Daily Readings by Wild at Heart

We haven’t yet seen anyone in their true glory. Including you. Yes, Mozart did start writing symphonies as a child, and Picasso could draw before he could talk. But most human beings are profoundly thwarted in their “calling” here because of wounding, assault, envy, or circumstances that would never let them fly. For most human beings on this planet, work ranges from disappointing to oppressive. What does the kingdom offer those men who work the Indonesian sulfur mines or the tens of millions of modern slaves upon the earth? This is not what God intended. How many Mozarts are there right now, hidden in slums and huts across the globe? All your creativity and gifting will be restored and then some when you are restored. All of that latent potency inside of you—so damaged here, marred, frustrated, never given the opportunity to grow and develop and express itself—all of it completely restored, including your personality. From there you are able to act in the new world in ways far greater than Adam and Eve were able to act the first time around (and look at what humanity has been able to do with “be fruitful ... rule” [Genesis 1:28] in a broken world!). You will have absolute intimacy with Jesus Christ, and his life will flow through your gifts unhindered. Imagine what we will be capable of, how vast our powers in the new earth! We know we shall walk on water, for Peter did on this earth at Jesus’ bidding. How far do our creative and artistic capacities reach? When we are in our home, our natal home, When joy shall carry every sacred load,And from its life and peace no heart shall roam, What if thou make us able to make like thee— To light with moons, to clothe with greenery,To hang gold sunsets o’er a rose and purple sea!(George McDonald, Diary of an Old Soul) What will you do in the life to come? Everything you were born to do. Everything you’ve always wanted to do. Everything the kingdom needs you to do. Want more? Order your copy of All Things New today

And then the long story of God's pursuit of humanity begins. Satan wanted center stage: He wanted to be the main character, he wanted to be the point. His plan now is to ruin the Sacred Romance, to get us all caught up in our own little sociodramas by telling us that we are the point. You can see how humanity goes along with this. Cain murders Abel; Lamech threatens to murder everyone else. Humanity grows worse and worse until God says in pain, "I'm sorry I ever made them." But he doesn't give up. First with Noah, then Abraham, then Israel, we see God pursuing a people whose hearts will be for him, with whom he can share the joy of the larger story. But their faithfulness lasts about as long as the morning dew.How is God feeling by this point? When we reach the prophets, we get a glimpse at what it feels like to be God. Reading the prophets, says Yancey, is like hearing a lovers' quarrel through the apartment wall. Eavesdrop on the argument and catch a glimpse of his heart:I remember the devotion of your youth, how as a bride you loved me. ... What fault did you find in me that you strayed so far from me? You are a swift she-camel running here and there, sniffing the wind in her craving-in her heat who can restrain her? Should I not punish them for this? Should I not avenge myself? I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness. What have I done to make you hate me so much? (From Jeremiah)I long to be gracious to you. You are precious and honored in my sight, because I love you. But you — come here, you ... you ... offspring of adulterers. You have made your bed on a high and lofty hill, forsaking me, you uncovered your bed, you climbed into it and opened it wide. You have been false to me. Yet ... I will take delight in you, as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will I rejoice over you. (From Isaiah)I will answer you according to your idols [your false lovers] in order to recapture your heart. (From Ezekiel) Want more? Order your copy of The Sacred Romance today

This is a world at war. We live in a far more dramatic, far more dangerous story than we ever imagined. The reason we love The Chronicles of Narnia or Star Wars or The Matrix or The Lord of the Rings is that they are telling us something about our lives that we never, ever get on the evening news. Or from most pulpits. This is our most desperate hour. Without this burning in our hearts, we lose the meaning of our days. It all withers down to fast-food and bills and voice mail and who really cares anyway? Do you see what has happened? The essence of our faith has been stripped away. The very thing that was to give our lives meaning and protect us — this way of seeing — has been lost. Or stolen from us. Notice that those who have tried to wake us up to this reality were usually killed for it: the prophets, Jesus, Stephen, Paul, most of the disciples, in fact. Has it ever occurred to you that someone was trying to shut them up?Things are not what they seem. This is a world at war. Want more? Order your copy of Waking the Dead today

I am sitting on the beach this evening, watching the swells roll in toward me. Each wave builds as it approaches, ascending, taking shape, deep greens below sweeping upward into translucent aquamarine. A sculpture in motion, curling forth like shavings from a jade carving. The sheer elegance is enough to take my breath away.An artist is revealed in the work he or she creates, and in the abundance of the work created. Think of the ocean. Picture it in your mind. Tonight the breakers are thundering on the reef a hundred yards out, and beyond that open ocean. What does this tell us about Jesus? What words come to mind? Majestic, powerful, wild, dangerous. Yes, tempestuous, like the clearing of the temple. “His eyes like the grey o’ the sea,” as Ezra Pound wrote, “the sea that brooks no voyaging.” But also gently playful as it laps at your feet, swirling round your toes, pulling the sand away from beneath you as Jesus ever so gently pulls the rug out from under us.I look down. Scattered at my feet lie a thousand shells, delicate, intricate, the work of a jeweler. An artist with very small tools and exceptional eyesight. If all this is the work of an artist’s hand, what does it tell us about the artist? Creation is epic and intimate. He is epic and intimate. Everywhere around me, an obsession with beauty and attention to detail.But most of all, I am thunderstruck by the abundant generosity strewn around, constantly rolling in. It’s as if someone took the family silver and ran down the beach, tossing handfuls here and there like a madman. How do you describe this extravagance? What kind of person acts like this? Want more? Order your copy of Beautiful Outlaw today

Identity is not something that falls on us out of the sky. For better or for worse, identity is bestowed. We are who we are in relation to others. But far more important, we draw our identity from our impact on those others — if and how we affect them. We long to know that we make a difference in the lives of others, to know that we matter, that our presence cannot be replaced by a pet, a possession, or even another person. The awful burden of the false self is that it must be constantly maintained.We think we have to keep doing something in order to be desirable. Once we find something that will bring us some attention, we have to keep it going or risk the loss of the attention.And so we live with the fear of not being chosen and the burden of maintaining whatever it is about us that might get us noticed and the commitment never to be seen for who we really are. We develop a functional self-image, even if it is a negative one. The little boy paints his red wagon a speckled gray with whatever Father left in the can after putting a new coat on the backyard fence. "Look what I did!" he says, hoping for affirmation of the wonderful impact his presence has on the world. The angry father shames him: "What do you think you're doing? You've ruined it." The boy forms an identity: My impact is awful; I foul good things up. I am a fouler. And he forms a commitment never to be in a place where he can foul things up again. Years later, his colleagues wonder why he turned down an attractive promotion. The answer lies in his identity, an identity he received from the impact he had on the most important person in his world and his fear of ever being in such a place again. Want more? Order your copy of The Sacred Romance today

