I haven’t missed an Indy 500 since 1972. When I was nine years old, I convinced my parents during the race to allow me to go to the gift shop by myself. I wanted a purchase that blue tie-dyed T-shirt in remembrance of this historic day. I had barely reached the shop when race officials […]

At nine years old, I walked down a dirt road compacted with sand and stone crunched by the horse-and-buggies that carried people to my home church a century earlier. As I crept inside the church’s double doors, I realized that it was just God and me, so I asked Him a question: “God, what do […]

In the Parable of the Prodigal Son, the father committed four acts atypical of a Middle Eastern patriarch. First, the father gave an unwarranted inheritance. Second, he ran to a prodigal son outside the city gates. Third, he restored him to authenticity, regardless of the cost. Fourth, he pleaded with an older son who attempted […]

The Gospels show us that sand-hearted sinners were drawn to Jesus more than stone-hearted legalists. Why? A glimpse at the geneaology of Jesus’ life gives us a clue. In it we see the stories of five women who were disreputable in the eyes of religious society. Tamar disguised herself and tricked her father-in-law into sleeping […]

Everyone wants wisdom, but what is it really, and where do we find it? Wisdom is God’s heart combined with street smarts, the vertical intersecting with the horizontal. Wisdom applies our relationship with God to our relationships with others, including our tasks. We were designed to have a heart for wisdom (Proverbs 3:5-6; 22:17-18), to […]

The first sin was followed by the world’s first self-restoration program. I call it “sin’s trifecta”: (1) Adam and Eve were ashamed because they had been swayed (Genesis 3:7), (2) they hid because they were afraid (Genesis 3:12-13), and (3) they blamed because they disobeyed (Genesis 3:12-13). Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden tree […]

When a vertical line intersects with a horizontal line, four quadrants result. These represent the four chambers of the spiritual heart. We can remember them with the acronym, WISE. The first chamber is the will, the chamber of our choices. The second is the intellect, or the mind, the chamber of our thoughts. The third […]

On Restoration Road, we are reminded that Christ the Restorer came to earth to inaugurate the kingdom of heaven, the biggest restoration project in the universe. He came to restore the unique expression of the Designer in each one of us. Unfortunately, we turn away from that design. Often times, we sign up for self-restoration, […]