In the last post I briefly explained Bernard of Clairvaux’s four degrees of love. I love this model, not just because it expresses how Christians grow in faith and love, but more so how God meets us where we are and leads us toward being more free, alive, and mature

Twelfth century monk, Bernard of Clairvaux developed a helpful model for expressing how Christians (can) mature in their faith – the four degrees of love. Loving yourself for your own sake (Selfish Love) Loving God for your own sake (Dependence Love) Loving God for God’s sake (Intimacy Love) Loving Yourself

In one aspect every one of us are as rich as we want to be. We are rich in worry. No matter what happens in life, no matter how things go up or go down, whether we win or we lose we’ll always have plenty to worry about if we

Other People’s Problems It is the teaching of Jesus and therefore the priority of his followers to “love our neighbors as our selves” and even to “love our enemies” (Mark 12:31 & Matt 5:44). This can become a tricky proposition for Christians in a number of ways. One of the

Christians are people whose ultimate ambition is to embody the life and teachings of Jesus – a high aspiration for sure. The loftiness of this goal means that the Christian life, in this life anyway, will never be about arriving, but about journey and progress. Sometimes along this journey we

A couple of years ago my wife Carrie was driving through our neighborhood with several black teenagers in her minivan – mostly boys I believe. They were all friends of ours and part of our church. As they drove past a patrol car, the officer inside looked at them, pulled

Although Chutzpah is a Yiddish word – not one of the Biblical languages: Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic – it is an important word for understanding the Biblical concept of faith. Chutzpah is a word that means audacity, gall, nerve, fierce determination, refusing to quit or let go even when you

Hineni (pronounced hee-nay-nee) is an important Hebrew word meaning “Here I am.” It is much fuller of meaning than the informal and casual poh (“I’m here”). Hineni connotes being completely present, completely available, immovably surrendered, yielded, having a readiness to do whatever is asked, etc. Hineni was the response of

I remember a friend of mine who I think a lot of, telling me out of the blue, “Nathan, I don’t know that I feel comfortable calling myself a Christian anymore.” All of a sudden, I was really listening. He went on to say: You know, the word Christian, it

[This is the third part of a three part series on God’s Forgiveness. Part one is “Did God Forgive Before Jesus?” and part two is “Does God Need Blood to Forgive?“] God did and is doing far more through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus to redeem and heal