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Christian Living

Nowalayme: How Do You Pray?

Seth Godin, in his new book V is for Vulnerable, writes, “LMNO…used to be a single letter in the alphabet.” I get that. It was for me, and I suspect it was for you too. Another misconception I held as a small child was that “nowalayme” was one word. I finally asked my parents what […]

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Christian Living

Why I’m Willing to Wait for Dessert

Craving dessert is a habit my wife, “The Queen of Desserts,” cultivated in me. She claims, however, my affection for sweets was well ingrained before we met. When eating at home, I pace myself through the meal in expectation of a tasty treat at the end. At restaurants, their oversize proportions and my training to […]

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Christian Living

Should You Build Bigger Barns?

I’m an avid reader. I love books: to buy them, receive them, read them, and collect them. My common birthday and Christmas gift requests are for books. I have four bookcases of them, full and overflowing, with another 100 stacked on the floor. My overstuffed library is a dilemma. I need another bookshelf. This reminds […]

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Christian Living

Why Do We Worship God?

Today is Sunday and many who love God will worship him today. But why? These are all secondary reasons. Worshiping God is not about us, it’s about him. The primary reason we worship God is to affirm him. He doesn’t need our affirmation, but we need to offer it. That’s what worship is.

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Christian Living

Sometimes We Need to Slow Down to Make Progress

We live in a fast-paced world. It seems there are always ten things to do at once—and at least two are urgent. So we plan and schedule in an attempt to fit (most) everything in. It’s easy to approach God that way when we pray and read the Bible: plan and schedule, squeeze it in, […]

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Christian Living

Two Ways to Read the Bible

There are two approaches to take when reading the Bible: quantity and quality. Quantity In the past I’ve read the entire Bible through in a year, many times. Other times I’ve opted to read the Old Testament in a year and many more times, the New Testament in a year. The pace is a bit […]

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Christian Living

Seven Reflections on Halloween

My perspective on Halloween has changed over the years. Here are my seven reflections on Halloween As a kid I relished the opportunity to score some candy, a rare and treasured treat. As a teen I was too old to go trick-or-treating, but there was usually a party to go to or friends to hang […]

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Christian Living

Do You Love God or Fear Him?

For the past two weeks, I’ve been sharing a progression of thought about God as it relates to love and fear. Consider: We are to fear God, which begins to produce understanding and wisdom. We grow to understand that God is love and ultimately that perfect love—as embodied by Jesus—removes our fear. Though we may […]

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Christian Living

What is a Spiritual Community?

As a writer, I write alone; it’s a solitary activity. So it’s good for me to periodically emerge from my self-imposed cocoon and spend time with other people—and other writers are the people who understand me best, those with who I am most comfortable to be around. I just returned from a Christian Writers conference. […]

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Christian Living

Is There a Connection Between Church and Faith?

I recently read an article where the author lamented, “Young people are leaving the church.” A bit later he wrote, “Young people don’t stick with their faith.” His implication was that the two statements meant the same thing. They do not—and assuming they do is part of the problem. I’ve had frequent, ongoing struggles with […]