The people who know God well--mystics, hermits, prayerful people, those who risk everything to find God--always meet a lover, not a dictator.
01405 – Lover, Not Dictator
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01404 – Church is a Connector
[An] airport is a place of connection, not a destination. Its job is to help people get somewhere else. An airport-centric world of travel would be dull and frustrating, no matter how nice the airport is. When the church thinks it's the destination, it also confuses...
01400 – The “Ostrich Movement”
Some people grew up in the Charismatic Movement. I grew up in the Ostrich Movement--stick your head in the sand and ignore the Holy Spirit. Out of sight, out of mind. If you do this long enough maybe he'll go away and you won't have to deal with it. The only problem...
01398 – The Proper Use of Money
The proper use of money is not for living high down here; that would be a very poor investment indeed. No, the proper use of money is for investing as much of it as possible in the lives of people, so that we will have treasure in heaven. Of course, we need to keep a...
01388 – Changing to Love Everyone
If we believe God loves the world, it should change how we live in the world. It means we love all people.
01386 – Connection Creates Energy
Connection is the energy that is created between people when they feel seen, heard, and valued--when they can give and receive without judgment.
01383 – Mourners: Taking Action
Those people are not real mourners who say, "Sure, the world's in a mess, and I guess maybe I'm a bit guilty like everybody else, but what can I do about it?" What they're really saying is that they are not concerned enough about themselves or the world to look for...
01379 – Interpreting “God’s Word”
The issue should not be oversimplified into whether people will live by God's word or mere human teaching. Given this choice, all religious people will choose "God's word." But for all sides of the debate, God's word is not available directly, only through human...
01372 – Eloquent Sermons
I am sometimes amazed, even alarmed, at the extent to which people judge ministers by their preaching, and preaching by its rhetoric. To do so is to make the entirely spurious but nearly universal assumption that God is better served by a poet than by an accountant....
01367 – Feeding the Psyche
The psyche is boundlessly rich. Fed by people, and places, the natural world, by art and music, not to mention various cultural symbols, our reservoir of imagery is brimming--if we take time to notice. from The Nature of Music