascal, in his Pensées, says, "The heart has its reasons which reason knows nothing of." What's under that question is our personal stories, often punctuated by the Message of the Arrows: parents who were emotionally absent; bedtimes without words or hugs; ears that were too big and noses that were too small; others chosen for playground games while we were not; and prayers about all these things seemingly met with silence. And embedded in our stories, deep down in our heart, in a place so well guarded that they have rarely if ever been exposed to the light of day, are other grief-laden and often angry questions: "God, why did you allow this to happen to me? Why did you make me like this? What will you allow to happen next?" In the secret places of our heart, we believe God is the One who did not protect us from these things or even the One who perpetrated them upon us. Our questions about him make us begin to live with a deep apprehension that clings anxiously to the depths of our hearts ... "Do you really care for me, God?"This is the question that has shipwrecked many of our hearts, leaving them grounded on reefs of pain and doubt, no longer free to accompany us on spiritual pilgrimage. We might be able to rationalize away that question by telling ourselves that we need to be more careful, or that sometimes others are just bad. We can even breathe a sigh of relief when we realize that trouble has come from our own sin. But even the careful, legalistic, and constricted lifestyle that arises out of thinking we can avoid trouble through our own devices shipwrecks when the Arrows seem to strike us out of nowhere. What are we to make of God's wildness in allowing these things to happen? Want more? Order your copy of The Sacred Romance today

Our experience of Jesus is limited most often by the limits we put on him! A painful truth, but also a hopeful one. Perhaps we can take down some of those barriers. Most of the limits we put on Jesus happen unconsciously. Sometimes we place the limits intentionally. And of course, a trainload is dumped on us by our context (in which case the parable could begin, “One day a man was boarded up inside his house by his past,” or, “by the leaders of his religious community”). But I’m not looking to fix blame. I’m trying to help us find Jesus. As I said at the beginning of the book, though Jesus has been vandalized by both religion and the world, he is still alive and very much himself. He’s still the same beautiful outlaw, with the same personality — though it does require removing some debris nowadays to know him as he truly is. Step one to a deeper experience of Jesus is knowing what to look for. That’s why we have been looking at his personality, setting him free from the religious marshmallow. If you can hang on to this, an entire new world will open up for you. This is a Jesus you can actually love because this is who he is. Step two involves removing some of the debris that has been piled in the way, so that we can begin to experience him, share our lives with him. For example, if you believe, for whatever reason, that “Jesus doesn’t speak to me,” it’s going to be hard to hear him speaking to you. Or believe it was him when he does. For the very same reasons, if you hold in your heart that “Jesus doesn’t really love me,” as poor Jolie did, then it will be awfully hard to experience the love of Jesus. Are you following me? It is a stunning realization: You will find Jesus pretty much as you expect to. Want more? Order your copy of Beautiful Outlaw today

If we forget — no, when we forget — who God is, what He has done, and who we are in Him and to Him, we put ourselves in great peril. We cannot live well nor arrive at the end of our journey triumphant unless we remember. Yes, there are many things that help us to remember. But one that constantly surrounds us — if we will have the eyes to see — is nature itself. Creation shouts the glory of the Lord. It speaks of His character, His power, His generosity, His presence. It tells us of God’s beauty, His splendor, His majesty, and His goodness. I was reminded of this last summer when we spent a week surrounded by the majesty of the Tetons. The deep blue of Jackson Lake holding the gaze of the immovable jagged lines of mountains grand. The otherworldly sounds of bugling elk, varied and haunting, weaving through the air. The magnificent bulls running to chase one another off in their annual challenge of strength. Summer at its zenith like a ripe peach ready to fall. Greens hinting of gold, the last fling of intense summer heat wild in its glory. Natural beauty is more than a balm. It is a testament. Nature is God’s Pinterest page, reminding us that joy is the greatest reality. That there is beauty that is deep and untouchable. That there are rhythms to nature and tempos to life. Goodness and truth prevail. The promises of God are eternal. Sitting on our back porch the other morning, looking and listening as the quiet new day began, I was reminded again of all these things. I love the early morning hours. The stillness. The gentle breezes through the aspens. The light feet of a passing curious chipmunk. The flurry of a hummingbird as it wings its way to the feeder. Sunshine. Warmth. Beauty. God speaks through creation. And what does He speak of? Goodness. Presence. Intimacy. Care. Splendor. Strength. Tenderness. Love. Bounty. Magnificence. The prophet Isaiah wrote, “The mountains and the hills will break forth into shouts of joy before you” (Isa. 55:12 NASB). Of course they will.Want more? Get your copy of Defiant Joy today

Life is now a battle and a journey. As Eugene Peterson reminds us, “We must fight the forces that oppose our becoming whole; we must find our way through difficult and unfamiliar territory to our true home.” It’s not that there aren’t joy and beauty, love and adventure now — there are. The invasion of the kingdom has begun. But life in its fullness has yet to come. So we must take seriously the care of our hearts. We must watch over our desire with a fierce love and vigilance, as if we were protecting our most precious possession. We must do battle with the enemies of our hearts — those sirens that would seduce and shipwreck our desire and those arrows that aim to kill it outright. And we must journey forward, toward God, toward the Great Restoration and the Adventures to come. How awful to reach the end of our life’s road and find we haven’t brought our hearts along with us.So let me say it again: life is now a battle and a journey. This is the truest explanation for what is going on, the only way to rightly understand our experience. Life is not a game of striving and indulgence. It is not a long march of duty and obligation. It is not, as Henry Ford once said, “one damn thing after another.” Life is a desperate quest through dangerous country to a destination that is, beyond all our wildest hopes, indescribably good. Only by conceiving of our days in this manner can we find our way safely through. You see, different roads lead different places. To find the Land of Desire, you must take the Journey of Desire. You can’t get there by any other means. If we are to take up the trail and get on with our quest, we’ve got to get our hearts back...which means getting our desire back. Want more? Order your copy of The Journey of Desire today

