But [Jesus] would withdraw to desolate places and pray. (Luke 5:16)

A retreat might just be what you need in order to not waste your life.

Note that Jesus, in the middle of very busy ministry, would withdraw to desolate places to pray and listen to his Father. Think about that. Jesus only had a public ministry of three years. He didn’t have any life to waste in planting the gospel seed that would change human history (Mark 4:30–32). So he would withdraw from activity to pray.

Obviously Jesus’s example exhorts us to daily set time aside to soak in prayer and the Word, especially in the morning (Mark 1:35). But, if you’re like me, an hour or so a day helps me in my daily fight of faith…

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It happened, late one afternoon, when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king's house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful. (2 Samuel 11:2)

We are never more vulnerable to sin than when we are successful, admired by others, and prosperous, as King David tragically discovered. Imagine him reflecting on his adultery a year later.

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It was spring again. David once had loved warm, fragrant spring afternoons on the palace roof. But this year the scent of almond blossoms smelled like deep regret. 

David had no desire to look toward Uriah’s empty house. If only he had not looked that way a year ago. The memory throbbed with p…

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Everybody knows this is true. It’s a very simple principle.

But right thinking is very hard. The forces wielding a distorting influence over our reasoning powers are immense. Though God is revealing himself all the time in every aspect of his creation (Romans 1:20) and his Word (Hebrews 1:1–2), Satan is constantly trying to blind us to that revelation (2 Corinthians 4:4). And indwelling sin mixes with culture, education, and life experience in a fallen world, producing lenses that warp our perceptions of almost everything.

We probably need to fear our susceptibility to wrong thinking more than we do. We get a picture of just how vulnerable we are to it in Peter when he tries to talk Jes…

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Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him… in whatever condition each was called, there let him remain with God. (1 Corinthians 7:17, 24)

Most Christians struggle at some point with the sense that ministry jobs are just more sacred than other jobs. You can see this reflected in our terminology: we tend to call non-ministry jobs “secular jobs.” It can be hard not to see them as “unspiritual” or “less spiritual” jobs.  

But God draws no such distinctions. He does call some of his saints (a relative few) to serve the church vocationally in a variety of ways. But these folks are not the spiritual elite or some kind of Christianiz…

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O gracious God, Father of the Lord Jesus,

Through your Son’s words I hear you ask me “What do you want me to do for you?” (Luke 18:41). This is my answer: I want Ephesians 3:16–19.

I want you to “strengthen me with power through [your] Spirit in [my] inner being” (verse 16). I need your power more than I need prosperity or popularity or peace in my family because I am so weak. 

I need more power because I long for more of Jesus to “dwell in my heart through faith” (verse 17). I know he dwells there now, but not enough of him. I want more of him. And I can only have that if your Spirit strengthens my heart to hold more of your Son through faith.

I need more of Jesus in me so that I…

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And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. (Hebrews 11:6)

October will be here before we know it. And October ends with Reformation Day, because on October 31, 1517, Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-five Theses to the door of Castle Church in Wittenberg, lighting the fuse that exploded into the Protestant Reformation.

I have a suggestion for you. Since one of the great cries of the Reformation became Sola Fide (faith alone), how about making this October “Faith Month.” For private worship and reflection you could select and meditate on Scriptures that explain what faith is and how…

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Lord… You have the words of eternal life. (John 6:68)

Christians are word people. We’re really into words because the Founder of Christianity is the Word (John 1:1). He came to earth to deliver a message in words. Those of us who have believed his words recognize them as the “words of eternal life” (John 6:68). And we seek to speak these words to others so they too can have eternal life. We call these words the gospel.

Christians are also book people. We’re really into books because our Founder left us a book, a collection of the words he determined are most important for us to know and remember.

This means we’re not into books merely because they’re good for us — as in a good book…

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Time and energy is money. And money is money. So when we want to get something done we typically want it done as efficiently as possible.

That’s why we are often bewildered when God gives us work to do and then allows the “inefficiencies” of trouble and opposition to consume so much time, energy, and money. Why does he do this? We see a clue in the book of Nehemiah.¹

At first, God just seems to prosper Nehemiah. He rose through the ranks of Artaxerxes’ court to the prestigious and highly trusted position of the king’s cupbearer. This provided him close proximity to and high credibility with the king. This in turn caused the king to notice Nehemiah’s sadness over Jerusalem and want to do…

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Jesus and Nazareth are inseparable. Jesus spent most of his life in Nazareth. The prophets had said, "He shall be called a Nazarene" (Matthew 2:23). History would remember him as Jesus of Nazareth. Even the demons called him that (Luke 4:34).

That's why this verse is one of the saddest in the Bible:

And he did not do many mighty works [in Nazareth], because of their unbelief. (Matthew 13:58)

It's a great irony that the Pride of Nazareth was rejected by the Nazarenes because of pride.

Can you believe this? Joseph the carpenter's son thinks he's a prophet! Well, we know his family and they're respectable enough people. But I know for a fact that he didn't receive any formal religio…

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People don’t really care how many books we’ve read. So it’s a waste of time to read kinds of books or numbers of books to impress others.

And it’s also a waste if we spend most of our reading time escaping into a fantasy. I don’t mean fantasy as a genre. I’ve seen glorious realities while sojourning in Middle Earth. I’m talking about literary fast food that tastes good but doesn’t nourish — the kind of stuff that leaves you spiritually sluggish.

Your reading time is precious. So read to see more of what’s real. Read to understand more of what’s true. Ransack books hunting for joy. Read to get glimpses of glory. Read to steer out of your perspective ruts. Read to stir your affections — …

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