We sat across from one another at a taco place in west Nashville talking about life, our faith, and the suffering I was enduring so early in my teenage life. Just days earlier my brother had been in a tragic accident, leaving him paralyzed from the neck down. My life was spinning out of control, and I wasn’t sure what to do, where to go, or who to talk to. And that’s when Rick invited me out for...
Isaiah 49 is a mountain-peak passage. Once you’ve climbed it, you just have to pause at the top and take in the view. So I want us to look at the summit of this passage, verses 14–16, because it gives us the most wonderful assurance that nothing in life could ever make God forget us. Of course, that’s not how the exiles in Babylon feel. God has just spoken of his coming servant who will restore...
Over the past few years, something about our culture has changed. We all sense it, though we can’t always put it into words. Some say we’ve moved from a world that’s neutral toward Christianity to a more “negative world.” Others say we’re living through the slow death of Enlightenment liberalism. Still others assert that Western society is now fully post-Christian. Whatever you call it, what we...
Nehemiah has never been short of admirers, as a man and as a leader. Consider these representative quotes from those who have studied his story: From the book of Nehemiah, I learned how to plan my work, organize my time and resources, integrate my duties into the total operation of the company, motivate others, and measure the results. I learned the importance of setting realistic goals and found...
Several years ago, I was interacting with a friend in his mid-twenties who was troubled about his lifestyle and his future. He had grown up reading the stories of missionaries from centuries past who had left everything for the gospel. He had recently heard of Christians who had sold their homes and took other radical steps to avoid wealth. My friend told me that he did not want to settle into an...