When we forget (and oh, how we forget), our senses can trigger an awakening of remembrance and place, and suddenly we are back as though it were yesterday. Sense-memory is such an exquisite gift from God, especially our sense of smell; the olfactory system is the one most laden with memory. You’ve experienced this I’m sure — one whiff of cut grass, canned peaches, salt air or pine bark, and you are back in your dearest places and memories. For me, the sweet, moist, almost tobacco-like blend of cottonwood, willow, and river bottom—riparian ecosystems—will forever mean summer, adventure, wildness, family. As I watch the snow fall outside my window, I return to the stories of this past summer, and my soul is nourished. Comforted. Opened again to the goodness of God.Try this: name three beautiful truths that came to you last year, moments when you had utter clarity and your soul was practically rescued by it. No? How about this: name three delightful gift experiences from God in the last several months. You see what I mean. Forgetfulness is a spiritual pandemic ravaging humanity, with dangerous and lethal repercussions. This is why God strikes the bells to “remember” so often in the Old and New Testaments:Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them fade from your heart as long as you live. (Deuteronomy 4:9)In that day their strong cities ... will be like places abandoned to thickets and undergrowth. And all will be desolation. You have forgotten God your Savior; you have not remembered the Rock, your fortress. (Isaiah 17:9–10)Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; hold it fast. (Revelation 3:3)By the way, this intentional use of memory is a cure for one of the soul’s most common diseases, that “what have you done for me lately?” posture we fall into towards God. That unattractive attitude of ransomed Israel when they whined, “Sure, you delivered us from slavery; you’ve miraculously fed us every morning; but what about spring water? Can you do that? What about some meat?” I hate this part of me. Will you come through for my children this time? For this trip? This need? It’s embarrassing.Memory pulls us out by turning back to the goodness of God in our past. It allows us to savor the many gifts he has given. I’m suggesting you establish a practice of it. Want more? Order your copy of Get Your Life Back today

Walking with God leads to receiving his intimate counsel, and counseling leads to deep restoration. As we learn to walk with God and hear his voice, he is able to bring up issues in our hearts that need speaking to. Some of those wounds were enough to break our hearts, create a rift in the soul, and so we need his healing as well. This is something Jesus walks us into—sometimes through the help of another person who can listen and pray with us, sometimes with God alone. As David said in Psalm 23, he leads us away, to a quiet place, to restore the soul. Our first choice is to go with him there—to slow down, unplug, accept the invitation to come aside. You won't find healing in the midst of the Matrix. We need time in the presence of God. This often comes on the heels of God's raising some issue in our hearts or after we've just relived an event that takes us straight to that broken place, or waking as I did to a raw emotion.Teach me your way, O LORD, and I will walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name. I will praise you, O Lord my God, with all my heart; I will glorify your name forever. (Ps. 86:11-12)When we are in the presence of God, removed from distractions, we are able to hear him more clearly, and a secure environment has been established for the young and broken places in our hearts to surface. Want more? Order your copy of Waking the Dead today

Today’s Daily Reading is an excerpt from Morgan Snyder's book “Becoming a King”For many years, we were like just about everybody else: unconsciously forsaking honest soul rest, always going, with overfilled calendars and little to show in the category of true rest and simple delight. Sundays were much like other days, packed with activity and low on rest, restoration, or sacred space.Out of immense pain and burnout, we began our recovery and eventually chose to cultivate a lifestyle fueled by weekly and annual sabbath. One day a week is now a no-fly zone in our house. We don’t do things that aren’t somehow connected to Eden and the restoration of all things. These days are set aside for conversation, space, and any sorts of activities that allow us to hit pause on all the “not yet” and “not done,” choosing to delight in the goodness of the life we have experienced in God.In general when we sabbath, the cell phones are off, we don’t schedule things, we wake up and linger, and we play and take our time. It annoys friends and frustrates people who can’t find us (but I believe it’s my ministry to them now). It takes immense courage to stop and settle in, because you’re never done. One buddy lamented this afternoon, “I will die with emails in my in-box.”When do you truly stop and settle in? Not because the work is done, but because you have become the kind of person who is able to value a pause — and even more, a celebration, right within the “unfinished” — as fuel for the soul? Want more? Order your copy of Becoming a King today

Every era has its problems when it comes to knowing Jesus. One of ours is this: Having lost all confidence in the noble, the heroic, even the consistently good, we have come to celebrate the neurotic. Really. The heroes of our novels and movies are antiheroes, broken characters riddled with addiction and self-doubt. In fact, doubt — masquerading as humility — has become a condition for acceptance in our times. People of strong conviction and bold claims are suspect. We fear them. They might be a terrorist, or a Christian. Skepticism has become a virtue.This has quietly shaped a popular version of Jesus as a man not so much heroic as humanitarian, not a warrior operating behind enemy lines but just a humble man trying to do good in a hurting world. A man stuck in his personal Gethsemane. If he is doubting and uncertain, we feel better about ourselves. Now yes, yes — Jesus had his dark night of the soul. He didn’t live there, nor did he stay there. It was an abyss through which he passed. Through which he was able to pass, because of something much deeper within him. Want more? Order your copy of Beautiful Outlaw today

Your wounds brought messages with them. Lots of messages. Somehow they all usually land in the same place. They had a similar theme. “You’re worthless.” “You’re not a woman.” “You’re too much ... and not enough.” “You’re a disappointment.” “You are repulsive.” On and on they go. Because they were delivered with such pain, they felt true. They pierced our hearts, and they seemed so true. So we accepted the messages as fact. We embraced them as the verdict on us. As we said earlier, the vows we made as children act like a deep-seated agreement with the messages of our wounds. “Fine. If that’s how it is, then that’s how it is. I’ll live my life in the following way ...” The vows we made acted like a kind of covenant with the messages that came with our deep wounds. Those childhood vows are very dangerous things. We must renounce them. Before we are entirely convinced that they aren’t true, we must reject the messages of our wounds. It’s a way of unlocking the door to Jesus. Agreements lock the door from the inside. Renouncing the agreements unlocks the door to him. Jesus, forgive me for embracing these lies. This is not what you have said of me. You said I am your beloved, your cherished one. I renounce the agreements I made with [here you name the specific messages you've been living with. You know what they are.] I renounce the agreements I've been making with these message all these years. Bring the truth here, oh Spirit of Truth. I reject these lies. Want more? Order your copy of Captivating today

This stream of Counseling doesn't just flow to us directly from Christ, only from him; it flows through his people as well. We need others—and need them deeply. Yes, the Spirit was sent to be our Counselor. Yes, Jesus speaks to us personally. But often he works through another human being. The fact is, we are usually too close to our lives to see what's going on. Because it's our story we're trying to understand, we sometimes don't know what's true or false, what's real or imagined. We can't see the forest for the trees. It often takes the eyes of someone to whom we can tell our story, bare our soul. The more dire our straits, the more difficult it can be to hear directly from God.In every great story the hero or heroine must turn to someone older or wiser for the answer to some riddle. Dorothy seeks the Wizard; Frodo turns to Gandalf; Neo has Morpheus; and Curdie is helped by the Lady of the Silver Moon.Having a doctrine pass before the mind is not what the Bible means by knowing the truth. It's only when it reaches down deep into the heart that the truth begins to set us free, just as a key must penetrate a lock to turn it, or as rainfall must saturate the earth down to the roots in order for your garden to grow."Behold, you desire truth in the innermost being" (Ps. 51:6 NASB). Getting it there is the work of the stream we'll call Counseling. Want more? Order your copy of Waking the Dead today

Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. (John 15:4–5) How do we remain in vital union with him? By loving him, by obeying him, by surrendering more and more and more of ourselves to him. This is how Jesus lived, by the way. He modeled for us a totally surrendered life, a life lived in union with the Father: “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing. ... For I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it” (John 5:19; 12:49). He came in part to show us how it’s done. All that dynamic life you see coursing through him, he received it as we must do — through ongoing love and dependence upon God. Now, we must give our lives over to him in order to receive his life. Not just once, but as a regular practice. Of course there is more to this than saying a prayer. It would take another book to describe the ways we make ourselves available to his life. We find those practices that help us receive the life of God. Whether it be prayer, worship, silence, sacrament, or the gift of sunshine, sitting beside a stream, music, adventure — we seek out those things that help us to receive the life of God. You have a personal guide now; ask Jesus what to take up and what to set down, so that you might receive his life. By the way, this is the bottom-line test of anything claiming to be of Jesus: Does it bring life? If it doesn’t, drop it like a rattlesnake. And you will find that the religious never, ever brings life. Ever. That is its greatest exposure.Want more? Order your copy of Beautiful Outlaw today

Who among us has not suffered betrayal at the hands of a trusted friend? Who among us has not shrunk away in response to being hurt? Which one of us has not been responsible for wounding another? We all have.We all have.We need Jesus. We need mercy. We need healing. We are not meant to live this life alone, and we won’t get very far along on our journey if we try. We don’t have the luxury of insisting we never be hurt again. We don’t get to insist on anything, really. Except maybe we can insist on continuing to press into Jesus, no matter what.He’s here. He’s waiting. He has never betrayed you, and he never will. He is the source of our true identity. He is the one we must look to first to fill us with truth, acceptance, and love. Then we can bring our hearts, be they bursting with joy or battered by life, to our friends without demanding that they fill us. We can offer ourselves, open to receive good gifts from them but vigilant to stay close to our God and screening every experience, every word, through him. He has promised to never leave you or forsake you. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He is perfect love, and he loves you perfectly. And he’s not going anywhere. Want more? Order your copy of Becoming Myself today

If you have any doubts as to whether or not God loves wildness, spend a night in the woods ... alone. Take a walk out in a thunderstorm. Go for a swim with a pod of killer whales. Get a bull moose mad at you. Whose idea was this, anyway? The Great Barrier Reef with its great white sharks, the jungles of India with their tigers, the deserts of the Southwest with all those rattle-snakes — would you describe them as "nice" places? Most of the earth is not safe; but it's good. That struck me a little too late when hiking in to find the upper Kenai River in Alaska. My buddy Craig and I were after the salmon and giant rainbow trout that live in those icy waters. We were warned about bears, but didn't really take it seriously until we were deep into the woods. Grizzly signs were everywhere — salmon strewn about the trail, their heads bitten off. Piles of droppings the size of small dogs. Huge claw marks on the trees, about head-level. We're dead, I thought. What are we doing out here?It then occurred to me that after God made all this, he pronounced it good, for heaven's sake. It's his way of letting us know he rather prefers adventure, danger, risk, the element of surprise. This whole creation is unapologetically wild. God loves it that way. Want more? Order your copy of Wild at Heart today

A Story. An Epic.Something hidden in the ancient past.Something dangerous now unfolding.Something waiting in the future for us to discover.Some crucial role for us to play.Christianity, in its true form, tells us that there is an Author and that he is good, the essence of all that is good and beautiful and true, for he is the source of all these things. It tells us that he has set our hearts' longings within us, for he has made us to live in an Epic. It warns that the truth is always in danger of being twisted and corrupted and stolen from us because there is a Villain in the Story who hates our hearts and wants to destroy us. It calls us up into a Story that is truer and deeper than any other, and assures us that there we will find the meaning of our lives.What if ?What if all the great stories that have ever moved you, brought you joy or tears — what if they are telling you something about the true Story into which you were born, the Epic into which you have been cast?We won't begin to understand our lives, or what this so-called gospel is that Christianity speaks of, until we understand the Story in which we have found ourselves. For when you were born, you were born into an Epic that has already been under way for quite some time. It is a Story of beauty and intimacy and adventure, a Story of danger and loss and heroism and betrayal. Want more? Order your copy of Epic today

What does it mean to be defiantly joyful in this moment when I am dwelling on the ancient path of shame and disappointment in myself? Those paths are made of quicksand. I need a Savior. I have one. My friend Lisa Beck says that God planned our rescue before we even knew we were in trouble. I’m in trouble. I know it now. And the temptation is to hate myself for it. Do you know this place sometimes? Did you get irritated with your spouse this morning over some silly thing and speak to them with a stinging contempt no one deserves? Did you buy that alluring thing when you had pledged to stay within your budget? In fact, left alone, the little hard kernel of self-judgment grows like an aggressive cancer, wreaking havoc in my life. The small stone becomes a massive rock that is too large for me to move. But God — still two of my favorite words — but God is in the business of moving stones. There is no ancient, grave-sealing, love-blocking weight that He cannot overcome. And I have a part to play. So do you. The core of my heart needs to align with the truth that judging myself harshly is neither my right nor even remotely godly. God has asked me to renounce self-judgment, so, as valid as it feels, I am obeying. Renouncing judgment breaks the painful claim of hatred I’ve imposed upon myself and allows love to come in. It allows grace to come in—both for me and for others. Rather than becoming prickly and defensive, I give up my position as judge and hand it over to the One who is the rightful Judge, Jesus Christ. If He can forgive me and love me, well then, who am I to withhold love and forgiveness? I must choose again in this moment to surrender to God. I have to choose to believe Him and all the incredibly marvelous things He says about me and feels toward me. And with that, my heart rises. The chains of self-contempt are shattered by His never-changing grace and give way to the holy chords of singing repentance. Conviction takes the place of condemnation, and I walk into the joy of the prodigal being embraced by the Father. He has not turned His face away. He has been waiting, waiting and watching with keen eyes that have beckoned my return all along. I choose to return and raise the gaze of my soul to His ever-kind face. He has not been judging me. He has been wooing me out of my sin. Want more? Order your copy of Defiant Joy today

Now, I know my fellow evangelicals will rush to protest that it is the cross of Jesus Christ alone that opens the way to heaven for any person. No amount of personal righteousness could ever suffice. I believe this. It is grace alone — the unmerited and undeserved forgiveness of God — that opens the way for any of us to know God, let alone come into his kingdom. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God — not by works, so that no one can boast.” (Ephesians 2:8–9) Thank God for that.However, you also find in Jesus and throughout the scriptures a pretty serious call to a holy life.Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord (Hebrews 12:14)For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. (1 Thessalonians 4:7)As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.” (1 Peter 1:14–16)In fact, one of the most stunning things about Jesus is how such a gracious, kind, patient, and forgiving man holds — without so much as wavering — such a high standard of holiness. On the one hand, we have the beautiful story of a woman caught in the act of adultery — and how horrifying and humiliating would that be? The mob drags her before Jesus, ready to stone her (they actually did this sort of thing, and not that long ago; it still happens in some Muslim countries today).It is brilliant, and poignant. The town square is now deserted; only the woman and Jesus remain. She is probably wrapped in nothing but a bed sheet and her shame. He rescues her from a terrible death, and then forgives her. It feels as if the scene could not be more powerfully reported. What more could be said? But wait, Jesus has one last word for her:“Go on your way. From now on, don’t sin.”Yes, grace reigns in the Kingdom of God. But right there alongside it is an unflinching call to holiness. Go and sin no more. Want more? Order your copy of Free to Live today

