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I think sometimes we set our standards for people so high that we actually rob ourselves of the opportunity to learn from God through other people. We decide what someone used by God should look like. How they should speak. What their past should look like. How educated they should be. How confident they should be. What denomination they should belong to. How polished their delivery should be. And if they don't meet those standards, we decide there probably isn't anything we

There is something deeply wrong when our beliefs cause us to look at another person and hope they are destroyed. It does not matter how wrong we believe they are. It does not matter how sinful their lifestyle may be. It does not matter how badly they have treated us. It does not even matter if they openly oppose everything we believe. If our response is hatred—if somewhere inside us we actually want to see them condemned—then we need to examine what is happening in our own he

One of the greatest dangers in Christianity is taking something God did in our life and turning it into a rule for everyone else's life. “God delivered me this way, so this is how deliverance works.” “God called me this way, so this is how calling works.” “God speaks to me this way, so this is how He must speak to you.” “God convicted me about this, so every Christian should have the same conviction.” Without realizing it, we can take our testimony and turn it into someone el

We talk about church unity a lot. We pray for unity. We preach about unity. We hold community worship nights and pastors' gatherings and talk about how wonderful it is when churches work together. But I have been thinking about a harder question: What does church unity look like when it actually costs our church something? Because unity is easy when everyone benefits. It becomes much more revealing when helping another church means giving away something we could have kept for

I have been studying biblical correction a lot lately, and the deeper I go, the more I keep coming back to one simple thought: We would be much better off if we stopped looking for reasons to correct people and started looking for reasons to love them. Because when you genuinely love someone, it changes the way you correct them. And when you genuinely desire Christ, it changes the way you receive correction. Stop Looking for What's Wrong Sometimes Christians can become so foc

There is a fascinating contrast between two moments in Scripture: the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11 and the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2. At Babel, humanity looked upward and said: “Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name…” — Genesis 11:4, KJV Then, centuries later, a group of believers gathered in an upper room. They weren't building a tower. They weren't trying to make themselves famous. They weren't trying to force

“Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.” — John 7:24 KJV We live in a world where we can see one action, hear one sentence, read one post, or witness one moment and immediately believe we understand the person behind it. Someone stops coming to church. Someone becomes angry. Someone makes a bad decision. Someone responds differently than we expected. Someone falls into sin. And almost immediately, we begin filling in the blanks. “They don't care

When we hear the word correction, many of us immediately picture confrontation. Someone is doing something wrong. Someone else points it out. The person is told what needs to change. But I believe we have made biblical correction much smaller than it actually is. Correction is ultimately redirection. It is recognizing something that is wrong, broken, misunderstood, sinful, or out of alignment and helping point that person toward what is true, healthy, and ultimately toward Ch

Division has become so common in the Church that sometimes we barely notice it anymore. One Christian disagrees with another, and within minutes, someone is labeled false. Churches separate. Friendships end. Social media posts are made. People gather others to their side, and before long, brothers and sisters who both confess Jesus Christ as Lord are treating one another like enemies. But what if we have been asking the wrong question? Instead of asking, “Who is right?” perha

Hebrews 11 is often called the “Hall of Faith.” It gives us a list of men and women who trusted God through impossible circumstances. But when you read the chapter carefully, something interesting begins to stand out: Their faith caused them to do something. They didn't simply believe God existed. They believed God enough to arrange their lives around what He had said. And perhaps one of the clearest examples is Noah. Noah Didn't Wait for the Boat Hebrews 11:7 says: “By faith

Before you worry about tomorrow, remember something: Jesus already told you what to do with it. “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”— Matthew 6:34, NKJV Think about how much of our anxiety isn't actually connected to something happening right now. It's connected to tomorrow. What if this happens? What if I lose them? What if the money doesn't come? What if the opportunity falls apart?

There is a difference between correcting someone because you love them and correcting someone because you need them to know you are right. Both may use Scripture. Both may identify something that is genuinely wrong. Both may even say the exact same words. But the heart behind them can be completely different. As believers, we have absolutely been called to stand for truth. Scripture tells us to test what we hear, reject false teaching, correct error, and refuse to compromise

There are things in this world that feel incredibly real. The money in our bank account feels real. The house we live in feels real. Our possessions feel real. Success feels real. The problems sitting in front of us certainly feel real. We can see them. Touch them. Measure them. Lose them. Because of that, we naturally begin believing that these are the things that matter most. But Scripture gives us a completely different perspective. “While we do not look at the things whic

“Be careful who you listen to. Pride can sound like confidence, but pride will build itself up by tearing others down. Confidence will build upon truth at the cost of no one but self.” There is a difference between confidence and pride, but sometimes that difference can be difficult to hear. Both can speak boldly. Both can sound certain. Both can say, “I know what I believe.” Both can even quote Scripture. But eventually, the fruit reveals the difference. Pride often needs so

There is something we need to remember when we feel strongly that God is calling us to confront, expose, or tear down what someone else is doing: Strong conviction does not automatically mean correct discernment. You can have passion. You can have biblical knowledge. You can genuinely believe you are defending God. And you can still be wrong. Saul is one of the clearest examples of this in Scripture. Before he became the Apostle Paul, Saul wasn't persecuting Christians becaus

There is a phrase we often use when talking about church: “The church should be a hospital for the broken.” And I agree. The Body of Christ should be a place where we don't have to pretend we have everything together. We should be able to come to one another and say, “I'm struggling here. I need prayer. I need wisdom. I need someone to walk with me.” Scripture tells us: “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”— Galatians 6:2 There should be room in the

I think sometimes we misunderstand what biblical discernment is supposed to look like. Scripture absolutely tells us to watch out for false teaching. It tells us to test what we hear. It tells us there will be false prophets and false teachers, and there are absolutely times when false teaching needs to be called out. But I don't believe that means God called us to become the spiritual police. We were never given a mandate to jump from church to church, ministry to ministry,

We often think of correction as something we are supposed to give to someone else. Someone misunderstands Scripture, so we correct them. Someone teaches something we believe is wrong, so we confront it. Someone makes a bad decision, so we point it out. And there are absolutely times when biblical correction is necessary. Scripture tells us to contend for truth, expose false teaching, and lovingly restore those who have wandered. But there is another kind of correction that ma

One of the saddest things about the Pharisees is that they didn't wake up one morning and decide they wanted to oppose God. They believed they were defending Him. They studied Scripture. They cared deeply about doctrine. They valued their traditions because they believed those traditions helped preserve faithfulness to God. They weren't necessarily looking at themselves as the enemies of God's work. And yet when God was working directly in front of them through Jesus, many of

There is a dangerous prayer Christians can pray without ever realizing what is happening in their hearts: “God, let them fail so they will see they were wrong.” We may not use those exact words. We might say, “Lord, shut this down,” or, “God, show them they missed You.” We may even believe we are praying out of discernment. But sometimes what we call discernment is actually our desire to be proven right. What would happen if we prayed something different? “God, if You are in