You will be wounded. Just because this battle is spiritual doesn't mean it's not real; it is, and the wounds a man can take are in some ways more ugly than those that come in a firefight. To lose a leg is nothing compared to losing heart; to be crippled by shrapnel need not destroy your soul, but to be crippled by shame and guilt may. You will be wounded by the Enemy. He knows the wounds of your past, and he will try to wound you again in the same place. But these wounds are different; these are honor-wounds.Blaine was showing me his scars the other night at the dinner table. "This one is where Samuel threw a rock and hit me in the forehead. And this one is from the Tetons when I fell into that sharp log. I can't remember what this one was from; oh, here's a good one — this one is from when I fell into the pond while chasing Luke. This one is a really old one when I burned my leg on the stove camping." He's proud of his scars; they are badges of honor to a boy...and to a man. We have no equivalent now for a Purple Heart of spiritual warfare, but we will. One of the noblest moments that await us will come at the wedding feast of the Lamb. Our Lord will rise and begin to call those forward who were wounded in battle for his name's sake and they will be honored, their courage rewarded. I think of Henry V's line to his men,He that outlives this day, and comes safe home, Will stand a tip-toe when the day is named, And rouse him at the name of Crispian ... Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars, And say, "These wounds I had on Crispin's day." Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot, But he'll remember with advantages What feats he did that day; then shall our names ... Be in their flowing cups freshly remembered. Want more? Order your copy of Wild at Heart today

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. (2 Cor. 4:16-18)The first line grabs me by the throat. "Therefore we do not lose heart." Somebody knows how not to lose heart? I'm all ears. For we are losing heart. All of us. Daily. It is the single most unifying quality shared by the human race on the planet at this time. We are losing — or we have already lost — heart. That glorious, resilient image of God in us is fading, fading, fading away. And this man claims to know a way out.So, how, Paul — how? How do we not lose heart?So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. (2 Cor. 4:18)What? I let out a sigh of disappointment. Now that's helpful. "Look at what you cannot see." That sounds like Eastern mysticism, that sort of wispy wisdom dripping in spirituality but completely inapplicable to our lives. Life is an illusion. Look at what you cannot see. What can this mean? Remembering that a little humility can take me a long way, I give it another go. This wise old seer is saying that there is a way of looking at life, and that those who discover it are able to live from the heart no matter what. How do we do this? By seeing with the eyes of the heart. Later in life, writing from prison to some friends he was deeply concerned about, Paul said, "I pray...that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened" (Eph. 1:18).Want more? Order your copy of Waking the Dead today

When we were young, most of us loved adventure. There is something about the unknown that draws us, which is why we like stories so much. But I like to leave the theater at the end of the play, knowing that the dilemma of evil has been resolved by the characters on the stage or screen. Like Peter, Susan, Lucy, and Edmund, to find ourselves not as spectators but as central characters in the play itself is somewhat daunting. The stakes are truly high, sometimes literally life or death, and God rarely if ever yells, "Cut!" just as the dangerous or painful scene descends upon us. No stunt doubles come onto the set to take our places. Many of us feel that we have been playing these kinds of scenes ever since we were children. We wonder if the hero will ever show up to rescue us.We would like to picture goodness as being synonymous with safety. When we think of God being good, we perhaps picture someone like Al on the popular TV program Home Improvement. He is someone who carefully plans out each task ahead of time and has all the proper tools and safety equipment in place; someone who has thought out every possible danger ahead of time and made allowances to ensure our safety as his workmate; someone who goes to bed early, gets plenty of rest, and wears flannel shirts as a mark of his reliability.Being in partnership with God, though, often feels much more like being Mel Gibson's sidekick in the movie Lethal Weapon. In his determination to deal with the bad guy, he leaps from seventh-story balconies into swimming pools, surprised that we would have any hesitation in following after him. Like Indiana Jones's love interests in the movies, we find ourselves caught up in an adventure of heroic proportions with a God who both seduces us with his boldness and energy and repels us with his willingness to place us in mortal danger, suspended over pits of snakes.Want more? Order your copy of The Sacred Romance today

God is not “out there somewhere” in some dramatic way, waiting to commune with us by earthquake or fire or signs in the sky. Instead, he desires to talk with us in the quietness of our own heart through his Spirit, who is in us. It is his voice that has whispered to us about a Sacred Romance. What do you hear when you listen for that gentle, quiet voice?What I so often hear, or feel, is a restlessness, a distractedness where it seems that dozens if not hundreds of disconnected or scattered thoughts vie for my attention. Bits and pieces of my smaller story, and sometimes major edifices, flash onto the screen: what other people think of me and what I need to do to win them. Anger, ego, lust, and simply blankness of spirit all take turns occupying my heart.Indeed, when I first listen to my heart, what I often hear is the language and clatter of my old “lovers” and not much else. There seems to be no stillness or rest. If I try to hold still, my soul reacts like a feather in the afternoon breeze, flitting from place to place without purpose or direction. I almost seem invisible in the noise or blankness. Theologians refer to this condition as “ontological lightness,” the reality that when I stop “doing” and simply listen to my heart, I am not anchored to anything substantive. I become aware that my very identity is synonymous with activity.Our whole American culture is infected with ontological lightness, celebrities and pro athletes being the most dramatic examples of this victimization of our souls that ruins us for any substantive love relationship. They are anchored only to their performances, and out of their performances come their identities — and ours who worship them. As soon as they stop performing, their identities — and ours — disappear.Want more? Order your copy of The Sacred Romance today

In the years that followed the Fall and our exile from Eden, mankind got worse and worse. Cain killed Abel; Lamech threatened to kill everybody else. The wickedness of the human heart seemed out of control and unstoppable, even by the curses. People were living for seven, eight, even nine hundred years. Can you imagine the arranging that one person could accomplish with that sort of time on his hands? Stubbornness seems to come with old age. Haven't you heard your grandmother sigh and say of your grandfather, "He's set in his ways"? Multiply that by a factor of eight or nine, and you get the picture. So God dealt the ultimate blow. "Then the LORD said, 'My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal; his days will be a hundred and twenty years'" (Gen. 6:3). He cut our life short; nobody gets to pass 120. However clever we might be in our ability to conjure Paradise, we can never get around death. It is the final thwarting.You must follow me very carefully now. We can never fully explain the reasons surrounding someone's death. We've come to accept it for the aged, and we try to console ourselves with thoughts like, He's had a full life. But death is never natural; it was not meant to be. This is why those left behind experience such excruciating pain. The agony is only worsened when the death is what we call "premature," when it takes a life in full bloom, or just as the bud begins to open. Each death can begin to be understood only within the Larger Story God is telling. Much of that story remains for the moment a mystery. Want more? Order your copy of The Journey of Desire today

This is exactly what Christ promised: eternal life, real life! (1 John 2:25 The Message)Jesus’ offer of eternal life has gotten “interpreted” by well-meaning people to say, “Oh, well. Yes, of course ... God intends life for you. But that is eternal life, meaning, because of the death of Jesus Christ you can go to heaven when you die.” And that’s true ... in a way. And in the meantime? Isn’t there a whole lot more to the relationship in the meantime? (It’s in the meantime that we’re living out our days, by the way.) What did Jesus mean when he promised us life?Jesus talks about a life available to you, a glorious, unending life that begins in this age. So does Paul: “Godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come” (1 Timothy 4:8). Your present life, and the next. When we hear the words eternal life, most of us have tended to think, A life that waits for me in eternity. But eternal means unending, not later. The Scriptures use the term to mean you can never lose it. It’s a life that can’t be taken from you. The offer is life and that life starts now. The Renewal begins now.———————————O Jesus — I pray for every bit of renewal and restoration that can come to me now, while I rest in the promise I will have all I want very soon. Want more? Order your copy of Restoration Year today

