Counterfeit gods: Mental Bridges Falling Down
God forbids all idolatry. This prohibition is the single most repeated rule in all of Scripture; it’s the First Commandment (You shall have no other …
Beliefs of the Heart
Heaven or Hell?
My dad died April 1st, 1996, almost twenty-five years ago. His theology prohibited choosing the day of death, but if he could have chosen, it would …
The Necessity of Hearing God
“For God does speak–now one way, now another–though man may not perceive it” (Job 33:14). Humanity was created to be in a relationship with …
Why Are We Still Prisoners?
Christianity claims we are made new through a re-birth, we are new creations with new hearts, and the walls that imprisoned us have been bulldozed. …
Giving God My Emptiness
My leadership at my church feels fruitless; my last few sermons stank; in the first 34 weeks of this year, I published only 25 “weekly” articles; and …
Fear of Fruitlessness
Last week God shocked me with two verses spoken to one of his prophets: “You shall speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you. You …
The Fear of Risk
Years ago, I went scuba diving into a shark-feeding frenzy with two of my kids. We descended sixty feet to the ocean floor, knelt in a large circle, …
Practicing Godless Faith
I once met an elder who was in deep distress because of his faith. Six years ago, his small but growing church received tithes that exceeded two …
Walking A Tightrope
Charles Blondin was a famous pioneer of tightrope walking (which, if you care, is properly called “funambulism,” and which I take to mean the …
The Stench of Human Sweat
A couple years ago, the subscription sign-up for www.BeliefsoftheHeart.com stopped working. Apparently, it had died without telling me. It accepted …
My Sister Is a Liar
The house I grew up in belonged to a church. My father was a pastor with a relatively small salary, so every home we lived in was provided rent-free …
Pretty Ugly Moralism
I went to school with a young woman who scratched little marks inside her Bible to keep score of how many people she had converted. She showed me her …