distance
Healthy relationships require lots of bond-building things like communication, honesty, and truth spoken in love. Each day we’re either growing closer to another person or we’re drifting apart. Relationships aren’t static. They’re dynamic. 
In our relationship with God, the same pattern plays out. We’re either growing closer to Him or we’re tumbling away like fallen leaves blown by a cool…
forgiven and forgiving
According to psychologist Abraham Maslow, man’s basic needs are physiological—oxygen to breathe and food to eat. According to Jesus, man’s basic needs are spiritual—to be forgiven and to forgive.
With the same tenacity and intensity that we ask for God’s provisions (Matthew 6:11), we must also seek His pardon. This means asking Him to forgive us of our sins and…
spilled out
As I was grading papers at school one day, I received a text from my husband that read, “we r all n.” When I responded “What?” he explained that he had spilled half a gallon of paint on the carpeting in our home office. Fortunately, the carpet was old, and we were planning on ripping it up anyhow. Now we…
keeping up appearances
A young woman was living the high life in Beijing. She resided in a private villa, danced her weekends away, and had her own chauffeur. But she lost it all when new comrades rose to power and threw her father out of his government office. The young woman, however, was not exactly humbled. When friends offered to pay her rent…
risky business
A recent study by the US-based Virginia Tech Transportation Institute reveals that texting while driving is risky business. The study concluded that the risk of being in a collision is 23 times greater for truck drivers who text. The Institute’s research team is recommending that texting be banned for all drivers.
If Solomon were alive today, he would definitely recommend…
September 13, 2010
What's a key national or international issue that you're concerned about? What does God's Word reveal about how we should address the issue?
museum of broken relationships
A garden dwarf, a glass house, and a box made of matches. These items and many others are on display at the Museum of Broken Relationships in Croatia. It exists so that everyone who contributes a memento from a shattered relationship has the chance to “overcome emotional collapse through creation.”
The Bible offers even more constructive insight on how to…
marlena graves
Marlena is a bylined contributor for Her.meneutics, Gifted For Leadership, and Missio Alliance. She is married to her favorite person in existence, Shawn Graves. He's a philosopher. Together they have three little girls. They enjoy their life together and always desire to welcome others into it. She's on staff at her church offering and coordinating pastoral care for their beloved seniors. Her first book, A Beautiful Disaster: Finding Hope in…
serving God leftovers
A few years ago, radio commentator Paul Harvey shared a true story about a woman and her frozen turkey. The Butterball Turkey Company set up a telephone hotline to answer consumer questions about preparing holiday turkeys. One woman called to inquire about cooking a turkey that had been in her freezer for 23 years. The representative told her the turkey…
when the world falls apart
We are obsessed with success. An entire industry revolves around Guinness World Records, cataloging stuff like the longest beard, the fastest 40-meter wheelbarrow race, and the most T-shirts worn at once. We have meticulous lists of all the record holders, but nobody remembers the losers.
Unfortunately, this fascination with all things triumphant has corroded our spiritual pursuits. We can begin to…
the solution
With more than 70 books to his name, Martin Gardner is the world’s best-known recreational mathematician. His fun mathematical problems and mind-boggling puzzles have likely introduced more people to the joys of math than anyone in history.
Recently, he said, “If you think about it, everything that distinguishes a modern industrial society from the Greek and Roman period is the…
five mysteries
In his book Why Us? James Le Fanu lists five mysteries that a naturalistic view of human origins fails to explain:
Subjective awareness. No scientific theory accounts for how the electrical activity of our brains results in our experiencing so richly and coherently the greenness of grass, the rustling of leaves, and the song of a bird.
Free will. How does our…
my friends and i
John Chrysostom wrote: “Such is friendship, that through it we love places and seasons; for as . . . flowers drop their sweet leaves on the ground around them, so friends impart favor even to the places where they dwell. . . . It would be better for us that the sun were exhausted than that we should be without…
September 7, 2010
In response to Jesus' statement that He came to "testify to the truth," Pilate said, "What is truth?" (John 18:37-38). How would you answer his question?
