Fire in My Bones

Last week I hosted a men’s discipleship conference in Jacksonville, Florida. More than 220 guys from 18 states and a few foreign countries enjoyed three days of meals, fellowship and encouraging sermons. The guys sang loudly and got rowdy during break times, but you could hear a pin drop during a panel discussion about sexual …

How Andy Stanley Is Distorting the Christian View of Sexuality Read More »

Church hurt is real. I have friends who’ve been in counseling for years because they were so spiritually abused by pastors. I also know pastors who were treated horribly by deacons, elders or church members. I know a pastor’s wife who battles clinical depression because of the way her husband was mistreated by their former …

Don’t Let Church Hurt Derail Your Faith Read More »

Several years ago, I met a traveling evangelist whose popularity was on the rise. People packed auditoriums to hear this best-selling author preach her signature sermons. But popularity doesn’t always guarantee Christian character. This celebrity preacher had a serious pride problem. Once, when a church invited this person to speak in a conference, the pastor …

We Need Leaders Who Walk with a Limp Read More »

About 25 years ago, I found myself at a church altar in Orlando, Florida. God had been dealing with me about leaving my comfort zone. I had a great job with nice benefits, yet I felt spiritually unfulfilled. I knew there was an amazing adventure in front of me, but I had placed serious limitations …

Don’t Look for Loopholes When You Surrender to God Read More »

‘ve lost three close friends during the past two years. Robert and James died in 2021, and Doug died just a few weeks ago, on August 21. You’d think by now that I’d be an expert in how to grieve a loss, especially since I also lost my parents recently. But working through grief is …

8 Ways to Navigate the Dark Path of Grief Read More »

Last week was tough. One of my best friends, Doug, died unexpectedly, and the tragedy shook me to the core. Doug’s death also shook my friend Jeff, a pastor who looked up to Doug as a mentor. Before and after the funeral, Jeff and I cried together. We shared our memories of Doug and processed …

Dealing With Doubt or Discouragement? Lock Your Exits! Read More »

I was filled with the Holy Spirit three weeks before I went to college, and I immediately became a serious student of the Bible. I remember waking up early and reading Scripture at my tiny desk in my dorm before my roommate woke up. My hunger for God’s Word became insatiable, and my studies laid …

How Jesus Is Revealed in Every Book of the Bible Read More »

My new friend Serhii Pantonenko doesn’t speak much English, but when he shared his story with me last weekend I could understand his pain. Like so many other Ukrainian refugees who have come to the United States in recent months, Serhii is weighed down by despair. “When the war started we realized that our religious …

Use Psalm 46 As a Weapon as You Pray for Ukraine Read More »

You’ve probably seen the videos of thieves filling trash bags with stolen merchandise from CVS or walking out of Home Depot or Wal-Mart with armloads of tools, laptops, detergent and athletic shoes they didn’t pay for. We used to call this shoplifting, and it was a crime. Today, it’s known as “inventory shrinkage”—and it costs …

What Would Jesus Say About Today’s Retail Theft Epidemic? Read More »

I’m currently on my 29th mission trip to Africa. In fact, I’m sending this column from Malawi, a country that has become very dear to my heart. Since I surrendered to a call to missions while I was editor of Charisma, I’ve visited 39 nations and developed relationships with dozens of pastors and leaders who …

Leave Your Entitlement at Home When Heading to the Mission Field Read More »

Last week I arrived in Zanzibar, off the coast of Tanzania, to train some missionaries and to speak in a few meetings before heading to the mainland. I knew that Zanzibar was predominantly Muslim, and that in the past Christians there have suffered from persecution. I didn’t know that this beautiful island, now a vacation …

A Global Movement of Radical Young Adults Is Emerging Read More »

If the new hit movie “Sound of Freedom” had been released a few years ago, the mainstream media would have praised it—and Hollywood probably would have given it a few Oscars. But times have changed. Something has shifted in our culture. In today’s up-is-down, right-is-wrong world, a movie that exposes the evils of child sex …

Why Do Some People Hate the Movie ‘Sound of Freedom’? Read More »