Selling Our Soul for a Fleeting Salvation
Last week I read a puzzling passage in Hebrews. So baffling it even felt (if I can write this without being struck dead by a bolt of lighting), it …
Thriving in (Not Merely Survival from) Past Sufferings
I reached the high-water mark of my physical fitness at the age of twenty-four. Back then, I ran thirty miles a week, sweated three hundred pushups a …
Was Esther A Sex Slave or A Collaborator?
Why do we paint biblical heroes more virtuous than Scripture does? Hiding their faults robs us of grace, and it robs God of glory. That’s why the …
The Evil Done to Us
My friend’s wife has been angry for forty years. Maybe fifty. When we go out to dinner as couples, she decides which restaurant we visit. Every single …
The Danger of Self-Deceit
My old software company created software for the publishing industry. During a visit with one of our Christian publishers, an executive asked my …
Hearing God in Scripture
When I was twelve, my parents taught me to read a chapter of Proverbs a day. Proverbs has thirty-one chapters, so the day of the month determined …
These Inward Trials
This past year was difficult for me. Nothing horrific: I lost no loved ones and received no dreadful news. But it was inwardly difficult to navigate. …
The Powerful Authority of Humility
My wife is not a fan of Tom Cruise. I see her point. It’s like his acting powers peaked in Top Gun (or maybe A Few Good Men), and all his subsequent …
Why Won’t We Admit the Evil of Our Deeds?
When I began Beliefs of the Heart, a friend suggested I adopt a Comment Policy. His site already had one, and I copied his policy almost word for …
God Doesn’t Need Our Greatness
On my twelfth birthday, I received four birthday cards, each with a personal message. My grandfather, my parents, my oldest brother, and an elder at …
The Worldly Deceit of Willpower
In 1975, three friends and I participated in a 200-mile bicycle marathon on Belle Isle, an island-park owned by the city of Detroit. The course was a …
The Unworthiness of Self-Esteem
The Times of London once asked leading British intellectuals to enter a competition, writing articles that answered this simple question: “What is the …