Changing the Conversation

Matthew is perhaps most famous for writing one of the four gospel accounts about the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Not only did Matthew write what would end up being one of the four authoritative, preserved, and passed down accounts of the life of Christ, Matthew was also famously one of the original twelve

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The Fact of God

The brazen desert sun reflected mercilessly off of every rise, wallowing in the gaps between the dry cliff walls and the tawny wilderness floor. The opening crags of jutting rock faces joining to form the rugged hillsides of the desert of Judea seemed to move toward the afternoon sun as the light played its way in

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Embrace the Mess

Life is messy. People make mistakes.  People make poor choices.  People sin. The fabric of life is corrupted, interrupted, mixed and confused with messages, lies, misinformation, destructive paths, dysfunctional interactions, harmful experiences, and brokenness in indefinite variety. The tapestry of your own life is not yet complete, but already as you look over the work

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Gratitude: The Ultimate Measure of Maturity

Gratitude requires contrast. Gratitude depends on awareness and understanding as its foundation and context because gratitude is the organic response to a positive outcome when a negative or less desirable result was possible, likely, or certain. Gratitude is so much more than just the rosy emotional response or the specific thanks for a job well done.

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Up Close and Personal

Isn’t it interesting that usually when people talk about absolute truth they speak in generalities?  As if to be absolute a fact has to establish a stereotype and so act as a precursor to prejudice? In this worldview, the believer asserts that God sees all people in the most vague and categorical ways.  And so, to

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Boldly Declare Grace

Shame. Guilt. Fear. Judgment. Condemnation. Punishment. Isolation. For thousands of years these have been the prescription for and the expected result of sin. They have been codified in legal systems, embedded culturally in societies, and preached from pulpits the world over.  They have transcended dogma and tradition, reaching from the major world religions all the

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God’s Judgment Advantage

I do not fear the judgment of God. Every day you get judged hundreds of times.  You, your parents, your children, your friends, your family, your coworkers, your boss.  People you have just met for the first time.  People you have known for years.  People are continually forming their opinion, updating their take, shaping their

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