I love being happy. But happiness is unpredictable; it feels vulnerable because it is tied to my circumstances. And don’t we all know it. One day you’re up; next day you’re down. Circumstantial happiness is an emotional roller coaster; it can really take you for a ride. It makes us heartsick in the way rolling seas and careening decks make us seasick. Joy is something else altogether. It feels firmer, richer, less vulnerable somehow. I’m happy when my family goes out for ice cream, but it seems a little overblown to say I was filled with joy because of it. I was joyful at the weddings of my three sons. I was filled with joy over the birth of our granddaughters. Joy flooded my heart when a dear friend was cleared of cancer. I don’t think it was merely happiness; the joy felt rooted in the presence of God. His hand was so evident. Joy is not happiness on steroids. It is not happiness squared. Every healthy human being has the capacity to feel happiness, but joy is something entirely different, made up of its own unique substance. It doesn’t come with the price of admission. Joy is connected to God and reserved for those who are tapping into His reservoir, who are connected to His life. Joy is rooted in God and His kingdom, in the surety of His goodness, His love for us. It is immovable. Unshakable. Joy is available at all times, day and night, because God and His kingdom are always available to us. I’m ready to get off the roller coaster of happiness; I want my heart grounded in the higher place of joy. I bet you do too. Want more? Order your copy of Defiant Joy today

Our thoughts flow downhill like water. If we aren’t aware of what we are thinking, our thoughts wander, leading us down windy ways through dark woods. We lose perspective; we start speculating; we come to terrible conclusions in about seven seconds. The Scripture urging us to "take every thought captive to Christ” is vital (2 Corinthians 10:5). What we think matters; our thoughts and imagination pave the way for our beliefs, and then our actions are soon to follow. I know I’m not alone in giving way to speculation. But I want to mature in this area, to grow up. Don’t you? What I’ve learned the hard way is first of all not to judge motives. You don’t really know another’s motives. You can speculate, but you don’t know why he didn’t call. You don’t know why they forgot to invite you to the party. When we assume motives we usually assume bad motives — right? You’re already mad before he walks in the door; you’re already hurt before something is actually said; yet nine times out of ten there isn’t a real reason behind it. You jumped to conclusions. You speculated. He didn’t hang up on you — his cell battery died. They didn’t invite you because you told them you were going to be out of town. It’s hard, but I’m trying these days to assume the best. Assume their heart is good, and your heart is good. Want more? Order your copy of Love & War today

And they lived happily ever after. Stop for just a moment, and let it be true. They lived happily ever after.These may be the most beautiful and haunting words in the entire library of mankind. Why does the end of a great story leave us with a lump in our throats and an ache in our hearts? If we haven't become entirely cynical, some of the best endings can even bring us to tears.Because God has set eternity in our hearts. Every story we tell is our attempt to put into words and images what God has written there, on our hearts. Think of the stories that you love. Remember how they end.This is written on the human heart, this longing for happily ever after.You see, every story has an ending. Every story. Including yours. Have you ever faced this? Even if you do manage to find a little taste of Eden in this life, even if you are one of the fortunate souls who find some love and happiness in the world, you cannot hang on to it. You know this. Your health cannot hold out forever. Age will conquer you. One by one your friends and loved ones will slip from your hand. Your work will remain unfinished. Your time on this stage will come to an end. Like every other person gone before you, you will breathe your last breath.And then what? Is that the end of the Story?If that is the end, this Story is a tragedy. Macbeth was right. Life is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. Sooner or later, life will break your heart. Or rather, death will break your heart. Perhaps you have to lose someone you love to be shaken from denial. The final enemy is death. It will come. Is there no way out? Do we have a future? Want more? Order your copy of Epic today

In heaven, things are not stained or broken; everything is as it was meant to be. Think for a moment of the wonder of this. Isn't every one of our sorrows on earth the result of things not being as they were meant to be? And so when the kingdom of God comes to earth, wonderful things begin to unfold. Look at the evidence; watch what happens to people as they are touched by the kingdom of God through Jesus. As he went about "preaching the good news of the kingdom," Jesus was also "healing every disease and sickness among the people" (Matt. 4:23). When he "spoke to them about the kingdom of God," he "healed those who needed healing" (Luke 9:11).What happens when we find ourselves in the kingdom of God? The disabled jump to their feet and start doing a jig. The deaf go out and buy themselves stereo equipment. The blind are headed to the movies. The dead are not at all dead anymore, but very much alive. They show up for dinner. In other words, human brokenness in all its forms is healed. The kingdom of God brings restoration. Life is restored to what it was meant to be. "In the beginning," back in Eden, all of creation was pronounced good because all of creation was exactly as God meant for it to be. For it to be good again is not for it to be destroyed, but healed, renewed, brought back to its goodness.Those glimpses we see in the miracles of Jesus were the first-fruits. When he announces the full coming of the kingdom, Jesus says, "Look, I am making all things new!" (Rev. 21:5 NLT, emphasis added). He does not say, "I am making all new things." He means that the things that have been so badly broken will be restored and then some. "You mean I'll get a new pair of glasses?" my son Sam asked. "Or do you mean I'll get a new pair of eyes, so I won't need glasses?" What do you think? Jesus didn't hand out crutches to help the disabled. Want more? Order your copy of The Journey of Desire today

We are each created to accomplish a work worthy of God; it is one of our deepest yearnings. And we will, in the kingdom; not just once, but many, many times over. Are we employed in the actual restoration itself? I don’t know for certain. “They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated” certainly hints at it. And we know our God is a God of process — look at how long your sanctification is taking. You might think I am merely daydreaming about what we actually do in the kingdom. But, friends — God creates us to be creators like he is. We are promised we will reign; we are given estates; we are told we will have vital roles in the coming kingdom. “After a long absence, the master of those three servants came back and settled up with them. The one given five thousand dollars showed him how he had doubled his investment. His master commended him: ‘Good work! You did your job well. From now on be my partner.’” (Matthew 25:19–21 The Message) Come and “be my partner” — that’s the perfect way to put it. The idea behind the parable is promotion. And notice that the servants are promoted in the very things they are good at! God puts his renewed sons and daughters — creators like he is — in a re-created world and tells us to do exactly what he told Adam and Eve to do in the beginning. N. T. Wright therefore says, In Revelation and Paul’s letters we are told that God’s people will actually be running the new world on God’s behalf. The idea of our participation in the new creation goes back to Genesis, when humans are supposed to be running the Garden and looking after the animals. If you transpose that all the way through, it’s a picture like the one that you get at the end of Revelation. Want more? Order your copy of All Things New today

Imagine what it would be like if you were never, ever able to wake from your nightmares. Like being tumbled under the waves and never able to find the surface again. That there is a reality for us to wake to is a gift beyond words. Whether or not we choose to face that reality is quite up to us. Truth or reality is avoided when it is painful. We can revise our maps only when we have the discipline to overcome that pain. To have such discipline, we must be totally dedicated to truth. That is to say we must always hold truth, as best we can determine it, to be more important, more vital to our self-interest, than our comfort. Conversely, we must always consider our personal discomfort relatively unimportant and, indeed, even welcome it in the service of the search for truth. Mental health is an ongoing process of dedication to reality at all costs. (M. Scott Peck, The Road Less Traveled) Thus the startling, disruptive, sometimes brutal honesty of Jesus. The world is stone drunk, and raging at Jesus because he’s trying to keep us from taking the car. Who is being unreasonable? The spirit of our day is a soft acceptance of everything — except deep conviction in anything. This is where Jesus will suddenly confront the world as a great rock confronts the river flowing ever downhill. He is immovable. The cry used to be for “tolerance,” by which we meant, “We have very strong differences, but we will not let those be the cause of hatred or violence between us.” Now it is something else, where all convictions are softened to second or third place while we all agree to enjoy the world as much as we can. But truth is not like conviction. Conviction might be a matter of personal opinion, but truth is like a great mountain, solid and immovable whether we like it or even acknowledge it. Christianity is not a set of convictions — it is a truth. The most offensive thing imaginable. Want more? Order your copy of Beautiful Outlaw today