The thing you are made for is the renewal of all things. God has given you a heart for his kingdom—not the wispy vagaries of a cloudy heaven, but the sharp reality of the world made new. This is one of the most important things you can know about yourself. Did you know this about yourself? When was the last time you told yourself, as you looked in the mirror in the morning, Good morning; you have a heart for the kingdom. This explains so much; it will be such an enormous help to you. It explains your anger and all of your addictions. It explains your cry for justice, and it also explains the growing hopelessness, resignation, cynicism, and defeat. If we will listen with kindness and compassion to our own souls, we will hear the echoes of a hope so precious we can barely put words to it, a wild hope we can hardly bear to embrace. God put it there. He also breathed the corresponding promise into the earth; it is the whisper that keeps coming to us in moments of golden goodness. But of course. “God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart” (Ecclesiastes 3:11 NLT). The secret to your unhappiness and the answer to the agony of the earth are one and the same—we are longing for the kingdom of God. We are aching for the restoration of all things. That is the only hope strong enough, brilliant enough, glorious enough to overcome the heartache of this world. One morning you will wake, and sunlight will be coming in through the curtains. You will hear the sound of birds singing in the garden; delicious scents of summer will waft in on the breeze. As you open your eyes you realize your body feels young and whole. No tormenting thoughts will rush in to assault you; you realize that your soul feels young and whole too. As you sit up to look around the bedroom filled with light, you hear the sounds of laughter and running water outside and you will know—it is going to be a wonderful day. Only this hope can serve as the anchor for our souls: We who have run for our very lives to God have every reason to grab the promised hope with both hands and never let go. It’s an unbreakable spiritual lifeline. (Hebrews 6:19 The Message) So let us chase it now with all of our being. Want more? Order your copy of All Things New today

The book “Killing Lions” is a conversation between John and Sam Eldredge about the trials young men face. [John] Either we have God or we don’t. Either he is our ally, or we are on our own. What you believe about this affects everything else. If you don’t have God—and I mean as an intimate ally, right by your side—you must do your best to figure out a path for your life. This is of course how most men live. The entire world is based upon this assumption—universities, markets, career fields, economies. I have no counsel to give you here, for I have rejected that view of the world and cannot tell you much of how it works or how to outwit it. I reject the premise the whole house of cards is built on. “There is a God; he is our Father” changes everything. Now, let me add quickly that when I say “believing in God” I’m not referring to a casual acknowledgment of his existence. If you do have God, you must act like it. For he does not lend his help to those who take him casually—just as you don’t offer the treasures of your friendship to those who take you casually. You must seek him with all your heart so that you might discover his help, align yourself with where and how he is moving, and take advantage of all he is bringing you. God promised us, “But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul” (Deut. 4:29). However, there is a condition in that promise: if you seek him with all your heart and soul. Most Christians forget that part, and then wonder why God doesn’t seem to be more present in their lives. Want more? Order your copy of Killing Lions today

The heart is the connecting point, the meeting place between any two persons. The kind of deep soul intimacy we crave with God and with others can be experienced only from the heart. I know a man who took his daughter to dinner; she was surprised, delighted. For years she had been hoping he would pursue her. When they had been seated, he pulled out his Day Timer and began to review the goals he had set for her that year. "I wanted to burst into tears and run out of the restaurant," she said. We don't want to be someone's project; we want to be the desire of their heart. Gerald May laments, "By worshiping efficiency, the human race has achieved the highest level of efficiency in history, but how much have we grown in love?"We've done the same to our relationship with God. Christians have spent their whole lives mastering all sorts of principles, done their duty, carried on the programs of their church ... and never known God intimately, heart to heart. The point is not an efficient life of activity — the point is intimacy with God. "You will find me," God says, "when you seek me with all your heart" (Jer. 29:13). As Oswald Chambers said, "So that is what faith is — God perceived by the heart."What more can be said, what greater case could be made than this: to find God, you must look with all your heart. To remain present to God, you must remain present to your heart. To hear his voice, you must listen with your heart. To love him, you must love with all your heart. You cannot be the person God meant you to be, and you cannot live the life he meant you to live, unless you live from the heart. Want more? Order your copy of Waking the Dead today

Some of the sentences the Enemy accuses each of us with have been there since we were young; others were added in the ensuing years as Satan saw opportunity to strengthen our fear and cynicism through “interpreting” those events in our lives that seem to verify our particular Message of the Arrows. His purpose is to convince us that we need to create a story to live in that is not as dangerous as the Sacred Romance. As long as we do not admit that the deep things of our heart are there — the rejection and hurt, the shame and sorrow, the anger and rage —these rooms of our heart become darkened and the Enemy sets up shop there to accuse us.I am not just speaking metaphorically or poetically when I refer to the Enemy accusing us. Each of us, Christians included, is oppressed directly and specifically by the Enemy in the way I am describing. This attack happens in the spiritual realm, using the sentences and voices we are familiar with from the past. We feel as if we are simply speaking to ourselves in our heads. And this is the Enemy’s first deception: “I am not here. It’s just you struggling with all these things.” Many of us live our whole lives being defeated by this accusation. And indeed, deep in our hearts, the anxiety, shame, and self-contempt we often feel are like the attack of a roaring lion no matter what calmness or other personality device we learn to cover it with on the outside. We hide the lion’s roar because he has convinced us that it is just us and we would be roundly scorned if we were to admit these things to others. Want more? Order your copy of The Sacred Romance today

I’ve often wondered at the long lists found many places in the Bible that recount a roster of men as “the son of so-and-so, who was the son of so-and-so.” You’ll find many of these rosters in the Scriptures, and elsewhere in ancient literature. Perhaps these accounts reveal something we hadn’t noticed before—a father-view of the world held by those who wrote them, shared by those who would read them. Perhaps they saw in the father-son legacy the most significant of all legacies, that to know a man’s father was in great part to know the man. And then, if you step back further to have a look, you’ll see that the God of the Bible is portrayed as a great Father — not primarily as mother, not merely as Creator — but as Father. It opens a new horizon for us.Want more? Order your copy of Fathered by God today

