I was listening to the radio the other day and heard the mantra in the lyrics of yet another song, “Fear is a liar…”

Then someone posted a meme on Instagram, saying the same thing.

Though it sounds true, and though I understand the sentiment behind this “bumper...

Pain isn’t the enemy emotionally anymore than it is physically. Most of us do our best to avoid emotional pain. We bury it. We explain it away.

Think about the necessity of physical pain, though…

About five years ago, my son Judah broke his arm. He tripped on the playground, landed...

People often have more confidence in the devil's ability to deceive-- and in the innate drive to sin-- than they do in the fact that we're created in the image of God, and we've been resurrected into the new humanity of Jesus...

Here’s why and how…

Jesus not only died in our place,...

As we were going back and forth about the forward for the Claim Your Freedom book, JB and I sat in a pub in downtown Salt Lake City discussing “hard things.” He experienced his version of a few tough chapters just like me. Each of us have different details, and both stories...

The resurrection doesn’t remove the scars, it rewrites the ending of the story…

Sometimes that means the scars remain. They no longer control the story, but they are part of it- perhaps even a significant part.

When they killed Jesus, they battered Him mercilessly. Isaiah prophesied...

Back in 2014, a child-therapist my family visited for a season described stress in a revealing way. Kristen, the counselor, likened our souls to balloons…

(Yes, I have a lot of experience with counselors!)

“You can blow a balloon up,” she said, moving her hands larger and...

September 2018 I did something I never imagined I would do: I took a psychological evaluation. A full one. The kind with hundreds of questions followed by a sit-down interview with a licensed psychologist.

To say it another way, I voluntarily took one of those tests that cost several hundred...

The Bible tells us we're redeemed by the blood of the Lamb (i.e., 1 Peter 1:18-19). If this is true, it means that Jesus offers a facet of redemption (read: freedom) at each place He bled..

(To understand the word redemption, go here first.)

Notice... 

For the purposes of mental and...

In this short video we talk about how grace doesn't just change your eternal destination (i.e., what happens to you when you die), it also alters the ongoing experience of life now.

Let me explain... 

In seminary I learned about “the law of first mention,” a precept that tells us...

I grew up in church— my Dad was the pastor. It's a longer story for another time and place (which I’m totally willing to share), but the blinders didn’t come off for me until I was in college.

I walked the aisle at the end the church service one Sunday morning. That’s how...