I thought of the last story we have from the life of the prophet Elisha. Jehoash was king of Israel at the time, and he went to visit Elisha on his sickbed. He knew that without the help of this great prophet, the future of Israel was looking dim. Enemies were closing in on every side, waiting for the kill. Elisha told the king to take in hand some arrows.And the king took them. Elisha told him, "Strike the ground." He struck it three times and stopped. The man of God was angry with him and said, "You should have struck the ground five or six times; then you would have defeated [your enemies] completely ... But now you will defeat [them] only three times." Elisha died and was buried. (2 Kings 13:18-20)That's it? What a strange story! Why was the old prophet so angry? Because the king was nonchalant; he was passionless, indifferent. He gave the ground a whack or two. His heart wasn't in it. God says, in effect, "If that is how little you care about the future of your people, that is all the help you will get." In other words, if your heart's not in it, well then, neither is mine. You can't lead a country, let alone flourish in a marriage, with an attitude like that. To abandon desire is to say, "I don't really need you; I don't really want you. But I will live with you because, well, I'm supposed to." It is a grotesque corruption of what was meant to be a beautiful dance between desire and devotion. Want more? Order your copy of The Journey of Desire today

“He is like the light of morning at sunrise on a cloudless morning, like the brightness after rain that brings grass from the earth.” (2 Samuel 23:4) What makes your heart awaken? For what awakens your heart is worth paying attention to.Think about sunshine — what daily radiance is showered upon you through it, what immense golden goodness. Every single day, over so much of the planet. It saturates the world, warming the earth, raising the crops in the fields by silent resurrection, causing birds to break out in song with the dawning of each day. It bathes everything in light, which then enables us to behold and enjoy, to live and work and explore. What a gift sunlight is — coming and going. I love getting up in the darkness of early morning and praying through the dawn. As I find myself drawing nearer to God, the room begins to grow lighter while the spiritual air clears around me. With a final amen, the golden glowing light of sunrise fills the room like the presence of God.———————————Pause, and simply be still for a moment. Let the presence of God surround you, for he is always here with us. Let his love come to you again, as you simply quiet yourself in his presence. His love is like sunshine in our hearts. Want more? Order your copy of Restoration Year today

Can you imagine if on your honeymoon one of you sneaked off for a rendezvous with a perfect stranger? Adam and Eve kicked off the honeymoon by sleeping with the Enemy. Then comes one of the most poignant verses in all Scripture: "What is this you have done?" (Gen. 3:13). You can almost hear the shock, the pain of betrayal in God's voice. The fall of Adam and Eve mustn't be pictured as a crime like theft, but as a betrayal of love. In love God creates us for love, and we give him the back of our hand. Why? Satan gets us to side with him by sowing the seed of doubt in our first parents' minds: "God's heart really isn't good. He's holding out on you. You've got to take things into your own hands." And Paradise was lost.Yet there was something about the heart of God that the angels and our first parents had not yet seen. Here, at the lowest point in our relationship, God announces his intention never to abandon us but to seek us out and win us back. "I will come for you." Grace introduces a new element of God's heart. Up till this point we knew he was rich, famous, influential, even generous. Behind all that can still hide a heart that is less than good. Grace removes all doubt. Want more? Order your copy of The Sacred Romance today

The book “Killing Lions” is a conversation between John and Sam Eldredge about the trials young men face. [John] You simply cannot neglect the heart and get away with it. The mind is a beautiful instrument, one we certainly want to develop all our lives and not only in the college years. But God gave us the mind to protect the heart, not usurp it. As Walker Percy said, “You can get all A’s and still flunk life.” So let’s think about identity and the heart for a moment. All men, young or old, have within them a famished craving for validation. It will not be denied. We will chase validation wherever we can and we learn pretty quickly what our world rewards, what it shames, what it cares nothing about. So the athletes seek validation by being fast, strong, and winning, while the valedictorians throw themselves into papers, exams, and maintaining their GPAs. The “spiritual leader” latches on to the praise coming from their giftings, and they give their hearts and souls over to that dance, while the “cool” kids go barefoot and wear dreadlocks. We are all looking for the same thing. When a young man doesn’t know who he is and what he’s made of, resisting those “scripts” that are being handed out is about the same as defying gravity. “Let’s see — I gotta do my laundry, move my car, and oh yeah, I think I’ll fly today.”Want more? Order your copy of Killing Lions today

The Religious Man or Woman is a popular story option in which we try to reduce the wildness of life by constructing a system of promises and rewards, a contract that will obligate God to grant us exemption from the Arrows. It really doesn't matter what the particular group bargain is — doctrinal adherence, moral living, or some sort of spiritual experience—the desire is the same: taming God in order to tame life. Never mind those deep yearnings of the soul; never mind the nagging awareness that God is not cooperating. If the system isn't working, it's because we're not doing it right. There's always something to work on, with the promise of abundant life just around the corner. Plenty of churches and leaders are ready to show you how to cut a deal.These stories comprise what James McClendon calls the "tournament of narratives" in our culture, a clash of many small dramas competing for our heart. Through baseball and politics and music and sex and even church, we are searching desperately for a Larger Story in which to live and find our role. All of these smaller stories offer a taste of meaning, adventure, or connectedness. But none of them offer the real thing; they aren't large enough. Our loss of confidence in a Larger Story is the reason we demand immediate gratification. We need a sense of being alive now, for now is all we have. Without a past that was planned for us and a future that waits for us, we are trapped in the present. There's not enough room for our souls in the present. Want more? Order your copy of The Sacred Romance today

We now are going to war. This is the beginning of the end.The hour is late, and you are needed. We need your heart.If there were something more I could do to help you see, I wish to God I could have done it. Tears fill my eyes for fear I have not done enough. You must turn, then, back to myth — tomorrow and the next day and the next. Read the battle of Helm’s Deep; it’s chapter seven of The Two Towers. Watch any of the trilogy of those films. And the opening of Gladiator. That is where we are now. Or, if you can bear it, watch the battle of the Ia Drang Valley in We Were Soldiers. It is so deeply true to what we must face, will face. Linger over the climax of The Prince of Egypt, where God goes to war against Egypt to set his people free. If the images of the Exodus do not move you, I don’t know what will.We are now far into this epic story that every great myth points to. We have reached the moment where we, too, must find our courage and rise up to recover our hearts and fight for the hearts of others. The hour is late, and much time has been wasted. Aslan is on the move; we must rally to him at the stone table. We must find Gepetto lost at sea. We must ride hard, ride to Helm’s Deep and join the last great battle for Middle Earth. Grab everything God sends you. You’ll need everything that helps you see with the eyes of your heart, including those myths, and the way they illumine for us the words God has given in Scripture, to which “you will do well to pay attention ... as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts” (2 Peter 1:19). Want more? Order your copy of Waking The Dead today

