Growing up without my father on Father’s Day, I would often make out my card to my mother. I would tell of all the ways she provided for me and protected me and how grateful I was. As I’ve grown older I realized that my mother could not take the place of my father. Her role was to model things about God that were different from how my father could. Of course, ideally, the two of them would be Christians working together to create a beautiful bountiful bungalow for me to thrive in.... continue reading
If you’re an adult child, chances are that your parents may be among those who are feeling the ache of loneliness right now. There are lots of ways to come alongside them and help them feel less lonely—calling them regularly, sending a note, and dropping off a meal can be tangible expressions of love for sure. But there are times when even our kindest gestures can’t fill the void of loneliness, and the best thing we can do for our parents is to turn to the only one who can.... continue reading
To help fix our gaze on Jesus, we are surrounded by “a great cloud of witnesses”. For the first readers of Hebrews, these witnesses were the saints of the Old Testament, whose faith in God’s promises had sustained them through troubling times and had enabled them to achieve great things in God’s name. But as readers today, we can add names from across the pages of church history to that crowd of cheering spectators.... continue reading
I want to suggest that any serious engagement with God needs to engage three aspects of who we are as people — we are redeemed sinners seeking to serve our Lord and Savior as we journey to the new creation in each others’ company.... continue reading