Four ways to help yourself when you are doubting your faith — Christianity is an incredible faith. It teaches of a personal God who desires a relationship with his creation. It teaches that he loves us so much he sacrificed his Son to have a relationship with us. Christianity also teaches some difficult doctrines. Jesus was born to a virgin. There is…

How to Find a Mental Health Provider — According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the prevalence of symptoms of anxiety and depression has increased 25% since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Over the past several years the number of referrals I have received for depression and anxiety has skyrocketed. …

Eliminating hurry from our frantic lives — My life is hectic. There is no way around that. I work in ministry full-time, run a business, and have five kids. Layer on top of that a smartphone and access to unlimited entertainment and media and we have a recipe for disaster. My suspicion is that if you described…

What to do when people seek to take from us — The Antitheses Nestled in the midst of the Sermon on the Mount are the 6 antitheses. They are contained in Matthew 5:21–48. In the antitheses, Jesus introduces a faulty teaching and then provides his own correction of the teaching. It is important for us to understand what is actually going on here…

The new drug and its impact on our brains — Pornography is endemic in the modern world. There is no way around this. The rise of the internet and smartphone have led us into a world in which access to porn is constant, easy, and mobile. Over the last decade or so, there has been a notable increase in symptoms…

Lessons from a Sweet 16 — This past weekend I was fortunate enough to attend my niece’s Sweet 16 party. It was a TON of fun. There was delicious food, splendid music, dancing, and time with loved ones and friends. My wife and kids and I had a fantastic time. It was also encouraging to see…

Practices to draw us closer to God — “What is a spiritual discipline?” I asked my second-to-fourth grade class this exact question every Wednesday night all year last year. We were working through a curriculum that taught the importance of classic spiritual disciplines in our Christian lives. Each week, the kids would offer their responses. These would usually…

The Deception of the Pursuit of Happiness — Way back in 1776, Thomas Jefferson suggested that the colonists in North American had the right to, “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Our culture has been pursuing that elusive ideal for the 247 years since then. I suspect that when you think about people attending therapy or seeking…

Is doubt a natural outgrowth of personal suffering? — Suffering is a universal aspect of the human experience. Genesis 3 tells us of original sin introducing death into God’s creation. From there, suffering escalates quickly into fratricide. The Old Testament is full of stories of suffering. As the New Testament opens, we are told of the arrival of the…