Imagine, friends, a world without evil. Every demon has been swept away. Simply imagine a world without evil people, where everyone loves God and overflows with his holy love. You look to your right and left, and you only see people you can trust completely. Lot’s torment will no longer be ours; holiness will permeate all things. No wonder joy is the constant mood of the kingdom! Not to mention massive relief and vindication too. Our age cries out for justice, especially the younger generations. I believe in those justice movements; I support them. But I fear a great heartbreak is coming unless we understand the timing of things. Until the evil one is bound and cast into the lake of fire, our efforts here will be only partially successful. “The poor you will always have with you” (Matthew 26:11). A dear, dear man just e-mailed me; he and his wife run an orphanage for abused and trafficked girls in Guatemala. He aches because he has to turn away girls every week. They simply have no room to take them all in. This is a terrible reality: our best efforts must be carried on, but they will not achieve justice on the earth until our Lord’s return. I can hardly bear it; how do we carry on? Only with the anchor of the soul; only with the sure and firm hope that this Day is coming. Justice is coming. Want more? Order your copy of All Things New today

Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:34–40)Only Jesus could get away with this. He has just taken the entire Old Testament—the full length, breadth, diversity, and penetrating specificity of all God’s commands—and boiled it down to two. Two. Given who he is, given the witness of his own shimmering goodness, he certainly has the right to do so. But perhaps we’ve missed the brilliance of it, and the immense kindness, too.People have a way of complicating things. Look at what we’ve done to education, taxation, or marriage. We seem committed to making all things complex. The Jews of Jesus’ day had so many rules and regulations it practically immobilized them. “And you experts in the law, woe to you,” Jesus thundered, “because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them” (Luke 11:46 TM). This wasn’t what God intended. The way of holiness was never meant to be a labyrinth of complexity and eventual despair. Want more? Order your copy of Free to Live today

The way to begin to get free of this debris, to remove these limits you’ve unknowingly placed on Jesus, is first to name what the problem is. Where are you having a hard time with Jesus? Where is your struggle with him? Do you find it hard to believe he loves you? Or that he loves you because of what you do?Do you feel like you are always disappointing him?Is he mad at you? Ignoring you?Does Jesus seem like a hard man who wants you to work harder? Does he seem distant — loving, sure, but disengaged? It would help to write this down. What do you think Jesus thinks about you? Then look at what you’ve written — do you see how this might be connected to your own brokenness? Is this how everyone else feels about you? How you feel about yourself? Ask the Holy Spirit — the Spirit of Truth — to show you how this is connected to your brokenness. Next, invite Christ into it — invite him right into the whole ugly mess. Open the door, for heaven’s sake. The incarnation ought to be proof enough that Jesus doesn’t shy away from getting down in the muck of this world. There isn’t anything you can show him he hasn’t seen before. It’s not like he’s going to be shocked. Or angry. Or disappointed. Jesus loves to come; just open the door to him here. Tell Jesus what you think he thinks of you. Ask him if it’s true. Ask him to free your heart from the wounds of your past so that you might know him and love him. This will actually turn out to be a rich part of your learning to love and experience Jesus, this shared journey into and out of your brokenness. You’ll love him more for it, too. Want more? Order your copy of Beautiful Outlaw today

This is what Jesus nearly always does when he comes to mend those rifts in our hearts. He brings his comfort and mercy to those times and places where we suffered the shattering blow, and the heart in that place often feels the same age as it was at the time of the event, even though it might have been decades ago.It might be a surprise that Christ asks our permission to come in and heal, but you may remember that famous passage from Revelation, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock” (Rev. 3:20 NKJV). He doesn’t force his way in, and the principle remains true after we have given Christ the initial access to our hearts that we call salvation. There are rooms we have kept locked up, places he has not had access to by our own will, and in order to experience his healing, we must also give him permission to come in there.Will you let me heal you?The work of Christ in healing the soul is a deep mystery, more amazing than open-heart surgery. A friend described his experience as having Christ “holding the broken parts of my heart in his hands, and bringing them all together, holding them tenderly until his life brought a wholeness or a oneness to what was many pieces.” That idea of “binding up” our brokenness involves bringing all the shattered pieces back together into one whole heart. Reintegrating those places broken off by tragedy or assault. Want more? Order your copy of Waking The Dead today

Once we begin thinking of all the deceptions the Enemy is about with regard to our lives, we have a tendency to become obsessed with him, fearful of what he is going to do next. Once we take him seriously, he switches from his tactic of “I’m not here” to one of having us worry about him day and night, which is almost a form of worship.God’s intention, on the other hand, is to use spiritual warfare to draw us into deeper communion with himself. Satan’s device is to isolate us and wear us out obsessing about what he has done and what he will do next. And he is very effective in using our particular Message of the Arrows to do it. God desires to use the Enemy’s attacks to remove the obstacles between ourselves and him, to reestablish our dependency on him as his sons and daughters in a much deeper way. Once we understand that, the warfare we are in begins to feel totally different. It is not really even about Satan anymore, but about communion with God and abiding in Jesus as the source of life. The whole experience begins to feel more like a devotional. Want more? Order your copy of The Sacred Romance today

We all have a way that we do life. We might call it our personality, or our natural bent — the way we handle pressure, the way we listen, the way we look for happiness, the way we control our world. We didn’t sit down one day and willfully choose to adopt it but it remains a choice nonetheless. Call it your style of relating. It is a carefully crafted approach to life — and especially to relationship — that colors the way we work and the way we love and the way we respond and the way we simply have a conversation with people. This can be quite an epiphany — you have a style of relating designed to make life work for you! Our style of relating is borne out of brokenness and sin, and it is the number one thing that gets in the way of real love and companionship, the shared adventure and all the beauty of marriage. It’s really this simple—the number one thing that gets in the way is your way. I don’t mean insisting on getting your way — that the lights be dim or finding a better parking spot. I mean your way of going about life, your style of relating.Want more? Order your copy of Love & War today

Maybe the most devastating limit is simply the idea that “Jesus doesn’t act like that anymore.” (Or, “Jesus doesn’t act like that with me.”) Sure —he was amazing in the Gospels. But that was then and this is now and things have changed. Or so the idea goes. In one fell swoop, this belief shuts down just about everything and anything we could hope to experience with Jesus. It simply slams the door and leaves us standing on one side and him on the other. You wonder if this isn’t implied in the famous passage from the book of Revelation where Jesus says, “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me” (3:20). This takes place later than the Gospel stories, mind you — long after the resurrection and the ascension. Jesus is asking for intimacy with us. Who shut that door and left Christ standing in the street? It clearly wasn’t Jesus. He’s outside, asking us to let him in. So let him in. Jesus, come in. I give you total access to every aspect of my life. Come in, Lord. Reveal yourself to me. Want more? Order your copy of Beautiful Outlaw today

Let me say this again: the story of your life is the story of the long and brutal assault on your heart by the one who knows what you could be and fears it. I hope you are beginning to see that more clearly now. Otherwise, much of the Bible will not make sense to you. Much of your life will not make sense to you.I will go before you and will level the mountains; I will break down gates of bronze and cut through bars of iron. I will give you the treasures of darkness, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know I am the LORD, the God of Israel, who summons you by name. (Isa. 45:2-3)Doesn't the language of the Bible sometimes sound ... overblown? Really now — God is going to level mountains for us? We'd be happy if he just helped us get through the week. What's all that about breaking down gates of bronze and cutting through bars of iron? I mean, it sounds heroic, but, well, who's really in need of that? This isn't ancient Samaria. We'd settle for a parking place at the mall.If we are in an epic battle, then the language of the Bible fits perfectly. Things are not what they seem. We are at war. That war is against your heart, your glory. Once more, look at Isaiah 61:1:He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners. Want more? Order your copy of Waking the Dead today

