Our Plans, God’s Plans
Last week’s ideal plan didn’t translate itself into reality. Instead, life happened. While on an errand, I met a man and we talked for two hours; a friend called to say her father is dying and I went …
Three Keys to The Seven Steps that Reveal The Five Secrets of Success
I recently feel a need for action, practically (selling our house, helping a ministry I support, promoting my book) and humanly (a friend in divorce proceedings and other friends with health or …
How To Be IN But Not OF — That Is The Question
My grandfather was a missionary in China from 1917 to 1936. He once told me of some early Pentecostal missionaries to China. They decided it was unnecessary to study Chinese before traveling because …
Why Don’t We Hear God’s Voice?
Humanity was designed to hear God. It’s in our DNA. So why is his voice so rare? Scripture says, “God speaks in many and diverse ways, but nobody notices (Job 33:14). We miss his voice because he’s …
The Fires of Waiting
I’ve always disliked waiting. As a kid, Christmas Eve was torture. Being on hold with Comcast feels endless (the same sappy song repeating every ninety seconds). Last August Kregel Publications …
Hearing God in Our Suffering
Most of my high school friends were obsessed with college-prep, extra-curricular activities, and jobs. Except for one friend. Like a lion, he could sniff out a wounded schoolmate from a thousand …
What’s So Important About Hearing God?
“For God does speak–now one way, now another–though man may not perceive it” (Job 33:14).
Humanity was created to be in a relationship with God; not God as a simple supplement, nor God as mere miracle …
Passing Down Family Traditions
Learning to ride a bicycle – one moment you can’t balance because it’s too scary, then suddenly you are riding on your own with a skill you’ll …
When God Seems Silent
Of all the ways God speaks, the one I like least (and fear most) is his silence. The absence of his voice seems to come at the moments I most desperately long for a word. In those moments, his silence …
Hearing God: Learning to Recognize His Voice in Meditation
God speaks time and again—in various ways—but nobody notices” (Job 33:14).
Central to the nature of the human race is a desire to hear God. Well, more than mere desire. We crave a connection with the …
Hearing God: Conversation Is the Point
When I was growing up, my dad taught me to sail our small Sunfish sailboat. We took month-long summer vacations, and we always camped on lakes, so we could challenge the wind every day.
I probably …
Courage and Cowardice
The worst riot in Detroit’s history broke out the summer of 1967: forty-three people were killed and over eleven hundred injured. As the violence escalated, my father packed us kids into the station …