The deepest convictions of our heart are formed by stories and reside there in the images and emotions of story. As a young boy, around the time my heart began to suspect that the world was a fearful place and I was on my own to find my way through it, I read the story of a Scottish discus thrower from the nineteenth century. He lived in the days before professional trainers and developed his skills alone, in the highlands of his native village. He even made his own iron discus from the description he read in a book. What he did not know was that the discus used in competition was made of wood with an outer rim of iron. His was solid metal and weighed three or four times as much as those being used by his would-be challengers. This committed Scotsman marked out in his field the distance of the current record throw and trained day and night to be able to match it. For nearly a year, he labored under the self-imposed burden of the extra weight. But he became very, very good. He reached the point at which he could throw his iron discus the record distance, maybe farther. He was ready.My Scotsman (I had begun to closely identify with him) traveled south to England for his first competition. When he arrived at the games, he was handed the official wooden discus—which he promptly threw like a tea saucer. He set a new record, a distance so far beyond those of his competitors that no one could touch him. He thus remained the uncontested champion for many years.Something in my heart connected with this story. So, that's how you do it: Train under a great burden and you will be so far beyond the rest of the world you will be untouchable. It became a defining image for my life, formed in and from a story.…As Eugene Peterson said, "We live in narrative, we live in story. Existence has a story shape to it. We have a beginning and an end, we have a plot, we have characters." Story is the language of the heart. …So if we're going to find the answer to the riddle of the earth — and of our own existence — we'll find it in story. Want more? Order your copy of The Sacred Romance today

Now—is Jesus more like Mother Teresa or William Wallace? The answer is ... it depends. If you're a leper, an outcast, a pariah of society whom no one has ever touched, if all you have ever longed for is just one kind word, then Christ is the incarnation of tender mercy. On the other hand, if you're a Pharisee, one of those self-appointed doctrine police ... watch out. On more than one occasion Jesus "picks a fight" with those notorious hypocrites.One Sabbath day as Jesus was teaching in a synagogue, he saw a woman who had been crippled by an evil spirit. She had been bent double for eighteen years and was unable to stand up straight. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, "Woman, you are healed of your sickness!" Then he touched her, and instantly she could stand straight. How she praised and thanked God! But the leader in charge of the synagogue was indignant that Jesus had healed her on the Sabbath day. "There are six days of the week for working," he said to the crowd." Come on those days to be healed, not on the Sabbath." But the Lord replied, "You hypocrite! You work on the Sabbath day! Don't you untie your ox or your donkey from their stalls on the Sabbath and lead them out for water? Wasn't it necessary for me, even on the Sabbath day, to free this dear woman from the bondage in which Satan has held her for eighteen years?" This shamed his enemies. And all the people rejoiced at the wonderful things he did. (Luke 13:10-17 NLT)Does Jesus tiptoe around the issue, so as not to "rock the boat"? Does he drop the subject in order to "preserve church unity"? Nope. He walks right into it, he baits them, he picks a fight. Christ draws the enemy out, exposes him for what he is, and shames him in front of everyone. The Lord is a gentleman??? Want more? Order your copy of Wild at Heart today

All sorts of awful things can seem to issue from your heart — anger, lust, fear, petty jealousies. If you think it's you, a reflection of what's really going on in your heart, it will disable you. It could stop your journey dead in its tracks. What you've encountered is either the voice of your flesh or an attempt of the Enemy to distress you by throwing all sorts of thoughts your way and blaming you for it. You must proceed on this assumption: your heart is good. If it seems that some foul thing is at work there, say to yourself, Well then — this is not my heart. My heart is good. I reject this. Remember Paul in Romans 7? This is not me. This is not me. And carry on in your journey. Over time you'll grow familiar with the movements of your heart, and who is trying to influence you there.We do the same with any counsel or word that presents itself as being from God, but contradicts what he has said to us in his written Word. We walk with wisdom and revelation. When I hear something that seems really unwise, I test it again and again before I launch out. The flesh will try to use your "freedom" to get you to do things you shouldn't do. And now that the Enemy knows you are trying to walk with God and tune in to your heart, he'll play the ventriloquist and try to deceive you there. Any "word" or suggestion that brings discouragement, condemnation, accusation — that is not from God. Neither is confusion, nor any counsel that would lead you to disobey what you do know. Reject it all, and carry on in your journey. Yes, of course, God needs to convict us of sin, warn us of wrong movements in the soul — but the voice of God is never condemning (Rom. 8:1), never harsh or accusing. His conviction brings a desire for repentance; Satan's accusation kills our hearts (2 Cor. 7:10). Want more? Order your copy of Waking the Dead today

Jesus is everywhere. But let me give you a grace that will help you see him: He said to them, “Therefore every teacher of the law who has been instructed about the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old.” (Matthew 13:52) This is such a beautiful, gracious, and stabilizing verse. It is immensely kind; it is also immensely cunning. So very like Jesus. Think of it — Jesus was shaking some of his listeners’ most cherished assumptions, while inviting them into very new ways of understanding God. The veil was coming down — forever. It was a moment ripe for diminishment. Or defensiveness. He moved quickly to dismantle the overreactions. On one hand, some of those present are leaping to, All these years I have been wrong?! (It will help to add a Jewish accent.) So much time in Hebrew school and for what? I am such a schmutz. They throw ashes on their heads, toss their tallith in the ash can. Diminishment. Certain personalities tend this direction. I know I can. For years, whenever I’d hear one of those dramatic stories reported by missionaries — the ones where Jesus appears in the midst of a kidnapping or attempted execution, blinds the group of machete-wielding rebels and the would-be martyr walks out unharmed, then leads the village to Christ and becomes best friends with the witchdoctor — I would think to myself, Geez. I’m such a loser when it comes to Jesus. I don’t have anything like that to share. That’s the real stuff. I’m playing with blocks on the kindergarten floor. Something I haven’t experienced eclipses all that I have known of God. Jesus is trying to prevent that plunge into diminishment by saying that our “old” treasures are treasures.Want more? Order your copy of Beautiful Outlaw today

"The spiritual life cannot be made suburban,” said Howard Macey. “It is always frontier and we who live in it must accept and even rejoice that it remains untamed.” The greatest obstacle to realizing our dreams is the false self’s hatred of mystery. That’s a problem, you see, because mystery is essential to adventure. More than that, mystery is the heart of the universe and the God who made it. The most important aspects of any man’s world— his relationship with his God and with the people in his life, his calling, the spiritual battles he’ll face — every one of them is fraught with mystery. But that is not a bad thing; it is a joyful, rich part of reality and essential to our soul’s thirst for adventure.There are no formulas with God. Period. So there are no formulas for the man who follows him. God is a Person, not a doctrine. He operates not like a system — not even a theological system — but with all the originality of a truly free and alive person. “The realm of God is dangerous,” says Archbishop Anthony Bloom. “You must enter into it and not just seek information about it.” Take Joshua and the Battle of Jericho. The Israelites are staged to make their first military strike into the Promised Land and there’s a lot hanging on this moment — the morale of the troops, their confidence in Joshua, not to mention their reputation that will precede them to every other enemy that awaits. This is their D-Day, so to speak, and word is going to get around. How does God get the whole thing off to a good start? He has them march around the city blowing trumpets for a week; on the seventh day he has them do it seven times and then give a big holler. It works marvelously, of course. And you know what? It never happens again. Israel never uses that tactic again. Want more? Order your copy of Wild at Heart today