You are not your sin; sin is no longer the truest thing about the man who has come into union with Jesus. Your heart is good. "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you" (Ezek. 36:26). The Big Lie in the church today is that you are nothing more than "a sinner saved by grace." You are a lot more than that. You are a new creation in Christ. The New Testament calls you a saint, a holy one, a son of God. In the core of your being you are a good man. Yes, there is a war within us, but it is a civil war. The battle is not between us and God; no, there is a traitor within us who wars against our true heart fighting alongside the Spirit of God in us:A new power is in operation. The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death ... Anyone, of course, who has not welcomed this invisible but clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ, won't know what we're talking about. But for you who welcome him, in whom he dwells ... if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he'll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus ... When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. (Rom. 8:2, 9-11 The Message)The real you is on the side of God against the false self. Knowing this makes all the difference in the world. The man who wants to live valiantly will lose heart quickly if he believes that his heart is nothing but sin. Why fight?Want more? Order your copy of Wild at Heart today

Prayer sets up a terrible dilemma for us. We want to pray; it’s in our nature. We desperately want to believe that God will come through for us. But then ... he doesn’t seem to, and where does that leave us? I believe God is in the dilemma; I believe he wants us to push through to real answers, solid answers. For one thing, this reality we find ourselves in is far more dynamic than most folks have been led to believe — especially people of faith. We hold dangerously incomplete understandings of our situation, such as, God is all-powerful. He did not intervene. So it must not be his will to intervene. Yes — God is sovereign. And in his sovereignty he created a world in which the choices of men and angels matter. Tremendously. He has granted to us “the dignity of causation,” as Pascal called it. Our choices have enormous consequences. We will have much more to say about this going forward, but prayer is not as simple as, “I asked; God didn’t come. I guess he doesn’t want to.” We are embarked on the most exciting story possible, filled with danger, adventure, and wonders. There is nothing more hopeful than the thought that things can be different, we can move mountains, and we have some role in bringing that change about. Want more? Order your copy of Moving Mountains today

Twice, in the famous chapter of Romans 7, where Paul presents a first-person angst about our battle against sin, he says, "But this is not my true nature. This is not my heart."As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature ... Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it ... For in my inner being I delight in God's law." (vv. 17-18, 20, emphasis added)Paul is making a crucial distinction. This is not me; this is not my true heart. Listen to how he talks about himself in other places. He opens every letter by introducing himself as "Paul, an apostle." Not as a sinner, but as an apostle, writing to "the saints." Dump the religiosity; think about this mythically. Paul, appointed as a Great One in the kingdom, writing to other Great Allies of the kingdom. How bold of him. There is no false humility, no groveling. He says,Surely you have heard about the ... grace that was given to me for you, that is, the mystery made known to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly. In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to men in other generations as it has now been revealed [to me]. (Eph. 3:2-5)Paul is unashamed to say that he knows things no man before him knew. He even assumes they've heard about him, the mysteries revealed to him. That is part of his glory. His humility comes through clearly, in that he quickly admits that it's all been a gift, and in fact, a gift given to him for others. Want more? Order your copy of Waking the Dead today

Jesus is a fierce, intentional man to be sure. But his passions are neither reckless nor momentary.Could a small, unintimidating figure accomplish such a sustained riot? To pull off driving “all of them out of the temple” would require more than a few seconds and repeated blows. This is a sustained assault. If a frail man with a meek voice tried this, he’d be log-jammed by the sheer number and inertia of the traffic. Jesus is a locomotive, a juggernaut. For all practical purposes here, he is the bull in the china shop.But is this the Jesus of our worship songs? The religious fog sneaks in to obscure Jesus with lines comparing him to, “a rose trampled on the ground.” Helpless, lovely Jesus. Vegetarian, pacifist, tranquil. Oh, wait — that was Gandhi. Not Jesus.Can you picture Gandhi or Buddha storming into the polling place of a local election, shouting, overturning tables, sending the participants fleeing? Now throw a small carnival into the mix, which they also need to rout. Impossible. Whoever did this would have to be really committed to clear the building. Fierce and intentional.This is a breathtaking quality — especially when compared to our present age where doubt masquerades as humility, passivity cloaks as rest, and emasculated indecision poses as laid-back enlightenment.Oh, Jesus could be soft, and he certainly was humble, but his fierce intentionality is riveting to watch. Want more? Order your copy of Beautiful Outlaw today

When Neo is set free from the Matrix, he joins the crew of the Nebuchadnezzar — the little hovercraft that is the headquarters and ship of the small fellowship called to set the captives free. There are nine of them in all, each a character in his own way, but nonetheless a company of the heart, a “band of brothers,” a family bound together in a single fate. Together, they train for battle. Together, they plan their path. When they go back into the Matrix to set others free, each one has a role, a gifting, a glory. They function as a team. And they watch each other’s back. Neo is fast, really fast, but he still would have been taken out if it hadn’t been for Trinity. Morpheus is more gifted than them all, but it took the others to rescue him.You see this sort of thing at the center of every great story. Dorothy takes her journey with the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, the Lion, and of course, Toto. Maximus rallies his little band and triumphs over the greatest empire on earth. When Captain John Miller is sent deep behind enemy lines to save Private Ryan, he goes in with a squad of eight rangers. And, of course, Jesus had the Twelve. This is written so deeply on our hearts: You must not go alone. The Scriptures are full of such warnings, but until we see our desperate situation, we hear it as an optional religious assembly for an hour on Sunday mornings.Think again of Frodo or Neo or Caspian or Jesus. Imagine you are surrounded by a small company of friends who know you well (characters, to be sure, but they love you, and you have come to love them). They understand that we all are at war, know that the purposes of God are to bring a man or a woman fully alive, and are living by sheer necessity and joy in the Four Streams. They fight for you, and you for them. Imagine you could have a little fellowship of the heart. Would you want it if it were available? Want more? Order your copy of Waking The Dead today

“Love your neighbor as yourself,” Jesus taught (Mark 12:31), implying a direct link between one and the other. Loving our neighbor is clearly an essential to Christian faith; I think we all get that one. But the qualifier “as yourself” is lost upon most people; it confounded me for years. It almost sounds too pop psychology, something you’d see on the cover of the magazines at the checkout stand, right next to the articles on “brain superfoods” and “how to talk to your pet.” Yet Jesus is pretty matter-of-fact about the comparison: Treat people like you treat yourself. Which I think has one of his brilliant hidden exposés in it, because we quickly realize if we treated our neighbor the way we typically treat ourselves, we wouldn’t be great neighbors. Jesus thus drives home healthy self-care as tied to loving others. If that still sounds like something from Oprah, and not the New Testament, consider this: Love your neighbor as yourself is “a horrible command,” C. S. Lewis pointed out, “if the self were simply to be hated.”The difficult truth we don’t want to admit is this: the way you treat your own heart is the way you’ll end up treating everyone else’s.Most of the time we are completely unaware of how we treat our own heart. Our “way” with ourselves is simply our norm, and we’ve been at it so long we don’t notice, in the same way we don’t notice how much we bite our nails or finish our spouse’s sentences for them. The father who doesn’t allow himself his own emotions communicates so much to his children by that practice alone, and he further reinforces the lesson when he is visibly awkward and uncomfortable with the emotions of his child. He tries to hurry them through a “comforting” process: “I’m sorry sweetheart. You’ll feel better tomorrow.” Or, “How about we get some ice cream?” He is thereby trying to rush the child through their emotions to a place of resolution, teaching them to be as abrupt with their own heart as he is with his.So the fact remains: the way you treat your heart is the way you’ll end up treating everyone else’s.None of this is meant to be shaming — not one bit. It’s immensely hopeful! For one thing, you’ve picked up this book and progressed this far—that means you’re seeking more of God, and learning to care for your soul (the vessel he fills). This right here is self-kindness and it will spill over into kindness for those around you. Want more? Order your copy of Get Your Life Back today

