Shame. We’ve all felt it at some point, but did you know shame was one of the first emotions after the Fall? In Genesis 3, Adam and Eve disobeyed God and ate the fruit and that their eyes were opened. They knew that they were naked – they became self-conscious of their own weakness, their own vulnerability. What did they do? They hid in shame….
I was recently asked to review the book, She Writes for Him: Stories of Living Hope, and I came across a quote that I can’t shake. Carole Leathem writes, “Learn to live with fear, not in fear.” I can’t tell you how many times I have talked with people who believe all fear is bad. While anxiety can be crippling for some, a little anxiety…
Frequently, I get calls from friends looking for “a good, Christian counselor.” I’ve learned over the years that this means different things to different people. Some want to speak with someone who knows God but focuses on the secular theories of psychology. Others want someone to counsel them only using God’s Word. Others mean something in the middle. This past year, my colleague, Rick Fowler,…
I never quite understood why the men in my life had so many tools. I mean, isn’t one hammer enough? Why do you need to keep all of those extra bolts and screws? “You never know when it might come in handy,” my step-dad would say. The funny thing is, now we too, seem to have accumulated all sorts of tools — some we use…
A popular saying today is “You are enough.” While in theory, this sounds great, it is not theologically accurate. Romans 3:23 explicitly tells us that we are all sinners deserving of death. The Bible teaches that if we disobey the law even once, we are guilty of breaking it all. None of us are perfect. This is why we need a Savior. I think when…
There has been a lot of debate when it comes to self-care. Isn’t it selfish to take care of myself? Doesn’t the Bible say to love your neighbor as yourself? These conflicting messages can leave us confused and unsure of how to respond to our self-indulging culture. First, I want to clarify that self-care does not equal self-indulgment. Commercials bombard us with messages such as…