I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. (John 16:12-13)There's more that Jesus wants to say to you, much more, and now that his Spirit resides in your heart, the conversation can continue. Many good people never hear God speak to them personally for the simple fact that they've never been told that he does. But he does—generously, intimately. "He who belongs to God hears what God says" (John 8:47).The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep. The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice...I am the good shepherd. (John 10:2-4, 11)You don't just leave sheep to find their way in the world. They are famous for getting lost, being attacked by wild animals, falling into some pit, and that is why they must stay close to the shepherd, follow his voice. And no shepherd could be called good unless he personally guided his flock through danger. But that is precisely what he promises to do. He wants to speak to you; he wants to lead you to good pasture. Now, it doesn't happen in an instant. Walking with God is a way of life. It's something to be learned; our ability to hear God's voice and discern his word to us grows over time. As Brother Lawrence said it, we "practice the presence of God." Want more? Order your copy of Waking the Dead today

Something awful has happened, something terrible. Something worse, even, than the fall of man. For in that greatest of all tragedies, we merely lost Paradise — and with it, everything that made life worth living. What has happened since is unthinkable: we've gotten used to it. We're broken in to the idea that this is just the way things are. The people who walk in great darkness have adjusted their eyes.Regardless of our religious or philosophical beliefs, most of us live as though this life is pretty much the way things are supposed to be. We dismiss the whispers of joy with a cynical "Been there, done that." That way we won't have to deal with the Haunting. I was just talking with some friends about summer vacations, and I recommended that they visit the Tetons. "Oh, yeah, we've been there. Nice place." Dismissal. And we deaden our sorrows with cynicism as well, sporting a bumper sticker that says, "Life sucks. Then you die." Then we try to get on with life. We feed the cat, pay the bills, watch the news, and head off to bed, so we can do it all again tomorrow. Standing before the open fridge, I'm struck by what I've just watched. Famine in Africa. Genocide...where? Someplace I can't even pronounce. Corruption in Washington. Life as usual. It always ends with the anchor folding his notes and offering a pleasant "Good night." Good night? That's it? You have nothing else to say? You've just regaled us with the horrors of the world we live in, and all you can say is "Good night"? Just once I wish he would pause at the close of his report, take a long, deep breath, and then say, "How far we are from home," or "If only we had listened," or "Thank God, our sojourn here is drawing to an end." It never happens. I doubt it ever will. And not one of us gives it a second thought. It's just the way things are.Want more? Order your copy of The Journey of Desire today

In order to understand what compels Jesus, you must keep in mind the distinction between the laws of God and the laws of men, and furthermore, that magnificent difference between the spirit of the law and the letter of the law.Jesus sets before us a deeper, truer view of holiness. The issues are first and foremost internal, before they are ever external. You can murder someone without ever pulling a trigger. You break the Sabbath if come Sunday night you’re exhausted. Especially if you’ve been exhausted by church. Letter, and spirit. All those external “rules of men” do nothing to promote a genuine holiness. But they do make people Pharisees. By the truckload. Want more? Order your copy of Beautiful Outlaw today

"The glory of God is man fully alive." (Saint Irenaeus)When I first stumbled across this quote my initial reaction was ... You’re kidding me. Really? I mean, is that what you’ve been told? That the purpose of God — the very thing he’s staked his reputation on — is your coming fully alive? Huh. Well, that’s a different take on things. It made me wonder, What are God’s intentions toward me? What is it I’ve come to believe about that? Yes, we’ve been told any number of times that God does care, and there are some pretty glowing promises given to us in Scripture along those lines. But on the other hand, we have the days of our lives, and they have a way of casting a rather long shadow over our hearts when it comes to God’s intentions toward us in particular. I read the quote again, “The glory of God is man fully alive,” and something began to stir in me. Could it be?I turned to the New Testament to have another look, read for myself what Jesus said he offers. “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10). Wow. That’s different from saying, “I have come to forgive you. Period.” Forgiveness is awesome, but Jesus says here he came to give us life. Hmmm. Sounds like ol’ Irenaeus might be on to something. “I am the bread of life” (John 6:48). “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him” (John 7:38). The more I looked, the more this whole theme of life jumped off the pages. I mean, it’s everywhere.“Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life” (Prov. 4:23).“You have made known to me the path of life” (Ps. 16:11).“In him was life, and that life was the light of men” (John 1:4).“Come to me to have life” (John 5:40).“Tell the people the full message of this new life” (Acts 5:20). Want more? Order your copy of Waking the Dead today

As a wise old sage was praying with me through some of the painful memories of my life, I was immediately reminded of the time in middle school when my first girlfriend broke my heart. These wounds can linger for a lifetime if you let them — the first cut is the deepest, and all that. We asked Jesus to take me back to the memory. I saw us, the girl and me; it was that fateful summer day. We were in the living room, just as it happened. Then I saw Jesus enter the room. He was quite stern with her, and it surprised me. That mattered to you? I wondered. Very much, he said. Then Jesus turned to me. I felt his love. I realized I could let the whole thing go. It was so healing. To understand that Jesus is angry about what happened to you is very, very important in understanding his personality but also in your relationship with him and for your healing. What I love about these encounters is that every time — every time — Jesus is so true to his real personality. Sometimes fierce, sometimes gentle, always generous, and often very playful. Want more? Order your copy of Beautiful Outlaw today

Our life is a story. A rather long and complicated story that has unfolded over time. There are many scenes, large and small, and many "firsts." Your first step; your first word; your first day of school. There was your first best friend; your first recital; your first date; your first love; your first kiss; your first heartbreak. If you stop and think of it, your heart has lived through quite a story thus far. And over the course of that story your heart has learned many things. Some of what you learned is true; much of it is not. Not when it comes to the core questions about your heart and the heart of God. Is your heart good? Does your heart really matter? What has life taught you about that? Imagine for a moment that God is walking softly beside you. You sense his presence, feel his warm breath. He says, "Tell me your sorrows." What would you say in reply? "And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever — the Spirit of truth" (John 14:16-17). Come again? How would you feel if your spouse or a friend said to you, "I think you need some counseling, and so I've arranged for it. You start tomorrow; it'll probably take years"? I've got five bucks that says you'd get more than a little defensive. The combination of our pride — I don't need any therapy, thank you very much — and the fact that it's become a profession — Freud and Prozac and all that — has kept most of us from realizing that, in fact, we do need counseling. All of us. Jesus sends us his Spirit as Counselor; that ought to make it clear. In fact, we apparently need quite a lot of counsel — the Spirit isn't just stopping in to give us a tune-up; not even an annual checkup. He has come to stay. Want more? Order your copy of Waking the Dead today