Every woman is in some way searching for or running from her beauty and every man is looking for or avoiding his strength. Why? In some deep place within, we remember what we were made to be, we carry with us the memory of gods, image-bearers walking in the Garden. So why do we flee our essence? As hard as it may be for us to see our sin, it is far harder still for us to remember our glory. The pain of the memory of our former glory is so excruciating, we would rather stay in the pigsty than return to our true home. We are like Gomer, wife of the prophet Hosea, who preferred to live in an adulterous affair rather than be restored to her true love.We are the ones to be Fought Over, Captured and Rescued, Pursued. It seems remarkable, incredible, too good to be true. There really is something desirable within me, something the King of the universe has moved heaven and earth to get. George Herbert reached for words to express his wonder:My God, what is a heart That thou shouldst it so eye and woo Powering upon it with all thy art As if thou hadst nothing else to do? (Mattens)King David used a similar refrain:What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. (Ps. 8:4-5) Want more? Order your copy of The Sacred Romance today

The longing for things to be good again is one of the deepest yearnings of the human heart. It has slumbered in the depths of our souls ever since we lost our true home. For our hearts remember Eden.Most of the time this beautiful, powerful longing flows like an underground river below the surface of our awareness — so long as we are consoled by some measure of goodness in our lives. While we are enjoying our work, our family, our adventures, or the little pleasures of this world, the longing for things to be good again seems to be placated.But when trials and heartbreaks wash in, the longing rises to the surface like a whale coming up for air, filled with momentum and force. This is especially true after times of severe testing, because during the testing we are rallying. But when the storm subsides, the longing for things to be good again rises up to demand relief.How we shepherd this longing — so crucial to our identity and the true life of our heart — how we listen to it but also guide it in right or wrong directions, this determines our fate.God has given each human soul a capacity and drive, a primal aspiration for life. This is as fundamental to you as your own survival.The epicenter of our being is the deep longing to aspire for things that bring us life, to plan for those things, to take hold of them, to enjoy them, and start the cycle over as we aspire toward new things! This is the essential craving for life given to us by God. Let’s call this capacity the Primal Drive for Life.The longing for things to be good again is the mournful cry of the Primal Drive for Life in us, like the haunting cries of whales under the sea.It seems to me we can never give up longing and wishing while we are thoroughly alive. There are certain things we feel to be beautiful and good, and we must hunger after them. (George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss)This hunger allows human beings to survive the most terrible ordeals; it also enables us to savor all the goodness of this world, to love, and to create works of immense beauty. Want more? Order your copy of Resilient today

The constant push in Western Christianity to “make it practical” betrays our favorite apostasy—it exposes how utterly fixated on the present moment we really are. Yes, we need to embody God’s love in the world today. The human race is not well; things fall apart. We must care for the planet and all creation; we must fight injustice. But we speak of that work so casually; we do not understand it can be the most demanding, heartbreaking work in the world. Those who serve at the front lines of social justice ministry have a tragically high burnout rate. Without a glorious hope blazing in your heart, you will be crushed by the pain of the world. “If you read history,” wrote C. S. Lewis, “you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this.” If you really want to make a difference in the world, the best thing you can do is exactly what the Scriptures command you to do—grab the promised Renewal with both hands and make it the anchor of your soul: 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, reaching past all appearances right to the very presence of God. (Hebrews 6:18–19 The Message) Want more? Order your copy of All Things New today

Human beings need oxygen in order to live. Lots of it. So our loving God provided us a world completely engulfed in oxygen; we swim in life-giving air like fish swim in water. Put your arm out — it’s surrounded with oxygen. Look down at your feet — they’re wading through it too. God also arranged for the daily replenishment of this planet-wide ocean of oxygen, through the forest and jungles and even the algae of the seas. We take it in all day long, and all day long he renews it. Lavish. And a good thing too!He’s done the same with water. We need it daily. No human being can go without it for more than four days. Our planet is called the “blue planet” because of the amount of water we have. The oceans, of course, and the rain cycle that draws water from them and spreads it over the earth. Streams, ponds, rivers, lakes — the generosity of God can be seen here too. Without water nothing lives. Think of what happens to your lovely flowers when they are deprived of water.Now, with the same generosity and care, God also filled the world with a renewable supply of something our souls need daily: beauty. Yes, beauty. The fact that our world is so saturated with beauty, breathtaking in so many ways great and small — this ought to let you know God feels it’s something you need for your survival. We are absolutely swimming in it.But apart from the artist and poet, most people don't intentionally pursue beauty as nourishment. Notice that beauty doesn't make the typical lists of discipleship models, spiritual disciplines, or soul care. Beauty is one of the richest graces God has provided to heal our souls and absorb his goodness. Want more? Order your copy of Get Your Life Back today

In this world where we find ourselves living, having joy often feels both crazy and out of reach. To have joy in the midst of sorrow — or the current news feed — can seem impossible. And all on our own, it is impossible. But just as the angel Gabriel said after making his outlandish proclamation to Mary that she, a virgin, would give birth to the Savior of the world, “Nothing will be impossible with God” (Luke 1:37 nasb). Joy is meant to be ours, a joy that is defiant in the face of this broken world. Our hearts are to echo the heartbeat of our joyous God. Now, this isn’t about skipping around in the garden singing, “I’m so happy in Jesus every day.” This is about being present to whatever may be coming our way and, in the midst of both the goodness and the grief, knowing joy. Believing that sorrow and loss do not have the final word takes defiance. It requires a strength of spirit that must be nurtured. It means engaging our lives fully but interpreting them by the highlight of heaven. Denying the truth of reality is not the answer; being fully present to it is. Want more? Order your copy of Defiant Joy today

On the day Adam and Eve fell from grace, they ran off and hid in the bushes. And God came looking for them. He called to Adam, "Where are you?" (Gen. 3:9). Thus began the long and painful story of God's pursuit of mankind. Though we betrayed him and fell into the hands of the Evil One, God did not abandon us. Even a quick read of the Old Testament would be enough to convince you that rescue is God's plan. First with Noah, then with Abraham, and then with the nation Israel, you see God looking for a people who will turn to him from the heart, be his intimate allies once more.The dramatic archetype is the Exodus, where God goes to war against the Egyptian taskmasters to set his captive people free.Four hundred years they have languished in a life of despair. Suddenly — blood. Hail. Locusts. Darkness. Death. Plague after plague descends on Egypt like the blows of some unrelenting ax. Pharaoh releases his grip, but only for a moment. The fleeing slaves are pinned against the Red Sea when Egypt makes a last charge, hurtling down on them in chariots. God drowns those soldiers in the sea, every last one of them. Standing in shock and joy on the opposite shore, the Hebrews proclaim, "The LORD is a warrior" (Ex. 15:3). God is a warrior. He has come to rescue us.Want more? Order your copy of Epic today

