Encouragement

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The path to revival

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The path to revival

Every move of God is a sovereign exercise of his will. Let there be no doubt about that. There is nothing we can do to force him to bring the revival that we so desperately want and our culture so desperately needs.

But what we overlook is the significance of our response.

If we examine Isaiah 52 and 53, we see the great redemptive work of Christ, his suffering, his pain, his rejection. But when we look to the beginning of chapter 54, we find that suddenly a completely different note is sounded: “Shout for joy, O barren one... break forth into joyful shouting.”

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Hope for those who mess up

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Hope for those who mess up

I love the Psalms. And I thought I knew them well. There is a great deal of comfort and encouragement in those 150 chapters. But I never realized how equally full of pain and despair they are until I started writing a year-long daily devotional (hopefully to be published).

David was nothing if not open and transparent. You never had much doubt where he was coming from, or what he was going through. He had experienced it all. Warfare, deceit, dishonesty, and worst of all, betrayal from close friends. The Psalms are known for their repetition of the phrase, “How long, O Lord, how long?”

I’m glad David was so open. He’s a great model. Many years ago, I used to go to conferences with big name speakers who advertised all their successes, and came away discouraged. Then I started to go to conferences with speakers who were more interested in using the example of their own weaknesses to advertise God’s glory, and I came away blessed.

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Hope for the desperate

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Hope for the desperate

What happens when depression or anxiety strikes people who love the Lord? 

The body of Christ should be the greatest place to get help, but there’s a problem. To begin with, for anyone, Christian or not, there’s more shame associated with emotional issues than there is with physical sickness, because mental health issues seem to reflect on our worth and value more than physical illness does.

But what makes it really hard for Christians to ask for help is the fear that, in addition to this, people will also question the reality of our faith or our walk with the Lord. And so we hide. And it gets worse.

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The power of faith

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The power of faith

Sometimes you have to throw caution to the winds and just step out in faith. That was a topic of conversation the other day between a successful young church planter in Toronto and myself.

One of the enemy’s cleverest tricks is to keep our focus on what we can achieve by our own efforts.

I was taught a lot about faith as a young leader. The example of several men I personally knew who had taken extraordinary steps of faith in their walk with God took hold of me and challenged me to the core.

We can do a lot by our own efforts, but the kingdom will only really move ahead when we start doing what can only be accomplished by divine intervention.

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The genius of marriage

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The genius of marriage

The Old Testament often pictures the relationship between God and his people as a marriage. God is shown as a husband seeking out a wife who has gone astray, but whom he still loves and seeks: “For your Maker is your husband, the Lord of hosts is his name…. for the Lord has called you like a wife deserted and grieved in spirit, like a wife of youth when she is cast off, says your God. For a brief moment I deserted you, but with great compassion I will gather you. In overflowing anger for a moment I hid my face from you, but with everlasting love I will have compassion on you, says the Lord, your Redeemer” (Isa. 54:5-8). 

Jesus took over this teaching and with boldness referred to himself as the Bridegroom. Within the context of a wedding he said, “Can the wedding guests fast when the bridegroom is with them?… the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day” (Mk. 2:19-20).