God created us in freedom to be his intimate allies, and he will not give up on us. He seeks his allies still. Not religion. Not good church people. Lovers. Allies. Friends of the deepest sort.I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the LORD. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart. (Jer. 24:7)It is the most beautiful of all love stories. On the other hand, Kierkegaard's tale The King and the Maiden doesn't capture the cost the King will have to pay to ransom his Beloved. He'll have to die.Have you noticed that in the great stories the hero must often die to win the freedom of his beloved?William Wallace is slowly and brutally tortured for daring to oppose the wicked king. He is executed (upon a cross), and yet his death breaks the grip that darkness has held over Scotland. Neo is the Chosen One, faster and more daring than any other before him. Even so, he is killed—shot in the chest at point-blank range. His death and resurrection shatter the power of the Matrix, set the captives free.Aslan dies upon the stone table for the traitor Edmund and for all Narnia. Maximus dies in the arena to win the freedom of his friends and all Rome. They are all pictures of an even greater sacrifice.The Son of Man ... [came] to give his life as a ransom for many. (Matt. 20:28)Remember, God warned us back in the Garden that the price of our mistrust and disobedience would be death. Not just a physical death, but a spiritual death — to be separated from God and life and all the beauty, intimacy, and adventure forever. Through an act of our own free will, we became the hostages of the Kingdom of Darkness and death. The only way out is ransom. Want more? Order your copy of Epic today

Today’s Daily Reading is an excerpt from Morgan Snyder's new book, Becoming a King“What does a man need to survive?” I posed this question years ago to my very young son as we were headed out on an adventure.After careful and honest consideration, he responded, “A wallet and a phone.”It was brilliant. And painful. Brilliant because of his perceptivity about our culture, painful because the culture in which my kids are being raised gives the false perception that his response is true. Aldo Leopold, in A Sand County Almanac, offered a thought that implied part of the antidote to a world without men. “There are two spiritual dangers in not owning a farm. One is the danger of supposing that breakfast comes from the grocery, and the other is believing that heat comes from the furnace.” Something in us recoils. Right. These spiritual dangers have become institutionalized norms in our technological age. Anything you need you can order online, even get it shipped for free in one day via Amazon Prime. All that’s required is a few clicks. Yet in this age of über-convenience, something inside us grows soft, atrophies, and dies.How do we avoid the spiritual dangers Leopold described? Dang, it’s hard. After all, most days it feels like heat does come from the furnace and our breakfast does come from the grocery. And on any given day, doesn’t it feel true that what we really need to survive are a wallet and a phone?After years of choosing to risk responding to God’s initiation of my soul and moving toward parts of me that remained untrained and untested, last night we bucked that trend. With elk steaks hot off the grill and a roaring fire from freshly split Colorado aspens gleaned with our own hands and chainsaw, something was healing in my friend and me and in our kingdoms. We avoided — at least for a moment — the spiritual dangers of which Leopold warned. For a moment, something was restored, strengthened. Our food hadn’t come from the grocery; our heat hadn’t come from the furnace. It took time to reverse the trend and recover these atrophied places in our masculine soul. It required consenting to initiation uniquely scripted by God. And it was good, really good. Want more? Order your copy of Becoming a King today

"The King is enthralled by your beauty." Psalm 45:11Lovely little six-year-old Lacey was visiting our ministry headquarters the other day, going from office to office, swinging on the door frame and asking with a smile, "Would you like to hear my song?" Her face kissed by the sun with charming freckles, two front teeth missing and eyes dancing with merriment, who could refuse her? She didn't really care if she was an interruption. I doubt the thought crossed her mind. She sang her newly made-up song fully expecting to be delighted in, then skipped down the hall to grace the occupant of the next office. She was like a ray of summer sun, or, better, a garden fairy, flitting from office to office. She was a little girl in her glory, unashamed in her desire to delight, and be delighted in.Remember twirling skirts? Most little girls go through a season where they will not wear anything if it does not twirl (and if it sparkles, so much the better). Hours and hours of endless play result from giving little girls a box filled with hats, scarves, necklaces, clothes. Dime store beads are priceless jewels; hand-me-down pumps are glass slippers. Grandma's nightie a ballroom gown. Once dressed, they dance around the house or preen in front of a mirror. Their young hearts intuitively want to know they are lovely. Some will ask with words, "Am I lovely?" Others will simply ask with their eyes. Verbal or not, whether wearing a shimmery dress or covered in mud, all little girls want to know. As a young songwriter recently wrote,I want to be beautiful And make you stand in awe Look inside my heart And be amazed I want to hear you say Who I am is quite enough I just want to be worthy of love And beautiful.(Bethany Dillon) Want more? Order your copy of Captivating today

The word I choose to describe Jesus is life. Pure, lush, exuberant Life. Life that proves to be unquenchable, unstoppable, indestructible. As John summarized the whole affair, “In him was life, and that light was the light of men” (1:4). It sure was. Let’s turn back to nature one more time. It is such a liberating force from the religious fog, because it is God’s and it speaks volumes about his true—pardon the pun— nature. What does creation say about his life? A single tree is enough to make me worship—the beauty, the elegance, the perseverance, the life coursing through it. If I were given a lifetime, I could never make one myself. Now—have you ever stopped to imagine how many trees there are on this planet? The Taiga forest spans the globe through Sweden, Siberia, Alaska and Canada. It contains one-third of all the trees on earth and produces enough oxygen to replenish earth’s supply. That’s one forest. Have you ever wondered how many fish are swimming our oceans and seas? About seven hundred billion sardines are harvested each year off the coast of Peru—that is one tiny subspecies, off one coastline. There are a lot of fish finning around out there. It boggles the imagination. Come closer, take a microscopic view of our world. There are hundreds to thousands of organisms in a single drop of pond water—protozoans, amoebas, rotifers, water bears. One drop. How many drops fill a bucket, how many buckets a pond? And there’s a lot of ponds on this planet. The earth is like a massive petri dish, teeming and trumpeting with life in such staggering diversity and abundance that science still hasn’t come close to cataloging it all. Nature is bursting with life—even after all these years of war. Now, what would happen if this sort of life expressed itself in a man? Exactly. It did. When Jesus fed the five thousand, the tally counted only men. So the crowd was probably more like ten thousand including women and children. From fives loaves and two (small) fish. With leftovers. He doesn’t even say anything in Cana after, “Fill the jars.” The 180 gallons of wine are suddenly just ... there. With a shout he raises Lazarus from the dead. One word best describes what is going on here: life. Jesus really is the Lord of Life. Now for a wonder of wonders—not only do you get Jesus, you get to live his life. Really. Everything you’ve seen here, everything you’ve read about, this life is yours for the asking. This is what Jesus believed. This was his understanding of our desperation and his mission.Want more? Order your copy of Beautiful Outlaw today

