Tragically, many believers have perceptions of how God feels toward them that are not accurate, and these perceptions create unnecessary distance. Many people project on God the way their parents felt about them or the way they have felt about themselves. Some feel that “God judges and accuses us because of our failure to live up to his standards.” God is not accusing us. Rather, in his compassion for us, he withholds the punishment we deserve, and out of his grace and mercy gives to us blessing we do not deserve. Given our many personal sins and failings, it’s easy to believe...

When the Apostle Peter writes about suffering, the big issue for his readers was not why it comes. The big issues were how they would stay on mission when everything was going wrong around them.  There is a distinct possibility of being derailed in times of trouble.  Sometimes we may not be derailed outwardly, but inwardly.  I believe Peter learned this early on in his walk with Christ, specifically on the side of a mountain in a teaching called the Beatitudes. After reflecting on the Beatitudes, I’ve decided that it takes conviction to live life like Jesus calls us to. It requires us to live...

Friends, because we live on a broken planet – broken by sin – pain is a part of life. There is no such thing as a pain-free life. Pain is inevitable and pain is universal. Regardless of what you have heard, when you begin to follow Jesus, your pain does not disappear. He does, however, transform it. He gives meaning and purpose to it. You begin to see and understand the significance of it.  But as long as you live on this planet, you will experience pain.  If we will give God our pain and the pieces of our lives, His purpose can transform our pain into something productive.  God can bring...

Jesus says, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” Like the other Beatitudes, this one raises all kinds of questions. Who are the pure in heart? Why will they see God, and how will they see God? And the most unsettling question of all: how pure is my heart, and how pure is yours? The dictum of Ivan Turgenev, the 19th Century novelist, speaks for all of us I do not know what the heart of a bad man is like. But I do know what the heart of a good man is like. And it is terrible. When I was growing up in the church, the expression we used to describe becoming a Christian was “accepting...