Redemption is a word almost no one who isn’t a Christian uses anymore. When I was a kid to encourage customers to buy at their store merchants offered Green Stamps. For every dollar you spent they’d give you an actual green stamp. My mother would save them up in a drawer until we had a lot of them then we licked them and glued in a little book with a dozen pages. When we had enough books she would drive to the Green Stamp Store and she would “redeem them” to “buy” merchandis

A month ago I was meeting with the leader of a ministry which was new to me. They have been in existence for nearly a decade but I really didn’t know much about them but I agreed to take a meeting to find out more. I’ve been asked for many years how Susan and I decide which ministries we should financially support and those we don’t. There’s no science or formula I’ve ever read that Christians can apply to know for certain. However, here are a few important questions I try t

"I'm thinking of doing something different vocationally. I've been in a job that's been OK, but I'm bored and there's not much room for advancement. But, I just don't know what the will of God is for my next job. I just don't want to make the wrong move." I'll bet you, yourself have sought an answer from God for any number of issues from what college to attend, who to marry, whether to serve in ministry – the list is probably endless. Here's what we really want to know: Is it

I was sitting at Starbucks a year and a half ago on a fine fall day with a young man about to graduate from college in the spring. He and I had met a number of times before when he was going through a crisis of faith over the death of a friend, but today he had a completely different dilemma. "I want to know what God's will is for my life. Is there any way I can know that with certainty?" "Yes, there is," I said. But, what I was about to tell him, wasn't what he wanted to hea

Every Christian knows that Jesus told his disciples in several of the gospels, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” Matt. 16:24. And that command applies to anyone who claims to be a Christian today. So, quick, before you read on please stop and try defining that phrase. What does it actually mean to follow Jesus in 2026? I wasn’t kidding. If you haven’t answered my question, please do it now before reading on. I think the

A few months ago, a Christian man sat in my office angry and sad because his wife just told him she was divorcing him. “And my kids don’t respect me either,” he added, implying that his wife had turned the kids against him. “Why is God letting her do this to me?” I’m not sure why I end up with so many guys with bad marriages sitting in my office, decade after decade. I don’t even pretend to be a marriage counselor. But, there’s a common theme that runs through the majority of

I’ve sat with men and women, months after the death of a child, spouse or parent and have been asked “Will I ever find closure?” My honest answer is, “Probably not, and I’m not sure you truly want closure.” Closure works well in some areas, like the closing of a real estate transaction. But the term closure does not apply well to the human heart. It might not be possible, or even desirable, to permanently close the heart on a deep relationship ended by death. Are you sure yo

I had a friend of a friend ask this question of him recently. He said, "My wife and I grew up in the traditional church. But when we began having children, that just didn't seem to work anymore. So my wife and I began our own family church, where we can teach our own children, worship together as a family and where we can grow together spiritually. It's working for us." So, is a church made up of only one family, really a church? I don't believe it is. However, I love it that

Over the years, I've met so many people who have walked away from God or become angry with him because "he took my mother (or dad) from me. Why would a good God, a loving God do that?" So a few years ago I decided to prepare our grandchildren for the day of my death. Each of them, roughly 15 years old or over have gotten "the talk." They've now heard straight from me in this life, what death means for true Christians. Here's the gist of what I've told them. Someday you're goi