I had my own tin-foil-brain, fried-soul kind of day. My rescue didn't take place until I had thrashed through most of the calamity. It was the kind of day when everything seems to go sideways from the moment you get out of bed; I’ll bet you’ve had one of these:There’s no milk, so there’s no cereal, and you’re late anyways, so there’s no breakfast. You’re halfway to work when you realize you forgot your phone — and who can live without their phone these days — so you’re late to work because you went back and got your phone and now you’re behind on everything. People are tweaked at you. You can’t answer that urgent email someone keeps asking about, because you’re waiting for an answer yourself, but the person who has the answer took the morning off for a "doctor's appointment" (sure you did, you think, you're out for a ride, you slouch). On it goes.You look forward to lunch as your first chance to come up for air, but the line at your favorite taco joint is out the door, and though you should have stayed, you’re already well on your way to totally fried so you leave in frustration, which only makes you skip lunch, which justifies your use of chocolate and caffeine to see you through the afternoon. But that completely takes your legs out from under you, and all you end up accomplishing is making a list of the things you need to do, which overwhelms you. By the time you get home you are seriously fried.I was strung out, deep in a vat of anger, frustration, self-indulging cynicism, and fatigue. A dangerous place to be. The next move would be rescue or the knockout punch. After a cold dinner I went out on the porch and just sat there. I knew I needed rescue, and I knew the nearest hope of that was the porch. It was a beautiful Indian summer evening, the kind where the heat of the day has warmed the breezes, but you can also feel the cool from the mountains beginning to trickle down like refreshing streams. The crickets were going at it full bore, as they do when their season is about over, and the sunset was putting on a Western Art show. I could feel the rescue begin to enter my body and soul. Nature began its gentle work.I let out a few deep sighs — “Spirit sighs,” as a friend calls them, meaning your spirit is breathing in the Spirit of God and you find yourself letting go of all the mess, letting go of everything. They weren’t cynical or defeated sighs; they were “letting it all go” sighs. My body relaxed, which made me realize how tense I’d been all day. My heart started coming to the surface, as it often does when I can get away into nature and let beauty have its effect on me. Mind you — I didn’t get to the beach. I’m not canoeing some mountain lake. I’m simply sitting on my back porch. It doesn’t take much; rescue is always at hand. Want more? Order your copy of Get Your Life Back today

Life is a journey of the heart that requires the mind—not the other way around. The church sometimes gets this backward and makes knowing the right things the center of life. It’s not; the heart is the center of life. Desire is always where the action is. However, staying alive to our desire is not enough; we know that only too well. We must bring the truth into our hearts to guard and to guide our desire; this is the other half of our mission. With a recovery of heart and soul taking place in many quarters, my fear now is that we will abandon the pursuit of truth and try to base our journey on our feelings and intuition. “Follow your heart” is becoming a popular message in our culture. Or as Sting sings, “Trust your soul.” It will not work. Our spiritual fathers and mothers knew this only too well. In The Imitation of Christ, Thomas à Kempis warned, “Our own opinion and our own sense do often deceive us, and they discern but little.” We must cling to the truth for dear life. And so our spiritual forebears urged us to bring both heart and mind together.Now, not all truths help us descend with the mind into the heart. There is a way of talking about the truth that can actually deaden our hearts. Most of us were raised in the modern era, the age of reason and science. We came to believe that truth is best discovered in the scientific method.What is the truth of a kiss? Technically, in a modernistic sense, it is two sets of mandibles pressing together for a certain duration of time. Those of you who have experienced the wonders of a kiss will know that while true, this description is so untrue. It takes away everything beautiful and mysterious and passionate and intimate and leaves you with an icy cold fact. Those who know kissing feel robbed; those who don’t are apt to say, “If that’s what kissing is all about, I think I’d rather not.”We’ve done the same thing to theology. Want more? Order your copy of The Journey of Desire today

Love your neighbor, Jesus urged, as you love yourself. (Which, as C. S. Lewis pointed out, is a pretty sick command if we are to hate ourselves.) How you handle people is the second great test of your character. Again, Jesus is cutting through both all the complexity and our dodging by helping us focus on our motives. It’s pretty hard to be a racist and still love that person. It’s pretty hard to hold bitterness in your heart and still love that person. So here, too, we find a profound rescue. Wherever it is we find ourselves struggling, we begin to choose love; in our hearts we begin to reaffirm our love for this human being. I find myself wanting to get irritated and judge: Jesus, help me love this person. I find myself wanting to envy: Jesus, help me love this person. As we allow love in, it flushes an awful lot of other stuff out. “Do not murder,” the Bible says, but what about dismissal? I write people off far too quickly, and it is not good. What difference is there between dismissal and murder, really? Aren’t I basically saying, “I don’t want your existence — not in my orbit, not in my universe. You’re gone, you’re out of here.” James tells us, “Don’t show favorites.” Maybe we don’t have favorites, but we withhold praise, we withhold love, we withhold affection, we parcel it out based on all kinds of other motives than love. Most often it is based on how they are treating me, what they can do for me.Want more? Order your copy of Free to Live today

The book “Killing Lions” is a conversation between John and Sam Eldredge about the trials young men face. [Sam] I know so many of us long for words of validation, but few ever hear them. An acquaintance of mine who lived down the street went out and bought a new (used) car one day. He spent quite a bit and took out a loan to boot. When he pulled up he started dancing around the driveway chanting, “I own a car! Now I am a man! I own a car! Now I am a man!” I wish I were kidding. It felt pretty hollow at the time; I knew that he was getting his validation from owning things. But it’s something that society had told him marks the way to adulthood. [John] More like killing a dandelion, isn’t it? But in the absence of validation from God, we’ll take whatever scraps come our way.Want more? Order your copy of Killing Lions today

What do I pray, Lord? What is this about? Pause. This is a really, really helpful place to begin — to ask God what to pray. I don’t know what’s going on. I’m looking at the equivalent of a two-headed rooster on my windowsill. I don’t know why God brought this up. So I ask him. Remember the disciples asking Jesus, “Teach us to pray”? Too many times we just jump in and start praying (making prayer speeches to God), and it doesn’t have much effect. We just sort of swing our sword around in the air randomly. Do this for a while and you’ll get the impression that prayer doesn’t really work. Or that God isn’t in it. Oh, it works, and he’s in it. When we pray effectively. John says, “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us — whatever we ask — we know that we have what we asked of him” (1 John 5:14–15). That’s an awesome promise. If we pray according to God’s will, he hears us all right. And he answers our prayers. Isn’t that what you want? I sure do. I want to see my prayers work! I want to pray according to God’s will. But I don’t always know what that is, so, I ask. This has absolutely revolutionized the way I pray. And I am seeing a lot more results, just as the scripture promised. Want more? Order your copy of Walking With God today