Beyond Sunday: Living Out What We Hear

Jesus walked through some hard doors. Betrayal by one of His closest friends. A rigged trial in the middle of the night. Beatings that should have killed Him before they even got to the cross. And finally, the cross itself, the most brutal form of execution the Roman...

I want you to think about the worst things you've ever done. The stuff you don't talk about. The things you hope no one ever finds out. The moments you replay and wish you could take back. Now multiply that by every person who has ever lived. Every act of cruelty....

Easter is almost here, and I want to tell you something that I think we miss when we talk about the crucifixion. Jesus was not a victim. He was not a good man who got caught up in bad politics. He was not a martyr who ran out of options. He was the Son of God who...

A praying church is not just a church that mentions prayer. It is a church that depends on prayer. That kind of church believes God still hears, still cares, and still acts. It believes that prayer is not empty motion. It is an act of faith. A praying church asks God...

Most Christians would never say prayer is unimportant. We know better than that. But the way we live often tells a different story. Prayer is one of the first things to get squeezed out when life gets crowded. We hurry through it. We postpone it. We talk about it more...

Jesus entered the temple and said, “My house shall be called a house of prayer.” Those words were not only a rebuke to what the temple had become. They were a reminder of what it was always meant to be. The temple was supposed to be a place where people sought God....

Many people approach prayer as if it is a way to convince God to do what we want. We bring Him our requests and hope He answers them exactly the way we expect. But Jesus taught something deeper. When He instructed His disciples how to pray, He included the phrase...

Many people approach prayer as if it is a way to convince God to do what we want. We bring Him our requests and hope He answers them exactly the way we expect. But Jesus taught something deeper. When He instructed His disciples how to pray, He included the phrase...

Every human being carries a deep longing to be known and loved. You can hear it in music, see it in movies, and feel it in everyday conversations. Our culture is full of people searching for connection. That longing did not appear by accident. God placed it in our...

There is a kind of church culture that teaches people to wear church like a costume. Smile. Say the right words. Hide the hard stuff. Look spiritual. Keep moving. That culture may produce polished people, but it does not produce healed people. Jesus had no patience...

This phrase gets tossed around a lot: “God loves you just as you are.” That is gloriously true. And dangerously incomplete if we stop there. Yes, God loves you as you are. He knows the real you, not the cleaned-up version. He knows what is on your mind before you say...

There are moments in life that humble you so thoroughly that you never quite recover your illusion of control. For me, one of those moments involved a girl named Tiffany in eighth grade and a PE class sit-up test. I really liked her. She was cute, had a sweet smile,...