Yes, dear friends, we are already God's children, and we can't even imagine what we will be like when Christ returns. But we do know that when he comes we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is. (1 John 3:2 NLT)We have an expression that we use to describe someone who's out of sorts, who's not acting like the person we know her to be: "She's just not herself today." It's a marvelous, gracious phrase, for in a very real way, no one is quite himself today. There is more to us than we have seen. I know my wife is a goddess. I know she is more beautiful than she imagines. I have seen it slip out, seen moments of her glory. Suddenly, her beauty shines through, as though a veil has been lifted.All of us have moments like this, glimpses of our true creation. They come unexpectedly and then fade again. Life for the most part keeps our glory hidden, cloaked by sin, or sorrow, or merely weariness. When I see an old woman, doubled over with arthritis, the hard years etched into her face, I want to cry, Eve, what happened? How truly wonderful it will be to see her in her youth again, the full flower of her beauty restored.When the disciples saw Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration, they got a peek at his glory. He was radiant, beautiful, magnificent. He was Jesus, the Jesus they knew and loved — only more so. And we shall be glorious as well. Jesus called himself the Son of man to state clearly that he is what mankind was meant to be. What we see in Jesus is our personal destiny. Want more? Order your copy of The Journey of Desire today

But there’s something deeper that calls to me, something richer I have tasted which compels me to let go of the life I keep rebuilding in order to learn how to love. I want God. Can you name a better reason? There is simply no other fountain of life; there is no other waterfall of joy. God is the bliss we seek. This is what the Scriptures are trying to get across to us. Everyone who has known God and written about it down through the ages agrees. But it is a truth you pay dearly to finally possess for yourself. “There is no other happiness than God,” wrote Pascal, “and ourselves united to him.” But boy oh boy is there happiness once you have God. David tasted friendship with God — after trying everything else — and came to the conclusion that, “Your love is better than life” (Psalm 63:3). Better even than life. Meaning, “I would give up my life in a heartbeat in exchange for the love of God.” Want more? Order your copy of Love & War today

One of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, so he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume, and as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them. (Luke 7:36–38)Whoa. This “fallen woman” is wiping Jesus’ feet with her hair, and kissing them. A very intimate encounter. She obviously has lost her capacity to care what the “nice people” think, and Jesus doesn’t seem to have ever bothered trying that capacity on. He is no “respecter of persons.” Not, at least, as it is with most folks in this world, especially leaders. This is utterly remarkable in the society of the religious, for the fear of man rules that world. “What good people might think” is a very, very powerful motivator and the raison d’être for most of the ridiculous policies.The man is free — free from what people think, free from religion, free from false obligation. People won’t like it, won’t understand it; they’ll draw false conclusions, point fingers, and worse. He is free from that as well. Oh to be so free.The more you fall in love with Jesus’ genuine goodness, which is true goodness, the more you will absolutely detest the counterfeit of a false piety and a shallow morality. As he did. Jesus has a wild freedom born out of a profound holiness. Which makes him the most remarkable person I have ever known. Want more? Order your copy of Beautiful Outlaw today

What do all the great stories and myths tell us? What do they have in common? What are they trying to get across? Wherever they may come from, whatever their shape might be, they nearly always speak to us Three Eternal Truths. First, these stories are trying to remind us that things are not what they seem. There is a whole lot more going on here than meets the eye. Much more. After the tornado sets her down, Dorothy wakes and steps out of her old farmhouse to find herself in a strange new world, a land of Munchkins and fairies and wicked witches. The Land of Oz. How brilliant for the filmmakers to have waited for this moment to introduce color in the movie. Up till now the story has been told in black and white; when Dorothy steps out of the house, the screen explodes in color, and she whispers to her little friend, "Toto... I don't think we're in Kansas anymore."Isn't this the very lesson of the Emmaus Road? You recall the story — two followers of Christ are headed out of town after the Crucifixion, as dejected as two people can be, with every reason in their minds to be so and more. Their hopes have been shattered. They staked it all on the Nazarene, and now he's dead. As they slump back toward their homes, Jesus sort of sneaks up alongside, very much alive but incognito, and joins their conversation, feigning ignorance — and they not seeing it is him.We live in two worlds — or better, in one world with two parts, one part that we can see and one part that we cannot. We are urged, for our own welfare, to act as though the unseen world (the rest of reality) is, in fact, more weighty and more real and more dangerous than the part of reality we can see. The lesson from the story of the Emmaus Road—the lesson the whole Bible is trying to get across — begins with this simple truth: There is more going on here than meets the eye. Far more. Want more? Order your copy of Waking the Dead today

The book “Killing Lions” is a conversation between John and Sam Eldredge about the trials young men face. [John] You have entered the Warrior Stage of a young man’s life. Young men have been at the center of most of history’s revolutions. Deep in your marrow lies a passion to bring down tyrants, overthrow oppression, and fight for a better world — to be part of something big. And why did God give you such hearts? Isn’t that fascinating — why you and all your peers have a heart to change the world? Was that placed in you simply to be killed? Never! I know older folks love to look down at you over their reading glasses and say something dismissive about “the idealism of youth” and how it’s high time you settle down to real life, but that is not my opinion. I don’t think it’s God’s opinion either. That counsel comes from folks who have killed their heart and soul in order to “get along” in the world. Christianity is all about revolution — is a revolution to its core — and that is why God gives young men and women passion to change the world. God gave you that heart in order that you might discover both the joy of being part of his revolution and your own unique place within it. There is a lot of wrong to be set right in the world. Everywhere you look, the planet is bleeding, children are trafficked, slavery is on the rise, and truth itself has all but shattered. This is a time for revolution, and one of the great wonders of Christianity is the idea that you are born into your times, to set your times aright. What could be more exciting? Frederick Buechner believed that, “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” What could be more hopeful? Want more? Order your copy of Killing Lions today

The loss of personality confounds our imitation of Christ. What happens is, our particular brand of church seizes upon one or two of his virtues as the essence of Christ for us to follow. Justice. Mercy. Righteousness. Whatever. You cannot live a life on one quality any more than you can speak intelligently using one word. Meanwhile, we continue to sound on about the love and compassion of Jesus, like the village idiot banging one note on a piano. After a while the world turns away. Can you blame them? Alas — if only Jesus’ followers shared his personality. That one shift alone would correct so many of the ridiculous and horrifying things that pass for popular Christianity.What is missing in our Gospel reading — and in our attempts to “read” what Jesus is saying and doing in our own lives right now, this week — is his personality, undraped by religion. Want more? Order your copy of Beautiful Outlaw today

There is an overlooked passage late in the New Testament that is going to begin to connect some dots for us in a wild way. It comes from the book of James, and he brings us back around to the old man, Elijah, praying on the mountain: “The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops” (5:16–18). The brother of Jesus is giving his readers a tutorial on the subject of prayer. (He had seen some serious demonstrations of prayer, we might recall, growing up around the man who turned a boy’s lunch into an all-you-can-eat buffet for five thousand.) James points to the famous drought story I just cited, then makes a staggering connection — you are no different than Elijah. That’s his purpose in using the phrase, “Elijah was a man just like us.” James is trying to disarm that religious posture that so often poisons the value of biblical stories: Well, sure, that was so-and-so [in this case Elijah] and they were different than us. Nope. Not the case. Actually, James makes it very clear: Elijah was a human being just like you. In other words, you can do it too. Want more? Order your copy of Moving Mountains today