Tear Down to Build Up Discovering an authentic belief system that gives purpose and meaning to life is a high priority for many people....

Why does God seem hidden sometimes? If you’ve been a spiritually oriented person for any length of time, you’ve experienced seasons when...

The Dark Side of Bipolar Disorder Bipolar Disorder is currently classified in two types, distinguished by the severity of the episodes....

Skepticism is often seen as a lack of faith. Understandably -- we long for certainty. That’s why simplistic answers appeal to us. We like...

Avoiding pain is instinctive. Grief is painful, so we put it off, push it away, avoid it, postpone it, gloss over it, and deny it as long...

Father’s Day stirs mixed emotions. On the one hand, I love being a father and always had. I became one quite early – I was only 20 when...

We tend to err on the extremes too often. A pastor (especially a pastor of a megachurch) falls into moral failure. One extreme is to...

When the love of Christ flooded my soul, I knew I was accepted. I was overwhelmed with joy. I was radically converted. Unfortunately, I...

Brilliant teachers can change your life. I became fascinated with mental illness in college when I took a course in psychopathology from...

What does it mean to be discipled? According to Billy Graham, it essentially meant read the Bible, go to church, tell others about...

There is no good reason to feel guilty about being afraid. I was erroneously taught that fear is the opposite of faith. Fear, anxiety,...

A friend of mine committed suicide recently. He was highly intelligent, quite skilled at his profession, and helped a multitude of people...

“Lord, teach us to pray …” (Luke 11:1) Many well-meaning prayers fail to plumb the depths of the divine. We all know that rote pious...

One of the saddest things I’ve seen as a pastor, chaplain, counselor, and spiritual director is grown-up children who reject, rebuff,...

Many sins are quiet and respectable, and therefore go unnoticed in our culture. How many sermons have you heard on gluttony or the evils...

Asked to define love, the young man replied, “Love is a feeling you feel when you feel a feeling you’ve never felt before.” Everyone...

I meet regularly with a spiritual director and a psychologist for my own growth. In my experience, everyone can benefit from spiritual...

Questions Often Mask Deeper Questions Quite regularly, congregants will approach a pastor after the worship service and ask generalized...

We far too often talk past each other. In order to understand one another, it’s imperative we define terms. Two different people both...